Terms and definitions Flashcards
Juxtaposition
relationship between events
Protagonist
hero/main character of the story
Antagonist
Character against the protagonist
Static character
doesn’t change
Dynamic
character that changes over time
flat
“one note” few sides
Rounded
Complex, 3D, many sides of people
Omniscient narrator
3rd person, knows everything, sees into the minds of all characters
Limited omniscient narrator
3rd person, enter the mind of 1 or 2 characters
Objective narrator
3rd person, detached perspective, report what can be seen or heard, bystander, doesn’t have any judgment.
1st person narrator
participant of the story, unreliable (children or older people, convince us of stg, speaks to you)
Setting
time and place
Atmosphere
mood of the story, it fosters the reader’s expectations
tone
author’s attitude towards his subject
voice
The way the author uses the narrator’s voice in a certain style (comedy, drama, irony, tragedy, serious
style
The way a writer uses language (plain, ornate, colloquial, formal) (irony, heavy reliance on adjectives, metaphors)
Diction
author’s choice of words
Archetypes
recurring characters (universal, ex: hero, symbol of a rose=love), events, symbols
Theme
Unifying idea that runs through the story
Moral
Unitary, singular, and directed at personal behaviour or belief
Formalist
all elements tied in one theme
Post-structuralists
Multiplicity of themes or readings
Different types of characterization
1- direct : telling
2- indirect : showing
Parallels
can be made between 2 characters
Poetic justice
good and virtuous: rewarded
Bad and vicious: punished
Unity of effect
A story is so short that every word and details are important to create an effect on the reader
Frame narrative
A story within a story
Short story
Reading that can be done in one sitting
Precursors of the short story
Chaucer (Canterbury tales)
Boccaccio (The Decameron)
satire
Irony
Narrative tension
The suspense of not knowing what happens next in the story. It’s what sustains the reader’s interest and keeps them reading
Allegory
The story has a second meaning (extended metaphor)
Imagery
Visually descriptive or figurative language in a literary work
Metaphor
Comparison between 2 things
Simile
Comparison between 2 things with the words: like, as, such as
Symbol
Object that represents stg else
Foreshadowing
Indications/clues that indicates of a future event
literary allusion
Reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work of art in another work of literature
Epiphany
Flash of insight, lightbulb moment
Verbal irony
“sarcasm” use of words
Situational irony
Event or situation opposite of what you expect
Dramatic irony
Readers know stg that the character does not
Structural irony
The outcome of a situation is contrary to what is expected or intended
Locus amoenus
An idyllic place/landscape
Quiet, comfortable
Synecdoche
a part to represent a whole
Coming-of-age/Bildungsroman
Growth of the protagonist child to an adult
Spiritual growing
Modernism
Quest motif
Hero embarks on an adventure to achieve a specific goal, often facing challenges and obstacles on his way
Archetype
Type that is embodied by the character is experienced as universal truth
Stereotypical
type is borrowed directly from everyday life and repeats certain lazy and inaccurate habits of generalization
Hero’s journey
-call: hero summoned to go on a quest
-Difficulties along the way
-treasure
-transformation of a hero
Separation-initiation-return
Romanticism
Perrault, Grimms, Irving, Hawthorne, Poe
-Sublime, emotion, nature
-individual vs society
Realism
-James, Crane, Bierce
-represents life as it already is
-ordinary/low-life characters
Human behaviour: determined by heredity and/or environment
Naturalism
-Freud, Marx, Darwin, Comte
-emphasis on harsh aspects of life
-determinism
-human behaviour: forces beyond their control (nature, heredity, social forces)
-pessimism about human behaviour
-low socio-economical characters
Modernism
-After WW1
-Woolf, Joyce, Darwin, Marx, Freud
-Make it new
-rejection of conventional+ traditional institutions
-Stream of consciousness
-shift of povs
-open endings
-hedonism, cynical, despair
-absence of plot
-writes about nothing
Post-modernism
-After WWII
-Literature: absurd, antihero, antinovel, beat writers, concrete poetry, metafiction, new novel
Impressionism
Subjective/highly personal style of writing
colour, light and movement
Contribution of Poe
Unity of effect, invention of science fiction
Contribution of Virginia Woolf
Writes about small things
Stream of consciousness (interior monologue)
