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71 Cards in this Set
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Villanelle
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A 19-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. Made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The 1st and 3rd lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem's two concluding lines.
"Do not go gentle into that good night" - Dylan Thomas |
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Ballad
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A short narrative poem, often written by an anon. author, made up of short verses intended to be sung or recited.
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Elegy
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A poem mourning a death or other great loss.
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Epic
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A long narrative poem detailing a hero's deeds.
"The Aeneid" - Virgil "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" - Homer "Beowulf" "Don Quixote" - Cervantes "War and Peace" - Tolstoy |
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Haiku
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A type of Japanese poetry that is written in 17 syllables with three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, respectively. Presents a clear picture designed to arouse a distinct emotion. Usually, clues in the poem suggest a season and spiritual insight.
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Limerick
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A humorous verse form of five anapestic lines with a rhyme scheme of aabba.
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Lyric
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A short poem expressing personal feelings and emotions.
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Sonnet
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A 14-line poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, with a varied rhyme scheme. Two types: Petrarchan, Shakespearean.
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Petrarchan Sonnet
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A sonnet that opens with an octave that states a proposition and ends with a sestet that states the solution.
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Shakespearean Sonnet
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A sonnet that includes three quatrains and a couplet.
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Stanza
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A division of poetry named for the number of lines it contains.
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Types of Stanzas:
Couplet Triplet (Tercet) Quatrain Quintet Sestet Septet Octave |
2-line stanza
3-line stanza 4-line stanza 5-line stanza 6-line stanza 7-line stanza 8-line stanza |
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Prose
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Refers to all forms of written or spoken expression that does not have a regular rhythmic pattern. Excludes: poetry, lists, directions, etc.
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Fable
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A short, often humorous, tale intended to teach a moral, or lesson, about human behavior or to give advice about how to behave. The moral might be expressed explicitly at the end, or it may be left up to the reader to infer. Usually features animal characters.
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Fairy Tale
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A type of folktale that often features supernatural elements, such as magic, witches, goblins, and fairies. Many fairy tales begin with the phrase "Once upon a time..."
"Cinderella," "Rapunzel," "Little Red Riding Hood" |
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Fantasy
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A literary work that is set in an unreal world and often includes incredible characters and events.
"The Lord of the Rings," "The Chronicles of Narnia," "Gulliver's Travels" |
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Folktale
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A anon. traditional story passed down orally long before it is written down.
"The People Could Fly" retold by Virginia Hamilton, "Brer Rabbit Tricks Brer Fox Again," "The Arabian Nights" |
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Frame Story
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A story that surrounds another story or that serves to link several stories together. The frame precedes and follows the main, more important story.
"Heart of Darkness" - Joseph Conrad "The Canterbury Tales" - Chaucer |
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Historical Fiction
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Narrative fiction that sets characters against the backdrop of an earlier time and often includes historically authentic people, places, or events.
"Lincoln" - Gore Vidal |
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Horror
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Fiction that is intended to scare, horrify, or unsettle the reader. Elements of fantasy and science fiction might be incorporated into this genre.
"Frankenstein" - Shelley "Dracula" - Stoker |
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Legend
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A traditional story handed down from the past, based on truth and tending to become exaggerated over time.
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" - Irving "Le Morte d'Arthur" - Sir Thomas Mallory |
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Mystery
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A suspenseful story in which the characters are involved in solving a puzzling crime.
"The Purloined Letter" - Poe "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" - Doyle |
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Myth
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Narrative fiction involving gods and heroes or having a theme that expresses a culture's ideology.
Greek - "Pygmalion and Galatea," "Narcissus," "Pandora's Box" Found in nearly every culture. |
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Novel
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A book-length fictional narrative that typically has a plot, characters, setting, P.O.V., and theme.
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Novella
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A short narrative usually less than 100 pages in length (novellette).
"Daisy Miller" - Henry James "Of Mice and Men" - John Steinbeck |
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Parable
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A brief, simple story in prose or verse that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. Unlike a fable it does not include anthropomorphized animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature.
"The Parable of the Good Samaritan" - New Testament |
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Parody
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A humorous imitation of a literary work that mocks the work by pointing out its shortcomings. Hamlet's love letters to Ophelia are parodies of Renaissance love poetry.
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Romance
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A long narrative work about the adventures and love affairs of idealized heroes who are far removed from everyday life. Examples: stories about King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida"
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Satire
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Writing that comments, sometimes humorously, on social conventions or conditions, usually with a purpose of causing change.
"A Modest Proposal" - Swift "Huckleberry Finn" "The Devil's Dictionary" - Ambrose Bierce |
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Science Fiction
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Fiction that deals with the impact on society of current or future scientific and technological developments.
"Dune" - Frank Herbert "The Left Hand of Darkness" - Ursula K. Le Guin "The Martian Chronicles" - Bradbury |
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Short Story
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A brief fictional narrative that usually includes the following elements: characters, setting, plot, P.O.V., theme.
