CLEP: Analyzing and Interpreting Literature

3 Genres

Poetry
Prose
Drama

3 Forms of Literary Expression

American Literature
British Literature
Works in Translation

Prose

The most common form of written language following natural speech patterns and grammatical structure

Phonic

Pertaining to sound from speech

Fiction

Imaginary narrative; the information or events are created by the author

Non-Fiction

Writing that delivers factual events and observations

Satire

Literary form that ridicules human vices or shortcomings

Truth

Fact or reality that transcends genres

Novel

An extended fictional narrative written in prose that includes characters, plot, and setting

Romance

Longer prose narrative, originally associated with the legendary, imaginative and poetic

Mode

A broad literary method not tied to one specific form or genre, such as irony or satire

i.e. realism, romanticism, impressionism, expressionism, naturalism, or neo-classicism

Realism

Delivering subject from third-person objective point of view with no added interpretation or elaboration

Romanticism

An artistic and literary movement originating in the second half of the eighteenth century in Europe, emphasizing emotions, idealism, adventure, and chivalry

Impressionism

Subjective or personal literary style that relies on associations; style adapted from nineteenth century school of painters including Monet and Renoir

Expressionism

Subjective depiction of the real world through imagination, the abstract and symbols

Naturalism

Literary movement that depicts life as accurately as possible, illustrating transformation in society through environment and hereditary.

Neo-classicism

A style of prose and poetry from the 17th and 18th centuries, reviving a classical style from Greek and Roman cultures.

Static

A character who stays the same throughout a literary work.

Dynamic

A character whose personality changes over the course of a narrative or who has the ability for such a change

Protagonist

Main character in a literary work; literally, one who struggles toward or for something

Antagonist

The one who struggles against or contends with the protagonist; the antagonist may be another individual or an obstacle or challenge, such as fear or death

Stock

A well understood and accepted interpretation of an image, symbol or character; a character who exists for necessity of a plot

Stereotype

A popularly held belief about a particular group of individuals

Foil

A character who highlights through contrast opposite characteristics in another character

Allegorical

A narrative that is an extended metaphor; the elements of the narrative carry significance on a literal and figurative level

Theme

Statement summarizing the message or the big idea of a story

Topic

Phrase stating subject or theme of a work or speech

Motif

An object, concept or structure repeated in a literary work; thereby giving it symbolic significance in the story

Point of View

The perspective or vantage point from which the author chooses to tell the story

4 Categories of Essays

speculative, argumentative, narrative, and expository

Speculative

Writing or discourse that explores ideas

Argumentative

Describes writing - usually an essay - that establishes a position and supports it with evidence

Narrative

Has speculative and arguementative; the events that tell the story

Expository

Writing or discourse with the primary purpose of informing, clarifying, or explaining

Voice

The speaker. In non-fiction, the author; in fiction, the narrator; may also refer to the style chosen by the writer, such as formal or informal

Style

How an author writes; incorporates diction, syntax, use of narration and dialogue, choice point of view, and description

Structure

Organization of a literary work

Thought

Idea the essayist is conveying

Irony

Discrepancy between what is said and what is done or meant

Parody

A work that mocks an original work, character or style through humerous imitation

Reversal/Inversion

Doing or saying the opposite or unexpected; using irony

Hyperbole

Exaggeration or overstatement

Understatement

Expression of an idea with less force or strength than expected for the sake of humor

Sarcasm

Harsh or biting verbal irony

Wit

Intellectual humor; in poetry, wit works through word play to emphasize concepts

Invective

Writing that attacks a person or idea through emotional language

Verse

A line of poetry (versus); often used to refer to a section or stanza of a poem

Meter

Basic rhythmic structure for lines in poetic verse

Stanza

In poetry, a group of lines set off by space; also referred to as a verse

Rhyme Scheme

Pattern of repetition of rhyme within a poem designated by aabb or abab, where a marks the first line and all the other lines rhyming with it

End rhyme

Repetition of similar sounds in two or more words, found in the final syllable(s) of the lines of poetry

Internal rhyme

A word rhyming at the end of a line with a word in the middle of a line

Slant rhyme

Repetition of final consonant in only 2 words; also referred to as near rhyme or off rhyme, it is consonance in the consonants of the rhyming words such as "all" and "bell" or "mirth" and "hearth"

Masculine rhyme

A rhyme that matches just one syllable, often a stressed syllable found at the end of lines

Feminine rhyme

Two or more syllables match in the rhyming words; the final syllable or syllables are unstressed

free verse

poetry using natural rhythms of word and phrases instead of required metrical feet

blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

iambic rhythm

rising and falling rhythm in poetry from alternating stressed and unstressed syllables

iambic meter/foot

an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

iambic pentameter

Line of five feet, each with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

foot

Basic unit of meter consisting of a set number of stressed and unstressed syllables

hexameter

Line with six metrical feet; most common

monometer

Line with one metrical foot

dimeter

Line with two metrical feet

trimeter

Line with three metrical feet

tetrameter

Line with four metrical feet

heptameter

Line with seven metrical feet

octameter

Line with eight metrical feet

anapest

Metrical foot used in poetry consisting of 2 short syllables followed by a long syllable

dactyl

A foot in meter in poetry; in Greek or Latin verse, it is a long syllable followed by 2 short syllables; in English verse, it is a stressed syllable followed by 2 unstressed syllables

accentual meter

Stressed rhythmic structure of poetic lines

Metaphor

compares 2 unlike things, feelings or objects

Simile

compares 2 dissimilar things; always using "as if" (for a clause) or "like" (for a word or phrase)

Allusion

A reference to a person, place or thing from another literary work or history.

Personification

Figure of speech that attributes human characteristics to inanimate objects or animals

Image

Word picture painted by the writer

Imagine

To visualize the picture(s) evoked by the writer through the senses

Imagisim

Term coined by Ezra Pound for free imagery, open to many interpretations

Symbol

An object, image, word or feeling that represents something greater

Stock

A well-understood and accepted interpretation of an image, symbol or character; a character who exists for the necessity of the plot

Conventional

Following acceptable standards; a well-understood interpretation

Alliteration

the repetition of consonants at the beginning of words that are close by each other

Apostrophe

the direct address of someone or something that is not present

Assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds usually internally rather than initially

Bathos

the deliberate anticlimax to make a definite point or draw attention to a falseness

Caesura

the pause, marked by punctuation (/) or not within the line

Conceits

very elaborate comparisons between unlikely objects

Consonnance

the repetition of consonant sounds without the vowel being repeated

Diction

word choice

Enjambment

the running-on of one line of poetry into another

Hyperbole

a large overstatement used to draw attention to a mark of beauty or virtue or an action that the poet disagrees with

Irony

discrepancy between what is said and what is meant or done

Metonomy

the name for something closely related to it which then takes on a larger meaning

Ontomontopia

a device in which the word captures the sound

Oxymoron

a form of paradox in which contradictory words are used next to each other i.e. painful pleasure

Paradox

a situation or action or feeling that appears to be contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true or at least make sense

Pun

a play on words for a humorous or sarcastic effect

Sarcasm

when verbal irony is too harsh

Synedoche

when a part of an object is used to represent the whole or vice verse

Syntax

the ordering of words into a particular pattern