Literary Genres

Question 1

Apocalyptic

Answer 1

Prophetic of devastation or ultimate doom

Question 2

Allegory

Answer 2

Short moral story

Question 3

Autobiography

Answer 3

Book or account of your own life

Question 4

Ballad

Answer 4

Narrative song with short stanzas

Question 5

Bildungsroman

Answer 5

Novel focusing on the growth of the main character

Question 6

Biography

Answer 6

Account of the series of events making up a persons life

Question 7

Comedy

Answer 7

Light and humorous drama with a happy ending

Question 8

Drama

Answer 8

Work intended for performance by actors on a stage

Question 9

Dystopia

Answer 9

Work set in an imaginary place where life is extremely bad

Question 10

Elegy

Answer 10

Mournful poem, a lament for the dead

Question 11

Epic

Answer 11

Long narrative poem telling of a hero’s deeds

Question 12

Epistolary

Answer 12

Written in the form of letters or correspondence

Question 13

Epitaph

Answer 13

Summary statement of commemoration for a dead person

Question 14

Essay

Answer 14

Analytic or interpretive literary composition

Question 15

Fable

Answer 15

Short story, features animals, legends, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that become anthropomorphized

Question 16

Fantasy

Answer 16

Fiction with large amount of imagination

Question 17

Farce

Answer 17

Comedy characterised by broad satire

Question 18

Folklore

Answer 18

Unwritten stories, proverbs, and songs of a culture

Question 19

Folktale

Answer 19

Traditional story or legend circulated by word of mouth

Question 20

Gothic

Answer 20

Characterised by gloom, mystery and grotesque

Question 21

Haiku

Answer 21

Epigrammatic Japanese verse form of three short lines

Question 22

Homily

Answer 22

A sermon on a moral or religious topic

Question 23

Lyric

Answer 23

Short poem of songlike quality

Question 24

Melodrama

Answer 24

Story with characters behaving in an extremely emotional way

Question 25

Memoir

Answer 25

Account of an authors personal experiences

Question 26

Mystery

Answer 26

Story about crime presented as a novel, play or movie

Question 27

Myth

Answer 27

Traditional story serving to explain a world view, widely held but false

Question 28

Novel

Answer 28

Extended fictional work in prose

Question 29

Novella

Answer 29

Short novel

Question 30

Ode

Answer 30

Lyric poem with complex / irregular stanza forms

Question 31

Parable

Answer 31

Short moral / spiritual story

Question 32

Pastoral

Answer 32

Literary work idealising rural life

Question 33

Picaresque

Answer 33

Involving clever adventures of a mischievous hero

Question 34

Poetry

Answer 34

Literature in metrical form

Question 35

Romance

Answer 35

Story dealing with love

Question 36

Satire

Answer 36

Witty language used to convey insults or scorn

Question 37

Sonnet

Answer 37

Verse form of 14 lines with fixed rhyme scheme

Question 38

Science Fiction

Answer 38

Speculative fiction, deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts (science, technology, space, time travel)

Question 39

Supernatural

Answer 39

Speculative fiction is centered on unexplainable phenomena / beyond what is natural

Question 40

Thriller

Answer 40

Suspenseful story, play or movie

Question 41

Tragedy

Answer 41

Drama exciting terror or pity

Question 42

Utopia

Answer 42

Work of fiction describing an ideal state