Literature SAT II
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- narrative elements
- exposition, rising aciton, climax, falling action, denouement
- exposition
- introduction; sets the scene
- rising action
- complication; develops a conflict
- 3 types of conflict
- human vs environment, human vs. human, and human vs. self
- climax
- high point, point of no return; something occurs to alter forever the story's main progression
- falling action
- reversal, speeds the story to its end
- denouement
- conclusion; gives the story closure
- characterization
- a character may be "static" (remains unchanged throughout the story), or "dynamic" (undergoes some kind of personality alteration); also, a character may have "roundness" (complex personality) or "flatness" (little development at all)
- protagonist
- main character of the story
- antagonist
- opponent of the protagonist
- foil
- character whose function is to emphasize the character traits of some other character
- tragic hero
- protagonist of a tragedy (traditionally, a person of noble birth who suffers a downfall because of a tragic flaw in his personality)
- anti-hero
- protagonist with villanous qualities
- theme
- an idea or observation set forth by the story as a universal truth
- tone
- the attitude of its narrator, his opinion of the characters and events in the story
- mood
- emotional atmosphere of the story; what a reader feels while he is reading
- imagery
- description that appeals to the senses
- indirect metaphor
- comparison is made between two things although one or both may not be explicitly named
- conceit
- an original comparison is developed more fully in the text
- personification
- makes an inanimate object sound as if it were human
- metonymy
- a larger whole- usually an abstract- is represented by one of its parts
- synecdoche
- usually occurs when a part represents a specific, tangible whole rather than an abstract
- balance
- can occur in a sentence, a paragraph or stanza, or a whole work; indicates harmony and implies the unity of smaller ideas into a larger; most common "balancing acts" are repetition, paralellism, and antithesis
- thematic parallel
- what is paralleled in a work is a pair of similar situations or ideas
- antithesis
- pairing of opposites to make point
- rhyme
- occurs when two or more words sound the same except for their initial letters
- effect of rhyme
- connotates a harmony of ideas; keeps its theme unified
- rhythm
- cadence that a phrase ot series of phrases develops
- assonance
- the repetition of vowel sounds within words
- consonance
- repetition of consonant sounds within words
- iamib pentameter
- an iamb is a metrical foot of two syllables, with the accent on the second syllable. Pentameter signifies that there are five iambs to a line
- couplet
- two consecutive rhyming lines in a poem (AABBCCDD...)
- heroic couplets
- two consecutive rhyming lines in a poem that are also in iambic pentameter
- sonnet
- 14 lines of iambic pentameter; features a specific rhyme scheme; serious, usually discursive poem that compacts a unified idea into small space
- blank verse
- unrhymed iambic pentameter
- sprung rhythm
- features a variety of set meters and a complex rhyme scheme
- free verse
- no regular rhyme scheme or meter
- ode
- praises someone or something still in existence
- elegy
- honors someone dead
- ballad
- narrative poem, usually with a tragicomic tone; has an ABCBDEFE thyme scheme
- concrete poetry
- sometimes called emblematic poetry; forms its words onto pictures on the page; the point is that the picture has something to do with the poem's theme
- first person (major character) point of view
- has a narrator who is usually the main character of the narrative
- first person (minor character) point of view
- a character who is not the main focus of the narrative tells the story
- third person (observer) point of view
- the narrator is not a character in the story, nor does he know the thoughts and feelings of the story's characters
- third person (lmiited omniscient) point of view
- the narrator, who is not a character in the story, knows only of the main character's thoughts and feelings- no one else's
- narrative distance
- refers to the narrator's proximity in relation to other characters; a narrator can be physically close (like 1st person narrators) or physically distant (like 3rd person omniscient); a narrator can also be psychologically close (sympathetic with characters) or pschologically distant (cold)
- narrative shift
- usually manifests itself as a change in verb tense
- an author considers three things that go into her voice:
- her own style of writing, her audience, and her writing purpose
- what do i need to do when reading passages?
- ANNOTATE!!!
- in poetry...
- MARK WHERE THE SENTENCES BEGIN AND END!!!
- watch out for
- EXCEPT QUESTIONS!!!
- modes of poetry
- narrative, discursive, imagistic, and lyric
- narrative
- tells a story
- discursive
- an "idea" poem
- imagistic
- pure image, wishing niether to tell a tale nor formulate a theme
- lyric
- when a poem's meter and rhyme give it a song-like quality
- types of verse (poetry)
- rhyming verse, blank verse, and free verse
- anastrophe
- the inversion of a sentence to better suit rhyme scheme and metrical rhythm
- in a poem, keep going until
- a comma, a period, or some other punctuation stops you
- thee=
- you
- thy=
- your
- with nonfiction, first scan and decide what a passage's _____ is, and then what a passage's ____ or _____ is
- unifying idea; mode, purpose
- persuasive
- writer wants to change the reader's mind or convince the audience to take action
- pathos
- emotional appeal
- logos
- appeal to logic
- ethos
- appeal to ethics
- expository
- simply gives the reader information
- descriptive
- describes something (usually used in conjunction with other purposes)
- 4 purposes of nonfiction
- persuasive, expository, descriptive, and narrative
- ALWAYS
- ANNOTATE!!!!!!
- to tackle a nonfiction passage...
-
1. underline helpful passages and make notes
2. determine the unifying idea
3. identify the passage's mode or purpose (persuasive, expository, descriptive, or narrative) - fiction almost always appears in the ___ mode
- narrative (tells a story)
- when reading fiction, the first thing to do is to identify:
- who is the narrator and what point of view does she have?
- after you have determined the point of view, you can begin to discover the
- tone
- in tandem, _____ and narrative description reveal characterization, plot, setting, tone, and theme
- dialogue
- if you recognize the passage:
- don't consider the entire work as you answer questions
- there is a _____ between dialogue and narrative description
- balance
- to tackle a play excerpt
-
1. read the editorial introduction carefully
2. decipher as much as you can about plot, characterization, tone, and theme