Colonial and Early National Period
- Antithesis- Using strongly contrasting words, images, or ideas
- ex: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country." (Inaugural Address, John F. Kennedy)
- Aphorisms- short sayings with a message
- ex: "Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them" (Poor Richard's Almanac)
- Apostrophe- a figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses a person who is dead or not physically present, a personified object or non-human thing, or an abstract idea
- ex: "tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered" (The Crisis by Thomas Jefferson)
- Autobiography- A writing that presents life events as the author sees them
- ex: The Autobiography Benjamin Franklin
- Conceit- extended metaphor, consistent throughout the text
- ex: Edward Taylor uses conceit in his writing Huswifery by comparing the household task of making cloth with the gift of God's salvation
- Diction- the choice and arrangement of words
- ex: Olaudah Equiano uses specific diction like shriek and groan in order to capture the emotion of his readers
- Ethos- appeal to credibility
- ex: Olaudah Equiano was a credible source to hear from about the Middle Passage because he was a slave who endured the journey (The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano)
- Exploration Narratives- firsthand accounts of Europeans who trailblazed the Americas
- ex: A Journey Through Texas by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
- Journal- an individual’s day by day account of events
- ex: Civil War by Mary Chestnut
- Logos- appeal to logic
- ex: Olaudah Equiano explains the arrogance of mistreating a slave as they are a slave traders profit and will not sell for as much if they are not taken care of properly (The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano)
- Narrative accounts- accounts that tell the story of real life events
- ex: Boulders Taller Than the Great Tower of Seville by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas
- Oral Tradition- stories spoken aloud rather than committed to paper that captured a group's ideals, values, concerns, and history
- ex: The Navajo Origin Legend by the Navajo Tribe
- Oratory- a formal public speaking
- ex: Speech in the Virginia Convention by Patrick Henry
- Origin Myths- Myths and traditional stories passed down from generation to generation that explained how life began
- ex. The Earth on Turtle's Back by the Onondaga Tribe
- Parallelism- repeating grammatical structures
- ex: "That it waits, that it was fittest" (Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman)
- Pathos- appeal to emotion
- ex: Olaudah Equiano uses diction such as shrieks and groans in his narrative to better play off of his reader's emotions (The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano)
- Persuasion- a writing or speech meant to get readers or listeners to think or act in a certain way
- ex: The Crisis by Thomas Paine was an essay used to persuade people to join the Revolutionary War
- Point of view- attitudes about the topic or audience; The mode of narration that an author uses in a story
- ex: The point of view of An Episode of War by Stephen Crane is limited Third Person
- Puritan Plain Style- a type of writing in which uncomplicated sentences and ordinary words are used to make simple, direct statement
- ex: " If ever two were one, then surely we," (To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet)
- Repetition- restating an idea using the same words
- ex: "The war is inevitable- and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!" (Speech in the Virginia Convention by Patrick Henry)
- Restatement- repeating an idea in a variety of ways
- ex: "But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate- we can not consecrate- we can not hallow- this ground" (The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln)
- Rhetoric- the study of effective speaking and writing
- Rhetoric is used in many persuasive speeches such as Speech in the Virginia Convention by Patrick Henry
- Rhetorical Appeals- Logos, Pathos, and Ethos
- These appeals are found in persuasive writings like The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano
- Rhetorical Question- asking a question whose answer is self-evident
- ex: "For such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?" (Speech in the Convention by Benjamin Franklin)
- Sermon- a speech that has a definite point of view and is given from a pulpit in a house of worship
- ex: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Johnathan Edwards is a sermon
- Signal words- words that highlight the relationships among ideas
- Nevertheless= contrast, until= time, and because= reason
