Intro to Fiction Exam #2

Black Leclere

Character in "Batard"

Dr. John

Character in "The Yellow Wallpaper" (male)

Jennie

Character in "The Yellow Wallpaper" (female)

Tone

The implied attitude of the speaker or narrator toward the events being narrated

Mood

the background emotional feel or atmosphere of a story, generally created by details of setting and imagery

Style

the structural characteristics of an author's language

Dialect

language whose style tries to capture the feel of a particular regional or local speech

Stylistic technique where a character's speech includes characteristic regional variations, including accent or slang

Diction

an author's word choices as part of their overall style: for example, elaborate, casual, or poetic

The Uncanny

story element characterized by a creepy mixture of the familiar and the strange: common feature of the Gothic

The 18th Century

Era when Gothic fiction arose as a genre

Irony

A stylized gap or formal opposition between 2 or more levels of information, often used for comic purposes

Satire

Moral or social critique through humorous exaggeration

The Supernatural

Plot developments that violate normal laws of the natural world, such as ghosts, telepathy, curses, etc.

The Skin Taker

Character in "Candle Cove"

The Gothic

A genre of fiction characterized by mystery and supernatural horror, centered around psychological themes

Pluto

Character in "The Black Cat"

Shirley Jackson

Author of "What a Thought"

Jack London

Author of "Batard"

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Author of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Hermeneutic Tension

Curiosity-based drive in a story: reader wants to understand or figure out some aspect of the story world

Proairetic Tension

Suspense-based drive in a story: reader wants to see how the actions and events turn out

Editorial Omniscience

Point of view employed when an omniscient narrator goes beyond reporting the story to make a critical judgment or commentary, making explicit the narrator's own thoughts or attitudes.

Naturalism

Darwinian literary movement that influenced much of Jack London's work

Quotation from "What a Thought"

The idea of a grown woman troubling herself with silly fears like that—it's like being afraid of ghosts, or something. Nothing is going to happen to him, Margaret, she said almost aloud; nothing can happen to hurt either you or your husband or anyone you love.

Quotation from "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and said he would go down cellar, if I wished, and have it whitewashed into the bargain.

Quotation from "The Black Cat"

I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence.