Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

Table of Contents

Authors’ Preface
Section I: Literary Forms and Genres
...
14
Section III: The Novel and Short Story
...
40
Section V: The Poem
...
56
Section VII:
Literary Movements/Periods
...
67
References
...
Example: See
simile, metaphor, and personification
...
Example: A political campaign speech
...
Example:
The sense and manner in which ideas are conveyed
are both part of the semantics involved in communication
...
Example: Hemingway’s taut, disciplined, journalistic style
came to identify and characterize all of his work as a
writer
...
Literary theorists today refer to figures of speech more in the context of rhetorical devices
...
From John Hersey’s Hiroshima
...
One type, parachronism, occurs when
an object from ages past is inserted into a future time
frame
...
A second type,
prochronism, occurs when an object from the present
or future appears in a historical setting
...


Anaphora
The repetition of a word or phrase at the very beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences
...
’s speech, “I Have a
Dream” uses that refrain to begin several lines, emphasizing the hope he was trying to instill
...
Example: “One man’s meat is
another man’s poison
...
”
15

Guide to Literary Terms

Apostrophe
A form of direct address spoken by a character to an
inanimate object or a person who does not appear
...
” From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
...
Example: “You bring me, tomorrow early, that file and them
vittles” (food)
...


Cliché
An overused and sometimes trite word or expression
...


Colloquialism
An expression that people may use in casual conversations but which is too informal or full of slang for proper English
...
From Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game
...
Often the conceit employs a unique image to create a relationship within the metaphor
...

16

Section II: An Introduction to Style

Connotation
The implied and understood meaning of a phrase or
expression which extends beyond the explicit dictionary definition
...


Denotation
The literal or dictionary meaning of a word, phrase,
or clause
...


Epithet
See listing in Section I, p
...


Euphemism
A word or phrase that, as a substitution, “softens the
blow” of the direct meaning
...


Gallows Humor/Black Humor
Grotesque or morbid humor which is used to express
the absurdity, cruelty, and insensitivity of the modern
world
...

Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce
...

17

Guide to Literary Terms

Hyperbole
An overstatement or exaggeration that can be used for
dramatic effect or to help paint a word picture
...
”

Idiom
An expression peculiar to a particular culture that conveys a meaning beyond its mere words
...
”

Invective
Harsh or abusive language
...
” From
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
...
Example: Mad
Magazine is an extended lampoon that satirizes its featured material
...
Example: Mark Twain’s
characters Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were masters of
the malapropism
...


Meiosis
An understatement used for ironic effect
...
”
18

Section II: An Introduction to Style

Metaphor
A direct comparison of two unlike things without the
use of “like” or “as
...
An especially long
metaphor is called an “extended” metaphor
...


Mixed Metaphor
A pair or more of ineffective, descriptive comparisons
that confuse the reader with their incompatibility and
contradictory images
...
(student
example)

Onomatopoeia
The use of words whose sounds seem to imitate the
sound of the object or action being named
...
The word “splash” reverberates almost like
the sound of something hitting water
...
Example:
Jumbo shrimp, working vacation, planned spontaneity
...
oxymoronlist
...
In literature, a paradox may also
refer to a situation that seems to be contradictory—or
both true and false
...


Parallelism
The use of symmetrical sentence structure or phrasing
to create either an effect or a more telling comparison
...
”

Personification
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or
animal is given human qualities or characteristics
...
my thoughts hum in my brain
...


Pun
A play on words, often humorous, that builds on words
which sound similar, yet have unrelated meanings
...


Rhetorical Question
A question posed to provoke thought rather than to
generate an answer
...
Example: “To be or not to be” Hamlet in
Shakespeare’s is a device to trigger deeper thought and
is not a question to be answered
...
Sarcasm can be cutting and cynical and
may be displayed by an action as well as by words
...


Simile
Indirect comparison between two unlike objects using
the words “like” or “as”
...
Example: In John Hersey’s
Hiroshima, Dr
...
like a morsel between two huge chopsticks” (11)
...

