ELA Content Exam Flashcards

Pass that state test!

1
Q

Literary Form Drama: Comedies

A

Written to show people in their human state, restrained and made ridiculous by their limitations and animal nature.

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2
Q

Literary Form Drama:

Tragedies

A

To death or destruction of a fictional or historical hero typifies this dramatic form.

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3
Q

Literary Form: Fiction

Short stories

A

Written as a narrative, this form is often more focused than other forms of fiction, like the novel.

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4
Q

Fiction:

Novels

A

A long form of fiction whose origin whose origins stem from medieval romances.

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5
Q

Fiction:

Novellas

A

A form of fiction that is shorter than a novel but longer than vignette. Novellas are sometimes serialized as exemplified by The Arabian Nights.

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6
Q

Fiction:

Vignettes

A

A form of fiction that creates an impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives an impression about a setting, idea, or character.

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7
Q

Nonfiction:

Biography

A

An account of an individual’s life.

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8
Q

Nonfiction: Autobiography

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A first-person account of the author’s life.

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9
Q

Journal/Diary

A

First-person account of events in an author’s daily life as they occur, often including personal introspection and thoughtful commentary.

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10
Q

Rhetorical Devices and Techniques - Analogy

A

A comparison that reveals relationships that creates understanding for the reader.

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11
Q

Rhetorical Devices and Techniques - Euphemism

A

A substitution with an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend.

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12
Q

Rhetorical Devices and Techniques - Rhetorical Questions

A

A figure of speech in the form of a question that is posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply. Rhetorical questions encourage the listener to think about what the obvious answer might be. This device is used for the writer for assertion or denial.

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13
Q

Rhetorical Devices and Techniques - Oxymoron

A

The pairing of words that have opposite or contradictory meaning, such as “wise fool” or “brave fear.”

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14
Q

Literary Devices and Techniques - Symbolism

A

A powerful literary technique where the writer integrates symbols to create deeper understanding and meaning. A symbol is a person, place, object or activity that stands for something beyond itself.

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15
Q

Literary Devices and Techniques - Suspense

A

The tension or excitement readers feel as they are drawn into a story or become increasingly eager to learn the outcome of the plot.

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16
Q

Literary Devices and Techniques - Foreshadowing

A

A literary technique that offers clues to the readers about upcoming events.

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17
Q

Literary Devices and Techniques - Imagery

A

The words and phrases that create vivid sensory experiences for the reader.

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18
Q

Literary Devices and Techniques - Paradox

A

A statement or figure of speech that seems to contradict itself but in fact, reveals some element of truth.

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19
Q

Literary Devices and Techniques - Soliloquy

A

Used in drama, this literary device allows a character to reveal thoughts and feeling without directly addressing other characters.

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20
Q

Types of moods

A

Types of mood include anxious, comic, festive, mournful, ominous, and romantic moods.

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21
Q

First Person

A

The narration is told by one character and uses first person pronouns like “I” and “me”.

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22
Q

Third Person Limited

A

The reader experiences the narration through the senses and thoughts of one character and the use of third person pronouns (“he”, “she”, or “it”).

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23
Q

Third Person Omniscient

A

The reader experiences a narrator who is all knowing and is privy to the thoughts and actions of all the characters in the story.

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24
Q

Tone

A

An expression of a writer’s attitude toward a subject.

