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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 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.






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






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 fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






6. 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.






7. A short play based on a biblical story.






8. 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.






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






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






11. 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






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






13. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.






14. 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.






15. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






26. 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.






27. 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.






28. 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






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






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






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






32. 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.






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






34. Any composition not written in verse.






35. 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.






36. 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.






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






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






39. 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.






40. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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