American Literature II (Terms)

Flapper

"new breed" of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. ________ were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms. The Great Gatsby.

Poet's Club

(1908-1917) a group devoted to the discussion of poetry. It met in London in the early years of the twentieth century. Mainly amateurs, met once a month for dinner, the reading of poems. They were against late Victorian poetic practices. 1909: Ezra Pound joins the movement and becomes leader. 1914: Des Imagistes. 1916: Some Imagist Poets. 1915: Pound gets bored, Amy Lowell becomes the leader. Ends as a movement in 1917.

Provincetown Players

(1915) nonprofit theatre company started in __________, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. The first modern theater devoted to producing original works by American playwrights, the company's founding has been called "the most important innovative moment in American theatre." Famed for staging the first productions of plays by several important playwrights, including Eugene O'Neill and Susan Glaspell (Trifles), the group employed many other notable writers, artists, and actors.

Little Theater movement

1912. In several large cities, beginning with Chicago, Boston, Seattle and Detroit, companies formed theaters to produce more intimate, noncommercial, and reform-minded entertainments. They all wanted to experiment something new, so they moved away from Broadway in order to be able to play plays that were too marginal for Broadway.

Jazz age

1920s (ending with The Great Depression) when ________ music and dance became popular. This occurred particularly in the United States, but also in Britain, France and elsewhere. ________ played a significant part in wider cultural changes during the period, and its influence on pop culture continued long afterwards. ________ music originated mainly in New Orleans, and is/was a fusion of African and European music. The ________ is often referred to in conjunction with the phenomenon referred to as the Roaring Twenties. The term ________ was coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby, Streetcar Named Desire.

Harlem Renaissance

1924-1929. A blossoming of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualise "the Negro" apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples' relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement" named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke. Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes.

Intertextuality

the concept of 'borrowing of each others' words and concepts. This could mean as much as an entire ideological concept and as little as a word or phrase. As authors borrow pro-actively from previous texts, their work gains layers of meaning. Also, another feature of __________ reveals itself when a text is read in light of another text, in which case all of the assumptions and implications surrounding the other text shed light on and shape the way a text is interpreted. Ernest Hemingway draws language from metaphysical poet John Donne's "Meditation XVII" in naming his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.

confessional poetry

1950s and 1960s. It has been described as poetry "of the personal." The content of ___________ is autobiographical and marked by its exploration of subject matter that was considered taboo at the time. This subject matter included topics like mental illness, sexuality, and suicide. The school of poetry that became known as ____________ was associated with several poets in the 1950s, including Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Anne Sexton, Allen Ginsberg.

defamiliarization/ostranenie

20th century, the artistic technique of presenting common things in an unfamiliar or strange way, in order to enhance perception of the familiar. Movements including Dada, postmodernism, epic theatre, and science fiction, it is also used as a tactic by recent movements such as culture jamming. The term "__________" was first coined in 1917 by Viktor Shklovsky in his essay "Art as Device".

Dramatic monologue

A literary, usually verse composition in which a speaker reveals his or her character, often in relation to a critical situation or event, in a _______ addressed to the reader or to a presumed listener. T. S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Ontology

A philosophical term which denotes the study of being. As a literary term it has a special meaning, thanks to John Crowe Ransom. According to him the texture and structure of a poem, which, combined, provide the meaning, combine also to give it __________ - that quality or property peculiar to itself which distinguishes it from anything that is not poetry.

Quest narrative

A story that revolves around an adventure, a journey. They usually revolve around an epic scope (a lot is at stake for the characters and/or world, the world itself is large and wide-sweeping, etc). It's characterized by the protagonist stumbling onto several obstacles/challenges that must be completed in order to progress in the journey (and story). Another characteristic is that the protagonist typically meets other characters that divulge necessary knowledge that will enable the protagonist to complete his quest/adventure/journey. Huckleberry Finn.

Southern gothic

American South, deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters. While the tales in literature can be set among various classes, the decay of the southern aristocracy and the setting of the plantation are the usual settings for __________ tales in the popular mind. William Faulkner: A Rose for Emily. Tennessee Williams.

Unreliable narrator

An imaginary storyteller or character who describes what he witnesses accurately, but misinterprets those events because of faulty perception, personal bias, or limited understanding. Often the writer or poet creating such an ___________ leaves clues so that readers will perceive the unreliability and question the interpretations offered. The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye.

avantgarde

Beginning of the 20th century, ____________ are people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art ,culture, and politics .The __________ pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The __________ is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. The _________ also promotes radical social reforms. Art movements: imagism, impressionism, symbolism, surrealism, cubism, dadaism... Writers, poets: Ezra Pound, W. C. Williams, Ginsberg, E. E. Cummings...