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Mood
The atmosphere that the writer creates for the reader.
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Voice
The particular style of an individual author. The combination of a writer's word choice, tone and voice across several works.
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Narrative Structure - Exposition
Establishes the setting or atmosphere.
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Narrative Structure - Complication
Onset of major conflict.
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Narrative Structure - Rising Action
Events that lead to the climax.
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Narrative Structure - Crisis
Point of greatest tension.
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Narrative Structure - Climax
The turning point of the story.
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Narrative Structure - Resolution/Denouement
The "untying" of events.
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Internal Conflict
Character vs Self
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External Conflict
Character vs character, vs society, vs nature, vs fate
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Elements of Plot
Author use flashbacks, foreshadowing, and suspense-as well as subplots and parallel plots-to vary the structure and tempo of a narrative.
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Elements of setting
The setting includes the time and place that is set for a narrative text. Setting can also include the social and moral environment that contributes to the background. Setting is one of the main elements of literature and plays an important role in what happens in the narrative and why.
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Elements of characterization
Characters are the people who participate in the action of a literary work. The most important ones are the main characters and the less prominent are known as minor characters. Characters are developed through description, their actions, and commentary provided by other characters. Characters are often round or flat. Round characters are multidimensional that often undergo a change during the course of the narrative. They are also referred to as dynamic characters. Paul from D.H Lawrence’s story, The Rocking Horse Winner is a dynamic character. During the story, Paul becomes increasingly absorbed by his obsession to obtain money for his mother. In contrast, flat characters, also referred to as static characters, lack dimension and are largely unchanged in a narration. In the same story, Uncle Oscar is a flat or static character since he observes and responds to Paul’s actions but does not change.
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Broad Universal Themes
Such as alienation, solitude, courage, friendship, love, cruelty, injustice, freedom, and hope.
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Poetic Forms - Epic
Long narrative poem, Heroes are presented and heroic deeds evidenced. Heroics deed are significant to a given culture. Examples: Odyssey, Iliad, Beowulf, Epic of Gilgamesh, El Cid
40
Poetic Forms - Ode
- Lyrical verse - A classical ode structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode - English odes are usually tributes to something or someone who caught the poet's attention. Examples: Ode to the West Wind (Shelley), Ode one a Grecian Urn (Keats)
41
Poetic Forms - Ballad
- Narrative Poetry - Usually set to music, tells about a "big event" - Describes actions; may include dialogue - Form is particularly popular in British and Irish poetry. - Form grew during the medieval period. Examples: Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Coleridge), Barrack Room Ballads (Kipling)
42
Poetic Forms - Villanelle
- French verse form - Modeled after lyrical form used by medieval troubadours - Fixed form: 19 lines long, consisting of 5 tercets and 1 concluding quatrain Examples: Do No Go Gentle into Thant Good Night (Dylan Thomas)
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Poetic Forms - Haiku
- Japanese poetic form - Consists of five unrhymed line - The syllable count for each line is 5, 7, 5.
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Poetic Forms - Tanka
- Japanese poetic form - Consists of five unrhymed lines - The syllabic count for each line is 5-7-5-7-7.
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Poetic Forms - Petrarchan Sonnet
- Also referred to as an Italian sonnet - First developed by Francesco Petrarch - The 14-line poem is often dedicated to a lady or unrequited love. The poem is divided into an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines). - The octave usually poses a problem or question, and the sestet often provides a solution or answer. - The transition between the octave and the sestet is referred to as the "volta" or turn. Sir Thomas Wyatt
46
Poetic Forms - Shakespearean Sonnet
- English poetic form attributed to William Shakespeare - Consists of three 4-line stanzas (quatrains) and one concluding couplet - often a commentary on the preceding quatrains and an epigrammatic close. - Themes include love, time, beauty, and mortality. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets.
47
Poetic Forms - Elegy
- Sustained and formal poem setting forth the poet's meditations upon death or another solemn theme, often occasioned by the dead of a particular person Examples: William Cullen - Bryant's Thanatopsis (1817) and Percy Bysshe Shelley - Adonais (1821)
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Poetic Devices - Imagery
- Descriptive language that evokes a sensory experience.
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Poetic Devices -Symbolism
- Use of a person, object, event, action, or image to represent an idea.
