GLOSSARY LITERATURE

POINT OF VIEW OR NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE

* Narrative point of view: the perspective (or type of personal or non-personal "lens") through which a story is communicated * Narrative voice: the format (or type of presentational form) through which a story is communicated * Narrative time: the placement of the story's time-frame in the past, the present, or the future

RHETORICAL FIGURES OR FIGURES OF SPEECH

A figure of speech or rhetorical figure[1] is figurative language in the form of a single word or phrase. It can be a special repetition, arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words. There are mainly five figures of speech: simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification and synecdoche. Figures of speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use, as any figure of speech introduces an ambiguity between literal and figurative interpretation. Rhetoric originated as the study of the ways in which a source text can be transformed to suit the goals of the person reusing the material. For this goal, classical rhetoric detected four fundamental operations[2] that can be used to transform a sentence or a larger portion of a text: expansion, abridgement, switching, transferring and so on.

METAPHOR

A metaphor is an expression related to a particular object or idea, but apllied to another word or sentence to mean that there is a similarity between them. Examples: "The curtain of night" "All the world´s a stage"

SHORT STORY

A short story is a short work of fiction, usually written in a narrative prose, shorter than a novel and usually deals with a few characters. The short story has usually only one or a few significant episodes or scenes, character is seldom fully developed. Before the 19th century the short story was not generally regarded as a distinct literary form. It emerged from earlier oral storytelling traditions, often told in the form of rhyming. In Europe, the oral story-telling tradition began to develop into written stories in the early 14th century, most notably with Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. Examples in English literature ● Rudyard Kipling - Plain Tales from the Hills ● Graham Greene - Twenty-One Stories ● Roald Dahl - Lamb to the Slaughter; Kiss, kiss Examples in Irish literature ● James Joyce - Dubliners Examples in American literature ● Washington Irving - The Sleepy Hollow, Rip van Winkle ● Edgar Allan Poe - The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart ● Herman Melville - The Piazza Tales ● James Baldwin - Going to Meet the Man

ALLITERATION

Alliteration is derived from Latin's "Latira". It means "letters of alphabet". It is a stylistic device in which a number of words, having the same first consonant sound or stressed syllables, occur close together in a series. It creates a musical effect in the text that enhances the pleasure of reading a literary piece. Examples in literature: · From William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" (prologue to Act 1) "From forth the fatal loins of these two foes; A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life." · Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway "I'll kill him though," he said. "In all his greatness and his glory." · The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." We can also see alliteration in our daily life: PayPal Coca-Cola American Airlines Or in names of people, making such names prominent and easy to be remembered. Marvel comic book company is also known for frequent using alliteration in names of main characters. Ronald Reagan William Wordsworth Mickey Mouse Lois Lane Marilyn Monroe

AMBIGUITY

Ambiguity Definition: 1) the state of being ambiguous (capable of more than one interpretation) or imprecise in meaning 2) an ambiguous or imprecise word or expression 3) uncertainty of meaning or significance Example: We met by the bank (without explanation we do not know, whether "bank" stands for the building or the edge of river.

ANGRY YOUNG MEN

Angry Young Men - British literary group describing young writers who were characterised by a disillusionment with traditional British society - The era began with the novel Hurry on Down by John Wain and Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis in 1950s - The play Look Back in Anger is a typical and representative work of this movement - The Angry Young Men expressed in their works the disagreement with the post-war situation, prejudices of the upper-class, with the development of the literature and with the programme of the Welfare State. - "Their novels and plays typically feature a rootless, lower-middle or working-class male protagonist who views society with scorn and sardonic humour and may have conflicts with authority but who is nevertheless preoccupied with the quest for upward mobility." - Their style was strongly leftist, they criticised consumer society and british habits, they despised with the sociopolitical order in their country Representatives and their works: John Osborne: Look Back in Anger (1956) John Wain: Hurry on Down (1953) Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim (1954) John Braine: Room at the Top (1957)

BALLAD

BALLAD DEFINITION 1. a. A narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain. b. The music for such a poem. 2. A popular song especially of a romantic or sentimental nature. Ballads are normally composed in two kinds of stanzas; the first consists of a couplet of lines each with four stressed syllables, and with an interwoven refrain: But it would have made your heart right sair, With a hey ho and a lillie gay To see the bridegroom rive his haire. As the primrose spreads so sweetly The second stanza of alternating lines of four stresses and three stresses, the second and fourth lines rhyming: There lived a wife at Usher's Well, And a wealthy wife was she; She had three stout and stalwart sons, And sent them o'er the sea. ("The Wife of Usher's Well" , the author and origin are not known, but is commonly dated as being 17th century.) A ballad is not technically a ballad unless it is sung; but though tunes and texts are dynamically interdependent, it is not unusual to find the same version of a ballad being sung to a variety of tunes of suitable rhythm and metre or to find the same tune being used for several different ballads. EXAMPLE "The Wife of Usher's Well" version by Lesley Nelson-Burns The story is that a mother looses her sons at sea. When she finds that they cannot be recovered, she goes mad. She then uses magic to compel their return, but they return as ghosts and must vanish with the morning. This ballad is also known as The Miracle at Usher's Well. This ballad is Child Ballad #79. "I wish the wind may never cease, Nor fashes in the flood, Till my three sons come home to me, In earthly flesh and blood."

THE BEAT GENERATION

BEAT GENERATION definition: Beat movement, also called Beat Generation, American social and literary movement originating in the 1950s and centred in the bohemian artist communities of San Francisco's North Beach, Los Angeles' Venice West, and New York City's Greenwich Village. Folksongs, readings and discussions often took place in Washington Square Park. It was a group of authors whose literature explored and influenced American culture in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized throughout the 1950s. Central elements of Beat culture are rejection of standard narrative values, the spiritual quest, exploration of American and Eastern religions, rejection of materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration. In the 1960s, elements of the expanding Beat movement were incorporated into the hippie and larger counterculture movements. example: Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), William S. Burrough's Naked Lunch (1959) and Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) are among the best known examples of Beat literatur

CAESURA

Caesura, ( Latin: "cutting off,") also spelled cesura , in modern prosody, a pause within a poetic line that breaks the regularity of the metrical pattern. It is represented in scansion by the sign ||. The caesura sometimes is used to emphasize the formal metrical construction of a line, but it more often introduces the cadence of natural speech patterns and habits of phrasing into the metrical scheme. The caesura may coincide with conventional punctuation marks, yet it is not a general rule. example 1: This blessed plot, || this earth, || this realm, || this England,... W. Shakespeare example 2: Alas, how chang'd! || what sudden horrors rise! A naked lover || bound and bleeding lies! Where, where was Eloise? || her voice, her hand, Her poniard, || had oppos'd the dire command. Barbarian, stay! || that bloody stroke restrain;... Death, || only death, can break the lasting chain; Alexander Pop

CATHARSIS

Catharsis Definitions: Catharsis, 42: Greek: "clensing"; term from Aristotele's theory of drama. It argues that tragedy has a cleansing and purging effect on the viewer.1 Catharsis, the purification or purgation of the emotions (especially pity and fear) primarily through art.2 Catharsis, the purging or purification of the emotions through the evocation of pity and fear, as in tragedy.3 Examples: A 16th-century examples of a catharsises are Shakespeare's tragedies such as Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet. The audiance often regrets the tragic central figure of those plays. To be more specific, we may look at the last scene of the Romeo and Juliet. "In "Romeo and Juliet", Romeo commits suicide by drinking the poison that he erroneously thinks Juliet had tasted too. The audience usually finds themselves crying at this particular moment for several reasons. Primarily because losing a loved one is a feeling that all of us share. Watching or reading such a scene triggers the memories of someone we have lost (either by death or by mere separation) and because we are able to relate to it, we suddenly release the emotions that we have been repressing."4

CONFLICT AND COMPLICATION

Conflict or complication Can be expressed as a disagreement between two characters. The conflict usually drives the plot of the novel or play and increases the action. The conflict can be: internal, some protagonists struggle within the self (drugs, self-destruction, etc.) - Shakespeare, Hamlet man vs man - Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code man vs.nature. - Melville, Moby Dick

CHRONICLE

Chronicle is a continuous historical account of events arranged in order of time without analysis or interpretation. Examples of such accounts date from Greek and Roman times, but the best-known chronicles were written or compiled in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. These were composed in prose or verse, and, in addition to providing valuable information about the period they covered, they were used as sources by William Shakespeare and other playwrights. Some chronicles are written from first-hand knowledge, some are from witnesses or participants in events, still others are accounts passed mouth to mouth prior to being written down. Some made use of written materials; charters, letters, or the works of earlier chroniclers. Scholars categorize the genre of chronicle into two subgroups: live chronicles, and dead chronicles. A dead chronicle is one where the author gathers his list of events up to the time of his writing, but does not record further events as they occur. A live chronicle is where one or more authors add to a chronicle in a regular fashion, recording contemporary events shortly after they occur. The word is from the Middle English cronicle, which is thought to have been ultimately derived from the Greek chrónos, "time." Examples include The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, started under the patronage of King Alfred in the 9th century and continued until the 12th century Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykil, and Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande

CLIMAX

Climax Definition: in dramatic and non-dramatic fiction, the point at which the highest level of interest and emotional response is achieved. Gustav Freytag defines the climax as the third of the five dramatic phases which occupies the middle of the story. Example: William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished from Verona.

CLOSE READING

Close reading means reading to uncover layers of meaning that lead to deep comprehension. One should re-read inherently complex texts and use their critical thinking to fully understand what is really written in the texts. example: When reading a text, people should always keep in mind these simple questions: What is the author telling me here? Are there any hard or important words? What does the author want me to understand? How does the author play with language to add to meaning?

