Literary Terms

Question 1

Speaker

Answer 1

• The narrator in a poem
• Karen Solie, “Modern and Normal”
• Helps analyze and gain insight on different perspectives

Question 2

Free Verse

Answer 2

• Poetry based on natural rhythm of phrases rather than the constraints of metrical feet.
• “Get Me Out of Here”
• Questions the rules; metric feet vs. free verse, rules of an airport vs. human nature/privacy

Question 3

Allusion

Answer 3

• An indirect or passing reference
• Arcadia
• Mentions Byron; he becomes almost another character. Parallels the story and adds meaning.

Question 4

Unreliable Narrator

Answer 4

• Entails that the narrator’s tellings are not completely accurate; biased
• White Noise
• Unreliability tells us we shouldn’t trust anything from them, helps us critique themes/the novel

Question 5

Dramatic Irony

Answer 5

• Devices in a work known to the audience, but not the characters themselves
• Arcadia
• Engages audience

Question 6

Free Indirect Discourse

Answer 6

• 3rd person narration that filters a narrator’s thoughts/feelings (slips in/out of their consciousness)
• Beloved
• Creates empathetic bonds between character and reader.

Question 7

Defamiliarization

Answer 7

• Takes familiar objects/concepts and forces us to see them from a strange or unusual perspective
• On Such a Full Sea
• We become defamiliarized with typical protagonists/heroes; Fan is normal, challenges us to do what’s right

Question 8

Chronotype

Answer 8

• How configurations of time/space are represented in discourse
• Beloved; the Triad
• Time/space switches without warning. Author directs our attention to help us understand

Question 9

Found Poetry

Answer 9

• Taking words/passages from other sources, making them into poetry to find new meaning
• Modern and Normal
• Gives us a new perspective, so we can start resisting the “normal”

Question 10

Collective Creation

Answer 10

• Creating new plays through the collaboration of company actors/members with a dramatist
• The Speedy
• Offers new views, ensures authenticity for First Nations issues

Question 11

Stream of Consciousness

Answer 11

• The flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters
• Oscar Wao; Yunior
• Helps us to understand the thought processes, and therefore the motives, opinions, and personalities of a character.

Question 12

Enjambed vs. End-Stopped Lines

Answer 12

• End-Stopped: A line ends with a punctuation mark
  Enjambment: Allowing lines to run on
• Get Me Out of Here
• Allows the reader to follow a changing stream of consciousness and thought, resisting “normal”