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Poetic Devices - Allusion
- A figure of speech that makes use of a reference to an historical or literary figure, event, or object.
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Poetic Devices - Paradox
- A statement, while while seemingly contradictory or absurd, may actually be well founded or true.
52
Poetic Devices - Irony
- A feeling, tone, mood or attitude arising from an awareness that what is (reality) is opposite from, and usually worse than, what seem (appearance). The most common forms of irony include dramatic irony, verbal irony, and situational irony.
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Poetic Devices - Dramatic Irony
The discrepancy between what a character knows or means and what a reader or audience knows.
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Poetic Devices - Verbal Irony
A speaker says one thing but means another.
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Poetic Devices - Situational Irony
A pointed discrepancy between what seems fitting or expected in a story and what actually happens.
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Figures of Speech - Apostrophe
An absent person is addresses though present, or an abstract quality or a nonhuman entity is addressed
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Figures of Speech - Hyperbole
An extreme exaggeration
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Figures of Speech - Metonymy
The name of one thing is substituted for that of something closely associated with it.
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Figures of Speech - Synecdoche
A special kind of metonymy in which a part of something is substituted for the whole of which it is a part, as in the commonly used phrase "lend me your ears"
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Author Choices that Impact Poetry - Point of View
The perspective from which a poem is told.
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Author Choices that Impact Poetry - Tone
The attitude toward the subject and audience.
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Author Choices that Impact Poetry - Voice
The person of the author, expressed through word choice, syntax, rhythm, and other elements of style.
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Author Choices that Impact Poetry - Mood
The overall emotional feeling or atmosphere of a poem, as experienced by the listener/reader.
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Stanzaic and Metrical Structures and Verse Forms - Quatrain
- Four-line poetic stanza
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Stanzaic and Metrical Structures and Verse Forms - Foot
- A group of syllables forming a metrical unit In English, the principal metrical feet are iamb (U /), trochee (/ U), anapest (U U /), spondee (//), pyrrhic (UU).
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Stanzaic and Metrical Structures and Verse Forms - Meter
- An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable - Monometer (one foot per line) - dimeter (Two) - trimeter (Three) - tetrameter (four) - pentameter (five) - hexameter (six) - heptameter (seven) So, a line of poetry written in iambic pentameter contains five feet - each foot containing a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable - for a total of ten unstressed and stressed syllables.
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Stanzaic and Metrical Structures and Verse Forms - Free Verse
A form of poetry based on the irregular rhythmic cadence of the recurrence phrases, images, and patterns. Rhyme may or may not be present in free verse, but when it is, it is used with great freedom.
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Sound Devices - Alliteration
Repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the beginnings of words.
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Sound Devices - Onomatopoeia
A word that imitates a sound.
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Sound Devices - Assonance
Repetition of similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables
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Sound Devices - Consonance
Repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels
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Slant Rhyme
Slant rhyme (also known as half rhyme or imperfect rhyme) occurs when the last stressed vowel sounds are different but the following sounds are identical, as in fish/crash
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Identical Rhyme
Blue/blew and rain/reign are examples of identical rhyme (or rime riche)
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Eye rhyme
Cough/dough are examples
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Genres of World Literature - Folklore - Fables
- In prose or verse to point to a moral - Characters are frequently animals. Examples: Aesop (Greek), La Fontaine (French), Krylov (Russian)
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Genres of World Literature - Folklore - Legends
- Fictional stories once believed to have been true and handed down as historical tradition - An exaggeration of individuals and improbable events Examples: Faust, King Arthur, Robin Hood
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Genres of World Literature - Folklore - Mythology
- An anonymous work having roots in primitive folk belief - Present supernatural episodes to interpret natural events Every country has its mythology; best known are Greek, Roman, and Norse.
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Genres of World Literature - Fiction - Fantasy
- A conscious breaking free from reality. It may be employed merely for the whimsical delight of an author, or a serious comment on reality. Examples: The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien), Harry Potter (Rawling)
