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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 narrative work that reports true events.






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






3. 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.






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






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






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






7. 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.






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






9. 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.






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






11. 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






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






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






14. 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.






15. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.






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






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






18. 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).






19. 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.






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






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






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






23. 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






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






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






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






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






28. A short play based on a biblical story.






29. 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.






30. 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.






31. A novel - such as Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea - that the author uses as a platform for discussing ideas. Character and plot are of secondary importance.






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






33. Any composition not written in verse.






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






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






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






37. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






38. 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.






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






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






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






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






43. 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






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






45. 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.






46. 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






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






48. 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.






49. 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






50. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.