English literature

Commonwealth

Countries that used to be part of the British Empire, most of them have English as one of their official languages.

Character

textual / verbal / semantic representation of a human being

Characterization

The literary process that allows for such a realistic representation, designed by the author within the text.

Telling

The narrator intervenes to tell or describe to the reader what a character is like, what moral traits they possess. It tends to be a direct characterization.

Showing

The reader has to infer, deduce the traits of a character according to how they behave, what they say or think. The reader has to elaborate their own representation. It tends to be an indirect characterization.

Acoustic value

How the name sounds. Ex : Babbitt reminiscent of "rabbit".

Metaphorical value

What the name recalls. Ex : Piggy, the fat boy in Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954).

Semantic connection

Link between a name and a behavior for exemple. Ex : Anna of the Five Towns: Mynors is a major figure of the town, but his actions are minor in the plot.

Setting

Where and when the story takes place.

General environment

wider time and place of the story (exemple : the USA during the Civil War)

Spatial environment

specific to the characters, like a region, area, house, building etc

Atmosphere

interplay between general and spatial environment. It can also be the « mood » or « ambiance » in the novel

Appellation

precise terms describing the setting (nouns or pronounce)

Expansion

list of parts and components of the setting, specifying qualities or properties

Didactic

one place is representative of a series of places

Mimetic

the specificity of one place is insisted upon

Narrator

This is the voice of the text who speak, who tells the story. He belongs to the fiction, and he’s a literary construction, created by the author.

Implied author

It designates the idea of the author that the reader imagines based on the text.

Narratee

is a fictional person that the narrator is addressing in a story and a fictional construct

Implied reader

model reader that the author has in mind when writing the text

Levels of narration

Determine how much the narrator participates in the story and who has the narrative authority.

Homodiegetic narrator

A narrator who is a character of the story, so less reliable and often speak by « I ».

Heterodiegetic narrator

A narrator who isn’t a character of the story, and tells is without taking part in it.

Ulterior narration

narrator tells a story that has happened years ago - past tense

Simultaneous narration

narrator tells the story as it enfolds - present tense

Anterior narration

narrator anticipates futur events (prophecy) - future tense

Direct speech

Got inverted commas, reporting clause and narrator ≠ character

Free direct speech

Do not got any commas or reporting clause and the narrator = character

Indirect speech

The character’s words are subordinated to the narrator’s words and it is more distance

Free indirect speech

This is a mixture of direct and indirect speech, and emphasis on character

Narrative speech

The character’s thoughts are merely summed up and have a greater distance.

Unreliable narrator

play with this identification / distance ; the reader is invited in, then deceived

Polyphony or polyvocality

richness or prose is being able to make several various techniques in the text