COUPLET

Couplet Definition A pair of successive lines of verse, they usually rhyme and have same length A pair, couple Origin of the word Middle French, 1570 - 1580, meaning a couple Types of couplet Closed = Formal Each of the two lines is end-stopped Open = Run-On First line continues to the second line, this is called enjambement Couplets are regularly used as units of composition in long poems but they can be composed as independent poems or function as parts of other verse forms, such as the Shakespearean sonnet, which is concluded with a couplet. Examples Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief; Ah, more than share it, give me all thy grief. —(Alexander Pope, "Eloisa to Abelard") Think what you will, we seize into our hands His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands. —(William Shakespeare,Richard II)

DACTYL

Dactyl - it is a metrical foot, which consists of: one long/stressed syllable two short/unstressed syllable - dactyl hexameter = the most common metre - dactyl is not used often in English verse, because using this metrical foot tends to distorting normal word accents - it appears e.g. in Robert Browning's or Algernon Charles Swinburne's poetry - e.g.: Lord Byron - Bride of Abydos external image 16056-004-37795A5F.jpg

DENOTATION

Denotation the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word orexpression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associatedwith it or suggested by it; the association or set of associations that aword usually elicits for most speakers of a language, as distinguishedfrom those elicited for any individual speaker because of personalexperience Denotation and Connotation In literary works, we find it a common practice with writers to deviate from the dictionary meanings of words to create fresher ideas and images. Such deviations from the literal meanings are called the use of figurative language or literary devices e.g. metaphors, similes, personifications, hyperboles, understatements, paradoxes, and puns etc. Even in our daily conversation, we diverge from the dictionary meanings of words and prefer connotative or associated meanings of words in order to accurately convey our message. Below is a list of some common deviations from denotative meanings of words that we experience in our day to day life: a dog is used to suggest shamelessness or an ugly face a dove is used to suggest peace or gentility home is used to suggest family, comfort and security politician has a negative connotation of wicked and insincere person mom and dad when used instead of mother and father suggest loving parents Examples in literature William Shakespeare - As you like it

DENOUEMENT

Denouement is derived from a French word called "denoue" that means "to untie". The denouement is a literary device which can be defined as the resolution of the issue of a complicated plot in fiction.1 Denouement is a part of dramatic structure which is usually at the end of a plot. Dramatic structure: 1 Exposition 2 Rising action 3 Climax 4 Falling action 5 Denouement (resolution) Examples: Majority of the most examples of denouement occur at the end of works of art. This part is often called an epilogue. However in some mystery novels the denouement and the climax (a part of a plot which precedes denouement) might occur simultaneously.1 "The denouement in The Great Gatsby happens when Nick decides to go back to Minnesota to get away from the rich people who are engaged in all those things which Nick thinks are part of the moral worthlessness in Gatsby's life. All the people in Gatsby's circle were unfaithful."1

DISCOURSE

Discourse Definition: simply conversation, a verbal exchange of ideas (expression of thought through language) sort of like a speech or an essay generalization of conversation within each modality and context of communication 4 types of discourse: 1) Argument = communication convincing an audience that the writer's or speaker's claim is correct cause he uses evidence and reason 2) Narration = communication telling a story, often with emotion and empathy involved 3) Description = communication that relies on the five senses to help the audience visualize something 4) Exposition = inform the audience of something with neutral language (not persuation or evoking emotion) Another division: a) Poetic = creative, fictional writing e.g. novels, poems, drama. It prioritizes emotion, imagery, using metaphor and symbolism. b) Expressive = creative, non-fiction e.g. memoirs, letters, online blogs. c) Transactional = it propels something into action e.g. advertising motivating a customer to buy. Often does not rely on literary devices. Examples: Poetic discourse 'I marvel how Nature could ever find space For so many strange contrasts in one human face: There!s thought and no thought, and there's paleness and bloom And bustle and sluggishness, pleasure and gloom.' Naration (to tell a funny story) 'When you buy a box of Ritz crackers, on the back of the box, they have all these suggestions as to what to put on top of the Ritz. "Try it with turkey and cheese. Try it with peanut butter." But I like crackers man, that's why I bought it, 'cause I like crackers! I don't see a suggestion to put a Ritz on top of a Ritz. I didn't buy them because they're little edible plates! You've got no faith in the product itself.'

DOUBLE ENTENDRE

Double entendre It's a word or a phrase, that has two meanings. One of the meanings is usually some sexual or dirty (entendre=meaning, so basically double meaning). The second meaning can be intentional or unintentional. Examples: A new McDonald's advertising bilboard using a questionable double entendre has courted controversy. The ad uses the slogan "a prize to make your sausage sizzle". "The only thing we don't have a god for is premature ejaculation, but I hear that it's coming quickly." - Mel Brooks

DYSTOPIA

Dystopia A literary genre, also called anti-utopia, which in time derived from utopia, due to despair over seeming impossibility of utopia. Therefore dystopia is direct opposite to utopia - foretelling some kind of doom in form of physical destruction or social decay, often meaning a place, where people live under some kind of oppression, often without realizing it. Most of the time, an individual's freedom of mind or body (or both) is restricted or denied completely and the individual is forced to adapt and function within the system. Dystopian world is exaggerated and extreme illustration of current trends, political systems, norms in society etc. Deviation or dissent in dystopian society are unthinkable, as well as individuality. Usually some form of propaganda and withholding information is used to control population. People are led to believe the system is the only possible way to live and thus creating an illusion of perfect world that needs to be protected at all cost. Also, a representative of such system is often worshiped by the people. 1984.jpg This genre often uses science fiction, apocalyptic or even fantasy settings for its depiction of future, as these help setup radical order of society, which might otherwise be hard to imagine. There are many types of dystopias, based on the origin of power or ideology, for example: 1) Corporate - large corporations control society through media and products 2) Technological - citizens are dependent or controlled by computers, robots or enhancements 3) Philosophical - single philosophy or religion is enforced through dictatorship or some form of oligarchy The most noticeable works would be, probably due to its movie adaptation, Orwell's 1984 (1949), a very depressive vision of world controlled by totalitarian governments constantly waging wars to justify themselves and to provide purpose for its citizens. (1945) Animal farm was also written by Orwell.

ELIZABETHAN AGE

Elizabethan age is considered to be the most enriching era for literature not only because the most famous British writers were composing throughout this era but after this age sudden darkening times came. Elizabethan age is a part of English Renaissance therefore romance was very important for all types of literature. Those times were influenced by other countries such as Italy or France. Elizabethan age was named after Queen Elizabeth I. who was reigning at the time (1558 - 1603). The name "Elizabethan" is not based on any typical style of writing but simply names the historical era. To mention a few of the famous writers - Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Roger Ascham, Richard Hooker, Christopher Marlowe (Doctor Faustus, Edward II.,), William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear). Especially for literature this was the golden era. To name a few relevant terms that became more noticeable in poetry - a sonnet, a dramatic blank verse or a Spenserian stanza. Drama also became more popular thanks to the works of William Shakespeare. Prose was inspired by all the changes and many historical texts were written and also criticism of some of the first English novels appeared. After Elizabethan age Jacobean age followed, however it was not seen as successful as the previous one.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

Elizabethan theatre refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1603. Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) was very interested in theatre, especially in drama. In 1574, regular weekday performances were legitimized and in 1576, the first playhouse was built. It was called the Theatre. Others followed, including the Curtain, the Rose, the Swan and the Globe. All these were situated in London. Thanks to these newly established public theatres, there was a big demand for the plays. Generally professional companies operated under the patronage of a member of the nobility. Companies paid rent to the patron, who paid their salaries. But in the Shakespeare's company, known as the Chamberlain´s Men (later renamed the King's Men), the actors owned their playhouse, prompt books, costumes, and properties, and they shared in the profits. The most important representatives are William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.

ENGLISH OR SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET

English or Shakespearean sonnet Definiton: the traditional sonnet form in English literature, which consists of three quatrains and one couplet and uses iambic pentameter as its meter: its fourteen lines follow the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg. The couplet plays a pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end. Example: In Sonnet 130 of William Shakespeare's epic sonnet cycle, the first twelve lines compare the speaker's mistress unfavorably with nature's beauties. But the concluding couplet swerves in a surprising direction: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

EPIC

Epic A long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds. Back in the literary usage, the term belongs to oral and written compossitions. In fact, the origins was the oral tradition. The content of this literature is: myths, heroic legends, histories, religious tales, animal stories or philosophical or moral theories. Epic literature has educational purposes (stories like these have content with (in)direct knowledge to transmit to the society) and also they have been used as an heroic component of the nation. -Example: The fact that we can find out a lot of epic literature, has made that we have a huge variaty of film productions based on these stories. In my particular choice, I would like to show one film that has many examples of this literature. The well-known film is called "Hercules", a Disney production in 1997 which shows a compilation of myths' stories in a cartoon version.

EUPHEMISM

Euphemism comes from the Greek word εὐφημία (euphemia), meaning "the use of words in good omen". Euphemism is a polite and more pleasant word or phrase that we use to avoid saying something that may be shocking or embarrassing. Euphemisms are used to refer to taboo topics (such as disability, sex, excretion, and death) in a polite way, or to mask profanity. Examples: - when we talk about death: to be in a heaven/ has gone to a better place / pass away Adults often say to their children that grandma or grandpa are in the heaven. to put someone/something to a sleep When the vet has to kill an animal we say that he put it to a sleep. - when we talk about sex: have sex = make love genitalia = private parts porn movie = adult movie - others toilet = bathroom fart = pass wind drunk = tired and emotional stupid = intellectually impaired blind = visually impaired deaf = hearing impaired old person = senior citizen fire somebody = make someone redundant prison = correctional facility

EXPRESSIONISM

Expressionism definition: An art movement that spread from germany at the beginning of 20th century. It rose as a reaction against materialism. It's concer is with general truths rather than with particular situations; hence, it explored the predicaments of repesentative symbolic types rather than of fully developed individualized characters. Emphasis was lad not on the outer world, which is merely sketched in and barely defined in place or time, but on the internal, on an individual's mental state; hence, the imitation of life is replaced in Expressionism by the ecstatic evocation of states of mind. The main character in an Expressionist book often pours out his or her woes in long monologues couched in a concentrated, elliptical, almost telegrammatic language. examples: Poetry: The 20th century poet born in Prague - Franz Werfel. An Old Woman Passes An old woman passes like a rotund tower Down the street, stormed by a leafy shower. Soon she disappears, and panting, trots Where black mists in gusty nooks are blowing. the rest is here Through the woman's state we can see the situation in that time's society. With obvious anti-materialistic statements. Her mental state is also nicely expressed. The general truth revealed in this poem is that people didn't (and still don't) treat old people nice, because they aren't able to contribute to the materialistic society any longer. Fine arts: The Scream, one of the most famous paintings nowadays by Edvard Munch displays person's feelings through distortion of the world around it, even more than the person screaming in the painting itself.