Example: In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald refers to
groups or classes of wealthy people as East Egg and
West Egg, indicating where their communities of
homes were located
...
Example: Similes, metaphors, metonymy, irony, synecdoche, personification, and hyperbole are all considered tropes
...
Example: In John Steinbeck’s Grapes
of Wrath, the author assumes his readers’ familiarity
21

Guide to Literary Terms
with the Biblical flood and the Moses story, mentioned
at the end of the book
...
Example: In Twain’s Huckleberry
Finn, the “Duke” is a caricature designed to satirize
and create humor
...
The unbroken flow of a character’s thoughts and perceptions are
revealed either directly (first-person narrative) or indirectly through free-wheeling discourse
...


Epiphany
In literature, a sudden revelation that illuminates meaning or understanding—an “aha” moment
...


Foreshadowing
A hint of what is going to happen next
...


22

Section II: An Introduction to Style

In Media Res
A Latin expression that means that the story actually
starts in the middle of the action
...


Irony
A literary device in which action or language stands in
contrast to what appears to be true or expected
...
Fujii hardly had time to think that he was dying before he realized that he was alive
...
From
John Hersey’s Hiroshima
...
Example: When
protagonist Henry in Stephen Crane’s The Red
Badge of Courage thinks he has survived he
instead is suddenly “war” confronted with the
true attack or second assault
...
In these
circumstances, a character’s words and actions
have one meaning for the character and an entirely different meaning for the audience
...


Situational Irony
A literary device in which the expected action
and the actual action are in direct contrast, usually due to forces out of the control of the characters
...


Structural Irony
This occurs when a naïve protagonist holds a
view or outlook that differs from the one the
author holds
...
Example: In
Gulliver’s Travels, Swift uses structural irony
effectively when his naïve narrator relates tales
and judgments of people whom he encounters
through the skewed lens of conservative morality/pride
...
Sarcasm often falls into the classification of verbal
irony
...


Melodrama
A drama of any type that relies on stereotypes or twodimensional characters whom the audience recognizes
...
Example: Melodramas
often use a serialized story line, damsels in distress,
and characters who are clearly good or evil, as in the
early silent film, “The Perils of Pauline”
...
In drama, it occurs mainly in tragedy, but can be found in
comedy, too
...


Poetic Diction
A manner of speaking or expression that is used mainly
in poetry and not in casual conversation
...


Poetic License
The privilege of a writer to take liberties with grammatical rules and structure for desired poetic effects
...
e
...


Theme
The overriding or dominant idea in a story that is a
universal statement about humanity
...
Theme may be represented in an indirect
25

Guide to Literary Terms
fashion, and differing devices may be used to hint at
theme: the title, certain quotes, a repeated observation, a recurring motif
...


Thematic Connections
Archetype
A pattern from which copies can be made or,
in literature, a symbolic character: the hero,
scapegoat, outcast, ne’er-do-well, etc
...
Example: Bilbo Baggins in Tolkien’s The Hobbit represents the archetype of the reluctant hero on his journey
...
Example:
In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair is literally able to
sicken his readers with the raw imagery he employs in his descriptions of conditions within
Chicago’s meatpacking plants
...

Example: In Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s
Game, one motif is that of dishonesty
...


Symbol
26

Section II: An Introduction to Style
The literary device of using a person, object,
or action to stand for something else—often
an abstract idea
...
In Moby Dick, a constructed
symbol—devised by author Herman Melville
to convey a specific meaning—is the white
whale as his symbol of evil
...
When
perceptible in fiction, it generally “drives” the
piece of literature
...


