SUBJECTS
|
BROWSE
|
CAREER CENTER
|
POPULAR
|
JOIN
|
LOGIN
Business Skills
|
Soft Skills
|
Basic Literacy
|
Certifications
About
|
Help
|
Privacy
|
Terms
|
Email
Search
Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
Start Test
Study First
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 short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Fable
Confessional poetry
Autobiographical novel
Prose
2. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Dystopic literature
Tragicomedy
Didactic literature
Drama
3. 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.
Mystery play
Short story
Elegy
Historical novel
4. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Burlesque
Elegy
Parody
Pastoral
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.
Metafiction
Short-short story
Social protest novel
Soliloquy
6. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Memoir
Romance
Historical novel
Tragedy
7. 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.
Autobiographical novel
Allegory
Lyric
Picaresque novel
8. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Picaresque novel
Science fiction
Primitivist literature
Metafiction
9. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Tragedy
Parody
Noh drama
Noir
10. 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.
Noir
Bildungsroman
Nonfiction
Black comedy
11. 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.
Black comedy
Parable
Satire
Memoir
12. A formal poem that laments the death of a friend or public figure - or - occasionally - a meditation on death itself. In Greek and Latin poetry - the term applies to a specific type of meter (alternating hexameters and pentameters) regardless of cont
Miracle play
Comedy
Elegy
Parody
13. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Noir
Anecdote
Morality play
Fable
14. 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.
Didactic literature
Metafiction
Verse novel
Romance
15. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Didactic literature
Nonfiction
Epigram
Soliloquy
16. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Play
Autobiographical novel
Science fiction
Short-short story
17. 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.
Picaresque novel
Myth
Bildungsroman
Social protest novel
18. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Morality play
Problem play
Metafiction
Autobiography
19. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Propaganda
Myth
Essay
Epic
20. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Romance
Memoir
Parable
Eclogue
21. 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.
Anecdote
Didactic literature
Nonfiction
Epistolary novel
22. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Novel
Chivalric romance
Epistolary novel
Noh drama
23. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Lyric
Novel of manners
Eclogue
Novel of ideas
24. A narrative work that reports true events.
Nonfiction
Epistolary novel
Lyric
Dystopic literature
25. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Didactic literature
Social protest novel
Aphorism
Fiction
26. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Propaganda
Epic theater
Autobiography
Drama
27. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Nonfiction
Metafiction
Romance
Autobiography
28. 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.
Biography
Morality play
Science fiction
Picaresque novel
29. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Pastoral
Fiction
Epic theater
Allegory
30. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Short story
Prose
Problem play
Prose poem
31. 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.
Play
Epigram
Dramatic monologue
Novel of manners
32. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Tragedy
Miracle play
Prose
Problem play
33. 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
Burlesque
Fiction
Science fiction
Social protest novel
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.
Dystopic literature
Biography
Comedy
Farce
35. 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.
Legend
One-act play
Epic
Black comedy
36. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Allegory
Drama
Dramatic monologue
Didactic literature
37. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Historical novel
Morality play
Farce
Biography
38. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Legend
Dramatic monologue
Epistolary novel
Short story
39. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Nonfiction
Confessional poetry
One-act play
Parable
40. A short play based on a biblical story.
Pastiche
Mystery play
Burlesque
One-act play
41. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Confessional poetry
Lyric
Tragicomedy
Anecdote
42. 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.
Novel of manners
Novel of ideas
Verse novel
Miracle play
43. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Morality play
Miracle play
Mystery play
Noir
44. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Fable
Noir
Tragedy
Primitivist literature
45. 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.
Prose
Dystopic literature
Aphorism
Satire
46. 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
Parody
Allegory
Science fiction
Elegy
47. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Chivalric romance
Legend
Novel of manners
Short-short story
48. 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
Didactic literature
Social protest novel
Pastiche
Myth
49. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Propaganda
Epic theater
Myth
Novella
50. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Confessional poetry
Historical novel
Novella
Prose