FABLIAU

Fabliau is a short metrical tale; a short narrative in verse, usually comic, often cynical. It was often anonymous, written by professional storytellers and jongleurs. Fabliau was popular in medieval France. The majority of fabliaux are erotic; recurring characters include the cuckold and his wife, the lover, and the naughty priest. Examples: - The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - For example Moliére, Jean de La Fontaine and Voltaire were influenced by Fabliaux

FEMINIST LITERARY THEORY

Feminist literary theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical discourse. It examines women's social roles, experience, interest, chores and feminist politics in a variety of fields, such as literature, anthropology, sociology, communication, psychoanalysis etc. Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist thoeries or politics. Its history has been varied, from classic works of female authors such as George Eliot, Virginia Woolf and Margaret Fuller to recent theoretical work in women's studies and gender studies by third - wave authors. Example: George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway

FICTION

Fiction is a literature not entirely factual, but at least partially imagined. In older secondary sources it is often used synonymously with epic. Types of literature in the fiction genre include the novel, short story, and novella. The word is from the Latin fictiō, "the act of making, fashioning, or moulding. examples: Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot (early postmodern fiction) Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire (US metafiction) Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose („metaphysical" detective fiction)

FLASHBACK

Flashback definition: - a part of a film/movie, play that shows a scene that happened earlier in time than the main story - a sudden, very clear and strong memory of something that happened in the past that is so real you feel that you are living through the experience again. example: The events that led up to the murder were shown in a series of flashbacks. The flashback technique is also used in literature. We can find one of the first examples in the Odyssey, where most of the adventures that befell Odysseus on his journey home from Troy are told in flashback by Odysseus. In movies, the flashback is created not only by narrative devices but also by several camera techniques and by using special effects that should alert the viewer that the action shown is a flashback. (for example the edges of the pictures may be deliberately blurred)

FLAT CHARACTER

Flat character is an imaginary person. It exists only in a book or a movie, etc. It has only bare minimum of characteristics necessary to play their role in the story. It is relatively uncomplicated character and does not change throughout the course of story. There is no mental or emotional development. Example Mrs. Micawber in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield (1849-50)

FOCALISM

Focalism When we are experiencing emotions about a current or anticipated event, we tend to think just about that event and forget about the other things that happen. Focalism thus happens where we tend to assume that our feelings are driven by a single event in current focus and not the complexity of events we experience.

FOOT

Foot Definition: In a verse, it is the smallest metrical unit of measurement. The dominant kind and number of feet determines the metre of a poem. In classical verse, a foot is a combination of two or more short (known as arsis) and long (known as thesis) syllables. The most common feet in English are the iamb (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable), trochee (a stressed followed by an unstressed syllable), anapest (two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable) and the dactyl (a stressed followed by two unstressed syllables). If a single line of poem contains only one foot, it is called monometer; two feet, dimeter; three feet, trimeter; four feet, tetrameter; five feet, pentameter; six feet, hexameter. More than six feet is rare, Examples: report: - / (unstressed, stressed) -> iamb daily: / - (stressed, unstressed )-> trochee serenade: - - / (unstressed, unstressed, stressed) -> anapest merrily: / - - (stressed, unstressed, unstressed) -> dactyl

FREYTAG'S TRIANGLE

Freytag´s triangle BEGINNING(incentive moment)--complication, raising action--MIDDLE(climax, crisis, reversal, peripetia)--falling action--END(resolution, causes stresed, effects, down played)

FORMALISM

Formalism: definition: A literary movement, which deals with the formal structure of the text. Formalism is often associated with the Russian Formalism, which was found out in the 20th-century in Russia. Formalists could not find the elements which were making the literary works "bad" or "good". According to them, every work contains its own internal functions which make it unique. Formalism in literature deals with the form of each individual part of the text. Is not just about the elements of literature, it emphasizes the structure - the form, the shape, the characters, the tone and so on. example: In the work by Vladimir Propp - Morphology of the Tale (Leningrad 1928), we can find the elements of formalism. The publication contains the structural description of one hundred Russian folk tales. Vladimir Propp separates the individual tales into categories. Thus he creates a set of thirty one functions, which are marked with particular symbols and matched to each role of character in the plot.

FRAMING METHODS IN LITERATURE

Framing methods in literature Framing method in literature is using the same features, wording, setting, situation, or topic at both the beginning and end of a literary work so as to "frame" it or "enclose it." This technique often provides a sense of cyclical completeness or closure. It is often used to refer to two basic methods of framing. First one is Framing narrative / it is used in those situations, when the narrative is introducing another narrative whose story is the main one. Another classic example is the Framing story, in other words it is a technique where the authors tells a story within a story. A classical example is the beautiful Arabic fairy tale One Thousand and One Nights which combines both of these methods.

GENRE

Genre is a distinctive type or category of literary composition, such as the epic, tragedy, comedy, novel, and short story. Example: An example of genres in literature could be: A political satire (George Orwell; Animal farm) A fantasy novel (Philip Pullman; Nothern lights) Epic heroic poetry (Beowulf)

HERMENEUTICS

Hermeneutics (/hɛrməˈnuːtɪks/ or /hɛrməˈnjuːtɪks/) is the theory and methodology of text interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts,wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics - singular noun, refers to some particular method of interpretation. Hermeneutics - derived from the Greek word ἑρμηνεύω (hermeneuō, "translate, interpret") Hermeneutics was initially applied to the interpretation, or exegesis, of scripture. It emerged as a theory of human understanding in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries through the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey. Modern hermeneutics includes both verbal and nonverbal communication as well as semiotics, presuppositions, and preunderstandings. Example: 1.Hermeneutics in sociology: Hermeneutics is a branch of sociology concerned with human understanding and interpretation. Originally applied solely to texts, sociologists have applied hermeneutics to social events by examining participants' understandings of the events from the standpoint of their specific historical and cultural context. 2. Biblical hermeneutics Biblical hermeneutics is perhaps summarized best by 2 Timothy 2:15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Biblical hermeneutics is the science of properly interpreting the various types of literature found in the Bible. For example, a psalm should often be interpreted differently from a prophecy. A proverb should be understood and applied differently from a law. This is the purpose of biblical hermeneutics—to help us to know how to interpret, understand, and apply the Bible. Recommended book - Bible interpretation by Roy Zuck.

HERO'S JOURNEY

Hero's journey The picture describing hero's journey:- it's also called "Monomyth" - the idea was introduced by Joseph Campbell - it's found in many stories all over the world - The monomyth has seventeen steps(by Campbell): the call to an adventure refusal of the call supernatural aid crossing the threshold belly of the whale initation the meeting with the goddess woman as temptrest atonement with the father the ultimate boon refusal of the return the magic flight rescue from without the crossing of the return threshold master of two worlds freedom to live Examples: Star Wars, Matrix, Avatar; but it's also used in a religious system, such as stories about Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, Moses. Moreover, we can see it fairy tales.

HISTORY PLAY

History play is a drama with a theme from history. It mostly wants to reach the public welfare by pointing to the past as a lesson for the present. It uses real historical personalities or events but not always in the exact historical circumstances. The history play first took its modern form in Tudor England - represented by John Skelton and his "Magnyfycence". The best known examples of the genre are the history plays written by William Shakespeare (Henry VI, parts 2 and 3) and Christopher Marlowe (Edward II). History plays also appear elsewhere in British and Western literature, such as Thomas Heywood's "Edward IV", Schiller's "Mary Stuart" or the Dutch genre Gijsbrecht van Aemstel.

HYPERBOLE

Hyperbole is a figure of speech that is an intentional exaggeration for emphasis or comic effect. Hyperbole is common in love poetry, in which it is used to convey the lover's intense admiration for his beloved. An example is the following passage describing Portia: Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match And on the wager lay two earthly women, And Portia one, there must be something else Pawned with the other, for the poor rude world Hath not her fellow. —(Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice) We can find another example of hyberbole in works of Joseph Conrad. This one from his novel "The Heart of Darkness", "I had to wait in the station for ten days-an eternity." (The wait of ten days seemed to last forever and never end.) When hyperbole fails to create the desired dramatic effect, exaggeration may seem ridiculous.

IAMBUS

Iambus or iamb (pl iambuses or iambs or iambi) is a metrical foot consisting of one short or unstressed syllable followed by one long or stressed syllable. Most of Shakespeare's verse is written in iambic pentameter (rhythm with each line made of five iambic pairs) Example: Shall I / compare / thee to / a sum/mer's day? Thou art / more love/ly and / more tem/perate (Sonnet 18)

IDYLL

Idyll Origins The origins of this literal form are to be found in Greco-Roman antiquity. The term idyll comes from Greek word eidyllion which means "little picture". Definition a short poem describing rural or pastoral life in which the description of natural objects was introduced. a simple descriptive or narrative piece in verse or prose material suitable for such a work an episode or scene of idyllic charm a brief or inconsequential romantic affair in music: a composition, usually instrumental of a pastoral or sentimental character The main author of idylls (poems) is considered to be Theocritus (born c. 300 BC - died after 260 BC) and his work Idylls. The word was revived during Renaissance era and his general use began to spread in the 19th century. There were two popular works, Idylles heroïques (1858, Victor-Richard de Laprade) and Idylls of the King (1859, Alfred, Lord Tennyson). However, neither of them is related to the pastoral tradition. Thereafter the word was used aimlessly to describe works on a variety of subjects.

IDYLL 2

Idyll 2 Idyll is a short poem of a pastoral or rural character in which something of the element of landscape is depicted or suggested. Also it presents an idealized story of happy innocence. The conventions of the pastoral were developed by the Alexandrian school of poetry, particularly by Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, in the 3rd century bc, and the Idylls of Theocritus are the source of the popular idea of this type of poem. Idyll in poetry The Shepherd by William Blake This first poem in Blake's collection of Songs of Innocence captures the pastoral ideal of natural purity that is reflected in the blamelessness of the young. Urban living was often viewed as unclean--a departure from the realm of Nature. How sweet is the shepherd's sweet lot! From the morn to the evening he strays; He shall follow his sheep all the day, And his tongue shall be filled with praise. For he hears the lambs' innocent call, And he hears the ewes' tender reply; He is watchful while they are in peace, Idylls of the King - Tennyson presents an idealized, poetic account of Camelot´s innocent existance before its fall to the forces of barbarism, impurity and vice.

IMAGINERY

Imagery as a general term covers the use of language to represent objects, actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any sensory or extra-sensory experience. Usually it is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that create visual representation of ideas in our minds. The word imagery is associated with mental pictures. However, this idea is but partially correct. An 'image' does not necessarily mean a mental picture, but may appeal to senses other than sight. function: The function of imagery in literature is to generate a vibrant and graphic presentation of a scene that appeals to as many of the reader's senses as possible. It aids the reader's imagination to envision the characters and scenes in the literary piece clearly. Apart from the above mentioned function, images, which are drawn by using figures of speech like metaphor, simile, personification, onomatopoeia etc. serve the function of beautifying a piece of literature. example: Imagery of light and darkness is repeated many times in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". An example from Act I, Scene V: "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;" Romeo praises Juliet by saying that she appears more radiant than the brightly lit torches in the hall. He says that at night her face glows like a bright jewel shining against the dark skin of an African. Through the contrasting images of light and dark, Romeo portrays Juliet's beauty.