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Genres of World Literature - Fiction - Science Fiction
A form of fantasy in which scientific facts, assumptions, or hypotheses form the basis of adventures in the future, other dimensions or under new variants of scientific law Examples: Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke
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Genres of World Literature - Fiction - Utopian fiction
- Describes and imaginary ideal world Term comes from Sir Thomas More's work Utopia describing a perfect political state
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Genres of World Literature - Fiction - Dystopian Fiction
- Seeks to point out what is wrong with a seemingly perfect situation or conditions offers alternative or negative view. Examples: Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury), We (Eugene Zamiatin)
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Genres of World Literature - Poetry - Beat Poetry
- American poets in the 1950s and 60s in romantic rebellion against the culture and value system of the United States Examples: Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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Genres of World Literature - Poetry - Confessional
- Focuses on poet's private experiences and personal feeling Examples: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, John Berryman
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Genres of World Literature - Poetry - Metaphysical
- Philosophical poetry, 17th century John Donne
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Genres of World Literature - Poetry - Pastoral
- Poem dealing with rustic life Virgil
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Genres of World Literature - Poetry - Lyrical
- Showing personal feeling of a first person speaker - Descended from poems sung with a lyre Example: "Dice Thrown" (Stefane Mallarme), "Bright Star" (John Keats) In Japan "The Manyoshu" - an anthology of more than 4,500 poems
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Genres of World Literature - Nonfiction - Biography
- Written stories about someone's real life and events that happened in it
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Genres of World Literature - Nonfiction - Autobiography
- Person's life as written by that person - First person, "free expression" of presenting unabashed self Examples: Vita (Benvenuto Cellini), The Confessions (St. Augustine), Autobiography: The Story of My Experiences with Truth (Ghandi), Mark Twain's Autobiography published in 2010 - 100 years after his death
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Genres of World Literature - Nonfiction - Essay
- A prose composition that explicates a topic Essays (Michel de Montaigne)
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Identifying Major Works and Authors - Homer
wo great epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are attributed to the Greek poet, Homer. A source of history and religion for the Greeks, the Iliad describes a story of the siege of Troy; the Odyssey a tale of Ulysses's wanderings. The Iliad, especially, is a literature standard. As a favorite among early Greek dramatists, it is considered to be one of the most influential works of the Western canon.
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Chaucer
Chaucer. Born between 1340 and 1344 and author of The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer made a crucial contribution to English literature by using English at a time when court poetry was still mostly written in Anglo-Norman or Latin. The Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest epic works of world literature.
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Shakespeare
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare was perhaps the finest lyric poet of his day exemplified by songs scattered through his plays. A master dramatist of the English language, Shakespeare changed literature for all time with his poignant tragedies, tragicomedies, and histories. As master of the pen, Shakespeare finessed the use of a variety of literary elements; in Medias Res, puns, dramatic irony, foreshadowing, soliloquies, and anachronisms.
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Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was born and raised in the Lake District of England. Together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wordsworth published Lyrical Ballads, the first great work of the English Romantic movement. Wordsworth changed poetry forever by the decision to use common language in his poetry instead of artificial poetic diction.
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Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning published her first book of poetry when she was thirteen. She soon became the most famous female poet in English history. At 39, she eloped with Robert Browning and wrote her most famous Sonnets from the Portuguese, a sequence of forty-four sonnets recording the growth of her love for Robert.
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Dickens
As a master of characterization, Charles Dickens, reveled in the variety and peculiarity of the human character. His later novels show great psychological depth, offering his distinct brand of social criticism, as in Hard Times.
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Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a leader in the development of the short story as a distinctive American genre. The philosophic attitude implicit in his writing is generally pessimistic. His emphasis on allegory and symbolism causes his characters to be more often recalled as the embodiment of psychological traits or moral concepts than as living figures.
