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84 Cards in this Set
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(the) Absurd |
Worldview or perspective in which the breakdown of political order or religious faith conveys meaninglessness
Characteristics of absurd stories include non-realistic characters, circular plots, lack of exposition or motivation, incoherence, miscommunication, contradiction, inconsistency, and randomness. |
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Allegory |
Narrative in which characters, actions, places, and objects are given abstract qualities, resulting in two meanings, the literal and the symbolic.
To avoid censorship, many writers resort to allegory to suggest meanings outside of the narrative. |
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Ambigutity |
Refers to qualities in or properties of a text that make a specific interpretation uncertain or unstable, or suggest many possible meanings derived through re-reading. |
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Archetype |
"Primordial image" that, according to a psychologist Carl Jung, represents part of the collective unconscious of humans.
Archetypes images appear in myths, dreams, rituals and other collective experiences.
Writers often use them to give depth and resonance |
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Author-Reading Relationship |
can be defined as a set of potentialities that exist between the author and the reader of a text. |
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Character |
Combination of attributes that make up a completed being and which a reader is capable of imagining.
Character may be revealed through direct means (description, exposition) or indirect means (dialogue, or action/plot). |
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Round (Dynamic) Character |
Characters are complex and may embody inconsistencies in their thoughts or actions |
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Flat (Static) Characters |
distinguished by only one quality, displayed consistently in a work. |
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Postmodern Characters |
Neither flat, nor round, but "empty", isolated individual identities lost in dehumanized world.
These characters are frequently victims in a stylized world. Their stories can have no epiphany, no conclusions, no awareness, and no insights since their precarious world has no meaning |
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Character Stereotyping |
when a character (either intentionally or unintentionally) is made to represent a predictable collective trait |
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Caricature |
an exaggerated or distorted in some way to reveal a limited human aspect, often for humorous or satiric purposes. |
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Chronology ("logic of time," Greek) |
While the classic story is linear in its temporal arrangements, other basic chronological tools include flashbacks or foreshadowing.
A typical linear dramatic story begins near the climax and moves towards a resolution.
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Closure |
Refers to the ending of literary works |
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Closed denouement |
Satisfies aesthetic and all dramatic requirements. A character moves through a dramatic arc, solves a problem or returns full circle to his/her origins. |
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Open denouement |
refers to the lack of resolution of one or more elements |
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Dialogue |
Representation of a character's speech in drama or fiction typically used to reveal character and/or plot; what characters say as opposed to what they do |
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Diaspora |
Literally, "a scattering of seeds" : the dispersal of ethnic, racial, or cultural groups from their homeland due to persecution or other forms of political/social/ economic oppression, or due to natural disaster.
The Diaspora (usually captialized) is more than simply the subject of much postcolonial writing; it encompasses the personal and collective search for identity legitimacy in a world where the distributions of power are unequal or arbitrary |
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Diction |
Word choice; could refer to specific worlds of the level of language used throughout a work. e.g., elevated, colloquial, formal, abstract, concrete. |
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Dramatic Structure |
Originates from drama. The phases of a plot include exposition (explanation), rising action (beginning with an incident that introduces the conflict), climax (high point of conflict), and falling action, leading to the denouement (resolution) |
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Epiphany |
Literally, a "showing forth," a manifestation of a spiritual truth. A discovery or realization made by the main characters, resulting in a change in their perspective or producing a new way of looking at something. |
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Exposition |
The part of the narrative that gives background information or other necessary detail before initiating incident. |
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(the) Fantistic |
Refers to incidents, setting, or characters that are not "true to life" or that could not take place in a cause-effect world- which defy rational explanation. |
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Flashback |
Technique of recalling a past action or event in order to illuminate the present situation |
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Foregrounding |
An element of a text that is highlighted or stands out is said to be foregrounded |
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Foreshadowing |
Technique of anticipating a future action or result. Although foreshadowing may create suspense, keeping the reader interested, it can serve more complex goals, such as drawing attention to character flaws, or evoking sympathy. |
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Frame (tale/narrative) |
a form of structural repetition in which a text begins and ends in the same way |
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Genre |
Flexible system originating with Aristotle of classifying literary characteristics: for example, literature can be grouped into poems, plays, novels, short stories, and non fiction prose (essays) |
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(the) Gothic |
characteristics of the gothic-- gloomy atmosphere, images of decay and death, supernatural occurrences, enclosed spaces, and domineering male characters.
The gothic foregrounds plot, subject matter, and setting over character, striving to create a terrifying or portentous mood |
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Graphic Literature (Fiction/Narrative) |
In graphic literature, plot, setting, character, and other narrative elements are conveyed through successive frames and gutters containing visual images as well as dialogue (in speech balloons) and exposition (in captions).