OMNISCIENT POINT OF VIEW

In Omniscient Points of View a narrator knows all the thoughts and feelings of all the characters in the story. When writing in third person omniscient, the author will move from character to character, allowing the events to be interpreted by several different voices, but always maintaining an omniscient - or godlike - distance. In Limited Omniscient Points of View the narrator has limited knowledge of just one character, leaving other major or minor characters. The purpose of using omniscient technique is to allow the audience to know everything about the characters. This is how they can get an insight into characters' minds and create a bond with them. Readers also see and observe the responses of multiple characters that help them understand the plot of the narrative. In addition, readers can have an objective interpretation of the characters and events, in contrast to more personal or subjective interpretations. Finally, an omniscient narrator allows for a better storytelling, as it involves multiple characters, and several plot lines with different interpretations of the same event. Thus, a story could be more interesting, when plot moves from character to character. Two big disadvantages, however are that the reader has a broad view, not an intimate one. He or she can't identify particularly with any specific character. There's a big danger of losing the reader's interest as they just won't care what happens because they're not feeling empathy with any specific character. The second one is that it can be very jarring and disconcerting, particularly if story starts off in one person's thoughts, and suddenly announce what another character is thinking. This can easily knocks the reader out of their reading trance. Dan Brown in his novel, Da Vinci Code, for example uses omniscient narrative and employs several characters to speak in front of the audience, demonstrating what each character thinks and sees. Also the narrator provides information about the background and related knowledge that characters are unaware of. Example from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling "Harry had taken up his place at wizard school, where he and his scar were famous ...but now the school year was over, and he was back with the Dursleys for the summer, back to being treated like a dog that had rolled in something smelly...The Dursleys hadn't even remembered that today happened to be Harry's twelfth birthday. Of course, his hopes hadn't been high?" Rowling employs omniscient limited narrator in which readers see what Harry observes, and know what he feels and thinks. They, however, are unable to follow what Dursleys feel or think about Harry, though can clearly see what Harry thinks and feels about them.

INTENTIONAL FALLACY

Intentional Fallacy is used in 20th century literary criticism. It describes the problem in judging a literary work by the assumptions made to help understand the intent or purpose of that specific artist who created it. It was introduced by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley who wrote the Intentional Fallacy, and propose the following: An artist's intention cannot be the criterion to judge the merit of the work. One cannot understand the intention at the arts origin. One must only interpret what one sees. We look at art to see how it relates to our lives. For example, if one read The Great Gatsby ten years ago, and again today, the interpretation will be entirely different even though the words have remained the same. When reading written works, assume a dramatic speaker, not the person writing. Intention is abstract. For example: Critics at all levels have speculated on Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and his intentions on the creation. An abundance of theories exist of what he was attempting to truly capture. Some say it was the smile, or the secret she was hiding. His intentions are unknown. Or... Monet's famous lilies in which were painted and repainted hundreds of times, therefore not meeting his original expectation/intention

INTERIOR MONOLOGUE

Interior monologue, in dramatic and nondramatic fiction, narrative technique that exhibits the thoughts passing through the minds of the protagonists. These ideas may be either loosely related impressions approaching free association or more rationally structured sequences of thought and emotion. It encompass several forms, including dramatized inner conflicts, self-analysis, imagined dialogue and rationalization. It may be a direct first-person expression apparently devoid of the author's selection and control or a third-person treatment that begins with a phrase such as "he thought" or "his thoughts turned to." example: Molly Bloom's monologue concluding James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) "...I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorisch Wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. "

INTERPRETATION

Interpretation Definition: the act or result of explaining or interpreting something : the way something is explained or understood a particular adaptation or version of a work, method, or style an explanation or conceptualization by a critic of a work of literature, painting, music, or other art form; an exegesis Books: The Limits of Interpretation - Umberto Eco Interpretation and Overinterpretation - Umberto Eco Example: Interpretation and Overinterpretation - Umberto Eco In order to assume that the similar can act upon the similar, the Hermetic semiosis had to decide what similarity was. But its criterion of similarity displayed an overindulgent generality and flexibility. It included not only those phenomena that today we would list under the heading of morphological resemblance or proportional analogy but every kind of possible substitution permitted by the rhetoric tradition, that is, contiguity, pars pro toto, action for actor, and so on and so forth.

INTERTEXTUALITY

Intertextuality definition: a textual reference to previous text, work or book. Usually used to form a new text from a differend perspective, retelling a old story or rewriting them in a modern setting. the term is diffrend from alusion, which is only a short and not important part of the story. examples: Novel Wide Sargasso Seaby Jean Rhys takes parts and events from a Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. He uses this to retell an alternative tail staring secondary characters form Bronte's book. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Earnest Hemingway, where he uses a poem Meditation XVII written by John Donne as an idea that goes throught the entire novel as well as the title.

LEGEND

Legend Definition: A traditional story told about a certain place, thing, or person. They may include supernatural beings or phenomena, mythology, or fictional information, but they always have realistic and graspable foundations. Example: Examples of legends would be: The legend of Praotec Čech The legend of George and the dragon The legend of Dívčí Válka

LIMERIC

Limerick A from of nonsense verse with a strict rhyme scheme (aabba). Its name is said to derive from parties where each guest contributed a verse followed by the chorus 'Will you come up to Limerick?' The form was first used in the 1820s and made popular by EDWARD LEAR. An example is: 'There was a young lady of Clyde 'Twas of eating green apples she died. The apples fermented Inside the lamented And made cider insidde her inside.'

LITERARY CRITISISM

Literary criticism - The reasoned consideration of literary works and issues. It applies, as a term, to any argumentation about literature, whether or not specific works are analyzed. - It is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's methods and goals. Example: Aristotle's Poetics clearly defines aspects of literature and introduces many literary terms still used today. Ferdinand de Saussure: Course in General Linguistics

LITERARY THEORY

Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature

LITERATURE

Literature = a body of written works. The name has traditionally been applied to those imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of their authors and the perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution. - Literature may be classified according to a variety of systems, including language, national origin, historical period, genre, and subject matter. Examples - Japanese literature, French literature, modern literature, epic, comedy, tragedy, drama, many works of philosophy, ancient literature and so on

LOST GENERATION

Lost Generation, in general, ispost-World War I generation, but specifically a group of U.S. writers who felt disillusioned in post-world war world. The term the Lost Generation was introduced by Gertrude Stein, a modernist American writer. Most of the writers related to the Lost Generation emigrated to Europe and worked there from the end od World War I until the Great Depression. Common themes in the works of members of the Lost Generation includes: - decadence - e.g. Fitzgerald´s The Great Gatsby, Hemingway´s The sun also rises - gender roles and impotence - e.g. Hemingway´s The sun also rises, T.S. Elliot´s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - idealised past - e.g. Fitzgerald´s The Great Gatsby - Gatsby´s idealisation of Daisy examples: The most famous writers of the Lost Generation are Ernest Hemingway, F.S.Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein and T.S. Elliot. For example the novel The Great Gatsby can be seen as cautionary tale of decadent downside of American dream. The story deals with human aspiration to start over again, social politics and its brutality and also betrayal, of one's own ideals and of people. Using elements of irony and tragic ending, it also delves into themes of excesses of the rich, and recklessness of youth

LYRIC POETRY

Lyric poetry expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet and is sometimes contrasted with narrative poetry and verse drama, which relate events in the form of a story. Elegies, odes, and sonnets are all important kinds of lyric poetry. Identified with the lyrical forms of poetry in the late 18th and 19th centuries were the Romantic poets, including such diverse figures as Robert Burns, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Goethe, and Heinrich Heine. Example: Percy Bysshe Shelley O wild West Wind I. O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, until Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) With living hues and odours plain and hill: Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!

MAGICAL REALISM

Magical realism definition: also called magic realism. A predominatly Latin-American narrative style that combines and mixes seemingly realistic events with fantastic or mythical elements. The term was first introduced in 1940s by Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier. The elements and strategies of magical realism are recognizable in much Latin-American literatures of the second half of 20th century. example: the most representative figure of magical realism is undoubtly Gabriel García Márquez (Colombian) with the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). From the vast number of other Latin-American writes just to mention Isabel Allende (Chilean) and The House of the Spirits (1982). the example of the literature written in English can be The Satanic Verses (1988) by Salman Rushdie, a British Indian novelist.

MARXIST LITERARY THEORY

Marxist literary criticism is a loose term describing literary criticism based on socialist and dialectic theories. Marxist criticism views literary works as reflections of the social institutions from which they originate. According to Marxists, even literature itself is a social institution and has a specific ideological function, based on the background and ideology of the author.

MELODRAMA

Melodrama - A melodrama is a dramatic or literary work in which the plot, which is typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to the emotions, takes precedence over detailed characterization. - Drama in which many exciting events happen and the characters have very strong or exaggerated emotions. - A situation or series of events in which people have very strong or exaggerated emotions. Example: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Pygmalion - It was one of the first ever melodramas (that is, a play consisting of pantomime gestures and the spoken word, both with a musical accompaniment).

METAFICTION

Metafiction Definition: Fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality - it breaks up the illusion of "reality" in a work. Metafiction occurs in fictional stories when the story examines the elements of fiction itself. For example, a story that explores how stories are made by commenting on character types, how plots are formed, or other aspects of storytelling are engaged in an example of metafiction. It can be playful or dramatic, but it always forces the reader to think about the nature of storytelling itself and how fictional stories are made. You might have read a fictional story in which the characters notice things about the very book they are in, e.g. they talk about the end of the story coming up as they get closer to it - that is the metafiction. Some of the metafictive devices: a novel about a person writing a novel; a novel about a person reading a novel; a story that addresses the specific conventions of story, such as title, paragraphing or plots; a novel in which the author (not merely the narrator) is a character; a story that anticipates the reader´s reaction to the story; characters who do things because those actions are what they would expect from characters in a story; characters who express awareness that they are in a work of fiction.

METER

Meter definition: Meter is a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse or within the lines of a poem. Stressed syllables tend to be longer and unstressed shorter. We can say that meter is a poetic device that serves as a linguistic sound pattern for the verses, as it gives poetry a rhythmical and melodious sound. Meter contains a sequence of several feet, where each foot has a number of syllables such as stressed/unstressed. Types of meter: -iambic meter (unstressed/stressed) -trochaic meter (stressed/unstressed) -spondaic meter (stressed/stressed) -anapestic meter (unstressed/unstressed/stressed) -dactylic meter (stressed/unstressed/unstressed)

METONYMY

Metonymy Definition: Figure of speech in which is one word or phrase replaced by another word with which is closely related to, as in the use of Washington for the United States government. We can come across examples of metonymy both from literature and in everyday life. Can be confused with synecdoche. Metonymy gives more profound meanings to otherwise common ideas and objects. By using metonymy poetic texts exhibit deeper or hidden meanings and are more concise. Examples: England decides to keep check on immigration. (England refers to the government.) The pen is mightier than the sword. (Pen refers to written words and sword to military force.) Let me give you a hand. (Hand means help.)

