English 11 Final Exam Literature Review

aphorism

A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life.

Literature of Discontent

Along the lines of Naturalism, the social problems of this period were seen as a force to deal with. Many groups, from women to freed slaves, started expressing their discontent with the way things were. They started addressing these issues in their writing

Stephen Foster

America's best loved song composer in the 19th century

James Fenimore Cooper

America's first novelist

Artemus Ward

American author and humorist of nineteenth century who uses cacography, faulty logic, faulty coordination, immature choppy sentences, and poor paragraph development for a humorous effect. He also used dialect effectively. AKA Charles Farrar Browne.

Will Rogers

American author and humorist who was part Native American and famous for his homespun philosophy.

Herman Melville

American author who wrote America's only epic, Moby Dick

Carl Sandburg

American author, humorist, and Pulitzer Prize winner. He earned this prize in history for his biography of Lincoln and in literature for his "Complete Poems."

Stephen Vincent Benet

American poet and short story writer who received the Pulitzer Prize for "John Brown's Body"; also wrote "A Creed for Americans" and "American Names"

James Russell Lowell

American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat that is associated with the Fireside Poets. His most famous work as "A Fable for Critics".; first author to successfully write in Yankee dialect

Daniel Webster

American statesman and senator from Massachusetts leading up to Civil War period. Part of a debate with Senator Hayne entitled "Liberty and Union" stresses his belief that the Union must be more powerful than the states.

Henry David Thoreau

American transcendentalist who was against a government that supported slavery. He wrote down his beliefs in Walden. He started the movement of civil-disobedience when he refused to pay the toll-tax to support the Mexican War.

Spirituals

Anonymous songs expressing faith, hope, and freedom composed by slaves and plantation workers

anecdotes

Brief, often amusing stories

Imagists

British and American poets early in the 20th century that advocated the use of free verse, common speech patterns, and clear concrete images as a reaction to Victorian sentimentalism; they were from a strand of modernism

imagery

Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

Washington Irving

First American short story writer to become famous worldwide; wrote about American folklore; "Rip Van Winkle" and "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" most famous works; Geoffrey Crayon

Naturalism

It is more pessimistic than Realism, primarily; writers believed that larger forces were at work: Nature, Fate, and Heredity. Their writing was inspired by hardships, whether it was war, the frontier, or urbanization.

Ray Bradbury

Modern author known for writing science fiction and tales of fantasy

Fanny Crosby

Most beloved hymn writer on the nineteenth century

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Most popular American poet of the nineteenth century; only American poet to be honored at Westminster Abby

Emily Dickinson

One of America's most loved poets; wrote almost two thousand poems, most of which were published posthumously

Josh Billings

Pen name of American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw also known for using cacography, faulty logic, poor grammar, and plays on words. He was inspired by Artemus Ward and his faith in the Scriptures.

Mark Twain

Pen name of Samuel L. Clemens. This famous author used his life on the river as a source for writing. His most famous works are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Quaker poet who also wrote hymns; his masterpiece celebrated the New England countryside and family life

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Romantic movement; themes dealt with sin and guilt; Wrote The Scarlett Letter and "The Great Carbuncle"

Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens; American poet, novelist, short story writer and playwright.

Modernism

The Modernist Period in Literature occupied the years from shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century through roughly 1965. In broad terms, the period was marked by sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional ways of viewing and interacting with the world.

modern poetry

The image = central to poetry Poets choose everyday words over flowery, sentimental language. Fragmentation and re-combination

Walt Whitman

Trancendentalist; considered America's first modern poet; introduced free verse

Stephen Crane

Writer, poet, journalist; realist, naturalist, impressionist; "The Open Boat"

personification

a comparison in which human qualities are given to an inanimate object or an animal

implied metaphor

a comparison is hinted at but not clearly stated

simile

a comparison of two things using like, as, than, or resembles

Realism

a concern with faithfully depicting subject matter or representing real life accurately in literature; to portray life realistically (hence the name), and people as they were; 1850-1914

metaphor

a direct comparison of two unlike things

Sonnet

a fourteen line poem with a specific rhyme scheme

The Knickerbockers

a group of America's first great imaginative writers; named after fictional character Diedrich Knickerbocker who was created by Irving

stanza

a group of lines arranged together

line

a group of words on one line of a poem

Ralph Waldo Emerson

a leading transcendentalist writer, and the real founder of the movement. trained as a unitarian minister. encouraged americans to form an intellectual deceleration of independence. a practical philosopher, wrote fresh and vibrant essays that enriched thousands of lives. urged american intellectual patriotism and independence.

extended metaphor

a metaphor that goes several lines or possibly the entire length of the work

irony

a method of expression in which the intended meaning of the words used is the direct opposite of their usual sense; used for humor or sarcasm

transcendentalism

a nineteenth-century movement in the Romantic tradition, which held that every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition, which transcends reason and sensory experience.