High modernism

Between the two WW-s. Yeats, Eliot, Auden, Frost. symbolic dualism (surface and depth, hidden layers, vertical structures: always metaphorical). Coherence: a poet's mind always puts extremely different tings together in a new whole. Indirection: metaphor is a very basic formula. It tries to explain transcendental and abstract issues via metaphors. The _________ movement was particularly prevalent during the Cold War, especially in the late-1950s and 1960s.

Little Theater

Chicago 1912-1917. Experiments: move away from Broadway, this was ________ movement. The plays were too marginal for Broadway, content varied (important social issues as topics). Mostly staged European avant-garde and modernist dramas.

Roman-á-clef

French for novel with a key, is a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction. This "key" may be produced separately by the author, or implied through the use of epigraphs or other literary techniques. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is a disguised account of Hemingway's literary life in Paris and his 1925 trip to Spain with several known personalities.

Iceberg theory

Hemingway's main instrument is the ellipsis and omission of certain parts from his works. The reader can feel that there is more under the surface than what is actually written down. Hemingway believed the true meaning of a piece of writing should not be evident from the surface story.

Epigraph

In literature, an ________ is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. The ________ may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Vorticism

Literary and artistic movement that flourished in England 1912-15. Founded by Wyndham Lewis, it attempted to relate art to industrialization. It was partly inspired by Cubism, but it is more closely related to Futurism in its embrace of dynamism, the machine age and all things modern. The name _________ was given to the movement by Ezra Pound in 1913.

Radical modernism

Rimbaud, the Imagists, Pound, W. C. Williams, Stein. Direct presentation, anti-symbolist, values are immanent (consist within limits) rather than transcendent. The surface has importance. Metonymy is the governing trope, object is nothing else than an object, horizontal poetry. Freedom and experimenting that can set them free from social and lingual expectations.

Yankee pastoral

Robert Frost. Within the United States, ________ usually refers to people from the north, largely those who fought for the regions in the Union side of the American Civil War, but also those with New England cultural ties, such as descendants from colonial New England settlers, wherever they live. Its sense is more cultural than literally geographic. The speech dialect of New England is called _________; or "_________ dialect." As Harriet Monroe said: "Perhaps no other poet in our history has put the best of the Yankee spirit into a book so completely."

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an African- American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination."

Ellipsis

The act of leaving out one or more words that are not necessary for a phrase to be understood. It is a series of dots that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. Depending on their context and placement in a sentence, ________ can also indicate an unfinished thought, a slight pause, and nervous or awkward silence.

canon

The term "literary canon" refers to a classification of literature. It is a term used widely to refer to a group of literary works that are considered the most important of a particular time period or place. A literary canon establishes a collection of similar or related literary works.

Memory play

The term coined by Tennessee Williams to describe non-realistic dramas, in which the audience experiences the past as remembered by a narrator, complete with music from the period remembered, and images representing the characters' thoughts, fears, emotions, and recollections projected on a scrim in the background.

Free verse

________ is an open form of poetry. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot.

Multiculturalism

_________ is the cultural diversity of communities and the policies that promote this diversity. There is no dominant culture. __________ is often contrasted with the concepts of assimilationism and has been described as a "salad bowl" or "cultural mosaic" rather than a "melting pot."

Petrarchan sonnet

___________ was not developed by _________ himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets. 8+6 lines. Rhyme scheme: a b b a a b b a c d e c d e (can vary). Conclusion of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, usually positive, but here pessimistic.

Synesthesia

a blending or confusion of different kinds of sense-impression, in which one type of sensation is referred to in terms more appropriate to another. Common ___________ expressions include the descriptions of colors as 'loud' or 'warm', and of sounds as 'smooth'. The Great Gatsby uses a lot of ____________.

Moveable feast

a memoir by Ernest Hemingway about his years in Paris as part of the expatriate writers in the 1920s. The book describes Hemingway's apprenticeship as a young writer in Europe (especially in Paris) while married to his first wife, Hadley.

Satire

a mode of writing that exposes the failings of individuals, institutions, or societies to ridicule and scorn. ________ is often an incidental element in literary works that may not be wholly ________, especially in comedy. A feature of ________ is strong irony or sarcasm, but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing.

Expressionism

a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. "An ________ wishes, above all, to express himself..." Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. ________ artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality. ________ was developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War. The _________ emphasis on individual perspective has been characterized as a reaction to positivism and other artistic styles such as Naturalism and Impressionism. Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner.

Roaring Twenties

a period of literary creativity, and works of several notable authors appeared during the period. D. H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was a scandal at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

Science fiction

a popular modern branch of prose fiction that explores the probable consequences of some improbable or impossible transformation of the basic conditions of human (or intelligent non-human existence). This transformation need not be brought about by a technological invention, but may involve some mutation of known biological of physical reality, e.c.: time travel, ecological catastrophe etc. The Second Variety.