- Slave Narrative- an autobiographical account of life as a slave often written to expose the horrors of human bondage
- ex: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano is a slave narrative describing the Middle Passage
- Style: the manner in which a writer puts his or her thoughts into words
- ex: Cabeza de Vaca's travel narrative A Journey Through Texas uses descry ptive details. In Contrast Lopez de Cardenas' narrative Boulders Taller Than the Great Tower of Seville avoids description but gives a detailed explanation of events
- Tabula Rasa- blank slate; the belief that everyone is born without sin instead automatically having a sin nature
- Benjamin Franklin shows that he believed in tabula rasa in his autobiography as he thought he could create a plan to become a perfect man. (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin)
- Benjamin Franklin shows that he believed in tabula rasa in his autobiography as he thought he could create a plan to become a perfect man. (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin)
The Romantic Period
- Allegory: a story with both a literal and symbolic meaning
- Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
- Alliteration- a number of words with the same beginning consonant sound occurring in a close series
- ex: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." The 'p' sound is repeated
- Archetype-symbols that appear in the literature of many different cultures (universal symbol)
- ex: The color red represents death or the color white represents peace or purity
- Assonance- a number of words repeating the same vowel sounds but do not rhyme
- ex: "Men sell the wedding bells." The short 'e' sound is repeated
- Consonance- a number of words repeating the same consonant sounds that are not at the beginning of the word
- ex: "Pitter patter." The 'tt" sound is repeated
- Direct Characterization- When the personality of a character is directly revealed in the story by the narrator by using descriptive details
- ex: "..., there lived near this place a meager miserly fellow of the name Tom Walker" (The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving). The text directly reveals that Tom is meager and miserly
- Doppleganger- "Double-goer"
- ex: In The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, it is inferred that there is a dual nature of man, reason and emotion
- Dramatic Poetry- a poem that uses techniques of drama to present the speech of one or more characters
- ex: The Dungeon by William Wordsworth
- Free verse: a poem with irregular meter and line length
- We passed the School, where Children strove/ At Recess- in the Ring-/ We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain-/We passed the Setting Sun (Because I Could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson)
- Indirect Characterization- When a character's personality is revealed through their speech and actions
- ex: "Let us get hold of the property," said he, consoling himself, "and we will endeavor without the woman (Tom's wife)." (The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving) It is clear in this line that Tom did not care for his wife but only for his possesions
- Juxtaposition- an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast
- ex: "Cultivate poverty" (Walden by Henry David Thoreau). Thoreau doesn't want poverty to grow but to have America return to its simplistic ways of life before all of the new technology of the era
- Lyrical Poem- a poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker
- ex: I Felt a Funeral In My Brain by Emily Dickinson
- Narrative Poem- a poem that tells a story
- ex: The Odyssey by Homer
- Oximoron- a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
- ex: "Clearly misunderstood"
- Personification- When a nonhuman object is given human abilities
- ex: "Because I could not stop for Death- He kindly stopped for me" (Because I could not stop for Death By Emily Dickinson). Here death is being personified
- Rhyme- When a number of words have corresponding ending sounds
- ex: "bug and hug
- Singular effect: Writing constructed to achieve a particular effect. Every character, incident, and detail contributes to an overall impression
- "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens..." (The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe) Poe uses diction to put a gloomy and dull effect on his writing.
- Slant Rhyme- a number of words with similar but not identical rhyme
- ex: "stain and again"
- Symbol: something has meaning in and of itself and also stands for something else
- ex: a dove symbolizes peace and purity
- Theme: a central message or insight revealed by a literary work
- ex: The theme of The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving is t refrain from the love of money.