MODERNISM

Modernism movement with origin in the late 19th century but typically associated with the period between WW1 and the beginning of WW2 reacts on industrialization, urbanization and WW1 society was disillusioned after horrors of WW1 which was reflected in Modernist literature Features: break with traditions experimentation and individualism rejects absolute truths in contrast to the Romanticism (Modernism cares little for Nature and Being) surveys the inner space of the human mind (influence of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis) Authors and their works: Henry James, Joseph Conrad pre-war authors whose works are considered Modernist T.S. Eliot - The Waste Land (1922) a modernist poem which requires reader's active interpretation James Joyce - Ulysses (1922) technique ''stream of consciousness '' (ignores orderly sentence structure) Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, William Faulkner

MONOLOGUE

Monologue, in literature and drama, an extended speech by one person. The term has several closely related meanings. A dramatic monologue is any speech of some duration addressed by a character to a second person. A soliloquy is a type of monologue in which a character directly addresses an audience or speaks his thoughts aloud while alone or while the other actors keep silent. In fictional literature, an interior monologue a type of monologue that exhibits the thoughts, feelings, and associations passing through a character's mind. Example Hamlet's monologue in Shakespeare's 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 to 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 heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to—'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life.

MYSTERY PLAY AND MIRACLE PLAY

Mystery play and miracle play mystery play definition: one of three principal kinds of vernacular drama in Europe during the Middle Ages (along with the miracle play and the morality play) which usually represents biblical subjects elements: doesn't usually attempt to achieve unity of time, place and action irrelevancies and apocryphal and satirical elements mechanical devices, trapdoors, and other artifices to portray flying angels, fire-spouting monsters, miraculous transformations, and graphic martyrdoms history: developed from plays presented in Latin by churchmen on church premises and depicted such subjects as the Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment during the 13th century the strictly religious nature of the plays declined, satirical elements were introduced at the end of the 16th century, the church no longer supported mystery plays, the play lost its popularity examples: The Chester plays, the Wakefield plays miracle play definition: one of three principal kinds of vernacular drama of the European Middle Ages (along with the mystery play and the morality play), which presents a real or fictitious account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom of a saint elements: miracle plays concern either the Virgin Mary or St. Nicholas history: evolved from liturgical offices developed during the 10th and 11th centuries to enhance calendar festivals by the 13th century vernacularized and filled with unecclesiastical elements, divorced from church services and performed at public festivals Few English miracle plays are extant, because they were banned by Henry VIII in the mid-16th century and most were subsequently destroyed or lost. examples: St. John the Hairy (a Mary play) Le Jeu de Saint Nicolas (a Nicholas play)

NARRATIVE

Narrative is a report of related events presented to the listeners or readers in words arranged in a logical sequence. A narrative is told by a narrator who may be a direct part of that experience and he or she often shares the experience as a first-person narrator. Sometimes he or she may only observe the events as a third-person narrator and gives his or her verdict. In literary theoretic approach, narrative is being narrowly defined as fiction-writing mode in which the narrator is communicating directly to the reader. Books: The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 1984 - George Orwell Animal Farm - George Orwell Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Example: Moby Dick by Herman Melville: "Landlord!" said I, "what sort of chap is he -- does he always keep such late hours?" It was now hard upon twelve o'clock.The landlord chuckled again with his lean chuckle, and seemed to be mightily tickled at something beyond my comprehension. "No," he answered, "generally he's an early bird -- airley to bed and airley to rise -- yea, he's the bird what catches the worm. -- But to-night he went out a peddling, you see, and I don't see what on airth keeps him so late, unless, may be, he can't sell his head.""Can't sell his head? -- What sort of a bamboozingly story is this you are telling me?" getting into a towering rage. "Do you pretend to say, landlord, that this harpooneer is actually engaged this blessed Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head around this town?"

ONOMATOPOEIA

Onomatopoeia Definition: The naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (such as buzz or hiss). Onomatopoeia may also refer to the use of words whose sound suggests the sense. This occurs frequently in poetry, where a line of verse can express a characteristic of the thing being portrayed. Example: In the following lines from Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy," the rhythm of the words suggests the movement of a locomotive: An engine, an engine Chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. The following lines from "The Brook" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson are another example: I chatter over stony ways, In little sharps and trebles, I bubble into eddying bays, I babble on the pebbles.

NATURALISM

Naturalism is a literary genre that started as a literary movement in late 19th century in literature, film, theater and art. It is a type of extreme realism. In literature it extended it's (realism) tradition of aiming at an even more faithful, unselective representation of reality, a veritable "slice of life," presented without moral judgment. Naturalism differed from realism in its assumption of scientific determinism (the opposite of free wil), which led naturalistic authors to emphasize man's accidental, physiological nature rather than his moral or rational qualities. Individual characters were seen as helpless products of heredity and environment. They had little will or responsibility for their fates. Generally, naturalistic works expose dark sides of life such as prejudice, racism, poverty, prostitution, filth and disease, etc. Since these works are often pessimistic and blunt, they receive heavy criticism. Despite the echoing pessimism in this literary output, naturalists are generally concerned with improving human condition around the world. Another characteristic of literary naturalism is detachment from the story. The author often tries to maintain a tone that will be experienced as "objective". Often, a naturalist author will lead the reader to believe a character's fate has been predetermined, usually by environmental factors, and that he/she can do nothing about it. Another common characteristic is a surprising twist at the end of the story. Naturalism examples from literature: Jack London (To Build A Fire), Kate Chopin (The Awakening), ...

NEW HISTORICISM

New Historicism is a school of literary theory, which first developed in 1980s and gained widespread influence in 1990s. New Historicist aim simultaneously to understand the work through its cultural context and to understand intellectual history through literature. Example: Stephen Greenblatt - An American scholar who was credited with establishing New Historicism, an approach to literary criticism. He was noted for his analysis of W. Shakespeare and considered to be among the preeminent scholars of Renaissance literature in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Practising New Historicism (2000) H. Aram Veeser's The New Historicism (1989)

NOVEL

Novel Definition: Prose narrative, usually extensive, it is compsed of a set of short stories. there are differents types of novels: - Picaresque - Epistolary - Romantic - Realist - Historical Example: An expample of novel, is the anonymous picaresque novel The lazarillo (1554), that is about the differents storties experienced by the protagonist of the novel during his life.

NOVELLA

Novella is a short narrative. It is longer than a story but shorter than a novel, often realistic and satiric in tone. It usually has fewer conflicts than a novel. The conflicts are, however, more complicated than in a short story. It influenced the development of the short story and the novel throughout Europe. Examples: - The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - Animal Farm by George Orwell - Other writers: Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann...

EPIGRAM

Originally, epigram is an inscription suitable for carving on a monument. It's a rhetorical device that is a memorable, brief, interesting and surprising satirical statement. It has originated from a Greek word, epigramma, meaning inscription or to inscribe. The epigram was revived by Renaissance scholars and poets, such as the French poet Clément Marot, who wrote epigrams in both Latin and the vernacular. As the century progressed, the epigram became more astringent and closer to Martial in both England and France. In England, John Dryden, Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift produced some of the most memorable epigrams of their time. Among the more recent masters of the English epigram were Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. Wilde became famous for such as "A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." Shaw, in his Annajanska (1919), commented that "All great truths begin as blasphemies." Example: "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour." - Auguries of Innocence by William Blake

OXYMORON

Oxymoron A rhetorical device which deliberately joins apparently contradictory words. Oxymoron is particularly notable feature of PETRARCHAN verse Examples: "sweet enemy" "I burn and freeze like ice." "known secret" "terribly good" "deafening silence" "perfectly imperfect"

PARABLE

Parable (noun) From Old French parabole, from Latin parabola Definition: 1 - a short, allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle or moral lesson. 2 - a statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparasion, analoky, or the like Fable, Parable and allegory - both Fable and parable are short, simple forms of naive allegory. - fables tend to personify animal characters - giving them human character, whereas parable works with human agents. - parable generally shows less interest in the storytelling and more in the analogy - both parable and fable are means of handing down traditional folk wisdom. Examples: The Emperor´s New Clothes Full story here The New Testament of the Holy Bible contains many examples of the parables of Jesus: Parable of the Sower - Matthew 13:3-8 Parable of the Weeds - Matthew 13:24-30 Parable of the Mustard Seed - Matthew 13:31-32 Parable of the Yeast - Matthew 13:33 Parable of the Hidden Treasure - Matthew 13:44 Parable of the Pearl - Matthew 13:45-46 Parable of the Fishing Net - Matthew 13:47-50 Parable of the Unmerciful Servant - Matthew 18:23-35 Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard - Matthew 20:1-16 Parable of the Two Sons - Matthew 21:28-32 The lesson of the butterfly A man spent hours watching a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon. It managed to make a small hole, but its body was too large to get through it. After a long struggle, it appeared to be exhausted and remained absolutely still. The man decided to help the butterfly and, with a pair of scissors, he cut open the cocoon, thus releasing the butterfly. However, the butterfly's body was very small and wrinkled and its wings were all crumpled. The man continued to watch, hoping that, at any moment, the butterfly would open its wings and fly away. Nothing happened; in fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its brief life dragging around its shrunken body and shrivelled wings, incapable of flight. What the man - out of kindness and his eagerness to help - had failed to understand was that the tight cocoon and the efforts that the butterfly had to make in order to squeeze out of that tiny hole were Nature's way of training the butterfly and of strengthening its wings. Sometimes, a little extra effort is precisely what prepares us for the next obstacle to be faced. Anyone who refuses to make that effort, or gets the wrong sort of help, is left unprepared to fight the next battle and never manages to fly off to their destiny.

PASTICHE

Pastiche definition: - a work of art, piece of writing, etc. that is created by deliberately copying the style of somebody or something else but unlike parody, pastiche celebrates, rather than mocks, the work it imitates. - a work of art, etc. that consists of a variety of different style example: a pastiche of a classical detective story We can find many examples of pastiche in literature, for example many stories about Sherlock Holmes, originally written by Artur Conan Doyle, have been written as pastiches since the author`s time. In movies, famous director Quentin Tarantino often uses plots and themes from less known films to create his own films.

PASTORAL

Pastoral definition: It comes from Latin pastor - "shepherd". An artistic composition dealing with the life of shepherds or with a simple, rural existence. It usually idealized shepherds' lives in order to create an image of peaceful and uncorrupted existence. More generally, pastoral describes the simplicity, charm, and peace of country life, or any literary convention that places kindly, rural people in nature-centered activities. The pastoral convention sometimes uses the device of "singing matches" between two or more shepherds, and it often presents the poet and his friends in the disguises of shepherds and shepherdesses. Themes are mainly love and death. example: The Greek Theocritus (316-260 BC) first used the convention in his Idylls. In English poetry there was Edmund Spenser and his Shepheardes Calender (1579), which imitated not only classical models but also the Renaissance poets of France and Italy. William Shakespeare's As You Like It (1599) is a pastoral comedy. Other English writers of pastoral poetry were Sir Philip Sidney, Robert Greene and Thomas Nash.

