Subtest I - Literary Genres Flashcards
Absurdist fiction
A novel or play that presents humanity’s plight as meaningless and without purpose. Arose in the 20th century and often reflects a reaction against war, society, and the stresses of modern life. Ex: Catch-22
Allegory
A fictional narrative that contains a second, symbolic meaning in addition to its overt story. Characters often represent human qualities such as virtues and vices or abstract concepts such as death. Ex: Lion, witch, and the wardrobe = christian allegory, Animal Farm = Stalinist regime in Soviet Union allegory
Ballad
A songlike poem that tells a story and often has a refrain, or repeated line or lines. Many are in iambic form with alternating lines of four stresses and three stresses. They often were lurid accounts of murders, revenge, and violence.
Comic novel
Seeks to amuse the reader with larger-than life characters and outlandish events. Ex: Mark Twain novels
Dystopia
A narrative that depicts an anti-utopia, a world where ordinary people live regimented lives at the whim of a totalitarian government. Ex: Orwell’s 1984
Epic
A long narrative poetic work in a formal or elevated style that features a heroic lead character who often must undertake a journey or a great trial to overcome a powerful foe.
Epistolary novel
Written in the form of letters, diaries, and journal entries. Ex: Clarissa, and The Color Purple
Essay
A prose work written in the first-person expressing strong opinions about some topic or life experience.
Fable
A tale that provides a moral lesson and features animals with human characteristics.
Fairy Tale
A story that features fantasy characters from folklore and usually ends happily.
Fantasy
A genre that blends historical material with invented elements.
Farce
A comic play that employs stock situations and characters and exaggerated emotions.
Legend
A traditional story that has become part of the collective experience of a nation, ethnic group, or culture. It features characters that are not historical but seem to have existed at some time in the distant past. Ex: King Arthur
Lyric poem
A brief work in verse that addresses the reader directly and expresses the poet’s feelings and perceptions
Myth
An ancient story that presents the exploits of gods or heroes to explain some aspect of life or nature.
Novel
A long work of prose fiction that is often realistic and tends to address the concerns of the society in which it is produced.
Parody
A work written in imitation of an author’s style or of a genre in order to make fun of it and mock its conventions.
Poem
A literary work that is generally written in rhythmic lines of various lengths that may be divided into groups called stanzas.
Elegy poem
A poem in a solemn or melancholic tone, especially one that mourns the death of a person or group.
Haiku poem
A Japanese poetic form consisting of three lines with 5, 7, 5 syllables. A haiku in English typically includes a seasonal word or image as part of a comparison of two things.
Limerick poem
A comic five-line poem (rhyme scheme AABBA) that seems to have originated in England in the early 1700s.
Ode poem
A meditative poem written in praise of someone or about a serious subject. Ancient Greek odes were performed to music.
Pastoral poem
A poem that depicts rural life or the life of shepherds in an idealized form, often for urban audiences.
Sonnet poem
A fourteen-line poetic form. The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet consists of two quatrains (four-line stanzas rhymed ABBA) and six lines variously rhymed in pairs. The Shakespearian sonnet has three quatrains (rhymed ABAB) and a closing couplet (Two rhymed lines).
Triolet poem
An eight-line poetic form. A triolet’s first, fourth, and seventh lines are identical, as are its second and final lines.
Villanelle poem
A poetic form with nineteen lines divided into five three-line stanzas (called tercets) and one final quatrain. It only has two rhyme sounds.
Satire
A work that ridicules the follies and vices of individuals and society, often through comic exaggeration.
Science fiction
Depicts scientific and technological breakthroughs and their effects on future society.
Short story
A brief work of prose fiction that often concentrates on a single incident and one or two main characters.
Utopian novel
Depicts its author’s ideas about what a perfectly ordered society would be like.
