Literature

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Exposition

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The opening portion of a narrative or drama in which the scene is set, the protagonist is introduced and the author discloses any other background information necessary for the audience to understand the events that are to follow.

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Foreshadowing

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The technique of arranging events and information in such a way that later events are prepared for beforehand whether through specific words images or actions

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Double Plot

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Also called a SUB-PLOT. A second story or plotline that is complete and interesting in its own right, often doubling or inverting the main plot.

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Conflict

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The central struggle between 2 or more forces. Conflict generally occurs when some person or thing prevents the protagonist from achieving his or her goal.

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Crisis

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A point when a crucial action, decision, or realization must be made, often marking a turning point or reversal of the protagonist's fortunes.

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Climax

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The moment of greatest intensity, which almost inevitably occurs toward the end of the work. The climax often takes the form of a decisive confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist.

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Resolution

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The final part of a narrative, the concluding action or actions that follow the Climax

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Unities

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Time, Place and Action
A play should depict the causes and effects of a single action unfolding in one day in one place.

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Soliloquy

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A speech by a character alone onstage in which he or she utters his or her thoughts aloud

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Aside

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A speech that a character addresses directly to the audience unheard by the other characters on stage as when the villain in a melodrama chortles "Heh! Heh! Now she's in my power!"

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Stage Business

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Nonverbal action that engages the attention of an audience

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Realism

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An attempt to reproduce faithfully on the stage the surface apperance of life especially that of ordinary people in everyday situations.

Middle class

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Naturalism

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a type of drama in which the characters are presented as products or victims of enviornment and heredity.

Social, Physological and Economic

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Symbolist Drama

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A style of Drama that aviods direct statement and exposition for powerful evocation and suggestion. In plave of realistic stage settings and actions, symbolist drama uses lighting, music and dialoge to create a mystical atmosphere

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Expressionism

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Uses episodic plots, distorted lines, exaggerated shapes, abnormally intense coloring, mechanical physical movement, and telegraphic speech to create a dreamlike realm

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Theatre of the absurd

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the grotesquely comic plight of human beings thrown by accident into an irrational and meaningless world.

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Tragic Comedy

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A type of drama that combines both tragedy and comedy.
Usually it creates potentially tragic situations that bring the protagonists to the brink of disaster but then ends happily.

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Comic Relief

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The apperance of a comic or situation or character or clownish humor in the midst of a serios action, introducing a sharp contrast in mood.

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Antihero

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a protagonist who is lacking in one or more of the conventional qualities attributed to a hero. instead of being dignified, brave, idealistic, or purposeful, for instance the antihero may be buffoonish, cowardly, self interested or weak. the anti-hero is often considered an essentially modern form of characterization, a satiric or realistic commentary in traditional portrayals of idealized characters.

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Formalist Criticism

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Text and Form

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Biographical Criticism

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The authors background

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Historical Criticism

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Investigating the social, cultural and intellectual context that produced it

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Psychological Criticism

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the tools of psychology and psychoanalysis to autors and/or fictional characters in order to understand the underlying motivations and meanings

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Mythological Criticism

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The practice of analyzing a literary work by looking for recurrent universal patterns. It explores the ways in which an individual imagination uses myths and symbols shared by different cultures and epochs.

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Sociological Criticism

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The practice of analyzing a literary work by examining the cultural, economic and political context in which it was written or recieved.

Artists relationship with society.

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Gender Criticism

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the examintation of the ways in which sexual identity influences the creation, interpretation and evaluation of literary works.

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Reader-Response Criticsim

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The practice of analyzing a literary work by describing what happens in the reader's mind while interpreting the text, on the assumption that no literary text exists independently of readers' interpretations

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Deconstructionist Criticism

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A school of criticism that rejects the traditional assumption that language can accuratley represent reality

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Trifles

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Susan Glaspell

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A Doll’s House

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Henrik Ibsen

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The Glass Menagerie

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Tennesse Williams

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Death of a Salesman

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Arthur Miller

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Fences

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August Wilson

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Picka Pocketoni

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Dave Sedaris

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The Drama Bug

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Dave Sedaris

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No Name Woman

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Maxine Hong Kingston

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Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective

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Leslie Marmon Silko

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Mirrorings

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Lucy Grealy