English Literature Exam
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- components of studying litearture
-
research
criticism - how to criticize
-
analysis: seperate it into parts
evaluate: be able to explain it to other people - 3 elements of literature
- subject + style = effect
- subject
-
imaginative or non-imaginative
imaginative:
-poetry (form and sound devices)
-narrative prose fiction (novel, novella, short story
-drama (narrative elemnts, dramatic elements) - 5 narrative elements
-
-plot
-characters
-conflict
-POV
-setting - style
- Plain (effects Dickinson and Hemingway)
- diction
- basic word choice
- syntax
- arrangement of words
- structure
- selection and arrangement of any of the elements
- types of effects
-
emotional
intellectual
artistic - componeents of effects
-
mood
tone
theme - moods
-
pathos
humor
horror
suspense - tones
-
irony
anger
non-emotional
objective
approval
criticism
humorous
serious - themes
-
didactic
expository
social criticism - classification of literature
-
mode
purpose
genre
conventional vs. modern - modes of literature
-
Narration(tells a story)
Exposition(explanatory)
Rhetoric(persuades)
Description(describes) - purposes of literature
-
to delight and instruct
self-expression
social criticism
to inform
to persuade
for exploratory purposees
for artistic purposes
entertainment - genre
- works with common elements of subject and/ or style
- conventional vs. unconditional (modern)
-
tradition: how it was done in the past
convention: a shared blief about literature (like symbols) - symbols
-
skylark = joy
parrot = repetition
owl= wisdom, doom
raven = death, bad omens
white = purity, innocence - 17th Century Writers
-
explorers (john smith)
settlers (planter-aristocrats and puritans - 19th Century writers
- revolutionary war, enlightenment
- Puritan sect
- seperatists
- puritans form
-
Plymouth
Salem
Boston - puritans settle
-
1820s
1830s (Boston) - Providence
- God's ordering of events to reward the good of punish the evil
- total depravity of man
- human beings are innately evil because of Adam
- Predestination of the Elect
- they were chosen by God before Creation
- how to become a Predestined elect
-
read the Bible and go to church
serach yourself for a "sign of election"
conversion experience (impt because you have to take communion to be political, commends hysteria, makes wordly success holy) - why aren't there any significant plays until the 20th century?
- the Puritans got rid of the theatre
- pragmatism
- writing with a serious purpose in mind
- typology
- symbolism (letting one thing stand for another)
- The Puritan American Dream
-
material success derived from business
(believed that God didn't love you if you are poor) - work ethic
- inherited wealth and social status are evil so you must have it
- Puritan conflict between God and government
- people need a strong central government, but the only legit one is God
- predestination
- deterministic (for objective mood- its not your fault)
- Romantic Period
-
1800-1860
peak at 1850 - characteristics of history of Romantic period
-
*expanision in population and territory- Louisiana Purchase gives people an optimistic tone
*beginning of shift from Agrarian lifestyle to business from self-sufficient farms to industrialism (you work for someone else for money), which leads to a higher standard of living - benefits of a high living
-
people have more cash
leisure
education
first professional writers - Romantic social reform
- labor reform, feminism, abolition
- "the problem of the artist"
-
poverty
Cooper: "degrades art to the lowest common denominator" - nationalism
- the desire to develop a uniquely American culture in literature
- the short story
- developed because of nationalism- deliberately trying to make something new
- uniquely American writers
-
Irving
Hawthorne
Poe - how Romantic authors blended the old and the new
-
take conventional genres based on American materials
-Bryant
-Cooper (Am history) based on Scott (Eng history)
-Hawthorne (romance set in Boston) - early Romantics
-
Irving
Cooper
Bryant - Dark Romantics
-
Poe
Hawthorne
Mehlville -
Neoclassical Purpose
vs
Romantic Purpose -
to delight and instruct
vs
self expression of the author's emtotions
creation of beauty
literature to make a profit -
Neoclassical style
vs
Romantic -
decorum
vs
innovative and unique
ogranicism: literature grows naturally from an idea, not from rules - oganicism
- the belife that something is alive
-
neoclassical subject
vs
Romantic subect -
man and his role in society
vs
nature, natural beauty
supernatural, legendary material
exotic and imaginary - typical Romantic genres
-
lyric poetry
gothic fiction
historical fiction -
Neoclassical reason
vs
Romantic -
applying reason to all aspects of human life
vs
nonrational states - intuition
- the direct perception of truth without the senses or reason
- transcendentalism associated with where
- Concord, Massachusetts
- spokespeople of transcendentalism
-
Emerson
Thoreau - transcendentalism begins with with and ends with what event
-
begins with Nature
ends with Civil War - why did transcendentalism end?