Realism and Naturalism
- Climax- the high point of interest/ tension in a story
- ex: The climax in The Story of an Hour occurs when the couple gives one another their presents
- Conflict- the struggle between two opposing forces, can take two forms: internal and external
- ex: in To Build a Fire, the main character has an external conflict with nature
- Dramatic irony- a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader knows to be true
- ex: in to Build a Fire, when the man feels warm, the readers know that he is beginning to get hypothermia
- Humor- writing meant to evoke laughter
- ex: The life on the Mississippi
- Irony- involves discrepancy between what is stated and what is meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens
- ex: in To Build a Fire, it is ironic that it is a lot colder outside than what he thinks
- Objective account- presents facts rather than opinions
- ex: Mary Chestnut's Civil War
- Primary Sources- firsthand accounts of specific historical periods or events, written by eyewitnesses or participants
- ex: Mary Chestnut's Civil War
- Realism- the literary movement that developed towards the end of the Civil War and stressed the actual (reality) as opposed to imagined or fanciful
- ex: stories such as
- Refrain- a word, phrase, line, or group of lines repeated at regular intervals throughout the work
- ex: In the spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," the phrase " Coming for to carry me home," is a refrain
- Regional Dialect: language specific to a particular area of the country
- ex: Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi
- Regionalism- a literary movement in which writers attempt to depict and analyze the distinctive and unique qualities of a geographical area of its people
- ex: The Outcasts of Poker Flat
- Situational: occurs when something happen that contradicts our expectations
- Ex.) surprise ending
- Spirituals: Folk songs developed by enslaved Africans that often feature Biblical references and a call-and-response format. Contained bot social and religious content
- ex: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
- subjective account- accounts that may include facts, but also presents the writer's opinions, feelings, and judgements
- ex: Reverend Henry M. Turner's Reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation
- Verbal irony- occurs when someone says something that deliberately contradicts what the person actually means.
- ex: sarcasm
Modernism
- Allusion- references to historical or literary events that hold meanng to the story
- ex: in The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock Eliot references Michelangelo, a famous Italian artist and sculptor
- Anticlimax- when something is unexpectedly disappointing, ridiculous, or trivial
- ex: In the novel Harry Potter when the author made everyone think that Harry was dead and that Voldemort won
- Blank Verse- verse consisting of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter
- Birches by Robert Frost
- Dramatic Monologue- a poem or speech in which a character addresses a silent listener
- ex: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
- Images- words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses
- ex: "A poem should be palpable and mute/ As a globed fruit"
- Informal essays- brief notification pieces characterized by a relaxed, conversational style and structure
- ex: The Night the Ghost Got In
- Narrator- person telling the story
- ex: scout is the narrator in To Kill a Mockingbird
- Paraphrase- to identify key words and and restate them in your own words
- ex:"I, too, dislike poetry," ->>> "I don't like poetry either"
- Pastorals- poems that deal with rural settings
- ex: Birches by Robert Frost
- Satire- a writing that ridicules the faults of individuals, groups, institutions, or even humanity in general
- ex: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Social Context- the attitudes and customs of the culture In which the writer lived
- ex: Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
- Speaker- the voice of a poem
- ex: Langston Hughes is usually the voice in most of his poems
- Stream of consciousness- when authors try to capture the natural flow of thought
- ex: we see this in the story An Occurrence at Owl Creek
Post Modernism
- Anecdote- a short account of an amusing or interesting event
- ex: in Mint Snowball, the narrator recalls his lost mint snowball
- Epiphany- a moment when a character has a flash of insight that may alter the nature of the conflict without resolving it
- ex: in The First Seven Years, Feld has an epiphany about Sobel and his daughter
- Foreshadowing- the use of details or clues that hint at what will occur later in a plot or suggest a certain outcome
- ex: In The First Seven Years, the first foreshadowing clue was when Sobel broke one of Feld's machines after he had just gotten done talking to Max about dating his daughter
- Grotesque character- one who has become bizarre or twisted, usually through some kind of obsession
- ex: Mayella Ewell in To Kill A Mockingbird
- Memoir- first person non-fiction narratives that recount historically or personally significant events in which the writer was a participant or an eyewitness
- ex: The Woman Warrior is Maxine Hong Kingston's memoir
- Rites of passage- events that mark personal transitions that have cultural significance
- ex: in The Names, Momaday writes about a unique experience that changed his life
- suspense- a feeling of growing uncertainty about the outcome of events in a literary events
- ex: There was great suspense in The House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
- visualize- forming a mental image of what you are reading
- ex: the narrator of Aliceville uses words that helps paint a picture of his family, town, and nature