Test your basic knowledge |

CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres

Subjects : clep, literature
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A narrative in which literal meaning corresponds clearly and directly to symbolic meaning. For example - the literal story in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress






2. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.






3. A novel that focuses on the social customs of a certain class of people - often with a sharp eye for irony. Jane Austen's novels are prime examples of this genre.






4. A story about the origins of a culture's beliefs and practices - or of supernatural phenomena - usually derived from oral tradition and set in an imagined supernatural past.






5. A speech - often in verse - by a lone character. The most famous example being the 'To be or not to be' speech in Shakespeare's Hamlet.






6. A concise expression of insight or wisdom: 'The vanity of others offends our taste only when it offends our vanity' (Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil).






7. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.






8. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.






9. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






10. A novel in which the author's aim is to tell a story that illuminates and draws attention to contemporary social problems with the goal of inciting change for the better. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin - which exposed the horrors of Africa






11. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.






12. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.






13. Works that express a preference for the natural over the artificial in human culture - and a belief that the life of primitive cultures is preferable to modern lifestyles.






14. A short poetic expression of grief. It differs from an elegy in that it often is embedded within a larger work - is less highly structured - and is meant to be sung.






15. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.






16. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.






17. The brief narration of a single event or incident.






18. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.






19. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.






20. An autobiographical work. Rather than focus exclusively on the author's life - it pays significant attention to the author's involvement in historical events and the characterization of individuals other than the author.






21. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.






22. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.






23. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.






24. A novel written in the form of letters exchanged by characters in the story - such as Samuel Richardson's Clarissa or Alice Walker's The Color Purple. This form was especially popular in the 1700s.






25. A work that exposes to ridicule the shortcomings of individuals - institutions - or society - often to make a political point. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is one of the most well known examples in English.






26. A lengthy narrative that describes the deeds of a heroic figure - often of national or cultural importance - in elevated language. Strictly - the term applies only to verse narratives like Beowulf or Virgil's Aeneid - but it is used to describe prose






27. A narrative work that reports true events.






28. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.






29. A German term - meaning 'formation novel -' for a novel about a child or adolescent's development into maturity - with special focus on the protagonist's quest for identity. James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a notable example.






30. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.






31. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'






32. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.






33. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.






34. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.






35. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.






36. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






37. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.






38. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.






39. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.






40. A humorous imitation of a serious work of literature. The humor often arises from the incongruity between the imitation and the work being imitated. For example - Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock uses the high diction of epic poetry to talk abou






41. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.






42. A novel that tells a nonfictional - autobiographical story but uses novelistic techniques - such as fictionalized dialogue or anecdotes - to add color - immediacy - or thematic unity.






43. A genre of fiction that presents an imagined future society that purports to be perfect and utopian but that the author presents to the reader as horrifyingly inhuman.






44. A short play based on a biblical story.






45. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.






46. A full-length fictional work that is novelistic in nature but written in verse rather than prose. Examples include Aleksandr Pushkin's Eugene Onegin and Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate.






47. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.






48. A story meant to be performed in a theater before an audience. Most are written in dialogue form and are divided into several acts. Many include stage directions and instructions for sets and costumes.






49. Originally - a realistic novel detailing a scoundrel's exploits. The term grew to refer more generally to any novel with a loosely structured - episodic plot that revolves around the adventures of a central character.






50. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.