Critical Reading in Literature

Vocabulary flashcards covering core literary terms, analytical concepts, and specific passage details from the Literature Critical Reading lecture.

Contextualization

Asking key questions prior to reading (such as who wrote the text, when, and in what social, historical, or literary environment) to frame its values, style, and limitations.

Reading for Meaning

Reading focused on literal and inferential comprehension of what the text says, including main ideas, primary purposes, and author target audiences.

Reading for Analysis

Reading focused on how an author constructs a text using craft, structural organization, syntax, diction, tone, and point of view.

Persona

The character voice adopted by an author or first-person narrator, which may be unsympathetic or villainous.

Intrusive Narrator

A third-person narrator who pauses the narrative to editorialize, digress, or address the reader directly.

Tone

The author's attitude toward the subject, which in informational non-fiction is typically detached and matter-of-fact.

Irony

A device that creates two levels of meaning—what is said versus what is implied—through exaggeration, understatement, or presenting a situation as the opposite of what it is.

Syntax

The structural arrangement of language, including sentence length and variety, clause structure, parallelism, verb mood, and voice.

Diction

An author's word choice, categorized by register, sensory details, concreteness, and connotative versus denotative meanings.

Anaphora

An oratorical device characterized by the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses in speeches.

Connotative Words

Words that carry emotional associations beyond their literal definitions.

Denotative Words

Words that express direct, literal dictionary meanings.

Platitude

A commonplace, dull, or trite remark or quality.

1831

The publication year of Mary Shelley's Introduction to Frankenstein used in the sample passage.

Lord Byron

The poet referred to as the 'noble author' and nicknamed 'the bad Lord Byron' who proposed the ghost-story contest among four writers.

Mazeppa

The Lord Byron poem at the end of which his prose ghost-story fragment was printed.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mary Shelley's husband, praised for brilliant imagery and melodious verse while lacking story invention and machinery.

Dr. John Polidori

The contestant referred to as 'Poor Polidori' who wrote a failed tale featuring a skull-headed lady.

Tom of Coventry

A footnoted allusion in Mary Shelley's passage referencing 'Peeping Tom,' who was struck blind for looking at Lady Godiva.

Tomb of the Capulets

An un-footnoted allusion to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet where Dr. Polidori dispatched his skull-headed lady.

Noble (in context)

A contextual vocabulary word in the sample text indicating aristocratic peerage rather than moral integrity.