English Lit

Plot is conflict—

a struggle between opposing forces that creates tension and propels the story. Conflict can be internal or external, and it often falls into one of these classic categories:

Person vs. Self –

a character struggles with internal doubt, guilt, or desire

Person vs. Person –

a conflict with another character

Person vs. Nature –

a battle against natural forces like storms, illness, or wilderness

Person vs. Society –

tension between a character and cultural or legal norms

Person vs. Supernatural –

conflict with forces beyond the natural world (e.g., fate, gods, ghosts)

Exposition

Beginning of a story that provides background information and introduces characters, setting, and context.

Rising Action (complication) -

conflict between the main characters is building

Climax (turning point) -

the main character has reached his or her apex of good fortune in the story

Falling Action (denouement) -

things begin to go down hill for the main character. Painful or shocking discoveries are often part of this section

Resolution or Revelation -

This last stage brings closure, showing how conflicts are resolved and what changes remain

Plots are classified as

either comic or tragic

Comic -

build toward a happy or positive ending

Tragic -

build toward a sorrowful or negative one

Setting does more than provide a backdrop. It

influences characters, establishes mood, and can even drive the plot itself.

Setting -

place and time where events of the story take place

Setting can function as

a character or establish the emotional atmosphere or mood

City life =

fast

Setting includes

the historical and cultural moment in which the story takes place or its social context

Characters are described as

Flat, Round, Static, Dynamic

Flat –

characters with one or two defining traits, often serving a specific role in the story

Round –

well-developed characters with complex personalities and motivations

Static –

characters who remain the same throughout the story

Dynamic –

characters who undergo meaningful change over time

Protagonist -

the hero or the person the audience is meant to identify with / story revolves around him or her

Antagonist -

the primary source of opposition or conflict with the protagonist - often/not always the villain

Point of View -

mode of narration that an author employs to let readers “hear” and “see” what takes place in a story

First Person -

use of the pronoun “I” and “we” It puts the reader inside the mind of the characters. Everything that happens is viewed from this character’s perspective

Second Person -

use of pronoun “you”

Third Person -

use of pronouns “he” “she” “it” and “they”

Omniscient -

narrators who can get inside minds of all the characters

Limited Omniscient -

narrators who can get inside only a few of the characters’ minds but not all

Narrators -

not the authors. Narrator is another character in the work whose perception is also colored by his/her own personality and experiences like the other characters

Symbolism -

use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense

Figurative Language -

using figures of speech to be more effective, persuasive and impactful. Figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, and allusions go beyond the literal meanings of the words to give the readers new insights

Themes

give stories weight and purpose by exploring issues like justice, identity, loss, or love. They reflect universal human experiences and ask readers to think critically about the world around them.

Theme is not

Plot

Theme is

the point or the argument the writer is trying to make. It is related to but different from the subject. Where the subject of a story is specific to the setting, the plot, and the characters, the theme is the broad based philosophical issue explored by the characters’ story

Mood -

refers to the atmosphere of a literary work. The mood usually expresses some type of emotion

Tone -

refers to the author’s attitude towards his subject. Can be sarcastic, light hearted, dramatic, passionate, or ironic

Poetry is

Craft of form, structure, and sound

Meter -

how a poem is paced / Poetic device that serves as a linguistic sound pattern for the verses as it gives poetry a rhythmical and melodious sound/Stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry / regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

Stressed =

Longer (ex: Stress the word CON-tent means material / Stress the word con-TENT means satisfied)

Unstressed =

Shorter

Foot -

a combination of two or more syllables which form a unit of rhythm. The number of feet per line is how we analyze meter

Rhyme -

how we rhyme words together and sounds /Use of similar ending syllables in lines of poetry. It should sound natural and add to or create the rhythm of the poem

Stanza -

instead of paragraphs

Groups related lines together and provides natural breaks in thought, imagery, or tone

Vary in length and structure - from couplets and quatrains to octaves and beyond

Epic -

a huge poem telling a story

They are very long and written in a formal style

Typically written about the deeds of warriors and heroes

Narratives - so they tell a story

they tell a story

Haiku -

short poem / straight to the point

Originating in Japan

Capture a single moment, image, or feeling

Rigid structure - three lines of 5,7, and 5 syllables - emphasize brevity and focus, often exploring themes of nature or emotion

5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, 5 in the third

Sonnet -

standard poetic form / classical 14-line poem traditionally written in iambic pentameter with a set rhyme scheme

(Italian) Petrarchan sonnet -

begins with an octave (8 lines) and ends with a sestet (6 lines), typically following a rhyme scheme like abba abba cde cde

(English) Shakespearean sonnet -

uses three quatrains and a final couplet (rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg)

All sonnets share

their compact form, metrical regularity, and the way they develop or shift an idea - often with a volta, or “turn,” partway through

In Terza Rima,

rhyme connects stanzas like links in a chain. This Italian poetic form uses interlocking tercets—three-line stanzas—where the middle line of one stanza sets up the outer lines of the next. The result is a continuous, elegant flow of sound. (aba, bcb, cdc, etc.)

This form appears in classic poetry such as Dante’s Divine Comedy, and in modern poems by writers like Robert Frost.

No limit to # if stanzas

Villanelle -

19-line form is made of 5 tercets(3-line stanzas) followed by a (4-line stanza), and features two repeating lines (refrains) that echo throughout the poem

Rhyme scheme of tercets is aba

Rhyme scheme of quatrain is aaba

Dylan Thomas and James Joyce - famous authors for this form

Rhyme Royal -

structure poetic form that helped elevate English poetry during the Middle Ages

7 line stanza (with quatrain or tercet) (either 1 quatrain and 1 tercet or 2 tercets and 1 couplet)

a-b-a-b-b-c-c rhyme scheme

Invented by Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury Tales)

Sestina -

39 line poetic form that trades rhyme for recurring word patterns

Each stanza reorders six key words, creating shift in meaning through repetition

6 sestets and 1 tercet

Blank Verse -

has a set meter, usually iambic pentameter, but does not rhyme

Does not have much restriction

Combines structure with freedom

Lamb pentameter -

blank verse (unstressed/stressed syllables)

Trochee -

blank verse (stressed/unstressed syllables)

Free Verse

No rhyme, no meter, no fixed stanza structure

Dominant in modern poetry (Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound)

Heroic Couplets -

pairs of rhyming iambic pantameter lines

Ballad Meter -

4 line stanzas with rhyming pattern abcb

Iambic tetrameter -

used in ancient and Greek/Latin poetry

Consists of 2 syllables first unstressed and second stressed

With a rhyme scheme and 4 lines

Pastoral elegy -

poem about death and idyllic rural life

Dramatic Monologue -

persona poem written in the form of a speech of an individual character

Irregular ode -

poem with meter and rhyme but no set pattern of meter or rhyme

Epic catalogue -

long, detailed list of objects, places, or people characteristic of epic poetry

Alexandrine -

line of verse with 6 iambic feet

Sprung Rhythm -

meter like speech, each foot equals 1 stressed syllable and many non stressed syllables invest by Geroge Manly Hopkins

Literary Ballad -

a narrative poem imitating folk ballad but more elaborate and complex

Elegiac stanza -

quatrain written in iambic pentameter with alternate lines rhyming

Popular ballad -

anonymous narrative poem focusing on the climax of a particularly dramatic event and employing frequent repetition, conventional figures of speech, and sometimes refrain - altered and transmitted orally in musical setting

Voice -

speaker’s perspective or personality

Diction -

poet’s choice of words to shape meaning and emotion

Allegory -

symbolized story or extended metaphor - often w/ moral, spiritual, religious, or political message

Points to universal problem

Reader doesn’t get tied to personal prejudices

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in closely placed words

Consonance (repetition of consonant sounds)

Assonance (repetition of vowel sounds)

Use to create rhythm, mood, and emphasis (enhancing musical quality of a line)

Allusion

Brief reference to a well known person, place, event, literary work, or cultural idea

Audience must know what you are referencing for it to work

Antithesis

Places contrasting ideas in close proximity, often in grammatically parallel structures to highlight their opposition

Unlike simple contradiction, antithesis is used to present complexity and paradox - drawing out deeper meaning through juxtaposition

Come together to make a larger point

Favored by Augustan poets and users of the heroic couplet

Hyperbole

Deliberate use of exaggeration for emphasis or emotional resonance

Not meant to be taken literally - rather magnify the sentiment or passion in a way that engages the reader’s imagination

Imagery

Consists of descriptive and figurative language that appeals to the five senses (sight, sounds, touch, taste, and smell)

Help readers experience a scene or emotion more vividly, often turning abstract ideas into concrete sensory detail

Irony

Meaningful difference between appearance and reality, expectation and result, or speaker intention and literal meaning

Verbal Irony -

saying one thing but meaning another

Situational Irony -

events turn out opposite of what’s expected

Dramatic irony -

audience knows something the character does not

Builds tension, highlights absurdity, or underscores themes in literature

Metaphor/Simile

Figures of speech used to compare two things

Makes the comparison implicitly by stating that one thing is another

Makes the comparison explicit using “like” or “as”

Onomatopoeia

Refers to the words that imitate sounds - buzz, clang, tick-tock, or splash

Create auditory effects that support mood, setting, or characterization

Style

The distinctive way they use language, structure, and literary devices

Encompasses elements like word choice, tone, point of view, setting, theme, and characterization

Literary Periods-

Romanticism, Neoclassicism, Naturalism, Imagism or develop their own

Romanticism -

focused on the emotive qualities of the work as opposed to the aesthetic / intended to move the reader

Neoclassicism

(1160-1798) - during the restoration and augustan and the age of Johnson and tried to imitate the style of the Ancient Greeks

Expressionism -

a revolt against realism and naturalism to achieve psychological and spiritual reality rather than record external events in logical sequence / Kafka and James Joyce (Araby published in 1914/part of the Dubliners)

Naturalism -

philosophical rather than technical style and the study of humans/characters through their relationships with other things

Abstractionism -

representation having no reference to concrete objects or specific example

Imagism -

art of the early 20th century Modernist movement and focused on the power of the image to communicate meaning

Post Colonialism -

discourse of colonization and its effects

Symbolism -

occurs when a person, object, setting, or idea stands for more than its literal meaning

Carry cultural, historical, or emotional connotations that enrich a text

Personification -

figure of speech where human characteristics are attributed to animals, objects, or abstract ideas

Writers use it to make the unfamiliar more relatable, evoke empathy, deepen meaning

Synecdoche -

figure of speech in which a part of something represents the whole (ex: “all hands on deck” or “nice wheels”)