ENGLISH LITERATURE (SEMIPRESENCIAL) PROF. SUSANA MONTERO AND NOELIA HERNANDO LA SALLE-UAM 2008-2009. GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS.

GENRE The distinct types or categories into which literary works are grouped according to form, technique, or even subject matter. The term is used fairly loosely because various levels of classification are used and all are given the name 'genre'. The main ones are: Narrative (or Fiction) Poetry Drama

Genres are divided into subgenres. NARRATIVE. Narrative. A story or account of events and experiences; a story involving events, characters and what the characters say and do. Novels and short stories are two forms of narrative. Also, you can have a narrative element in non-narrative forms such as poetry and drama. Setting. The general locale, historical time, social circumstances in which the action or narrative occurs. Plot. The sequence of events in time in a dramatic or narrative work, plus the relationship between them. The plot is communicated by means of action and dialogue (the things the characters say and do) and is rendered and ordered toward achieving particular emotional and artistic effects. Plot usually goes from exposition to rising tension to
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climax to resolution. Characters. A person presented in a dramatic or narrative work, whose physical, moral and emotional qualities and whose personality are interpreted by the reader from what the character says (the dialogue) and what he / she does (the action), and from descriptions of the characters provided by the narrator and other characters. Protagonist: The main character in a literary work, i.e. a poem, play or novel. When the opposing force is another character, that character is referred to as the antagonist.

Narrator. In novels and short stories, the story is told by the narrator who is the means through

which the reader is presented with the characters, dialogues, actions, setting and events of the work. The narrator can be a voice (somebody outside the story) or he / she can be to a greater or lesser degree participant in the story. Point of view. A term used in the analysis and criticism of fiction to describe the way in which the reader is presented with the materials of the story or how the story is told. Broadly speaking, these can be classified into third-person and first-person narratives and these can be sub-classified into those with omniscient narrators, and those with narrators with limited points of view; those with reliable and those with unreliable narrators. Time. The manner in which the author presents the sequence of events in the narrative; is the order chronological? Is the order based on some other criterion? Are there flashbacks, frameworks (the part of the structure that gives shape and support), juxtapositions, fragmentation or any other techniques that alter the order of events for a particular emotional or artistic effect? Flashback: When the current action is broken by reference to something which occurred earlier in the work or prior to its beginning.

Flash-forward: when the current action is broken by reference to something which will occur later in the work.
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Foreshadowing: When the writer drops hints or clues in the plot that give the reader an idea of what is going to happen later in the story. Structure. The work's total organization as a piece of literature. It involves elements associated with plot, theme and form and it refers to the way in which a work's component parts fit together to produce a totality, a whole. It includes the order, chronology, division into parts, and patterns of thematic development (repetitions and contrasts of situations, actions, symbols, images) found in a literary work. Theme. A general concept or doctrine, implicit or asserted, which a literary work is designed to incorporate and make persuasive to the reader. An abstract concept is made concrete through its representation in person (character), action (plot), and image (pictures made out of words) in the work. In other words, the theme is the central or dominating idea. The theme in a parable is explicit, the them in most other narratives is implicit. In a novel, for example, the plot is revealed by reading, but the theme is revealed by interpretation. Narrative subgenres: Novel: a fictional prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events. The characters are invented by the author and are placed in imaginary settings. Short Story: A fictional narrative shorter than a novel. It aims at creating mood and effect rather than plot. Typical features of a short sotry are: its plot is based on probability, its characters are human and have normal human problems, its time and place are established in realistic settings, and its elements work toward unifying the story. Biography: The story of a person's life written by someone other than the subject of the work.

Tale: short story usually for children. POETRY.

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The speaker /Poetic voice. The voice that speaks a poem is not usually identical with the poet who writes it. The author assumes a role, or counterfeits the speech of a person in a particular situation. In reading a poem, the most important question to ask yourself is: 'Who is speaking?'

Tone. The tone of a work is the attitude of the author toward the subject he is writing

about. It is the style or manner of a piece of work, an inflection of the mood of the piece. It means something like emotional coloring, as for instance, when one speaks in a 'bitter tone', 'businesslike tone'. Figurative language. Words have their literal meanings, but they can be used so that something other than literal meaning is implied. Main figures of speech: Allegory: A narrative using symbolic names or characters that carries underlying meaning other than the one most apparent.

Hyperbole: exaggeration

Imagery: A vivid description, in speech or writing, that produces mental images. The image produced can be an emotion, a sensation, or a visual picture. Metaphor: A literary device by which one term is compared to another without the use of a combining word such as like or as. Examples 1. "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks. It is the east and Juliet is the sun." [Romeo and Juliet] 2. "Oh, beware my lords,of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on. [Othello]

Metonymy: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for a related word or phrase

examples: count heads (or noses) rather than count people Washington rather than the United States Government warm heart rather than warm affections lands belonging to the crown rather than ...to the king Paradox: It is a situation in which a statement at first glance seems to contradict itself, but really does not. Pathetic Fallacy: Pathetic fallacy is when an emotion or feeling is attached to something inanimate, particularly things in nature. Personification: Giving a nonhuman object or concept a human characteristic or attribute that is not normally seen or literally associated that concept or object and used mainly for the purpose of animation or representation of that object or concept Simile: a figure of speech which makes a comparison between two unlike things using words "like" or "as". Symbolism: A device in literature where an object represents an idea. In the poem "The Sick Rose" by William Blake, the rose symbolizes perfection. The worm is a symbol of death. The storm is a symbol of chaos. Night represents darkness and evil, and the bed symbolizes the vulnerability of innocence and sleep.

