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CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres

Subjects : clep, literature
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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  • Match each statement with the correct term.
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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 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.






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






3. A work that imitates the style of a previous author - work - or literary genre. Alternatively - the term may refer to a work that contains a hodgepodge of elements or fragments from different sources or influences. It differs from parody in that its






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






5. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.






6. 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.






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






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






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






10. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.






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






12. 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






13. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






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






17. 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.






18. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.






19. Any composition not written in verse.






20. 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.






21. A work of prose fiction that is much shorter than a novel (rarely more than forty pages) and focused more tightly on a single event.






22. 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.






23. 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






24. 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.






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






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






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






28. 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).






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






30. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.






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






32. Disturbing or absurd material presented in a humorous manner - usually with the intention to confront uncomfortable truths. Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is a notable example.






33. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.






34. 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.






35. 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.






36. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






38. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.






39. 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






40. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






41. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






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






45. 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.






46. A poem that contains words that a fictional or historical character speaks to a particular audience. Alfred - Lord Tennyson's 'Ulysses' is a famous example.






47. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.






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






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






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