terms Flashcards
Narrative
a story (prose or verse) that involves characters, events, settings, and actions
Content
what a narrative is about
form
how a narrative is told
Genre Conventions:
a set of rules that are common to a specific genre of writing and that can be used to categorize works for study
Audience
who a text is created for; the intended readership, listenership, viewership of a
text
Discourse
the language-in-use at a given time (temporal) and in a given place or
institution (spatial)
Institution:
a society or group of people (often represented by physical spaces and
structures) founded and organized by established laws, practices, or customs
Signifier
the physical thing that gives meaning (the word, image,
hand gesture, etc.)
Cultural Capital
Cultural Capital: a person’s cultural assets (education, intellect, manners, manner of
speech, etc.) that determine their ability to access and help shape social institutions
(academic, legal, medical, etc.)
Conspicuous Consumption
an attempt to express class and identity by being seen buying and consuming the right items
Imperialism
a state sanctioned and operated policy of increasing a country’s power, usually
through the acquisition of land (military), extension of laws (legal) and religion (church), and/or
control of trade (economic)
Reader-Response Criticism:
a theoretical perspective that focuses on the reader’s perception
of a text to assert that the “production” of meaning in a text is determined by the individual
reader
First-Person Narrator:
a story that is told by a participant in the story or someone who knows of the
events of the story and is retelling it, represented in the text as “I”
* narration is limited to what the first-person narrator knows, experiences, infers, or finds out from other characters
* can be a character recounting past events that he/she witnessed or heard about, a peripheral character in the action of the story, or a direct participant in the action of the story
Second-Person Narrator:
story is told directly to a narratee addressed as “you”
* this “you” can be an implied audience, the reader of the story, another fictional character, or the narrator themself
* this “you” often experiences that which is narrated
Third-Person Omniscient Narrator:
the narrator knows everything about the characters and events in the narrative
* uses proper names or third-person pronouns (he/she/it, they) to refer to all characters
* not generally involved in the narrative, but is simply telling the story
Third-Person Limited Narrator
narrator tells the story in the third-person (he/she/it, they), but remains limited to the perceptions, thoughts, and knowledge of one character in the narrative
* the character is used to focus the story in third-person limited narration
* very useful for examining the same object/event through different consciousnesses
Amateur Detective:
the detective must be a person of singular genius that continually outsmarts all other characters
* they may be helped by other characters to some extent, but they are ultimately responsible for
solving the story’s puzzle
* position relational to the reader: they serve as a mind the reader can confront and try to outwit
The Second:
serves as a sounding board and hype-person for the detective
* they are the “regular mind” amazed by the detective’s abilities
* position relational to the reader: if we are in competition with the detective, we are positioned
alongside the second
Middlebrow Literature:
traditional literary conventions; familiar to read and enjoy
represents the social and cultural values of the common Briton
discursive code words: popular, mass appeal, mass culture, conventional, traditional
Highbrow Literature:
stylistically innovative and diverse: create a form for what you are expressing; “Make it New” (Ezra Pound) represents the ability of its makers and the values of aesthetes discursive code words: perverse (immoral), coterie, clever, difficult, exclusive
Metafiction:
fiction that draws attention to itself as fiction by frequently or infrequently reminding readers that they are reading a work of fiction
Insider:
a person who is accepted in a specific space and is afforded certain privileges based on their insider status, insiders (always) know, (sometimes) understand, and (usually) follow the rules associated with that space
Outsider:
a person who is not accepted in a specific space
Hard-Boiled Detective:
a cut above: tough, street smart, witty, capable, stoic
* incorruptible: unlike everyone else around them, the hard-boiled detective does not let money, power, or sex corrupt them
* you’ve got to have a code: may not play by the legal rules, but has an unimpeachable sense of fairness