PICARESQUE NOVEL

Picaresque novel definition:A genre of prose fiction which originated in 16th century Spain and remained popular until the first half of the 18th century. It is usually a first person narrative, which relates the adventures of a lower class roguish hero (Spanish pícaro). In its episodic structure it resembles the older genre of romance, in fact, it laughs at it. In its heyday, the genre became a satire of immoral and corrupted society (see Quevedo's Buscón). After Buscón, it gradually declined into the adventurous novel. Although it was a predominantly Spanish genre, it made its way into other European literatures of its time. A pícaro can be described as a cynical, self-centered rascal or scoundrel with a dubious character, an amoral outsider wandering from one place to another, executing various occupations (e.g. personal servant, soldier), taking advantage of the others, constantly escaping punishment (beating, imprisonment) for his immoral deeds (lying, cheating, petty crime etc.) and attempting to survive in any circumstance. examples:anonymous: Lazarillo de Tormes (1554)Mateo Alemán: Guzmán de Alfarache (1599)Francisco Quevedo: La vida de buscón (1626; "The Life of the Scoundrel"), considered a masterpiece of the genre, strong accent on moral issues, deep psychological portrayal of a petty thief. The picaresque elements are also incorporated into Miguel de Cervantes's novel Don Quixote (1605, 1615), for instance the character of Sancho Panza. In English literature, the first picaresque novel was The Unfortunate Traveller (1594) by Thomas Nashe. Daniel Defoe created the female pícaro in Moll Flanders (1722) and many picaresque elements can be found in the works of Henry Fielding, e.g. Tom Jones (1749). Even in the 19th century some parts of the picaresque tradition reappeared in such works as Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers (1836-37) or Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn (1884).

PLOT

Plot Definition: a narrative (and, traditionally, literary) term defined as the events that make up a story, particularly: as they relate to one another in a pattern or in a sequence; as they relate to each other through cause and effect; how the reader views the story; or simply by coincidence. Gustav Freytag considered plot to be a narrative structure that divides a story into five parts. These parts are: exposition (of the situation); rising action (through conflict); climax (or the turning point); falling action; and denouement. Example: William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Exposition: Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time. Rising action: Romeo declares his love for Julie. Climax: Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished from Verona. Falling action: Juliet wants to solve the situation and takes a sleeping potion. Denouement: Romeo kills himself and later Juliet kills herself too.

POETRY

Poetry, literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. example: William Blake - A Poison Tree I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I waterd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears: And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both day and night, Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine. And into my garden stole. When the night had veiled the pole; In the morning glad I see, My foe outstretchd beneath the tree.

POST-COLONIAL LITERATURE

Post - colonial literature definition: writing by those peoples formerly colonized by European powers we use term 'post - colonial' to cover all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day example: Afrika: Ahinua Achebe Catherine Obianuju Acholonu South Asia: Ahmed Ali Mulk Raj Anand Australia: Louis Becke Peter Carey Canada André Alexis Austin Clarke

POST-STRUCTURALISM

Post-structuralism Movement in literary criticism and philosophy begun in France in the late 1960s. Drawing upon the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure, the anthropology of Claude Lévi-Strauss and the deconstructionist theories of Jacques Derrida, it held that language is not a transparent medium that connects one directly with a "truth" or "reality" outside it but rather a structure or code, whose parts derive their meaning from their contrast with one another and not from any connection with an outside world. Post-Structuralism is a reaction to structuralism and works against seeing language as a stable, closed system. It is a shift from seeing the poem or novel as a closed entity, equipped with definite meanings which it is the critic's task to decipher, to seeing literature as irreducibly plural, an endless play of signifiers which can never be finally nailed down to a single center, essence, or meaning . The prefix "post" refers to the fact that many contributors such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Julia Kristeva were former structuralists who, after abandoning structuralism, became quite critical of it. In direct contrast to structuralism's claims of culturally independent meaning, post-structuralists typically view culture as inseparable from meaning. The general assumptions of post-structuralism derive from critique of structuralist premises. Specifically, post-structuralism holds that the study of underlying structures is itself culturally conditioned and therefore subject to myriad biases and misinterpretations. To understand an object (e.g. one of the many meanings of a text), it is necessary to study both the object itself, and the systems of knowledge which were coordinated to produce the object. In this way, post-structuralism positions itself as a study of how knowledge is produced. Michel Foucault's works, such as Madness and Civilization, which examines the history and cultural attitudes about madness, is a good example of poststructuralist analysis. In addition to those discussed above, the following are often said to be post-structuralists, or to have had a post-structuralist period: Kathy Acker Jean Baudrillard Judith Butler Félix Guattari Fredric Jameson Sarah Kofman Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe Jean-François Lyotard Jean-Luc Nancy Bernard Stiegler

PROVERB

Proverb Definition: Brief saying in general use, which expresses commonly held ideas and beliefs.Proverbs are part of every spoken language and relate to other forms of folk literature such as riddles and fables. Many languages use hyperbole, rhyme, alliteration and wordplay in their proverbs.Folk proverbs are ussualy illustrated with household objects, farm animals and pets, and the daily life events. They come from many sources, most of them are anonymous and difficult to trace. Their first mention in literature is often an adaptation of an oral saying. Most educated societies have valued their proverbs and collected them for future generations. Examples: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" "Many small things make one big thing" "Money is the root of all evil" "Early to bed, early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise"

PSYCHOANALYTIC LITERARY CRITICISM

Psychoanalytic literary criticism is literary criticism or literary theory which, in method, concept, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalytic reading has been practiced since the early development of psychoanalysis itself, and has developed into a heterogeneous interpretive tradition. As Celine Surprenant writes, 'Psychoanalytic literary criticism does not constitute a unified field. However, all variants endorse, at least to a certain degree, the idea that literature [...] is fundamentally entwined with the psyche

PUN

Pun Definition: - play on words - a humorous use of a word or phrase that has two or more meanings - a type of joke in which words are used that have a similar sound but a different meaning Humorous effects created by puns depend upon the ambiguities words entail. The ambiguities arise mostly in homophones and homonyms. For instance, in a sentence "A happy life depends on a liver", liver can refer to the organ liver or simply the person who lives. Similarly, in a famous saying "Atheism is a non-prophet institution" the word "prophet" is used instead of "profit" to produce a humorous effect. Examples: Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now. I'd tell you a chemistry joke but I know I wouldn't get a reaction. I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down. I wasn't originally going to get a brain transplant, but then I changed my mind. Have you ever tried to eat a clock? It's very time consuming.

PURITAN AGE

Puritan age (1600-1660) definition: Puritans was the name given in the 16th century to the more extreme Protestants within the Church of England who thought the English Reformation had not reformed enough. They wanted to purify their national church by eliminating every shred of Catholic influence. A Puritan writer's main focus was to glorify God and show reverence for the Bible. The main themes: original sin, predestination Writing styles: Purposeful, Plain spoken, powerful, direct Format: Sermons, Histories, Diaries, Poetry, bibliografies Writers: Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter (1850), work of fiction in a historical setting. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

QUATRAIN

Quatrain (poetry) Definiton: - a stanza or poem of four lines, usualy with alternate rhymes - origin od quatrain comes from French quatre =four Forms of Quatrain: -ABAC or ABCB (known as unbounded or ballad quatrain), as in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Part 1: It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. ´By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp´st thou me? -AABB (a doublecouplet); see A.E. Housman's "To an Athlere Dying Young The time you won your town the race We chaired you through the market-place; man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brouhjt you shoulder-high. -ABAB (known as interlaced, alternate, or heroic), as in Thomas Gray's " Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o´er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. -ABBA (known as envelope or enclosed), as in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "In Memoriam" Stong Son of God, immortal Love, Whom we, thath have not seen thy face, By faith, and faith alone, embrace, Believing where we cannot prove; -AABA, the stanza of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a snowy Evening" Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.

READER-ORIENTED APPROACH

Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and their experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and form of the work. Although literary theory has long paid some attention to the reader's role in creating the meaning and experience of a literary work, modern reader-response criticism began in the 1960s and '70s, particularly in the US and Germany, in work by Norman Holland, Stanley Fish, Wolfgang Iser, Hans-Robert Jauss, Roland Barthes, and others. Important predecessors were I. A. Richards, who in 1929 analyzed a group of Cambridge undergraduates' misreadings; Louise Rosenblatt, who, in Literature as Exploration (1938), argued that it is important for the teacher to avoid imposing any "preconceived notions about the proper way to react to any work"; and C. S. Lewis in An Experiment in Criticism (1961).

REALISM

Realism can be defined as a way of ​thinking and ​acting ​based on ​facts and what is ​possible, ​rather than on ​hopes for things that are ​unlikely to ​happen. This style appear not only in literature. It also had an impact on art, theatre, phylosophy, architecture etc. The realists agreed in their rejection of the artificiality of both Clasicism and Romantism, which had influenced literature and art in general before. They wanded to portray real lives with all the problems and customs. They mostly focused on middle and lower clases. The main character was usually someone ordinary and poor, who had troubles like many other people. For example hunger, illneses, drug or alcohol adiction, unhappy mariage, prostitution... Realism was consiously adopted as an aesthetic program in the mid 19th century. It´s development started in France. One of the most important realists was novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac, who came from this country. Well known is his book La comedie humaine, where he presents a panorama of French life after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte (the begining of 19th century). Balzac ispirated many other writers from differente countries. For example: Marcel Proust (France), Emil Zola (France), Fjodor Dostojevskij (Russia), Oscar Wilde (Ireland), Edgar Allan Poe (USA), Charles Dickens (England), Gustav Flaubert (France),... We also have some czech realists, fo example Božena Němcová, Jan Neruda, Karolína Světla, Karel Havlíček Borovský etc. Realism is a the faithful representation of reality (shows life as it was) It's from Latin word realis = real, factual This literary movement started in the second half of 19th century. It started in France as a reaction against Romanticism. In England coincided with Victorian era, which is a period ruled by Queen Victoria. 1848 was revolution year in Europe - exacerbated social situations Emphasis surroundings in shaping human being Basic features: - truthfulness, faithfulness to reality - It presents truthful fact of human life. - comprehensive presentation of reality - the pursuit of artwork objectivity Prevails prose - novels, extensive or short stories, drama Realist writers American: Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn William Dean Howells - The Rise of Silas Lapham French: Honoré de Balzac - La Comédie Humaine Guy de Maupassant - Boule de Suif Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary Russian: Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol - The Government Inspector Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy - War and Peace, Anna Karenina Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Three sisters, The Cherry Orchard British: Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol George Eliot - Middlemarch Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d'Urbervilles Czech: Karel Havlíček Borovský, Božena Němcová,