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Emerson
Centered in a new religious movement called Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s philosophy was rooted in an American Romanticist and Puritan background. Through his writings, he preached a doctrine of higher individualism, the spiritual nature of reality, the importance self-reliance, and the existence of a unifying Over-Soul.
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Dickinson
Emily Dickinson called her 1000 brief lyrics her “letter to the world.” Dickinson was candid in her insights into her own state of consciousness and her speculations of the timeless mysteries of love and death. Her mind was charged with paradox as her eye was focused in opposite directions of two worlds; earthly and heavenly concerns.
99
Twain
An American Realist, Mark Twain wrote in the 19th century when American social and political issues included industrialization, slavery, and regionalism. Twain, an American writer, journalist, and humorist, won a worldwide audience for his stories of youthful adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Sensitive to the sound of language, Twain introduced colloquial speech into American fiction.
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Hughes
Langston Hughes was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Langston began his prolific literary career with poems on black themes, in jazz rhythms, and with idiomatic phrases. His concern with his race, mainly in an urban setting, is as evident in his work as is his social conscience.
101
Wolfe
Virginia Woolf revolutionized modern fiction as one of the pioneers of the stream-of-consciousness writing technique. This literary device allowed readers to look directly into the flow of thoughts and images in a character's mind. In her more revolutionary works To the Lighthouse or Mrs. Dalloway, Wolfe virtually abolishes “plot” to concentrate on what she called "an ordinary mind on an ordinary day."
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Poe
Edgar Alan Poe was a short story master of Gothic literature. He is famous for his horror tales and is credited with inventing the detective story, as well as for writing poetry with a prominent use of rhythms, alliteration and assonance that gives it a strong musical quality.
103
Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was a leading spokesman for the “Lost Generation": he expressed the feelings of a war-wounded people disillusioned by the loss of faith and hope. His stories are mainly concerned with “tough” people, intelligent men and women who have dropped into exhausted cynicism. When reading his work, readers will note that emotion is held at arm’s length; only the bare happenings are recorded and emphasis is obtained by understatement and spare dialogue.
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Faulkner
William Faulkner’s success as a novelist came when he began writing about the northern Mississippi area he knew best. William Faulkner created a world in the loosely constructed Yoknapatawpha saga. His discovery that this “little postage stamp of native soil” was worth writing about enabled him to write a series of acclaimed experimental novels. His themes show the decline of the Old South and the rise of unscrupulous families. Winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize for literature Faulkner wrote, ” . . . man will not merely endure; he will prevail . . . because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance” and the “writer’s duty is to write about these things.”
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Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston, folklorist and anthropologist, gathered examples of dialects of the south before they would die out. She collected folk stories and songs and included them in her works such as Jonah's Gourd Vine and her classic Their Eyes Were Watching God. Her conscious effort was to preserve the language and culture that was rapidly disappearing.
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Morrison
Toni Morrison is an American author who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. In her work she has explored the experience and roles of black women in a racist and male dominated society. In the center of her complex and multilayered narratives is the unique cultural inheritance of African-Americans.
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Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien—a tiny coastal town in southeast Norway. Ibsen grew up in poverty. Familiar with the economic hardships he later depicted in his plays, he experimented with realistic plays exploring social issues related to middle-class life.
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Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Often considered father of magical realism, Gabriel García Márquez most famous work, the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude was published in 1967. Márquez’s fiction is characterized by magical realism, which, as he put it ”expands the categories of the real so as to encompass myth, magic and other extraordinary phenomena in Nature or experience” excluded by European realistic fiction.
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Demonstrate knowledge of the formal, stylistic, and thematic characteristics of major literary genres and works from the oral traditions of different cultures.