"A Rose for Emily" - William Faulkner "The Gift of the Magi" - O. Henry "The Tell-Tale Heart" - Poe |
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Western
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A novel featuring the experiences of cowboys and frontiersmen in the western U.S..
"How the West Was Won" - Louis L'Amour "The Luck of Roaring Camp" - Bret Harte |
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Tragedy
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A play in which the main character suffers a downfall. That character is typically of heroic or dignified stature and has a tragic flaw that leads to the downfall.
"Hamlet" |
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Autobiography
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A person's account of his or her own life.
"Up From Slavery" - Booker T. Washington |
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Biography
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An account of a person's life written by another person.
"Abe Lincoln Grows Up" - Carl Sandberg |
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Document
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An eloquently written expository piece that becomes part of the recognized lit. of an era. Often reveal facts, details about the culture, and the personality of the author. Letter, diary, or journal.
Anne Frank's Diary |
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Essay
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A short piece of nonfiction on any topic. Can be formal or informal.
"Self-Reliance" - Emerson "Notes on Camp" - Susan Sontag "The Death of the Moth" - Virginia Woolf |
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Contemporary American Literature
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American Lit.
1970-Present Typical characteristics of the period include reality-based stories with strong characters and a believable story. "The Color Purple" - Alice Walker "Cold Mountain" - Charles Frazier "Breathing Lessons" - Anne Tyler |
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Greek Classical and Hellenistic Periods
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8th to 2nd centuries BC
Dinstinctive for its balance, order, and reasonableness. "The Odyssey" - Homer "Antigone" - Sophocles "The Birds" - Aristophanes |
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Roman Classical Period
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1st century BC to 5th century AD
Influenced by classical Greek lit., this literary period primarily focused on politics and propaganda. Some say it stifled creativity for its people. Cicero's letters to Atticus, Brutus, Quintus, and others "The Aeneid" - Virgil "Parallel Lives" - Plutard |
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Renaissance
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13th to 15th centuries
A period during which learning and the arts flourished in Europe. "The Divine Comedy" - Dante "Canterbury Tales" - Chaucer "Le Morte d'Arthur" - Mallory |
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French Neoclassical Period
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French Lit.
17th century Chiefly concerned with observing the subtleties of human behavior. Works from this period display qualities that have become permanently identified with the best French writing: wit, sophistication, imagination, and delight in debate. "Berenice" - Jean Racine "Tartuffe" - Moliere "Adaris" - Jean de la Fontaine |
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English Neoclassical Period
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English Lit.
17th and 18th centuries Emphasized on order and reason, on restraint, on common sense, and on religious, political, economic and philosophical conservatism. They maintained that man himself was the most appropriate subject of art, and saw art itself as essentially pragmatic — as valuable because it was somehow useful — and as something which was properly intellectual rather than emotional. "Absolom and Architophel" - John Dryden "Gulliver's Travels" - Swift "The Dunciad" - Alexander Pope |
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German Neoclassical Period
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German Lit.
18th and 19th centuries Similar to other neoclassical periods. This period made way for the romantic period to spread through Europe. "Zur Geschichte und Literature" (On History and Literature) - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing "William Tell" - Friedrich von Schiller "The Sorrows of Young Werther" - J.W. von Goethe |
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Old English Period
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British Lit.
450 - 1066 Otherwise known as Anglo-Saxon, it is a West Germanic language used in very early Scotland and England. Very few pieces of literature survived this period. Beowulf is an epic poem about a hero who tries to save his people from a monster and its mother. "Beowulf" |
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Middle English Period
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British Lit.
1066 - 1550 Often includes romantic, religious, and Arthurian literature, though Chaucer wrote outside of these types. "Canterbury Tales" "Utopia"- Thomas More The morality play "Everyman" |
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Elizabethan Period
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British Lit.
1550 - 1625 An extremely creative time in England, this period mostly uses romance within its literature. Drama was also very common of the time, which entertained the masses. "King Lear" and "The Twelfth Night" "Doctor Faustus" - Marlowe "Epithalamian" - Spencer |
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Puritan Period
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British Lit.
1625 - 1660 Very similar to American Puritan literature, and in fact the precursor to American Puritanism. It was very serious, every event had a double (religious) meaning, and the authors tried to stay true to their writing. "Areopagitica" - John Milton "Life of Donne" - Izaak Walton "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" - John Milton |
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Nationalist Period
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American Lit.
1828 - 1836 Imagination and creativity began to emerge in America. Slave narratives were also being published with increasing frequency. "Leatherstocking Tales" - James Fenimore Cooper "The Raven" and other poems - Poe "Nature" - Emerson |
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Colonial Period
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American Lit.
1630 - 1760 Created to inform people about colonial life, religious disputes and settlement issues. Many of the characteristics of this literature can be found in the poems, journals, letters, narratives, histories, and teaching materials written by settlers, religious figures, and historical icons of the period. "History of Plymouth Plantation" - William Bradford "The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in American" - Anne Bradstreet |
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Revolutionary Period
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American Lit.