RHYME OR RIME

Rhyme or Rime According to some sources these two terms are identical. There are, however, also other sources which consider these terms as different. Definitions: Rhyme - according to Encyclopedia Britannica, "Rhyme, also spelled rime, [means] the correspondence of two or more words with similar-sounding final syllables placed so as to echo one another. Rhyme is used by poets and occasionally by prose writers to produce sounds appealing to the reader's senses and to unify and establish a poem's stanzaic form." There are several types of rhymes, such as end rhyme, internal rhyme or interior rhyme. Other sources, such as TESOLexplore blog or Paragon Science Academy blog, however, highlight differences between a rhyme and a rime: Rimes - "word parts that refer to a spelling pattern, they rhyme." Examples of rimes (the bold letters): cat bat sat mat or stale male kale Rhymes - they "[also] sound the same but [are] spelled differently, [they use] different rimes" Example of a rhyme: hey may lei Another examples: words bear and pear - they rhyme (sound the same) as well as rime (have the same ending pattern -ear) BUT pear and care - they rhyme but they do not rime (they have a different ending pattern -ear vs. -are)

ROMAN NOUVEAU

Roman Nouveau /ˌnuːvəʊ rəʊˈmɑːn/ Definition: -> a style of French novel which should be the very opposite of classic novel. Roman Nouveau refuses the plot, characters, dialogue, human interest and omniscient narrator because it tries to be as objective as could be. The story is neither chronological nor logical. Mostly it is hard to understand the text. The main character has no opinion and belief, he gains it in the course of time. 'Roman Nouveaul' (in French) literally means 'new novel'. This style was important and famous in the 1950s. Example: The most famous authors (+ their famous works) in the style of the Nouveau Roman were: Alain Robbe-Grillet Last Year at Marienbad, 1961 - ambiguity of interpretation caused by calling facts to question Michel Butor La Modification, 1957 - emphasis was put on time perception and inner monologues Claude Simone The Wind: Attempted Restoration of a Baroque Altarpiece, 1957 - the text is full of brackets, punctuation marks and unfinished sentences Nathalie Sarraute Tropismes, 1939 - this work which is composed of short proses laid the foundations of Roman Nouveau

ROMANTICISM

Romanticism is a movement in literary history that emerges in the first half of the nineteenth century. The period of romanticism appears in English and American literature in the same time. Nature poetry and emotional experiences are the main signs of romanticism. The origin of this movement is seen as a reaction to the Enlightenment and political changes at the end of eighteenth century. The Romanticists (they didn't call themselves like that during the Romanticism) emphasize mainly feelings and imagination. Poetry must be spontaneous, sincere and intense. Heroes of romantic pieces of work are usually people who doesn't fit in the society very well and they deal with their own feelings and impressions. One of the most popular genres of romanticism is a novel. Lake Poets = a group of English poets who lived in the Lake District of England and played a role in English poetry during romanticism; the main representatives are William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Transcendentalism = a period in the first half of the nineteenth century in the USA, it appears as a protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality. In the USA, romanticism and transcendetalism are connected. Examples of English romanticism: William Blake - Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Lyrical Ballads Sir Walter Scott - Ivanhoe, Waverley Percy Bysshe Shelley - Prometheus Unbound Mary Shelley - Frankenstein George Gordon Byron - Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Examples of American romanticism and transcendentalism: Emily Dickinson - The Poems of Emily Dickinson Edgar Allan Poe Walt Whitman Ralph Waldo Emerson James Fenimore Cooper

ROUND CHARACTER

Round characters in a story, play or novel are simply characters who are most like real people because they have depth. Round characters are like onions - they have layers - there's more to them than what you see on the surface Example: An example of the round character is Rodion Raskolnikov, the main protagonist of psychological novel of russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. We find out more about his dual personality. On the one hand Dostoyevsky developed his bad habits and cold character from his dark side, on the other hand he can be a warm and friendly person. So this character is developed and well described. He may seem like a real person you might have met in your own life.

RUSSIAN FORMALISM

Russian formalism is a type of literary theory and analysis which originated in Moscow and St. Petersburg between 1910s and 1930s. The focus of this movement was on the formal patterns and technical devices of literature to the exclusion of its subject matter and social values. When this critical mode was suppressed by the Soviets in the early 1930s, the centre of the formalist movement moved to Czechoslovakia, where it continued espcially by the members of the Praque Linguistic Circle, which included R. Jakobson (who emigrated from Russia), Jan Mukarovsky and René Wellek. Representatives and examples: Among leading representatives belong Boris Eichenbaum: Pushkin as Poet and the 1825 Revolt (An Attempt at Psychological Investigation),1907 Melody of Russian Lyric Poetry, 1922 Victor Shklovsky: A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs, 1917-1922 Bowstring: On the Dissimilarity of the Similar, 1970 Yuri Tynianov: Formalist theory, translated by L.M. O'Toole and Ann Shukman, 1977 Vladimir Propp: Morphology of the Tale, 1928 Historical Roots of the Wonder Tale, 1946 Roman Jakobson: Six Lectures of Sound and Meaning, 1978 Child Language, Aphasia and Phonological Universals, 1941 Main features of the theory: Formalism views literature primarily as a specialized mode of language, and proposes a fundamental opposition between the literary (or poetical) use of language and the ordinary, "practical" use of language. It conceives that the central function of ordinary language is to communicate to auditors a message,or information, by reference to the world existing outside language. In contrast, it conceives literary language to be self-focused, in that, its function is not to convey information by external reference, but to offer the reader a special mode of experience by drawing attention to its own "formal" features -that is, to the qualities and internal relations of the linguistic signs themselves.

STANZA

STANZA Definition: a division of a poem consisting of two or more lines arranged together as a unit. More specifically, a stanza usually is a group of lines arranged together in a recurring pattern of metrical lengths and a sequence of rhymes. The structure of a stanza (also callled a strophe or stave) is determined by the number of lines, the dominant metre, and the rhyme scheme. Thus, a stanza of four lines of iambic pentameter, rhyming "abab", could be described as a quatrain. Example: Songs of Innocence and Experience William Blake "The Sick Rose" O Rose thou art sick. The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm: - first stanza Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

SIGN

Sign - language is based on: sign, function and system - according to the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, we can distinguish 2 sides of a sign: the signifier (signifiant) = word's phonic component the signified (signifié) = the object that appears in our mind during reading/hearing the signifier e.g.: a cat the animal itself = signified, the word "cat" = signifier - according to the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, we can distinguis 3 types of a sign: icon = it is based on the physical similarity between the signifier and the signified e.g.: onomatopoeia words a slug = it sounds like something disgusting index = it is based on the physical connection between the signifier and the signified e.g.: smoke and fire symbol = it is based on the acquired connectione,g,: "a table" = if we don't know what 'a table' is, we can't distinguish it from the word itself

SATIRICAL NOVEL

Satirical novel is defined as an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that ridicules a specific topic in order to provoke readers into changing their opinion of it. It uses a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule The novel is propelled through its hundred or thousand pages by a device known as the story or plot. Examples: Perhaps the most famous work of British satire is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels(1726), where the inhabitants of the different lands Gulliver visits embody what Swift saw as the prominent vices and corruptions of his time. Also Animal Farm by George Orwell can be regarded as a satirical novel: George Orwell cleverly uses satire through which Orwell indirectly launches an attack on Russian Communism, on Stalinism. Through a humorous and effective animal allegory, Orwell directs his satiric attack on the events of the Russian Revolution and on the totalitarian regime. The main message in Animal Farm is that power cannot be divided equally. There will never be equality for all. Once power is obtained it is always abused, and power causes all to think as the leader does. Equality does not exist, for it is impossible for everyone to be equal. The leader will always take advantage of his power. Power causes the leader to make decisions, that will only better himself. "... Boxer was being sent to the knacker's." The pigs killed an animal just so that they could make some money. The power led them to this decision, they could kill Boxer, make some money, and no one would ever find out. Everyone has heard about the golden rule: "whoever has the gold makes the rules."

SCENE

Scene /si:n/ (elementary definition) = one part of a book, play, film etc. in which the events happen in one place = a division of an act in a play during which the action takes place in a single place without a break in time = a part of a play, movie, story, etc., in which a particular action or activity occurs Example ⦁ The first scene of "Romeo and Juliet" takes place in Verona at public place. ⦁ picture of scene:

SEMIOTICS

Semiotics Definition: a general theory of signs and symbolism, usually divided into the branches of pragmatics, semantics, and syntactics the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior; the analysis of systems of communication, as language, gestures, or clothing semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically as different from linguistics, however, semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems semiotics is often divided into three branches: semantics, syntactics and pragmatics Origins: late 19th cent.: from Greek sēmeiotikos 'of signs', from sēmeioun 'interpret as a sign' it was first used in English by Henry Stubbes (spelt semeiotics) in a very precise sense to denote the branch of medical science relating to the interpretation of signs Youtube: If you are still lost in semiotics, then you should really see this very detailed explanation on youtube. I hope it helps.

SIMILIE

Simile is a figure of speech that compares something to something else and to express such comparison we use words "like" or "as". The comparison is usually based on similarities that have something in common with the natural world or domestic objects. Unlike a metaphor, a simile expresses a comparison that is direct because it is specific. A simile can also be found in our daily speech and we might not even know it. However poets, or writers in general, use similes to show their sentiment or thoughts, as well as memories that come to their minds when they think of the object they are writing about. However they don´t want to describe the object directly but they encourage their readers to relate to their personal experience that will help them to more easily understand what was meant in the text. Examples: "John is as slow as a snail." - snails are known for their slow pace and therefore John´s slowness can be compared to the one of a snail "He eats like a bird." "Her cheeks are red like a rose." More poetic example: "I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills." - from the poem the Daffodils → the author mentions clouds that wander alone through the countryside and high above everything else which indicates his loneliness

SOLILOQY

Soliloquy Definition: 1. a. A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character reveals his or her thoughts when alone or unaware of the presence of other characters. b. A specific speech or piece of writing in this form of discourse. 2. The act of speaking to oneself. (Note: Soliloquy differentiates from monologue since monologue can be used in the presence of other characters or even meant to them while soliloquy is speech to oneself.) Example: As an example of soliloquy, we can see well-know quotes from Hamlet or Romeo and Julie by William Shakespeare, but also Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlow

SONNET

Sonnet is a poem with a strict rhyme scheme - it consists of fourteen lines that are typically five-foot iambics rhyming. The origin of the term sonnet comes from the thirteenth century (Sicilian school of poets, who were influenced by the love poetry of troubadours). Sonnet is often used to expression of "worldly" love in poetry. There are two principal sonnet forms, which are the most common → Petrarchan (or Italian sonnet) and Shakespearean (or English sonnet). English sonnet - the rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Here, you can see an example of Shakespeare's Sonnet CXVI: Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: Oh, no! it is an ever-fixéd mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Other writers of sonnets: Sir Philip Sidney Michael Drayton Edmund Spenser William Wordsworth John Keats Elizabeth Barrett Browning

SYMBOL

Symbol is a key literary device for the literary movement named Symbolism. Definition: A symbol is literary device that contains several layers of meaning, often concealed at first sight, and is representative of several other aspects, concepts or traits than those that are visible in the literal translation alone. Symbol is using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning. Another explanation: Symbols do shift their meanings depending on the context they are used. Examples: The phrase "a new dawn" does not talk only about the actual beginning of a new day but also signifies a new start, a fresh chance to begin and the end of a previous tiring time. Example of a book: Emily Bronte´s Wuthering Heights - presents almost every character, house, surroundings and events in a symbolic perspective. The word "Wuthering", which means stormy, represents the wild nature of its inhabitants

SYNECDOCHE

Synecdoche Definition: a figure of speech in which: a part represents the whole the whole represents a part (not so common) connected to metonymy important for creating vivid imagery Examples: hired hands (workmen) society (the high society)

TROCHEE

TROCHEE Definition: A type of a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable.(hap´|˘py) Trochee was commonly used in ancient Latin and Greek comedies and tragedies. It is not easy to use trochaic metres in English verse. In long poems, trochaic metres may sound monotonous. However, they have a great effect in shorter poems, such as in William Blake's well-known poem "The Tiger" (See the example below).

RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance is a period in Europe, from the 14th to the 17th century, considered the bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. The Renaissance was a rebirth of classical learning and a rediscovery of ancient Rome and Greece. It began in Italy as a cultural movement, names such as Petrarch, Boccaccio or those of polymaths Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo are well-known. The intellectual basis of the Renaissance is humanism, which was man-centered, rather than God-centered. Renaissance authors also began increasingly to use vernacular languages and the invention of the printing press allowed people access to books, especially to the Bible. Renaissance in English literature (1500 - 1660) The English Renaissance produced some of the greatest works of literature the world has known. The Renaissance ideas started to penetrate English society after 1485, when the War of the Roses ended. The most significant is the Elizabethan era, the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. (1558 - 1603), the daughter of Henry VIII. This period saw the flowering of poetry (the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, dramatic blank verse) and was a golden age of drama (especially for the plays of Shakespeare). Examples of English Renaissance: ● Thomas More - Renaissance humanist, Utopia ● Thomas Wyatt - introduced the sonnet from Italy into England ● Henry Howard - together with Wyatt are known as "Fathers of the English sonnet" ● Philip Sydney - Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poesie ● Edmund Spenser - The Faerie Queene ● Christopher Marlowe - The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus ● William Shakespeare - 38 plays, 154 sonnets ● Ben Jonson - Every Man in His Humour; Volpone, or the Fox;, The Alchemist ● Francis Bacon - a Renaissance man, philosopher, politician, author, scientist

FIRST-PERSON NARRATION

The first-person narration means that the story is written and told in the first person's point of view (author's point of view). This story is told by one character, ho may be speaking/thinking about things around her/him, about her/his feelings. You can recognize this type of narration most often by the use of I and also by the use of WE. These stories are mostly focused on one character only - the character tells you what she/he knows, sees, feels, thinks. You don't know what other characters are thinking or feeling (BUT many today's authors began writing stories from the perspective of several characters - each character has its own chapter in the book). This type of narration is very common in literature and it can be used in any genre. The first-person narration is used for example in the detective stories of Sherlock Holmes, or in classic novels such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or Lolita. In today's popular writing the first-person narration is used in Hunger Games, Divergent or Fifty Shades of Grey series and many others. Example from Hunger Games book: Hunger Games.JPG

PHENOMENOLOGY

phenomenology definition: a philosophical movement originating in the 20th century, the primary objective of which is the direct investigation and description of phenomena as consciously experienced, without theories about their causal explanation and as free as possible from unexamined preconceptions and presuppositions. Example: An example of phenomenology is studying the green flash that sometimes happens just after sunset or just before sunrise.

UTOPIAN NOVEL

Utopian novel definiton: A utopia can be defined as an ideal and perfect place or state or any visionary, political or social system. In literature, it refers to detailed description of a society or nation ordered according to a system which author proposes as a better way of life. It can be comprehend as an impractical or idealistic scheme for political or social reform. The opposite of utopia is dystopia. The word "utopia" was introduces by Sir Thomas More in 1516 in his book of the same name Utopia he called his imaginary perfect island like that. examples: utopia - Island by Aldoux Huxley - It is about a journalist who shipwrecked on the island where modern science and technologies are used only insofar that it can improve medicine and nutrition. Drugs are used for enlightenment, not for pacification and evils of corporatism are unknown. dystopia - 1984 by George Orwell - The methods of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia are considered and parodied. Freedom of speech is ruthlessly suppressed, torture is rife, spies are everywhere and "Big Brother is watching you!" The technique of 'newspeak' is being developed to further facilitate thought control, and 'doublethink' is commonplace in state slogans like "Freedom is Slavery".

ALEGORY

allegory definition: a symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a meaning not explicitly set forth in the narrative. Allegory, which encompasses such forms as fable, parable, and apologue, may have meaning on two or more levels that the reader can understand only through an interpretive process. (See also fable, parable, and allegory.) Literary allegories typically describe situations and events or express abstract ideas in terms of material objects, persons, and actions. example: A 20th-century example of political allegory is George Orwell's novel Animal Farm (1945), which, under the guise of a fable about domestic animals, expresses the author's disillusionment with the outcome of the Bolshevik Revolution and shows how one tyrannical system of government in Russia was replaced by another.

APOSTROPHE

apostrophe definition: a rhetorical device by which a speaker turns from the audience as a whole to address a single person or thing, who/which isn´t listening. example: to the stars, moon... in W. Shakespeare´s Julius Caesar, Mark Antony addresses the corpse of Caesar in the speech that begins: O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!

CANON

canon definition: An approved or traditional collection of works. The word canon is typically used to refer to those works in anthologies that have come to be considered standard or traditionally included in the classroom and published textbooks. In this sense, "the canon" denotes the entire body of literature traditionally thought to be suitable for admiration and study. In addition, the word canon refers to the writings of an author that scholars generally accepted as genuine products of siad author. examples: the "Shakespeare canon" - it has only two apocryphal plays (Pericles and the Two Noble Kinsmen) that have gained wide acceptance as authentic Shakespearean works beyond the thirty-six plays contained in the First Folio The "Chaucer canon" - it includes The Canterbury Tales, but it does not include the apocryphal work traditional canons = the body of knowledge, things that we have in common --> --> shared heritage or "cultural literacy"

CHARACTER

character definition: There are two different explanations of the term character: (1) The character is the name of a literary genre; it is a short, and usually witty, sketch in prose of a distinctive type of person. The genre was inaugurated by Theophrastus, a Greek author of the second century B.C., who wrote a lively book entitled Characters. The form had a great vogue in the earlier seventeenth century. (2) Characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities, which are expressed in what they say and what they do. The main character is typically called the protagonist; the character against whom the protagonist struggles is the antagonist. A character is usually but not always a person (e.g. in Jack London´s Call of the Wild, the protagonist is a devoted sled dog; in Herman Melvilles´s Moby-Dick, the antagonist is an unfathomable whale). Perhaps the only possible qualification to be placed on character is that whatever it is, it must have some recognizable human qualities. The methods by which a writer creates people in a story so that they seem actually to exist are called characterization. example: (1) The major books of characters were written by Joseph Hall, Sir Thomas Overbury, or John Earle. The titles of some of Overbury´s sketches indicates their form: A Courtier, A Wise Man or A Fair and Happy Milkmaid. (2) Charles Dickens isexternal image arrow-10x10.png known for creating characters who have stepped off the pages of his fictions into the imaginations and memories of his readers. His characters are successful because his characterizations are vivid and convincing. One of the most famous Dickens´s characters is Ebenezer Scrooge from the novel Christmas Carol, a cold-hearted and selfish miser who hates people and who cares only about money and himself, but then the three Ghosts of Christmas show him his miserable and empty life through the past, present and future and in the end Scrooge becomes a kind, generous and warm-hearted man.

CHORUS

chorus in classical Greek drama a chorus tells the main story and is present during the action in Greek drama the chorus watched the action of the play and told the story. The modern meaning can be simply a group of people other than the hero or heroine

COMEDY OF MANNERS

comedy of manners is a style of comedy that reflects the life, ideals and manners of upper class society in a way that is essentially true to its traditions and philosophy - popular form of English drama in the second half on seventeenth century Example: One of the greatest exponents of the comedy of manners was Moliére, who satirized the hypocrisy and pretension of 17th-century Fremch society in such plays as L´École des femmes (1662; The School for Wives) and Le Misanthrope (1666; The Misanthrope).

FARCE

farce definition: a comic dramatic piece that uses highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, extravagant exaggeration, buffoonery and violent horseplay and typically includes crude characterisation the class or form of drama made up of such compositions (an event or situation that is absurd or disorganised - metaphorical meaning) elements: clowning, acrobatics, caricature, indecency history: antecedents found in Greek and Roman theatre the term 'farce' first used in 15th century in France (from the Old French word farce=stuffing - the actors added the pieces of entertainment) in 20th century new form of expression - in film comedies with Charlie Chaplin, the Keystone Kops and the Marx Brothers examples: Aristophanes's and Plautus's comedies, Italian fabula Atellana - the actors played stock character types caught in exaggerated situations Maistre Pierre Pathelin (c. 1470, France) interludes of John Heywood (16th century) Shakespeare and Molière used elements of farce in their comedies Eugène-Marin Labiche's Le Chapeau de paille d'Italie/An Italian Straw Hat (1851, France), Georges Feydeau's La Puce à l'oreille (1907, France) Dario Fo's Morte accidentale di un anarchico/Accidental D'eath of an Anarchist (1974, Italy)

MAXIM

maxim definition: a well-known phrase that expresses a general truth about life or a rule about behavior Example: „Live and let live" expressing a general truth or rule of conduct

METAPHOR

metaphor definition: figure of speech that implies comparison between two unlike entities, as distinguished from simile, an explicit comparison signalled by the words "like" or "as." example: An example of metaphor in poem "I Like to See It Lap the Miles" by Emily Dickinson which talks about familiar metaphor "Iron Horse," for train.

ODE

ode - a ceremonious poem on an occasion of public or private dignity in which personal emotion and general meditation are united - a type of a lyrical stanza, structured in 3 parts: the strophe, the antistrophe and the epode Example: I decided to mention "Ode on a Grecian Urn" written by John Keats where he admires the beauty and a work by Grecian artisan. In the beginning, Keats addresses the urn by saying: "Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness! Thou foster-child of silence and slow time", he describes the urn as "sylvan historian" that can tell a story through its beauty. In the last stanza, Keats addresses the urn again by saying " Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought"."Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." -> He tells that it is the only thing the urn knows and it has to know.

READER ORIENTATED APPROACH

reader orienrated approach 1) reception theory. 1960s Wolfgang Iser, physiological aspect of reading, reception by particular group of readers,reception by particular group of readers- how it should have been recieved 2) reception history- reception of text in one particular period or development of reception over time