- increased materialism in the post war era
- negative influences on transcendentalism
-
18th century rationalism and emphasis on intuition (they believed in intuition too)
dark Romantic pessimism (they went for optimism) - positive influences on transcendentalism
-
unitarianism
platonic idealism
Pantheism - unitarianism
-
One God
founded by Channing
man is innately good - platonic idealism
-
-the belief that reality is spiritual and not physical
ideal and not intellectual
-only permanence is the world of the spirtual
-difference between the brain and the mind - Pantheism
-
Hinduism
all thingsa re a part of God
comes from Sanskrit holy texts
Romantics were the first American thinkers to be influeced by them - important Romantic figures
-
Bronson and Louisa May Alcott
Margaret Fuller
the Peabody sisters - three major beliefs of transcendentalism
-
-the Over-Soul
-individual souls are not seperate and they all have direct and equal access to the truth
-Self Reliance - the Over-Soul
- a single soul shared by all beings with truth in the middle
- individual souls
-
have direct and intuitive connections with other souls
-put them together to find the truth - Self-Reliance
-
the bleif that the individual ought to rely on his own intuition
do not rely on tradition or authority - implications of the Over-Soul
-
self-reliance
man's kinship with nature
brotherhood of man
importance of the common man - man's kinship with nature
- people and created things have equal access ot the truth
- examples of the brotherhood of man
-
abolitionist movement
governmental reforms (a real democracy)
equal education entailing the awekening of skills and ideas - nonconformity
- the refusal to conform to conventions which are wrong
- parts of nonviolent social reform
-
nonconformity
passive resistance
civil disobedience - civil disobedience
- a refusal to obey unjust laws
- passive resistance
- rebellion against unjust authority by nonviolent refusal to cooperate with willing acceptance of the consequences
- transcendentalism influence on modern culture
-
civil rights movement
belief in spreading democracy
self reliance and individualism - transcendentalism influence on modern literature
-
subject: the experiences of the common man
style: vernacular and direct, creates verisimilitude - socialism
- the idea that we are here to serve society
- conceit
- unpoetic diction and imagery
- chief characteristic of the Enlightenment
-
rationalism
deism
optimism
progress
utilitarianism - deism
- the belief that there is one God and everything comes from reason
- optimism
-
taking the best out of any given situation
-man is basically good - progress
- problems can be solved using reason
- utilitarianism
- belief that everyting should be judged for how useful it is in making people happy
- felicity
- long term happiness for the greater good
- 18th Century literature
- neoclassicism
- aphorism
- short, wise saying
- epigram
- short, witty saying
- the self-made man
- rises from humble beginnings to acheive success using only his own efforst and the opportunities offered by the American Way of Life
- ellipsis
- leaving out part of the story
- the Great Awakening
-
religious movement abaout guilt and redemption
mid 1700s - parallelism
- when units of expression are similar in structure or ideas
- refutation
- the speaker answers the audience's probable objections
- anecdote
- short narrative used to illustrate a point
- analogy
- comparison in non-fiction
- someone from New York
- knickerbocker
- Yankee
- a New Englander with Puritan roots
- stock character
- shows up in literature
- stereotype character
- shows up in life
- noblesse oblige
- duty of nobles to take care of others
- Romantic hero elements
-
the common man
chivalric traits from Arthurian legend: chivalry, chastity, layality, truthfulness, genersity to foes
associated with nature - the antihero
- protagonist that lack certain characteristics
- American hero traits
-
the common man
shuns society
practical wisdom rather than formal education
laconic
have sobriquets - laconic
- silent
- stock characters of the western
-
tenderfoot (stupid person)
fatihful indian companion
blondes and brunettes - effects of the frontier
-
civilization takes away self-sufficiency
nature as a substitute for religion
race relationships - vagueness
- lack of clear explanation in plot events
- ambiguity
- two or more choice as to what something could be
- paradox
- an apparent contradiction of an underlying truth
- vertigo
- dizziness
- incantitory diction
- enchanting, spell-binding diction
- perversity
- the individual's desires which are harmful
- phrenology
- the ability to tell what a person is like by their phsycial features
- oblivion
- freedom from torturing sensations
- sinecure
- surveyer of a custom house
- willing suspension of disbelief
- to be able to suspend your cynisism (kind of)
- lyceum
-
somewhere that you go to hear a lecture
"poor man's college" - The American Scholar genre
- classical rhetorical oratory
- parts of classical rhetorical oratory
-
1) the introduction
2) the statement of the problem and the proposed solution
3) definition of key terms
4) preview of the stages of the argument
5) the argument
6) refutation
7) peronation (conclusion) - peronation
- conclusion
- valetudinarian
- a sickly person