You will be expected to recognize major literary forms and genres with roots in the oral tradition, such as epics, creation stories, ballads, fables, legends, trickster tales, fairy tales, tall tales, and nursery rhymes. You will also need to be familiar with the formal, stylistic, and thematic elements that are characteristic of the oral traditions of different cultures. Repetition and sound devices like alliteration and assonance are prevalent throughout. The use of repetition and sound devices facilitated the ability for people to remember the stories so that they could be passed from generation to generation by word of mouth.
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Characteristics of Oral Tradition - Ballads
The ballad is the most popular form and is still being written but it began in early literary periods before written literature was highly developed. Traditional or “popular” ballads are still very much a part of isolated segments of society, often among illiterate and semiliterate peoples. In American folk music, ballads are embraced by peoples in the southern Appalachian Mountains, cowboys of the western plains, and people associated with labor movements, some of those marked by violence. Certain common characteristics of early ballads should be noted: the supernatural often played an important part of events, physical courage and love were frequent themes, and incidents usually happened to common people (as opposed to nobility). Action in a ballad is largely developed through dialogue and tragic situations are presented with the utmost simplicity. Incremental repetition is a common aspect of literature that begins as a ballad.
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Characteristics of Oral Tradition -Tall tales
The tall tale is a kind of humorous tale common on the American frontier which uses realistic detail, a literal manner, and common speech to recount extravagantly impossible happenings, usually resulting from the superhuman abilities of a character. The tales about Paul Bunyan and Davy Crockett are typical frontier tall tales. The German Adventures of Baron Munchausen is, perhaps, the best known literary use of the tall tale.
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Characteristics of Oral Tradition - Fables
The fable, either in prose or verse, is told to point out a moral. Fables have to do with supernatural events or unusual incidents. Besides the most famous Aesop, a Greek slave living about 600 B.C., equally popular are those of La Fontaine, a Frenchman writing in the 17th century. His tales are distinctive in their humor and wit, their wisdom and their sprightly satire. Other important fabulists are Gay (England), Lessing (Germany), and Krylov (Russia). A fable in which the characters are animals is called a beast fable, a form that has been popular in almost every period of literary history, usually as a satiric device to point out human follies. The beast fable continues to be vigorous in such diverse works as Kipling’s Jungle Book and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
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Characteristics of Oral Tradition - Trickster stories
Fables as trickster stories are short narratives that use animal characters with human features to convey folk wisdom and to help people understand human nature and human behavior. These stories were originally passed down through oral tradition and were eventually written down. The legendary figure Aesop was reported to have orally passed on his animal fables, which have been linked to earlier beast tales from India and were later written down by the Greeks and Romans. Ananse trickster tales derive from the Asante people of Ghana and were brought by African slaves to the Caribbean and parts of the U.S.
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Characteristics of Oral Tradition - Fairy Tales
The fairy tale is a story relating mysterious pranks and adventures of supernatural spirits who manifest themselves in the form of diminutive human beings. These spirits possesses certain qualities which are constantly drawn upon for tales of their adventures: supernatural wisdom and foresight, a mischievous temperament, the power to regulate the affairs of human beings for good or evil, the capacity to change into any shape at any time. Almost every nation has its own fairy literature, though the folklore element embodied in fairy tales prompts the growth of related tales among different nations. Some of the great collections are the Contes de ma Mere l’Oyeo of Perrault (French), those of the Grimm brothers in German, and Hans Christian Andersen of Denmark who may be the most famous writer of original fairy tales.
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Characteristics of Oral Tradition - Epics
An epic is a long poem written in a lofty style about the exploits of heroic figures. Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey", as well as the Old English poem "Beowulf", are examples of epics. Epic conventions are literary practices, rules, or devices that became commonplace in epic poetry. Among the classical conventions Milton used are the following: The invocation of a muse in which a writer requests divine help in composing his work. Telling a story with which readers or listeners are already familiar; they know the characters, the plot, and the outcome. Most of the great writers of the ancient world—as well as many great writers in later times, including Shakespeare—frequently told stories already known to the public. Thus, in such stories, there were no unexpected plot twists, no surprise endings. If this sounds strange to you, the modern reader and theatergoer, consider that many of the most popular motion pictures today are about stories already known to the public.
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Affixes
Affixes are morphemes (meaningful parts of words) that are attached to a root or base word. The English language has two kinds of affixes: prefixes and suffixes.
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Prefixes
