Literary+Concepts+and+terms

WHAT IS STYLE? Style is the combination of literary techniques a writer uses to communicate his or her substance **. ** =** **=

*Remember to look for the change in tone. Always mention the tone shift when discussing poetry or prose. Recognize irony! ** Some Very Basic Options For Describing Tone ** :

 * Authoritative: Commanding
 * Emotive: Emotional - pathos
 * Pathos: Emotional - makes the reader feel
 * Didactic: Instructional - preachy
 * Objective: unattached - removed from the piece
 * Ornate: highly descriptive - intricate
 * Scholarly: neutral - authoritative - analytical
 * Plain: General - basic- bland
 * Scientific: analytical - professional

**Diction**: Word Choice --- *never say the author uses diction... of course they use word choice....
Terms to use:
 * archaic language- traditional
 * formal language - Reserved serious - prose/poetry/scholarly writing (strange "Domby and son")
 * colloquial language - slang - low level - can create a mood, can capture setting ex: slang from the deep south helps create the setting
 * ambiguous language - vague - uncertainties of the authors intentions
 * inflated language - scholarly verbose, typically when we see inflated language we see a simple subject --- irony
 * satirical language - makes fun of things often political - is not didactic- attacking a human vice - implies a moral judgment "a modest proposal"- Jonathan swift
 * effusive language - overflowing - gushing - emotional speech, sentimental

**Selection of Detail what the author chooses to mention - or not to mention**

 * verisimilitude: a perception of the truth

**Imagery**

 * (also called "selection of detail")**
 * auditory: we hear: Auditory imagery is a form of mental imagery that is used to organize and analyze sounds when there is no external auditory stimulus present.
 * visual: we see
 * gustatory: describing the taste
 * tactile: we can touch
 * olfactory: we smell
 * kinetic: we move
 * organic: raw/natural
 * dark and light:
 * juxtaposed:

**Figurative Language**:

 * metaphor: comparison comparing something we cannot understand to something we can understand
 * simile: comparison using like, as, than, or resembles
 * hyperbole: typically it illuminates a human truth through over exaggeration
 * understatement: it illuminates a human truth through saying less than the situation wants
 * personification: giving human qualities to non human things
 * synecdoche - metonymy: the use of part to refer to the whole (all hands on deck - not just hands, whole people)
 * paradox (oxymoron): juxtaposing two things that appear to be contradictory (jumbo shrimp, only choice, a dry fraternity)
 * apostrophe: when you address something non living (O sweet chocolate, how I love thee)

**Point of View**:

 * First Person: I, narrative pieces, limited knowledge on story, one point of view
 * Second Person (Beginning of ATKM)
 * Third Person: told by an objective party -removed
 * Omniscient: narrator god like, knowing everything about everyone
 * Stream of Consciousness: all over the place - everything that's going on in the writers mind is included - very modern
 * Alternating: pov switches
 * Narrator Reliability:

**Organization** (including use of time):

 * narrative structure:
 * flashback:
 * framed story:
 * formal:
 * informal:
 * sonnet form__s__: sonnet Petrach( 8 presents the problem / 6 presents the solution) Shakespearean English (14 lines meaning in rhymed couplet at the end
 * 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
 * villanelle: cycle- repetition-

**IRONY: A discrepancy between appearance and reality: a difference between what you think will happen and what happens THINK JIP (Juxtaposition, Irony, Paradox) **

 * Verbal Irony: A character saying something different from what he means, speech is not always meant to be taken literally. be on the look out for underlying truth (ex parenthetical thought gives real meaning juxtaposing what the speaker is saying)
 * "(write it)"
 * Situational Irony: what you thought would happen doesn't
 * think my sisters keeper the daughter wins the law suit - dies in car crash and ends up giving organs anyway
 * Dramatic Irony: When the reader knows more then the character
 * Oxymoron: Deafening silence, alone in a crowded room, jumbo shrimp
 * Paradox: we live in what kills us.
 * Julia in the deep (we live in what kills us
 * Juxtaposition: Opposing views - compare and contrast