Tone
The atmosphere created by a writer regarding either his subject or his audience
...
Example: A tone of subtle rage is
established by Art Spiegelman, author of the
thought-provoking Maus I and Maus II
...
7, 32
Acts
...
4
All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque)
...
1
Alliteration
...
21
Anachronism
...
15
Prochronism
...
50
Anaphora
...
1
Animation
...
67
Antagonist
...
34
Aphorism
...
16
Archaism
...
26, 29
Aristotle
...
11
Aside
...
55
Audience
...
3, 64
Northanger Abbey
...
8
Sense and Sensibility
...
2
Autobiography
...
67
Bacon, Francis
...
2, 47, 51
Balzac, Honoré de
...
60
Beginning (Film)
...
2
Black Humor
...
64
Blank Verse
...
67
Bloomsbury Group
...
66
Breton, André
...
64
Burlesque
...
64
Call Out
...
3
Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
...
9, 12, 16, 17, 26
Speaker for the Dead
...
22
Cast
...
61
Catastrophe
...
7, 38
Catharsis
...
28
Types
...
29
Flat
...
29
Protagonist
...
30
Static
...
40
Cinematography
...
16
Cliffhanger
...
32, 34

80

Coleridge, Samuel
...
2
“On a Volunteer Singer”
...
16
The Color Purple (Walker)
...
44
Comic Relief
...
29
Conceit
...
34
Man vs
...
35
Man vs
...
35
Man vs
...
35
Man vs
...
36
Man vs
...
36
Connotation
...
22
Contacts
...
53
Creative Nonfiction
...
68
Cummings, e
...
25
Dactyl
...
17
Denouement
...
61
Deus ex Machina
...
3
Dickens, Charles
...
16
Dickenson, Emily
...
41
Director (Film)
...
49
Documentary
...
68
Reenacted Documentary
...
8
Donne, John
...
62

81

Douglass, Frederick
...
3
Elements of Drama
...
44-46
Dramatic Monologue
...
41
Dramatization
...
63
Editing
...
57-58, 68
Elegy
...
4, 61, 65
Elizabethan Era
...
65
End Rhyme
...
54
Ending (Film)
...
60-61, 63, 64
Epic
...
4
Epilogue
...
22
Epithet
...
33
Eugene Onegin (Pushkin)
...
17
Everyman
...
61
Fable
...
69
Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)
...
44
Feminine Rhyme
...
5, 31
Fiddler on the Roof
...
14
Figures of Speech
...
38

82

Fitzgerald, F
...
62
Flash Drive
...
64
Foil
...
50
Types
...
51
Foreshadowing
...
M
...
42
Frankenstein (Shelley)
...
52
Freytag’s Pyramid
...
57
Gallows Humor
...
5
Gesture
...
20
Ginsberg, Allen
...
25,29
Gone With the Wind (Mitchell)
...
61
Grabbers/Hooks
...
69
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
...
18, 24
Haiku
...
61
Harry Potter (Rowling)
...
36, 64
Heart of Darkness (Conrad)
...
2, 14, 62
The Old Man and the Sea
...
62
A Hero of Our Time (Lermontov)
...
31
Heroic Couplet
...
15, 21, 23
Hitchcock, Alfred
...
60-61
Hughes, Langston
...
62
Hyperbole
...
15
“I Love Lucy”
...
50
Iambic Pentameter
...
18
Imagery
...
23
Inciting Moment
...
57
Information/Data Architect
...
69
Internal Rhyme
...
18
Irony
...
23
Dramatic
...
24
Structural
...
24
Jesus of Nazareth (Film)
...
30
Johnson, Samuel
...
61
The Jungle (Sinclair)
...
48, 64
Keynes, John Maynard
...
18
Legend
...
5
Limerick
...
56
Little Women (Alcott)
...
61
Look Homeward, Angel (Wolfe)
...
19, 35, 41

84

Lost Generation
...
30
Lyric
...
18
Manga
...
61
Marvell, Andrew
...
53
Maus (Speigelman)
...
55
Media Integrator
...
70
Mein Kampf (Hitler)
...
18
Melodrama
...
64
Memoir
...
19
Metaphysical Poets
...
49
Accentual
...
49
Accentual-Syllabic Types
...
75
Middle English
...
3, 23, 42
Death of a Salesman
...
64
Miracle Play
...
19
Moby Dick (Melville)
...
63
Monologue
...
70
Mood/Atmosphere
...
45
Morrison, Toni
...
35