Graphic literature is usually distinguished from comic books by its greater seriousness and sophistication, as well as by its use of flawed characters in place of superheroes. |
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(the) Grotesque |
Associated with comedy and/ or satire, the grotesque evokes the abnormal, animalisitc, or freakish though a style of exaggeration or disortion |
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Humour (the comic) |
complex and often underrated quality in fiction, humour can be differentiated in its kind, purpose, effects, and underlying mechanisms.
puns and word play, operates at the level of language situational humour is inherent in a specific situation in drama, low comedy with its pratfalls, mistaken identities, and misunderstandings is different from high comedy, a sophisticated form that appeals more to the intellect and stresses wittiness. |
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Humour of the incongruous |
based on a contrast between expectation and the unexpected, what shouldn't happen but does. |
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Humour of the familiar |
based on similarity, occurrences that we recognize |
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Image(ry) |
Words that convey sense impressions, particularly sight, but also sound, touch, smell or taste, used in almost all literary writing. Images may occur as precise objects in descriptive passages where their primary focus is on the physical world, or they may become symbols in figurative (non-literal) language. |
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Impressionism |
impressionistic techniques reveal a character's constantly changing thoughts, feelings, sensations, and impressions. |
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Indirection |
Literary works do not usually state their themes or describe their characters directly but use techniques, devices, and strategies to get them across. |
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Initiation Story |
Narrative pattern in which the central character, usually young and naive, undergoes a test or trail that prepares him or her for entry into the adult world. |
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Intertext(uality): |
Reliance of a text on other texts (not necessarily written ones) incorporation of other texts within the primary text. |
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Deconstruction |
A more recent text centred approach to the study of literature. Deconstructionists probe for gaps and inconsistencies in a text to encourage variant readings. |
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Context Centred Approaches |
consider text as embedded in social, historical and cultural forces |
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Postcolonialism |
centres on the literature of former European colonies critiquing Eurocentric perspectives while exploring the theme of collective and personal identity. |
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Feminist Literary Criticism |
expanded on the focus of the study of gender itself, embracing such areas as race and class, anthropology, psychology, ecology, and economics |
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New Historicism |
stresses the historical time the text was written |
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Reader-Response Criticism |
addresses issues relating to the act of reading critical approaches, such as Gay/Lesbian Studies and Ecocriticism, |
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Lyric |
A short poem that expresses strong feeling or spontaneous emotion. Some commentators believe stories are closer to poetry than are other prose forms like the novel due to their compression and intensity.
Lyric fiction may aspire dreamlike evocation, with poetic devices such as alliteration or even rhyme. Sometimes the epiphany is presented lyrically. |
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Magic Realism |
Rejecting rational explanations of reality, magic realists foreground magical or "impossible" elements in an otherwise realistic narrative to produce a "heightened reality"
Magic realism jolts us out of our accepted and static patterns of experience, to defamiliarize, or make uncertain, these patterns. Because magic realism refers to the unknowable or conflicting perspectives of reality. |
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Metafiction |
described a phase of experimental writing in the 1960's. The term called attention to conversations and artifices involved in making fiction as a reaction against post World War II literary realism. |
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Mimesis ("imitate," Greek) |
The attempt to imitate life or draw on life-like attributes of a person, object, setting, ect. |
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Minimalism |
Much debated term referring to a style of writing that is pared to the essence with few modifiers or descriptive words; a minimalist story dismisses plot, has average characters, suggests life is a continuium with little meaning, is open to multiple interpretations, and eliminates narrative conventions. |
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Modernism (1895-1945) |
Period of artistic innovation and renewal in literature as well as in other arts. Characteristics of modernists include 1) reaction against Victorian values, morality, and sense of order; 2) emphasis on subjective rather than objective experience; 3) experimentation in styles and techniques, such as non-linear narratives and multiple perspectives 4)interest in psychology and rejection of religion; 5) creation of new artisitic self-consciousness, resulting in theorizing about art and in "movements" like impressionism, imagism, and surrealism |
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Monologue |
Form of a first person narration that records uninterrupted the thoughts and/or feelings of the narrator. |
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Mood |
Emotional response or complexity of responses generated by the elements of work- for example, calm, terror, empathy, sadness, humour, suspense.
