Introduction to Literature Flashcards
also known as narrative texts. They tell a story and contain elements of fiction. Examples are novels, short stories, and poetry.
LITERARY TEXTS
narrative techniques that add texture, energy, and excitement to the narrative, grip the reader’s imagination, and convey information.
LITERARY DEVICES
refers to the basic inherent factors of something.
NATURE
refers to the quality of involving or being shared by all people or things in the world or in a particular group.
UNIVERSALITY
Oral/written
Thoughts or ideas, aspirations, imaginations, feelings or emotions and experiences
Has universal appeal
Has stood the test of time
Literature
Legends, Myths, Riddles
Oral Literature
CLASSIFICATIONS OF LITERATURE
LITERATURE OF POWER
LITERATURE OF KNOWLEDGE
Appeals to man’s emotions or feelings
Consists of distinct characteristics: deals with fiction, subjective, partial but not always, figurative or indirect language
Examples are — novels, folktales, movies or series
LITERATURE OF POWER
Appeals to man’s intellect
Consists of distinct characteristics: factual, objective, impartial, uses simple and direct language
Examples are — newspaper, dictionary, thesaurus
LITERATURE OF KNOWLEDGE
Masterpieces or great works
Classic
Literary texts being studied at school
LITERATURE WITH THE BIG LETTER “L”
Works that people read if they want to
Not compulsory and necessary
Can be bought anywhere
Literatures that people can easily forget
LITERATURE WITH THE SMALL LETTER “l”
BRANCHES OF LITERATURE
poetry
prose
A type of literature based on the interplay of words and rhythm
Often employs rhyme and rhythm
Words are strong enough to form sounds, images, and ideas that may be too complex or abstract to describe directly
A sonnet—a form of poetry, is composed of 14 lines
POETRY
A form of written or spoken language that has no material structure
Applies a natural flow of spoken and ordinary grammatical structures, rather than rhythmic structures such as in the case of traditional poetry
PROSE
Refers to the voice or the mouthpiece of the writer within a literary text. The narrator is the person addressed by the persona.
persona
In literature is the mode of narration that an author employs to let the readers hear and see what takes place in a literary text.
pov
Reader assumes that this character is closely related to the story’s action—either the main
Character or someone close to the protagonist
FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW
Allows you to draw your reader into the story and make them feel like they’re part of the action because the narrator is speaking directly to them.
SECOND PERSON POINT OF VIEW
This point of view is subdivided into third-person omniscient and third-person limited.
THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW
Refers to the attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience.
Examples are cheerful, gloomy, comic, and depressed
TONE
That moment in the story when the truth is revealed to a character.
It is an “ah-ha” moment for the character.
EPIPHANY
A figure of speech used to signify an opposite meaning in literature.
IRONY
The use of words to mean something different than what they appear to mean.
“Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; and Brutus is an honorable man.” - Mark Anthony (Mark Anthony’s Funeral Oration)
Words: sarcastic
VERBAL IRONY
The difference between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.
“The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin tells of a wife who learns that her husband is dead. She feels a sense of freedom as she thinks about a life without restriction. Then, he returns (he wasn’t dead after all) and she dies of shock.
In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, a woman borrows what she thinks is a costly necklace from a friend and loses it. She and her husband sacrifice to replace it, only to learn years later that the necklace was a fake.
SITUATIONAL IRONY
When the audience is more aware of what is happening than the character.
The toy resembling a space soldier named Buzz Lightyear believes he’s an actual space hero destined to save the world from intergalactic species. He tries to prove himself to the people around him, but is left crushed when he realizes how he is nothing more than a toy. - Toy Story
DRAMATIC IRONY
