Short Stories/Novel
Theme--The idea or point of a story formulated as a generalization. In American literature, several themes are evident which reflect and define our society. The dominant ones might be innocence/experience, life/death, appearance/reality, free will/fate, madness/sanity, love/hate, society/individual, known/unknown. Themes may have a single, instead of a dual nature as well. The theme of a story may be a mid-life crisis, or imagination, or the duality of humankind (contradictions).Character--Imaginary people created by the writer. Perhaps the most important element of literature.
- Protagonist--Major character at the center of the story.
- Antagonist--A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
- Minor character--0ften provides support and illuminates the protagonist.
- Static character--A character who remains the same.
- Dynamic character--A character who changes in some important way.
- Characterization--The means by which writers reveal character.
- Explicit Judgment--Narrator gives facts and interpretive comment.
- Implied Judgment--Narrator gives description; reader make the judgment.
Plot--The arrangement of ideas and/or incidents that make up a story.
- Causality--One event occurs because of another event.
- Foreshadowing--A suggestion of what is going to happen.
- Suspense--A sense of worry established by the author.
- Conflict--Struggle between opposing forces.
- Exposition--Background information regarding the setting, characters, plot.
- Complication or Rising Action--Intensification of conflict.
- Crisis--Turning point; moment of great tension that fixes the action.
- Resolution/Denouement--The way the story turns out.
Look for: Repeated elements in action, gesture, dialogue, description, as well as shifts in direction, focus, time, place, etc.
Setting--The place or location of the action, the setting provides the historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the emotional state of characters.
Point of View--Again, the point of view can sometimes indirectly establish the author's intentions. Point of view pertains to who tells the story and how it is told.
- Narrator--The person telling the story.
- First-person--Narrator participates in action but sometimes has limited knowledge/vision.
- Objective--Narrator is unnamed/unidentified (a detached observer). Does not assume character's perspective and is not a character in the story. The narrator reports on events and lets the reader supply the meaning.
- Omniscient--All-knowing narrator (multiple perspectives). The narrator takes us into the character and can evaluate a character for the reader (editorial omniscience). When a narrator allows the reader to make his or her own judgments from the action of the characters themselves, it is called neutral omniscience.
- Limited omniscient--All-knowing narrator about one or two characters, but not all.
Irony--A contrast or discrepancy between one thing and another.
- Verbal irony--We understand the opposite of what the speaker says.
- Irony of Circumstance or Situational Irony--When one event is expected to occur but the opposite happens. A discrepancy between what seems to be and what is.
- Dramatic Irony--Discrepancy between what characters know and what readers know.
- Ironic Vision--An overall tone of irony that pervades a work, suggesting how the writer views the characters.
Poetry
Allegory--A form of narrative in which people, places, and events seem to have hidden meanings. Often a retelling of an older story.
Connotation--The implied meaning of a word.
Denotation--The dictionary definition of a word.Diction--Word choice and usage (for example, formal vs. informal), as determined by considerations of audience and purpose.
Figurative Language--The use of words to suggest meanings beyond the literal. There are a number of figures of speech. Some of the more common ones are:
- Metaphor--Making a comparison between unlike things without the use of a verbal clue (such as "like" or "as").
- Simile--Making a comparison between unlike things, using "like" or "as".
- Hyperbole--Exaggeration
- Personification--Endowing inanimate objects with human characteristics
Imagery--A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea which appeals to one or more of our senses. Look for a pattern of imagery.
- Tactile imagery--sense of touch.
- Aural imagery--sense of hearing.
- Olfactory imagery--sense of smell.
- Visual imagery--sense of sight.
- Gustatory imagery--sense of taste.
Rhythm and Meter--Rhythm is the pulse or beat in a line of poetry, the regular recurrence of an accent or stress. Meter is the measure or patterned count of a poetry line (a count of the stresses we feel in a poem's rhythm). The unit of poetic meter in English is called a "foot," a unit of measure consisting of stressed and unstressed syllables. Ask yourself how the rhythm and meter affects the tone and meaning.
Sound--Do the words rhyme? Is there alliteration (repetition of consonants) or assonance (repetition of vowels)? How does this affect the tone?
Structure--The pattern of organization of a poem. For example, a sonnet is a 14-line poem usually written in iambic pentameter. Because the sonnet is strictly constrained, it is considered a closed or fixed form. An open or free form is a poem in which the author uses a looser form, or perhaps one of his or her own invention. It is not necessarily formless.
Symbolism--When objects or actions mean more than themselves.
Syntax--Sentence structure and word order.
Voice: Speaker and Tone--The voice that conveys the poem's tone; its implied attitude toward its subject.