Dime novels

a type of inexpensive, usually paperback, melodramatic novel of adventure popular in the United States roughly between 1860 and 1915; it often featured a western theme. _________ are, at least in spirit, the antecedent of today's mass market paperbacks, comic books, and even television shows and movies based on the dime novel genres. In the modern age, _________ has become a term to describe any quickly written, lurid potboiler and as such is generally used as a pejorative to describe a sensationalized yet superficial piece of written work.

Interior monologue

always presents a character's thoughts 'directly', without the apparent intervention of a summarizing and selecting narrator, it does not necessarily mingle them with impressions and perceptions. While an __________ may mirror all the half thoughts, impressions, and associations that impinge upon the character's consciousness, it may also be restricted to an organized presentation of that character's rational thoughts.

Passing narrative

an account of a person (or group) claiming a racial or ethnic identity that she does not (or they do not) "possess." Such narratives speak to the authenticity, the ambiguity, and the performance of personal identity; they also speak to issues of official and traditional categorization. The __________ necessarily unsettles notions of belonging and ownership and underscores that race can be viewed as a construction or a series of conventions. Nella Larsen: Passing: woman of mixed origins try to pass to whites.

collage

artistic technique of applying manufactured, printed, or "found" materials, such as bits of newspaper, fabric, wallpaper, etc., to a panel or canvas, frequently in combination with painting. The word _______ was first used to refer to works by Dada and Surrealist artists, especially Max Ernst . In the 1960s _________ was employed as a major form of Pop art . It means in literature that a work, such as a literary piece, composed of both borrowed and original material, combining unrelated styles.

Eclecticism

conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases. Poets often criticized by lack of consistency in their thinking.

Metafiction

describing fictional writing that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in posing questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually using irony and self-reflection. Novels and stories that examine, experiment with, or poke fun at the conventions and genres of fiction itself. The term __________ means "beyond fiction" or "over fiction" indicating that the author or narrator stands "beyond" or "over" the fictional text and judges it in a highly self-conscious way. E.g.: A story about a writer creating a story, a story about a reader reading a book, a story that features itself (as a narrative or as a physical object), a story containing another work of fiction within itself (A Clockwork Orange, Heart of Darkness), a story addressing the specific conventions of story, such as title, character conventions, paragraphing or plots, a novel where the narrator intentionally exposes him or herself as the author of the story, a book in which the book itself seeks interaction with the reader, a story in which the readers of the story itself force the author to change the story, narrative footnotes, which continue the story while commenting on it or a story in which the characters are aware that they are in a story.

Western

devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West. This genre sometimes portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original (Native American) inhabitants of the frontier. Lullaby.

Des Imagistes

edited by Ezra Pound and published in 1914, was the first anthology of the Imagism movement. It was published in The Glebe, and later that year as a book. The eleven authors featured were: Richard Aldington, Skipwith Cannell , John Cournos, H. D., F. S. Flint, Ford Madox Ford, James Joyce, Amy Lowell, Ezra Pound, Allen Upward, William Carlos Williams.

Popular culture

ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images, and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society. From the end of World War II, following major cultural and social changes brought by mass media innovations, the meaning of __________ began to overlap with those of mass culture, media culture, image culture, consumer culture, and culture for mass consumption.

Pastiche

imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, ___________ celebrates, rather than mocks, the work it imitates. Irony. Basic concept of postmodernism. Neil Gaimann: A Study in Emerald.

Mimesis

imitation or representation of something else by embodying its essence rather than an attempt to literally duplicate the original. In Imagism, poets were not allowed to use _________, that is, to write something in an illusionistic way. Instead, they had to use "direct treatment".

Detective fiction

is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective investigates a crime, often murder. True ________ in the English-speaking world is considered to have begun in 1841 with the publication of Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." The period of the 1920s and 1930s is generally referred to as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

Formalist poetry

late-20th and early 21st century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical and rhymed verse. Despite the formal innovations of Modernism as exemplified in the work of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, and the widespread appearance of free verse in the early decades of the 20th century, many poets chose to continue working predominantly in traditional forms, such as Robert Frost.

Objective correlative

literary term referring to a symbolic article used to provide explicit, rather than implicit, access to such traditionally inexplicable concepts as emotion or color. It was popularized by T. S. Eliot: you need a layer of objects, which later provides the symbolism and evokes the emotion the poet wants to evoke. The ____________ purpose is to express the character's emotions by showing rather than describing feelings as pictured earlier by anyone.

