Principles in Analyzing Literary Texts Flashcards
What are the Guidelines in Approaching a Literary Text?
- Read the piece.
- Re-read with “literature goggles”.
- Re-read with a literary approach in mind.
- Annotate your observations, tentative analysis, or questions in the printed copy of the text.
- Write a thesis statement, or identify the theme.
- Back up with evidence from the text.
- Comment on how the piece reflects or not reflects reality.
- Evaluate the piece’s significance to the reader, the society, and the world.
What is the difference between Theme and Topic in a Literary Text?
- Theme is the central message conveyed through the writing.
- Topic is the subject matter discussed in the writing; what the writing is about.
To read a piece with “Literary Goggles” means paying attention to the:
- Form
- Theme
- Repetition
- Literary Devices
Two (2) Examples of Literary Works under Form are:
- Prose
- Poetry
A literary work that is spoken or written in the common flow of language in sentences and paragraphs which give information, relate events, express ideas, or present opinions.
Prose
A literary medium that corresponds closely to everyday speech patterns and is used to provide detailed descriptions of ideas, objects, or situations.
Prose
A literary work expressed in verse, measure, rhythm, sound, and imaginative language and creates an emotional response to an experience, feeling or fact.
Poetry
Types of which include sonnets, elegies, odes, etc.
Poetry
A significant truth and its nature that limits narration to what the central character thinks, feels, does, and what and whom the central character observes.
Theme
The central idea, topic, or point of a story, essay, or narrative.
Theme
Should be worded in a complete statement. As much as possible, is original.
Theme
Principles in Stating the Theme of the Story:
- It reports all major details of the story.
- It may be avowed [asserted] in more than one way.
- It is stated in complete statements.
- It asserts a sweeping statement about life.
- It avoids statements that condense the theme to some familiar adage, aphorism, dictum, maxim, saying, or value.
For the movie Godzilla, “Nature is a powerful force to be reckoned with” is an example of its…
Theme
Two (2) types of repetition include…
- Repetition of Words
- Repetition of Sentences
The six (6) Literary Devices include…
- Flashback
- Foreshadowing
- Juxtaposition
- Symbol
- Imagery
- Figures of Speech
Writer’s use of interruption of the chronological sequence of a story to go back to related incidents which occurred prior to the beginning of the story.
Flashback
Writer’s use of hints or clues to indicate events that will occur later in the story.
Foreshadowing
The use of this technique both creates suspense and prepares the reader for what is to come.
Foreshadowing
The placement of two or more things side by side, often in order to bring out their differences.
Juxtaposition
This literary term calls attention to two distinctly different things by placing them right beside one another.
Juxtaposition
An image that becomes so suggestive that it takes on much more meaning than its descriptive value.
Symbol
It urges the reader to look beyond the literal significance of the poem’s statement of action: the connotations of the words, repetition, placement, or other indications of emphasis.
Symbol
It is considered as the richest and at the same time the most difficult of all the poetical figures.
Symbol
The use of sensory details or descriptions that appeal tone or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell; senses of the mind.
Imagery
There are six (6) types of Imagery. These include…
- Visual Imagery
- Auditory Imagery
- Kinesthetic Imagery
- Olfactory Imagery
- Tactile Imagery
-Gustatory Imagery
This the most frequent type of imagery used to recreate a certain image.
Visual Imagery
This is the mental representation of any sound and it is vital in imagining and feeling a situation.
Auditory Imagery
It is related to smell and this imagery helps summon and deliver the smells to the reader.
Olfactory Imagery
It is a broader term used to describe the sense of movement or tension.
Kinesthetic Imagery
It appeals to the sense of touch by presenting attributes like hardness, softness or hot and cold sensations.
Tactile Imagery
It illustrates and recreates the tastes of food or many other things.
Gustatory Imagery
Specific devices or a kind of figurative language that uses words, phrases, and sentences in a non-literal definition and gives meanings in abstractions.
Figures of Speech
There are sixteen (16) Types of Figures of Speech. These include…
- Allusion
- Anaphora
- Antithesis
- Apostrophe
- Hyperbole
- Irony
- Litotes
- Metaphor
- Metonymy
- Oxymoron
- Paradox
- Personification
- Simile
- Synecdoche
- Synesthesia
- Understatement
A figure of speech that makes a reference to or a representation of people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication.
Allusion
A rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginning of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.
Anaphora
A rhetorical term for the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or clauses.
Antithesis
Used when the writer employs two sentences of contrasting meanings in close proximity to one another.
Antithesis
The purpose of use in literature is to create a balance between opposite qualities and lend a greater insight into the subject.
Antithesis
A figure of speech in which some absent or non-existent person or thing is addressed as if present and capable of understanding or replying.
Apostrophe
Involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis.
Hyperbole
There are three (3) Types of Irony. These include…
- Situational Irony
- Dramatic Irony
- Verbal Irony
Refers to how a person, situation, statement, or circumstance is not as it would actually seem. Many times, it is the exact opposite of what it appears to be.
Irony
A Type of Irony wherein a situation features a discrepancy between what is expected and what is actualized.
Situational Irony
A Type of Irony wherein a character is unaware of pivotal information already revealed to the audience.
The discrepancy here lies in the two levels of awareness between the character and the audience.
Dramatic Irony
A Type of Irony wherein one states one thing while meaning another. Often sarcastic.
Verbal Irony
A figure of speech consisting of an ironical understatement in which affirmative is expressed by the negation of the opposite.
Litotes
In this figure of speech, the usages are intentional, ironical and provide emphasis to the words. This is mainly done through double negatives.
Litotes
A figure of speech involving an implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.
Metaphor
A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated.
Metonymy
Also, the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it.
Metonymy
A figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect.
Oxymoron
It is a phrase or statement that seems to be impossible or contradictory but is nevertheless true, literally or figuratively.
Paradox
Paradox comes from the _______ word ________
Greek, Paradoxon
What does the Greek word Paradoxon mean?
Contrary to expectations, existing belief or perceived opinion
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object, an animal or idea is endowed with human qualities or abilities.
Personification
A figure of speech involving a stated comparison (usually formed with “like”, “than,” or “as”) between two fundamentally dissimilar or unlike things that have certain qualities in common.
Simile
A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it.
Synecdoche
A figure of speech referring to a technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters or places wherein they appeal to more than one senses like hearing, seeing, smell, etc. at a given time.
Synesthesia
A figure of speech in which a writer or a speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.
Understatement
The act of marking up a text to bring attention to words, phrases, and structure that may have some importance to the overall mood or theme of a poem or any literary text.
Literary Annotation