Contributions of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Uses older material in a new way + uses conventions in more effective way s or went beyond them
Contribution of Ambrose Bierce
Realist approach + romantic passages
Another word to say: story
Narrative
Twist
Unexpected development/ending
Pathetic Fallacy
Attribution of human emotion to inanimate objects, nature or animals (Ex: The Painted Door: “angry little snakes of snow”)
Georgic Literature
rural, farm topics (Ex. The Painted Door: “There’ll be chores for me to do”)
Ghost story genre
-Contain supernatural, ghost element, include fear, someone who does not believe
-Ominous setting: hidden rooms, sounds and mysterious stains = the strange and sinister
-Back story (reason for the ghost to be present)
-Fine balance between psychological and the spectral
-Blurring between reality and madness or projection
-Atmosphere: the mood + resonance, sounds, scents + tense awareness = anything could happen
(Ex: The Demon Lover by Elizabeth Bowen)
Types of Imagery (8) (The demon Lover, Studies in the Park)
- Visual (sight)
- Auditory (hearing)
- Olfactory (smell)
- Tactile (touch)
- Gustatory (taste)
- Abstract or conceptual (appeals to the intellect)
- Kinetic (of or related to the motion of bodies)
- Kinaesthetic (pertaining to feeling or imagining the sense of movement/or the making of motion
Irony: Verbal
use of words to express the opposite of the literal meaning. Depends on knowledge of the fictional speaker’s ironic intention, which is shared both by speaker + reader
Situational Irony
event or situation = reverse of what is expected
Structural Irony
depends on a knowledge of the author’s ironic intention, which is shared by the reader but is not intended by the fictional speaker.
Dramatic Irony
the audience or reader shares with the author knowledge of present or future circumstances of which the character is ignorant.
Synaesthesia
a blending or confusion of different kinds of sense impressions. Ex: loud colours, bitter cold, sweet sound. (Ex: The Demon Lover, Studies in The Park)
Postcolonial Literature (Studies in the Park by Anita Desai, Vengeful creditor by Chinua Achebe
-Voice of people that were once colonized by Europeans powers and marginalized
-Authors have anti-colonial pushback navigate between tradition and modernity
Post-colonialism + Post-modernism
-Desire to break taboos
-Desire to tell stories/experiences
-Marginalized people
-Those in the center = power
-Those on the margin’s borders (periphery) = marginalized + lack power
Archetype
symbol, theme, setting or character type that recurs in different times and places in myth, literature and folklore as to suggest that it embodies elements of universal human experience.
Trickster Character
-Archetype character
-Complex character type known for trickery, buffoonery, and crude behavior.
-Creator, culture hero and teacher
-Both protagonist + antagonist
-Dichotomy of good and evil
-“Coyote is a very popular figure, playing his role of scheming, self-seeking trickster, stirring up trouble, testing and violating moral precepts. He provides a vicarious escape from social restrictions—that is, until his usual come-uppance for such outrageous misbehavior reinforces them.”
Biculturalism
Coexistence of two dominant cultures in a society/country/region
Multiculturalism
Coexistence of culturally diverse population
Marginalization
The act of treating someone or stg as if they are not important
Assimilation
The process of taking and fully understanding it its culture and religion to assimilate them to a dominant culture.
Motif
Situation, idea, image, incident found in many different literary works elaborated into general theme (can occur many times) (How to Pronounce Knife, Simple Recipes)
Symbol
has a literal meaning and an abstract meaning (might occur once to have impact)
Allusion
A reference made to something that is not directly mentioned
Self-reflexive
Magic realism
Realistic narrative combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy (Messages in Bottles by Heather O’Neill)
Metafiction
-The “point” of the novel or story is about the process of making fiction
-calls attention to the arbitrariness and artificiality of fictional constructions
Post-modernism (1945 (Europe) or 1960 (N-A))
-Satire, parody, jokes, black humor often dominate the tone of a work of fiction
-Social/scientific progress is rejected
-Individual: random collection or collage of miscellaneous pieces of the external culture (Simple Recipes, How to pronounce Knife)
-Aspects of present culture, fantastic combination (ancient myths + cartoons)
-Objective reality: Inseparable boundaries between reality and illusion