rhyme scheme

a pattern of rhyme (usually end rhyme, but not always); this pattern is shown with letters

symbolism

a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself also represents something else

refrain

a phrase or sentence which is repeated at intervals

concrete poem

a poem in which the words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the content of the poem

narrative poem

a poem that tells a story

allusion

a reference in a literary work to mythology, history, literature,or something famous

ballad

a short narrative song written in stanzas; written to be sung or recited and tells a story of some exciting episode; has the rhyme scheme of abcb

lyric poem

a short poem in first person point of view that expresses an emotion, idea, or describes a scene

refrain

a sound, word, phrase or line repeated regularly in a poem

conceit

a strongly exaggerated simile or metaphor

external conflict

a struggle between a character and an outside force

internal conflict

a struggle that takes place in the character's mind

couplet

a two line stanza

assonance

a type of alliteration in which repeated vowel sounds are in a line or lines of poetry

consonance

a type of alliteration in which the repeated consonant sounds are anywhere in the words

end rhyme

a word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line

internal rhyme

a word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line

Regionalism

all about "local flavor" or "local color." "Local Color" means a reliance on minor details and dialects. They usually wrote about the South or the West. More often than not, these stories were full of humor and small-town characters.

trochee

an accented syllable followed by an unaccented one

dactyl

an accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones

omniscient point of view

an all-knowing author is the narrator who comments freely on the actions and characters as he is able to delve into the minds of all characters and tell what they think or feel

simile

an expressed comparison of unlike things in which the words like, as, resembles, or similar to are used

idiom

an expression in which the literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression

short story

an imaginative prose narrative written to give the reader entertainment and insight; intended to be read in one sitting

metaphor

an implied comparison in which one thing is described in terms of another

personification

an object, something natural, or an animal is given life-like qualities

tone

author's attitude

man vs nature

conflict between an individual adn the natural world

man vs society

conflict between an individual and larger groups

man vs man

conflict between people

man vs technology

conflict with the forces of man-made technology

man vs fate

conflict with what seems to be an uncontrollable problem such as destiny

man vs self

conflict within a character with themselves

alliteration

consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words

dramatic irony

contrasting what a character says and what a reader or audience knows to be true

octameter

eight feet

hyperbole

exaggeration often used for emphasis

Pearl S. Buck

first American women to receive the Nobel Prize for literature

pentameter

five feet

tetrameter

four feet

Fireside Poets

group of poets who wrote poems that people enjoyed sharing with family and friends

symbols

have meanings in themselves but also represent other things as well

approximate rhyme

imperfect rhyme, close rhyme, near rhyme

William Bradford

known as the father of American History

O Henry

known for suprise endings, irony, and dialect; William Sidney Porter; "The Cop and the Anthem"

imagery

language that appeals to the senses

Edgar Allan Poe

master storyteller and poet; introduced the detective story and science fiction; many of his works are mystery or about the macabre; part of Romantic period

cacography

misspellings or bad handwriting

F. Scott Fitzgerald

modern author who wrote about the pleasure-seeking generation of the Roaring Twenties

ee cummins

modern poet known for his unconventional form

Free Verse Poetry

no repeating patterns of syllables, no rhyme, conversational, modern; it differs from prose only in that it is written in lines

Sarah Orne Jewett

novelist, essayist, and short story writer from Maine; known for local color and descriptions of life in nineteenth century New England; "The Town Poor"

monosyllabic foot

one accented syllable

monometer

one foot

Thornton Wilder

one of America's most well-known playwrights; wrote "Our Town" for which he won the Pulitzer Prize; " The Unerring Instinct"

iamb

one unaccented followed by an accented syllable

free verse

poetry having no metrical pattern

situational irony

presenting a discrepancy between appearance and reality or between expectation and fulfillment

verbal irony

saying the opposite of what is meant

heptameter

seven feet

hexameter

six feet

local color writing

sketches and short stories portraying the life of a particular geographical location;rich in picturesque details reflecting the scenery, quaint customs, and dialect of a region

nonconformist

someone who refuses to conform to established standards of conduct

plot

the arrangement of incidents or events which can be divided into a beginning, middle, and end.

tone/mood

the attitude or emotion of the author or narrator toward his subject or audience

objectve point of view

the author presents the characters in actions with no comment, allowing the reader to come to his own conclusions about them

indirect characterization

the author shows the character in action and lets the reader make their interpretations

limited point of view

the author tells teh story from the viewpoint of one character using either the first or third person

direct characterization

the author tells the reader about the characters directly

conflict

the central source of tension and drama that makes stories interesting

antagonist

the character or force in conflict

dialogue

the conversation between characters

rhyme

the correspondence of sounds

protagonist

the main character

theme

the meaning of the story

point of view

the method of presenting teh reader with the materials of the story; the perspective from which it is told.

speaker

the narrator of a poem

foot

the pattern in a line of poetry consisting of one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables

rhythm

the recurrence of motion or sound; can be created by meter, rhyme, alliteration and refrain

satire

the ridicule of human folly or vice with the purpose of correcting it or for a humorous effect

surprise ending

the unexpected twist at the end of the story which goes contrary to the reader's expectations

dialect

the words and pronunciations which are peculiar to a people in a certain section of a country or a certain class of people

tone

the writer's or speaker's attitude toward his subject and in turn the response which the writer intends for his readers

characters

those who make the plot happen

trimeter

three feet

spondee

two accented syllables

dimeter

two feet

anapest

two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one

blank verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter

plot

what happens in a story

meter

when the rhythm occurs at regular intervals; a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

setting

where and when the story takes place

diction

word choice

syntax

word order

onomatopoeia

words that imitate the sound they name