14 May DOES THE SPEAKER SEEM TO BE TALKING TO A SPECIFIC GROUP OF PEOPLE, SUCH AS CHILDREN?
Use this study guide to help you with
terms and concepts related to literature.
I.
Point of View
II.
Types of Essays
III.
Critical Approaches for
Studying Literature
IV.
Literary Terms
V.
Ten Steps of Poetry
Analysis
I.
Point of View
– Point of view refers to how a story is told:
First
person narration – the “I” voice; the narrator speaks from his or her own
point of view.
Third
person narration – the “he” or “she” voice.
Limited
omniscient narration – third person narrator who presents only the inner
thoughts of one or two characters.
Omniscient
narration – third person narrator who presents the inner thoughts of ALL
of the characters, capable of describing events happening simultaneously
in different places.
Unreliable
narrator – a narrator whose interpretation and evaluation do not coincide
with the implicit beliefs and norms of the values held by the author or
reader.
Reliable
narrator – a narrator who is trustworthy, who offers a mainly unbiased
account of the events.
II.
Types of Essays
Reflective
essay – an essay in which the writer ponders ideas and offers reflections
about one or more topics. A reflective essay can have a personal tone.
Compare
and Contrast essay – an essay in which a writer discusses the similarities
and differences between two works.
Analysis
essay – an essay in which the writer offers an interpretation of a work,
suggesting what possible meanings might be hidden or embedded in the work.
III.
Critical Approaches for Studying Literature
An
approach to literature is defined by a reader’s focus. Below, you will see that different
approaches focus on different aspects of an author’s work:
Formalist
approach – focus on the “formal” elements of a work.
Structure
Tone
Plot
Character
Length
Style
Biographical
approach – use elements from the writer’s life.
Family
background
Childhood
experiences
Major
events
Psychological
approach – examine motivations and unconscious material.
Of
the author: the author may have
written things without being consciously aware of his or her motivation.
Of
the characters: the characters’
actions and personalities may reveal their “hidden” motivation.
Of
the reader: readers may respond to a work for unconscious reasons.
Historical
approach – examine the historical context to find influences in an author’s
work.
Economic
conditions
Cultural
context
Major
events, such as war
Feminist
approach – consider issues related to women in a work.
Language
used to depict women
Women
characters
Social
conditions for women
Depictions
of motherhood
Issues
related to women writers
Mythological
approach – consider universal ideas and concepts.
Fear
and death
Love
and hope
Seasons
and cycles
Quests
and symbols
Reader
Response approach – consider the reader of a work.
Ways
in which the reader imposes assumptions upon the work due to background
and culture
Ways
in which the reader interprets a work by noticing different things than
another reader might notice
IV.
Literary Terms
Allusion
– a reference to another person, place, or event stated or implied.
Antagonist
– the character or force that opposes the protagonist; sometimes the
antagonist is a storm or a situation against which the protagonist is
fighting.
Drama
– a narrative involving conflict and usually designed for presentation on
a stage.
Essay
– a work most often written in prose in which a topic is presented and
discussed.
Genre
– a category used to describe literary works:
Novel
Short
story
Drama
Essay
Speech
Poem
Science
Fiction
Imagery
– the visual objects and scenes included in a work; the use of language to
represent people and things descriptively. A work may have dominant types
of imagery:
nature imagery
weather
imagery
war
imagery
fishing
imagery
technological
imagery
Irony
– a humorous or sarcastic use of language of a different or opposite
meaning; an incongruity between what actually happens and what is expected
to happen, especially when this disparity seems absurd or laughable.
Literature
– the term suggests writings that are of superior quality which deal with
universal ideas.
Metaphor
– a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is imaginatively applied to
a person, idea, or object:
She’s
a peach
That
car is a work horse
My
memory is foggy
Poem
– a work written to produce auditory pleasure using sound and metrical or
patterned language.
Protagonist
– the main character in a work, though not always the hero; the
protagonist may be good or evil, but the protagonist is always the main
character.
Setting
– the time, location, and social environment of a literary work.
Short
story – a brief work of prose fiction that can be read in one sitting.
Simile
– a figure of speech in which two things are compared using “like” or
“as”:
My
love is like a rose
The
child is as pretty as a picture
Stanza
– An arrangement of lines grouped together in a poem
Style
– the features of a work that pertains to a writer’s choice of words.
Theme
– an idea that is central to the work.
Tone
– the mood or attitude of a work:
Melancholy
Lighthearted
Serious
Playful
Dramatic
Formal
Angry
Eerie
Solemn
Loving
V. Ten Steps of Poetry Analysis
Use this method as a way to approach
most poems of short to average length:
Step
1 – Read the poem out loud.
Reading
the poem out loud will help you to “hear” the sound devices the poet has
used, such as meter and rhyme.
Reading
the poem out loud will help you to grasp what is happening in the poem
Step
2 – Use the dictionary.
Look
up unfamiliar words
Look
up familiar words to refresh your understanding of them
Step
3 – Focus on the speaker of the poem.
Who
is the speaker?
Is
the speaker male or female?
The
poet may be one gender and the speaker another gender
Often
there are no words that suggest the gender of the speaker, and you can
assume that it is probably the same gender as the writer
Look
for clues about the speaker
The
speaker’s tone
The
speaker’s age
The
speaker’s situation or conflict
Step
4 – Focus on the audience.
Does
the speaker seem to be talking to a specific group of people, such as
children?
Are
there any words that let you know who the audience might be?
Quite
often, the audience is a general readership, but sometimes a speaker is
talking to a friend, lover, parent, or child.
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