A prefix is a morpheme that precedes the root or base part of the word. Prefixes modify or change the meaning of the root or base word. A prefix may attach to a recognizable English word, or base such as the word “cover.” When we add a prefix like “dis” or “un” to arrive at newly formed words—discover and uncover. A prefix may also be attached to a base word or word stem, usually a Latin or Greek root, which is not a recognizable English word. For example, if we add “con” or “dis” to the word stem “tort” we make the words contort and distort. In Latin, the word “tort” means twist but in the English language the word stem “tort” has no meaning unless you add a prefix or suffix. Prefixes that change the grammatical function or the meaning of the base word are called derivational prefixes.
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Suffixes
Suffixes alter the ends of words and fall in two categories; inflectional and derivational.
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Inflectional suffixes
Inflectional suffixes do not change the meaning of the base word but they do change the word’s number and tense. Inflectional suffixes are added to nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in the following ways. For Nouns Plural words by adding “s” or “es,” e.g., many cats or many houses. Possessives including the adding of “s” or pronoun forms. Her cat’s paw or his houses are examples. For Verbs Indicating verb tense such as adding “s” or “es” or “ed” or “en” or “ing”: She skates well. She skated well. She’s skating well. For Adjectives and Adverbs Comparatives such as “er,” e.g., he’s the faster runner of the two. Superlatives by adding “est,” e.g., he’s the fastest runner I’ve ever seen.
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Derivational Suffixes
Derivational suffixes do not significantly change the base of a word but they can affect a word’s grammatical function or the words basic semantic meaning. Some commonly used derivational suffixes include: “-ly,” “-ate," and “-ion." “ly” can be added to adjectives like “quick” which then turns the word into the adverb “quickly;” “ate” can be added to root words to form nouns, verbs, or adjectives, e.g., “delegate," “dictate,” or “delicate.” “ion” is added to verbs like “evict” or “subtract” to create nouns such as “eviction” or “subtraction.”
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Use of Pronouns - Subjective Case
The subjective case refers to pronouns used as sentence subjects. Examples of pronouns used as subjects include: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, and who.
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Use of Pronouns - Objective Case
Pronouns used as objects of verbs or prepositions are considered the objective case for pronouns. Examples of pronouns used as objects include: me, you, him, her, it, us, them, and whom.
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Use of Pronouns - Possessive Case
Pronouns which express ownership and this show possession include: my (mine), your (yours), his, her (hers), it (its), their (theirs), and whose.
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Forms and Purposes of Narrative Writing - Personal journals
As a genre, the personal journal is significantly influenced from our current technological age. While diaries and handwritten journals have long been popular ways for individuals to store their memories, thoughts, feelings and ideas, blogs and social networking are contemporary ways writers can instantaneously express and share personal experiences and insights.
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Forms and Purposes of Narrative Writing - Memoirs
Many writing experts assert that asking students to engage in writing a personal memoir is an effective starting place for all narrative writing. They suggest that if student writers are able to tell their own stories about important event in their lives, they begin to develop the most important elements and characteristics of effective writing that include purpose, point of view and audience.
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Forms and Purposes of Narrative Writing - Autobiographies
Another form of personal writing includes autobiographies. Autobiographies are particularly popular in the United States as the American culture celebrates the stories of individuals who are able to accomplish great things. The best sellers in nonfiction often include autobiographies of famous politicians, celebrities, or athletes. As an audience, we are often inspired by these personal stories.
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Forms and Purposes of Narrative Writing - Storytelling
Storytelling allows a writer to create his voice and may take many narrative writing forms including letter writing, short stories, skits, and graphic novels that combine art with storytelling. The popular form Manga is representative of this form.
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Forms and Purposes of Narrative Writing - Creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction presents information using the tools of fiction. A book like Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff is a classic creative non-fiction piece that combines information (reportage) in a scenic, dramatic fashion. It combines the idea of self-discovery with that of flexibility and freedom.
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Narrative Writing Forms - Short Story
- Reveals character through a series of actions - Characters have an epiphany - Newest form very brief called "sudden fiction" - Finds its unity in character, tone, and mood
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Narrative Writing Forms - Personal Journal