**Sound** (or musicality descriptors):
(Try not say “flowing.”)
 * euphony: pleasant peaceful sounds
 * cacophony: harsh discordant sounds
 * smooth diction: without disruption
 * harsh diction: dark descriptions

**Sound Devices**:

 * alliteration:
 * consonance:
 * assonance:
 * onomatopoeia:

**Rhyme:**
**Is it free verse?**
 * formal:
 * informal:
 * traditional:
 * unconventional:
 * absence of:

**Meter:**
**Is it free verse?**
 * formal:
 * informal:
 * traditional:
 * unconventional:
 * absence of:

**Allusion:**

 * historical:
 * literary:
 * Biblical:
 * mythological:
 * Also, within the Greek tragic tradition be aware of ideas such as: **
 * ** dramatic unity: **
 * ** hubris: **
 * ** catharsis: **
 * Shakespearean:
 * pop:

**Repetition**

 * words
 * images
 * structural
 * grammatical
 * rhetorical (i.e. anaphora, etc.)

**Sentence Types**

 * loose:
 * periodic:
 * parallel:

=**WHAT IS SUBSTANCE?**=
 * Substance is the meaning or theme of a work. Substance is the "significance" that you are //"So Whatting."// Substance is made more powerful by connecting to the universal or archetypal. **

**Universal/Archetypal Characters:**

 * =Epic Hero: HARRY POTTER =
 * on a quest, goes through spiritual awakening
 * Tragic Hero: Fatal flaw hero brings about his own down fall- due to hubris(pride)
 * Byronic Hero: Rochester from Jane Eyre batman
 * AntiHero:
 * Outcast: typically has the value
 * Scapegoat:
 * Stranger in the Village:

**Universal/Archetypal Women:**

 * earth mother: nurturing
 * temptress: seductive, sexual, downfall of hero,
 * soul-mate: romantic union
 * platonic ideal: based on the virgin mary - non sexual
 * maiden: young virgin
 * mother: caring
 * crone: witch associated with evil and darkness

** Universal/Archetypal Images: **

 * Colors: red = passion, black = evil death, white = purity, water = rebirth redemption
 * Numbers:
 * Water:
 * Yin and Yang (Juxtaposition): Light and Dark: Knowledge and Ignorance
 * Nature and Garden innocence beauty fertility paradise
 * Tree

**Universal/Archetypal Plots:**

 * Coming-of-Age (//Bildungsroman//):
 * Mistaken Identity/Farce:
 * Renewal of Life:
 * Quest/Journey:
 * Spiritual epiphany:

**Novel types:**

 * Bildungsroman:
 * Dystopian:
 * Utopian:
 * Epistolary:
 * Gothic:
 * Historical:
 * Novella:
 * Novel of manners:
 * Social novel:

**GENDER, RACE, AND CLASS AS CONTEMPORARY "OUTCAST" THEMES**

 * Issues of Gender:
 * Issues of Race:
 * Issues of Class:
 * Other Important Themes:**
 * ===Love: drives the characters actions in poems and novels===


 * ===Religion: used to comfort or oppress===


 * ===Mortality: we live to die you are closer to death today than you have ever been before===


 * ===Reality:===


 * ===Sanity:===


 * ===//Carpe Diem//: renaissance seize the day - male perspective - beauty is fleeting - do it now while young===


 * ===Pastoral: idyllic imagery nature renews us makes us young===

**Exploring Literary "Substance" Through Philosophical Thought**

 * Romanticism (vs. Classicism vs. Realism):
 * Realism:
 * Modern Realism:
 * Magical Realism:
 * Gothicism:
 * Modernism:
 * Postmodernism:
 * Existentialism:
 * Absurdism:
 * Feminism:

**Literary Theories Of Which College Board Readers Are Aware**

 * Feminist:
 * Psychoanalytic:
 * Marxist:
 * New Historicism:
 * Formalism:
 * Reader-Response:

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