85

Motif
...
43
Murder on the Orient Express (Christie)
...
37
Myth
...
31
Narrator
...
63
Neoclassicism
...
15
Non-fiction
...
6, 6-9
Autobiographical
...
6-7
Coming-of-Age
...
7
Historical
...
7-8
Picaresque
...
8, 64
Regional
...
9
Verse
...
9
Oblique Rhyme
...
53
Ode
...
9, 25
“Ode to a Grecian Urn” (Keats)
...
4, 23
“Off” Rhyme
...
56
One-Act Play
...
19
Orwell, George
1984
...
1, 4, 21, 34
Our Town (Wilder)
...
19
Parable
...
19
Parallelism
...
10
Passion Play
...
10
Pathos
...
53
The Perils of Pauline
...
36
Personification
...
13
Petrach
...
19
Planting (Visual Media)
...
32
Elements of Plot
...
32-34
Types of Plot
...
37
Climactic
...
37
Subplot
...
61, 64
“Annabel Lee”
...
12
Poetic Diction
...
25
Poetic Techniques
...
10
Point of View
...
63
“Porphyria’s Lover” (Browning)
...
64
Pound, Ezra
...
62
“Prodigal Son” (Lk
...
10
Producer (Drama)
...
71
The Producers
...
38-39
Propaganda
...
43

87

Prose
...
11
Prosody
...
29-30
A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (Konigsberg)
...
20
Punctuation
...
68
Pyrrhic (Foot)
...
54
Realism
...
43
The Red Badge of Courage (Crane)
...
68
Refrain
...
62, 64
Repetition
...
36
Reversal
...
14
Rhetorical Question
...
49, 52
Types of Rhyme
...
53-54
Rising Action
...
1
Romantic Novel
...
64
Romeo and Juliet (Film)
...
61
Run-On Line
...
71
Rushdie, Salman
...
20-21
Sartre, Jean-Paul
...
45
Satire
...
12
Script
...
3
Semantics
...
54
Sestina
...
39
Shakespeare, William
...
10
Hamlet
...
16, 20, 42
The Merchant of Venice
...
40
Romeo and Juliet
...
10
Shelley, Percy
...
71-73
Short Story
...
12
Siddhartha (Hesse)
...
73
Simile
...
63
Slant Rhyme
...
73
Soliloquy
...
48-49
Italian
...
48
Spenserian
...
49
Sophocles
Antigone
...
43
Specifications (Visual Media)
...
49, 61
Splicing
...
50
Stanza
...
55
Star Wars
...
62

89

Steinbeck, John
The Grapes of Wrath
...
33
“Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” (Frost)
...
58,74
Stream of Consciousness (see Modernism)
...
14
Surrealism
...
13
Swift, Jonathan
...
11
Symbol
...
65, 74
Synecdoche
...
54
Thackeray, William
...
12
Theatre of the Absurd
...
38, 61
Theme
...
27
Third-Person Narration (Perspectives)
...
65
Thurber, James
...
74
To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
...
56
Tolkien, J
...
R
...
26
Lord of the Rings
...
64
Tone
...
45
Tragic Flaw
...
44
Tragic Irony
...
46
Transcendentalism
...
75
Optical
...
75
Swish Pan
...
74
Trochee
...
21
Twain, Mark
...
22, 28, 32
Prince and the Pauper
...
22, 63
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe)
...
44
Victoria I of England
...
65
Video Structure
...
58
Voiceover Narration
...
58
Vonnegut, Kurt
...
65
Warriors Don’t Cry (Beals)
...
75
Whittier, John Greenleaf
...
59
The Wizard of Oz (Baum)
...
9, 48, 64
Woolf, Virginia
...
76
Zefferelli, Franco
...
59, 73

91



---