The Sick Rose O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm, Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. Figurative language is very representative of poetry, but we will also find figurative language in narrative and drama.
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Structure.

Formal: Stanza: a group of lines in a poem considered as a unit. Many poems are divided into stanzas which are commonly separated by spaces. They often symbolize a different idea or thought, possibly a different subject in a poem, much like a paragraph in prose represents. Each one, again like a paragraph in prose, states and develops a main idea. This division in a poem consisting of a series of lines arranged together often have a recurring pattern of meter and rhyme. Kinds of stanzas: couplets: two line stanzas tercets: three line stanzas quatrains: four line stanzas cinquains: five line stanzas sestets: six line stanzas heptastichs: seven line stanzas octaves: eight line stanzas Thematic Repetitive, narrative, logical. Rhyme.

Repetition of identical or similar stressed sound or sounds. Rhyme usually occurs at the end of lines. Robert Frost employs a rhyme scheme in "The Road Not Taken." 16 17 18 19 20 I shall be telling this with a sigh A Somewhere ages and ages hence I took the one less traveled , And that has made all the difference B B Two roads diverged in a wood, and I A

Other sound effects that must be taken into account when analysing poetry are:

Alliteration: the repetition of the initial sounds in two or more neighbouring words or syllables for poetic effect. Onomatopoeia: When the sound of a word imitates the sound it represents. The purpose of these words is to make a passage more effective for the reader or listener. Examples: "Mildred rose and began to move about the room: Bang!, Smash! Wallop, bing, bong, boom." Rhythm.

Most poetry in English has a pattern of stressed sounds and this pattern is the meter. Rhythm in English poetry consists in stresses at regular intervals. In a line of poetry, the foot is the basic unit of measurement. Generally a foot consists of two or three syllables, one of which is stressed. The repetition of feet produces a pattern of stresses throughout the poem. Meter: A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. The number of feet in a line forms a way of describing a meter. The standard meters are as follows: Monometer--a metrical line with one foot Dimeter--a metrical line with two feet Trimeter--a metrical line with three feet Tetrameter--a metrical line with four feet Pentameter--a metrical line with five feet Hexameter--a metrical line with six feet Heptameter--a metrical line with seven feet Octameter--a metrical line with eight feet One example is in Theodore Roethke's poem, "The Waking." The following lines are pentameter: I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow, I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron is written in tetrameter:
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She walks in beauty like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies. Foot: A way of measuring meter in poetry using a series of stressed and unstressed syllables. A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that is repeated establishes a poetic foot.

Free Verse: Poetry that is based on the irregular rhythmic cadence or the recurrence, with variations, of phrases, images, and syntactical patterns rather than the conventional use of meter. Rhyme may or may not be present in free verse, but when it is, it is used with great freedom. In conventional verse the unit is the foot, or the line; in free verse the units are larger, sometimes being paragraphs or strophes. Blank Verse: poetry written in meter, usually iambic pentameter, but without a rhyme scheme. It is commonly used in narrative and dramatic poetry. For example, from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

Sonnet: The sonnet is usually made up of fourteen lines, and expresses an emotion. There are two types of sonnets: the English sonnet, often used by William Shakespeare, and the Italian sonnet, or the Petrarchian. An Italian sonnet is composed of an octave and a sestet, and the English sonnet is composed of three four line quatrains and a concluding two-line couplet. The thought or feelings of the poem is evident through their structure. For example in the English sonnet a subject will develop in the first twelve lines and conclude in the last two. An Italian sonnet may state a problem at the beginning and present a solution in the lest six lines.

Example of Shakespearian sonnet:

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That time of year thou may'st in me behold That time of year thou may'st in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by - and - by black night doth take away, Death's second shelf that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the deathbed whereon it must expire, Consumed with that which it was nourished by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

DRAMA

Acts Main division within a play. Acts are divided into scenes, which are usually marked by a characters entry or exit from the stage space.

Setting This refers to the time and the place where the action or the situation of the play takes place. This can be realistic, expressionistic, symbolical, etc. The playwright describes the setting in stage directions as well as in the main text, according to what characters say. To analyse the setting of a play one has to take into account: Pieces of furniture Stage properties: small portable objects. Use of light and sound

Characters Characters in a play are configured through:

Physical appearance Costume: how characters are dressed Language Plot: Action or/and Situation The series of events that take place in a play constitute its plot. Sometimes in a play nothing happens, in this case we talk about situation rather than action. The classical structure of a dramatic plot is:

Presentation of conflict climax resolution

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Language The stylistic use of language in drama is very important because characters seem to talk to us. Dramatic language can be realistic or poetic. Some interesting terms regarding language in drama are: Aside: An aside is a short speech made by a character in a play--it is heard only by the audience; the rest of the characters cannot hear it. In many instances an aside is a way for a playwright to voice his or her character's thoughts and feelings. Soliloquy: When a character in a play or novel is alone and talking to himself aloud. Example: From "Hamlet": To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. ..'

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