Literature extra credit
Terms
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- internal rhyme
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A poetic device in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end of the same metrical line. Internal rhyme appears in the first and third lines in this excerpt from Shelley's "The Cloud":
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again. - narrative (as opposed to scene)
- Narration is the act of telling a sequence of events, often in chronological order. Alternatively, the term refers to any story, whether in prose or verse, involving events, characters, and what the characters say and do. A narrative is likewise the story or account itself.
- dramatic irony
- involves a situation in a narrative in which the reader knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know. In that situation, the character acts in a way we recognize to be grossly inappropriate to the actual circumstances, or the character expects the opposite of what the reader knows that fate holds in store, or the character anticipates a particular outcome that unfolds itself in an unintentional way. Probably the most famous example of dramatic irony is the situation facing Oedipus in the play Oedipus Rex.
- tragedy
- A serious play in which the chief figures, by some peculiarity of character, pass through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe.
- structure of romantic comedy
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Sympathetic comedy that presents the adventures of young lovers trying to overcome social, psychological, or interpersonal constraints to achieve a successful union
1.couple meets
2. barrier separates them
3. reunited - exposition
- The use of authorial discussion to explain or summarize background material rather than revealing this information through gradual narrative detail.
- falling action
- after the climax, conclusion. shows result of climax
- rising action
- before the reversal and climax
- assonance
- the repetition of vowel sounds within a short passage of verse or prose
- anaphora
- The intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic effect. For instance, Churchill declared, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with...
- ode
- A long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it reverently. The ode is usually much longer than the song or lyric, but usually not as long as the epic poem.
- imagery
- A common term of variable meaning, imagery includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature. It signifies all the sensory perceptions referred to in a poem, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor.
- round character
- A developed character, A round character is depicted with such psychological depth and detail that he or she seems like a "real" person. The round character contrasts with the flat character.
- mythos
- an untrue story typically involving gods and goddesses to explain natural phenomena
- asyndeton
- The artistic elimination of conjunctions in a sentence to create a particular effect.
- flat character
- Also called a static character, a flat character is a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of a narrative, or one without extensive personality and characterization.
- "the new novel"/the "antinovel"
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refers to a movement in French literature that flourished in the mid-fifties and early sixties which called into question the traditional modes of literary realism.
Associated with works of Nathalie Sarraute. characterized by an austere narrative tone which often eschews metaphor and simile in favour of precise physical descriptions, a heightened sense of ambiguity with regards to point of view, radical disjunctions of time and space, and self-reflexive commentary on the processes of literary composition. Antinovel is any work that avoids the familiar conventions of a novel. - couplet
- Two lines--the second line immediately following the first--of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit.
- film noir
- a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those focused on sex and corruption.
- simple irony
- Cicero referred to irony as "saying one thing and meaning another."
- realism
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First, it refers generally to any artistic or literary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner, unclouded by false ideals, literary conventions, or misplaced aesthetic glorification and beautification of the world.
It is a theory or tendency in writing to depict events in human life in a matter-of-fact, straightforward manner. - concrete language
- Language that describes qualities that can be perceived with the five senses as opposed to using abstract or generalized language. For instance, calling a fruit "pleasant" or "good" is abstract, while calling a fruit "cool" or "sweet" is concrete.
- episodic plot
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Occurring in a long string of short, individual scenes, stories, or sections, rather than focusing on the sustained development of a single plot.
Some narratives involve several short episodic plots occurring one after the other (like chivalric romances), or they may involve multiple subplots taking place simultaneously with the main plot (as in many of Shakespeare's plays). - understatements
- Understatement, the opposite of exaggeration: "I was somewhat worried when the psychopath ran toward me with a chainsaw." (i.e., I was terrified).
- lyric poetry
- A short poem (usually no more than 50-60 lines, and often only a dozen lines long) written in a repeating stanzaic form, often designed to be set to music. Unlike a ballad, the lyric usually does not have a plot
- naturalism
- A literary movement seeking to depict life as accurately as possible, without artificial distortions of emotion, idealism, and literary convention
- situational irony
- (also called cosmic irony) is a trope in which accidental events occur that seem oddly appropriate, such as the poetic justice of a pickpocket getting his own pocket picked.
- mimesis
- Mimesis is usually translated as "imitation" or "representation," though the concept is much more complex than that and doesn't translate easily into English. It is an imitation or representation of something else rather than an attempt to literally duplicate the original. For instance, Aristotle in The Poetics defined tragedy as "the imitation [mimesis] of an action." In his sense, both poetry and drama are attempts to take an instance of human action and represent or re-present its essence while translating it into a new "medium" of material.
- plot
- The structure and relationship of actions and events in a work of fiction. In order for a plot to begin, some sort of catalyst is necessary.
- climax
- The moment in a play, novel, short story, or narrative poem at which the crisis reaches its point of greatest intensity and is thereafter resolved. It is also the peak of emotional response from a reader or spectator and usually the turning point in the action. The climax usually follows or overlaps with the crisis of a story, though some critics use the two terms synonymously