College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) Composition and Literature Flashcards

24 sample cards from the Composition and Literature deck

Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.

1. What is an allusion as a literary device?

   A brief, indirect reference to a person, place, event, or work of literature that the reader is expected to recognize.

2. What is personification?

   A figure of speech that gives human qualities, actions, or emotions to non-human things or abstract ideas.

3. What is the difference between a symbol and a motif?

   A symbol is an object or image representing a larger idea; a motif is a recurring element or image that develops a theme across a work.

4. What is a foil character?

   A character whose contrasting traits highlight and emphasize particular qualities of another character, usually the protagonist.

5. What characterized Colonial and Early National American writing?

   It was largely religious, didactic, and practical—Puritan sermons, journals, and political documents—e.g., works by Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards, and Benjamin Franklin.

6. Who are key figures of American Transcendentalism and what did they believe?

   Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau; they emphasized individualism, intuition, the inherent goodness of people and nature, and self-reliance over institutions.

7. What are the central characteristics of literary Romanticism?

   Emphasis on emotion, imagination, individualism, nature, the sublime, and a reaction against Enlightenment rationalism and industrialization.

8. What distinguishes Realism from Naturalism in literature?

   Realism portrays ordinary life accurately and objectively; Naturalism applies a deterministic view, showing characters shaped by environment, heredity, and social forces beyond their control.

9. Name key authors and traits of American Modernist literature.

   T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner; traits include fragmentation, stream of consciousness, disillusionment after WWI, and experimentation with form.

10. What was the Harlem Renaissance?

    A 1920s flourishing of African American art, literature, and music centered in Harlem, with figures such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston celebrating Black culture and identity.

11. What literary work and author define the Medieval period in English literature?

    Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' (late 14th century), written in Middle English, is the defining work of the English Medieval period.

12. What were the defining features of English Renaissance literature?

    Humanism, classical revival, flourishing drama and poetry (Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser), and the development of the sonnet and blank verse.

13. Who were the major writers of the English Seventeenth Century, and what was Metaphysical poetry?

    John Milton and John Donne; Metaphysical poetry (Donne, Marvell) features intellectual wit, elaborate conceits, paradox, and unconventional comparisons.

14. What characterized Eighteenth-Century (Neoclassical/Augustan) literature?

    Emphasis on reason, order, wit, satire, and classical forms; key figures include Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Samuel Johnson.

15. Who are the major poets of the English Romantic period?

    William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats.

16. What were the defining concerns of Victorian literature?

    Industrialization, social reform, morality, class, and faith versus doubt; key authors include Charles Dickens, the Brontës, Tennyson, and George Eliot.

17. What is stream of consciousness, and which 20th-century authors used it?

    A narrative technique presenting a character's continuous, unfiltered flow of thoughts; used by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner.

18. What is Postmodern literature known for?

    Metafiction, fragmentation, irony, intertextuality, unreliable narration, and skepticism toward grand narratives; e.g., works by Pynchon, Borges, and Vonnegut.

19. What are the formal elements of visual art?

    Line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and space—the building blocks artists use to create works.

20. What is chiaroscuro in visual art?

    The use of strong contrasts between light and dark to model three-dimensional forms and create dramatic effect, associated with artists like Caravaggio.

21. What is the difference between rhythm and melody in music?

    Rhythm is the pattern of sounds and silences in time (beat, tempo, meter); melody is a sequence of pitches perceived as a single, recognizable line.

22. What musical era do composers Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi belong to, and what defines it?

    The Baroque period (c. 1600–1750), defined by ornamentation, counterpoint, basso continuo, and emotional contrast.

23. What is existentialism in literature and philosophy?

    A philosophy emphasizing individual freedom, choice, and the creation of meaning in an indifferent or absurd universe; associated with Sartre, Camus, and Kierkegaard.

24. What are the main branches of the performing arts?

    Theater (drama), music, and dance—art forms performed live before an audience, often combined in works like opera and musical theater.

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