1760 -1787 Characteristics are often portrayed through historical references, cultural ideals, and social interpretations of events. It also varies, depending on which part of the country it is set or originates in. The Declaration of Independence "Common Sense" - Thomas Paine "Letters from an American Farmer" - Jean de Crevecoeur |
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British Modernism
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British Lit.
1900 - 1945 Experimentation and individualism became virtues, where in the past they were often heartily discouraged. This period was set in motion by World War I. "Cathleen in Houlihan" - W.B. Yeats "To the Lighthouse" - Woolf "Of Human Bondage" - W. Somerset Maugham |
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British Postmodernism
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British Lit.
1945-1970 Came about around the end of WWII. The characteristics are the same as modernism except it is more playful or celebratory regarding the world's "insanity." "The Waste Land" - Elliot "The End of the Affair" - Greene "Under Milk Wood" - Thomas |
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Victorian Period
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British Lit.
1840 - 1900 These novels tend to be idealised portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably punished. They tended to be of an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart. "A Christmas Carol" - Dickens "Adam Bede" - George Elliot "Jude the Obscure" - Thomas Hardy |
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British Neoclassical Period
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British Lit.
1660 - 1780 Very similar to the English Neoclassical Period. "Diary" - Samuel Pepys "The Hind and the Panther" - John Dryden "Journal to Stella" - Swift |
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Romantic Period
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British Lit.
1780 - 1840 This period focused on the beauty of the supernatural, the championing of the individual, the importance of nature, and the dangers of technology. "Song of Innocence" - William Blake "The Lady of the Lake" - Sir Walter Scott "Sense and Sensibility" - Austen |
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American Renaissance Period
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American Lit.
1830 - 1860 Also considered the Romantic Period in American literature. American authors first appear on world stage as equals or near-equals to European writers. Many authors experiment in style and develop themes important to American identity and expression "Moby-Dick" - Melville "Walden" - Thoreau "Oh Captain, My Captain!" - Whitman |
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American Modern Period
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American Lit.
1900 -1950 A trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. "The Call of the Wild" - London "The House of Mirth" - Edith Wharton "The Sun Also Rises" - Hemingway |
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American Postmodern Period
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American Lit.
1950 - 1970 A literary movement of post-1950s, a time marked by the cold war and the excesses of consumption. Characterized by an attempt to establish transhistorical or transcultural validity, it claims that search for reality is pointless, as the "real" is conditioned by time, place, race, class, gender, and sexuality. "The Naked and the Dead" - Mailer "Death of a Salesman" - Miller "On the Road" - Kerouac |
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Comic Play
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Designed to be humorous. Filled with witty remarks, unusual characters, and strange circumstances.
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" |
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Farce Play
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A generally nonsensical play. Overacted and inculdes slapstick.
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Satirical Play
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A play that takes a comic look at current events, attempting to make a statement.
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Tragic Play
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Contains darker themes such as death and disaster. Protagonist has a tragic flaw, which leads to their downfall.
"Hamlet" |
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Historical Play
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Focuses on actual historical events. Can be tragedies or comedies.
"King John" - Shakespeare |
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Common Features of Young Adult Lit.
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Should reflect young adults' age and development by addressing their reading abilities , thinking levels, and interest levels. Deals with contemporary issues - parents, facing illness and death, peer pressure, addiction, and pregnancy.
"Catcher in the Rye" |
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Ancient Indian Literature
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2500 - 321 BC
Vedas - 4 collections of hymns, prayers, magic spells, and rituals. Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi "Mahabharata," "Ramayana," "Bhagavad-Gita," "Panchatantra," "Shakuntala," and the Jakata tales. |
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Ancient Chinese Literature
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770 - 256 BC
Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Legalism. Mostly philosophical and didactic. "Four Books and Five Classics" - 12th century. Chosen as the basis for the Imperial examination for any gov't post. Center of educational system. All Confucian ideologies. |
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Arabic and the Rise of Islam
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5th century onward
Quran (5th c.), the most important piece of Arabic lit. 114 chapters contains 6,236 verses. Contains injunctions, narratives, homilies, parables, direct addresses from God, instructions, and comments on itself on how it will be received and understood. |
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The Tale of Genji
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Classic work of Japanese lit. written in the early years of the 11th century, around the Heian period. Sometimes called the world's first novel! There is no plot, but it contains many features of a novel. The characters do not have names - they are addressed by role or function, common of the times.
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Japanese Noh Drama
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Major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 13th century. Most characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Noh "Performance Days" last all day and consist of 5 Noh plays interspersed with shorter, humorous kyogen pieces.
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Tanka
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A type of Japanese poetry, similar to the haiku, consisting of 31 syllables, arranged in 5 lines, each of them 7 syllables, except the 1st and 3rd, which each have 5 syllables.
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