Mood and atmosphere are closely related, but atmosphere is usually evoked by setting, whereas mood could arise from other elements including dialogue, character, imagery, diction, or situation. |
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Motif |
Originating from music where it means a repeated note or phrase, refers to a distinctive narrative element, such as image, action, incident, or concept, that becomes significant through repetition and its connection to a work's theme |
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Motivation |
Factor or, more likely, complexity of psychological factors that help determine characters' behaviours or account for their thoughts or words. Motivation is often the focus of psychological realism. |
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Myth |
The oldest creative use of language is a mythic tale told by a narrator. The storyteller's art is to share an experience or explain spiritual and natural phenomena, such as the origins of the world. It forms part of group's oral tradition and is passed down from generation to generation. |
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Narrative |
(from the same root as "story") means "to know" the world of experience. Theorists suggest that Western narrative is framed by two world views, Bibical narratives and mythological epics. |
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Narrator |
The person telling the story. Narrators vary in their presence (3rd person narrators), involvement (1st person), and reliability (1st person). |
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Involved Narrators (1st person) |
are main characters in their stories, often revealing their actions, motivations, and feelings directly; however, they do not have access to the inner worlds of other characters, so their viewpoint is limited by their subjectivity. |
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Reliable narrator (1st person) |
can be trusted to give a truthful or accurate picture of events and character. Most third person narrators are reliable; however, first person narrators may be unreliable not only because they are limited by their subjectivity but also because they may consciously or unconsciously distort, deceive, or minimize their role or responsibility. |
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Naive Narrator |
may be unreliable by virtue of his or her youth or inexperience. |
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Naturalism |
Outgrowth of realistic writing in the late 19th and early 20th centries. Naturalism uses scientific methods of observation and stresses a character's helplessness before external forces, like society, nature, or heredity. |
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Parody |
In general, parody involves an imitation of another work or style, using exaggeration or distortion to make fun of its dominant characteristics. |
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Plot |
Focuses on the external actions of characters; however it could also focus on the inner world. |
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Point of View (POV) |
the angle of vision from which the story is told affects the reader's reaction to the characters. |
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First-Person POV |
("I," "we"), the narrator will have limited access to characters and incidents other than what is personally experienced or witnessed. Authors may use first-person narrators to establish an intimate bond with the reader. |
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Third-Person POV |
("she," "he," "they," "them") offers a greater variety, from wide to narrow angle. A narrator capable of moving from one character's perspective to another's and from one scene to the next is essentially omniscient, or all knowing. |
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Postmodernism (PM) |
(1980's- ): incorporates diverse aspects of contemporary culture. Postmodernism reflects-and sometimes pursues- the goals of modernism, but rejects such assumptions as the authority of the author, univocal (one voice) perspectives, unifying narratives, and other "absolutes."
In their place, it often stresses plurality, possibility, and play. |
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Protagonist ("first actor") |
Main character in a fictional work. |
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Antagonist |
opposes the main character, though this opposition isn't necessarily conscious or intentional. |
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Psychological Realism |
focuses on characters' motivation and other aspects of their psychological make up |
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Social Realism |
shows characters at odds with society's institutions |
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Moral Realism |
centres on the ethical choices confronting characters |
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Urban Realism |
portrays characters adapting to or victims of dehumanized urban landscapes |
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Documentary Realism |
combines factual rigour with invention to produce a "life-like" recreation. |
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Satire |
Genre that mocks or criticizes institutions or commonly held beliefs by using humour, irony, or ridicule. The purpose behind satire can vary from the desire to raise awareness or institute change to the simple need to make people laugh at themselves. |
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Setting |
The time and place of the story. |
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(Short) Story Cycle |
Series of linked stories usually collected in book form; but stories in story cycles do not always have the same characters. Instead, they may have the same setting or interweave common issues or themes. |
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Structure |
Arrangements of parts into aesthetic whole. A structural approach to a work emphasizes the interrelation of parts. |
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(the) Surreal |
the surreal surrenders the ego and focuses on dreams, sensory confusion, symbolism, the occult, and visions. Surrealistic writing deliberately blurs the boundaries between the outer and inner through a dream like atmosphere, which surrealists call "le meverilleux" or "revelation" |
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Syntax |
Word order; the arrangement of words in a sentence or larger unit. |
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Text |
production- not necessarily a literary one- that encodes one or more messages or meanings, that lends itself to interpretation, and/or provides aesthetic pleasure to reader or viewer. |
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Tale |
the tale is a brief, entertaining narrative that stresses the plot at the expense of a character (which often stereotypes) |
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Understatement |
figure of speech in which something is stated as less (important) than it really is. |
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Voice (narrative voice) |
you can isolate different attributes of an author, narrator, or character by his or her tone, vocabulary, speech, patterns, and the like. |