- Written without the intention of being published as is - Usually for the author's personal use - Term is often interchangeable with the diary
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Narrative Writing Forms - Memoir
A form of autobiographical writing in which a person recalls significant events in his or her life. Most memoirs share the following characteristics: - First-person point of view and are structured narratives - True accounts of actual events - Although memoirs are largely personal, they may also contain newsworthy events that have significance beyond the author - Unlike other historical accounts, memoirs include the author's thoughts and feeling and opinions about historical events - Often contain the author's insight into the impact of history on individuals
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Narrative Writing Forms - Autobiography
- A writer's account of his or her life - Often contain insights as writers examine past events from the perspective of greater understanding and distance - Formal autobiographies are lengthy narratives that retell a person's history - Reveal insights into the writer's character, attitudes, and motivations - Also include some understanding of the time and place in which the writer lived
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Freewriting
A prewriting strategy. It is a stream of consciousness writing in which the author continuously writes for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar or topic. It produces raw material that is often ignitable but is beneficial in that it helps the reader to overcome barriers to writing like self-criticism or apathy.
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Clustering
A type of freewriting that allows the writer to explore many ideas. It is similar to brainstorming and fee associating in that it allows for spontaneous idea generation. Graphic organizer are particularly useful in clustering.
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Reading other narratives
An effective strategy since it provides models and ideas that can inspire a writer. Reading is often a springboard for writing. As writers, we get ideas, information and inspiration from what we read.
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Researching
An important element to narrative writing. As writers, we get ideas, information and inspiration from what we read.
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Style
The particular way in which a narrative form is written. Style is not what is written; it is how it is written. Some common narrative styles include: formal, conversational, journalistic, wordy, poetic, or dynamic. The style of a piece is also influenced by other elements such as tone.
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Tone
Tone is the expression of a writer's attitude toward a subject which is revealed by the words he or she chooses. This is different from mood in that the tone of a narrative is intended to share the reader's emotional response. Tone can be serious, humorous, sarcastic, playful, or objective. These elements facilitate the author's relationship with the audience. As students grow more aware of tone, they will discover that narrative authors rarely use only one.
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Voice
A writer’s voice is an element of narrative writing that distinguishes one writer from another because writers often display characteristic patterns when they write. For example, some narrative writers may use syntax, punctuation, or dialogue in unique ways. Others are distinguishable because of the way they develop their ideas. When a writer’s voice is strong, readers can identify it because of the way the writer’s personality or attitude permeates their work.
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Diction
One element that makes narrative writing a creative activity is the way writers choose diction or the words they use in their writing. Carefully chosen words explicitly or implicitly describe an event or action, set an intended mood, or evoke a reader’s emotional response—all meant to express the writer’s thoughts, or feelings and influence his readers’ response to the writing. Good writers choose words that fit their style, tone and voice. Good writers are careful not to convolute their message or confuse readers by trying to impress them with words that simply do not fit with the goals of the narrative.
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Audience
If a narrative writer intends to share her work, she likely anticipates the audience’s expectations. For students, the audience may be a teacher but also family members, peers, or the general public. While a student’s writing purpose may be to describe a personal event or conflict or to entertain her readers, her goal will be to do so clearly and convincingly.
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Anaphora
Repetition of a word of phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, lines or verses. Example: “This war is a worldwide war. All the mistakes, all the delays, all the suffering, do not alter the fact that there are, in the world, all the means necessary to crush our enemies one day.” Charles de Gaulle, June 8, 1940
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Antithesis
The balanced or parallel construction of a contrasting idea or word phrase. Example: “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” John F Kennedy, January 21. 1961
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Cacophony
An unpleasant combination of harsh, loud sounding words. Example: Such laughter is worse than the crackling of thorns under a pot, for it denotes not merely the vacant mind, but the heart in which high emotions have been choked before they could grow to fruition. Theodore Roosevelt, April 14, 1906