Simulacrum

means "likeness, similarity," an image without the substance or qualities of the original. __________ often appear in speculative fiction, e.g. Frankenstein or the claws in The Second Variety.

beat poetry

mid-1950s and 1960s. It incorporates a free-form type of writing that promotes individualism and the idea of spiritual emptiness, rejection of received standards, innovations in style, experimentation with drugs, alternative sexualities, an interest in religion. They were disillusioned with their views of the postwar culture of conformity and materialism. ________ was often recited orally. Members of the _____ Generation typically would gather at Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco to read poetry, usually accompanied by jazz. Drugs and Zen Buddhism were sources of inspiration. Themes: liberation for black people, homosexuals, women, and Native Americans. Major influences of Thoreau, Blake, Emmerson, Pound, W. C. Williams, H.D.... Beat Generation & Significant figures: Allen Ginsberg (Howl), William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), Jack Kerouac (On the Road)...

Imagism

movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favoured precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. As a poetic style it gave Modernism its start in the early 20th century, and is considered to be the first organized Modernist literary movement in the English language. The _________ rejected the sentiment and discursiveness. __________ called for a return to what were seen as more Classical values, such as directness of presentation and economy of language, as well as a willingness to experiment with non- traditional verse forms. _________ use free verse. Poet's Club. Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell.

Black Mountain poets

or projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodernpoets centered on Black Mountain College which launched a remarkable number of the artists who spearheaded the avant-garde in the America of the 1960s. In 1950, Charles Olson published his essay, Projective Verse that became a kind of de facto manifesto for the ________. Poets: Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, Denise Levertov and Robert Creeley.

Experimentalism

refers to written work — usually fiction or poetry — that emphasizes innovation, most especially in technique. In the 1910s, artistic _________ became a prominent force, and various European and American writers began ________ with the given forms. The Cantos of Ezra Pound, the post-WWI work of T. S. Eliot, prose and plays by Gertrude Stein, were some of the most influential works of the time, though James Joyce's Ulysses is generally considered the most important work of the time. The novel ultimately influenced not only more _________ writers, such as Virginia Woolf and John Dos Passos, but also less ________ writers, such as Hemingway.

metatheatrical devices

reflecting comedy and tragedy, at the same time, where the audience can laugh at the protagonist while feeling empathetic simultaneously. 1. ceremony within a play, 2. role-playing within a role, 3. reference to reality, 4. self-reference of the drama, 5. play within a play.

cultural pluralism

smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and their values and practices are accepted by the wider culture provided they are consistent with the laws and values of the wider society. It's often confused with Multiculturalism, which lacks the requirement of a dominant culture.

Melodrama

strictly: drama and music together. They were very sentimental and emotional, that is why __________ also means very emotional, pathetic dramas even without music. A dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions, often with strongly stereotyped characters. ________ is a style of drama that has been applied on the stage, in movies and television, and radio formats, from the 18th century to the present.

canonization

the _________ applies a certain validity or authority to a work of literature. When a work is entered into the _________, thus ________, it gains status as an official inclusion into a group of literary works that are widely studied and respected. There are no rigid qualifications for _________ and over time, works may be added or subtracted from the _______.

Objectism

the attitude, or the role of poet as mere object among other objects in nature, required for writing such poetry. Olson rejected humanism's tendencies to privilege the human observer and to demote surrounding nature as resources and implements. Charles Olson - Projective Verse. "Getting rid of the lyrical interference of the individual as ego, of the "subject" and his soul [...] For man is himself an object."

epistemology

the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge and is also referred to as "theory of knowledge." It questions what knowledge is and how it can be acquired, and the extent to which knowledge pertinent to any given subject or entity can be acquired. Much of the debate in this field has focused on the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification.

Metatextual

the explicit or implicit critical commentary of one text on another text.

Domestic realism

the leading characters belong to the middle class, usually represented in tragic drama in which the action concerns family affairs rather than public matters of state. Can be found in the American tragedies of Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller. ________ is sometimes known as 'bourgeois tragedy.'

Mass culture

the set of ideas and values that develop from a common exposure to the same media, news sources, music, and art. _________ is broadcast or otherwise distributed to individuals instead of arising from their day-to-day interactions with each other. Thus, _________ generally lacks the unique content of local communities and regional cultures. It developed in the 1990s in the United States due to the proliferation of newspapers and mass transit with the finish of the transcontinental railroad.

Lost generation

they came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to Gertrude Stein, who was then his mentor and patron. T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alan Seeger. _______ means not vanished but disoriented, wandering, directionless — a recognition that there was great confusion and aimlessness among the war's survivors in the early post-war years.

bricolage

tinkering, in the practical and the fine arts it is the construction of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work created by such a process. The term ________ has also been used in many other fields. In literature, it's affected by intertextuality , the shaping of a text's meanings by reference to other texts.