ENG2413: World Literature Final Exam Study Guide

Shahrazad

The narrator of The Thousand and One Nights who uses storytelling as a means of survival, empowerment, wisdom, and cunning.

Narrative Structure (The Thousand and One Nights)

A frame narrative format that influences theme development through stories within stories.

The Pilgrimage Setting

The central setting of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that provides a reason for a diverse group of social classes to gather and share stories.

Frame Narrative

A storytelling technique, used in Canterbury Tales and The Thousand and One Nights, where an introductory story sets the stage for a series of shorter narratives.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale

A narrative within Canterbury Tales that explores themes of women’s roles, sovereignty, and challenges traditional medieval societal views.

Satire (Canterbury Tales)

A literary tool used by Chaucer in "The General Prologue" to critique various social classes and corruption within the church.

"To be, or not to be"

Hamlet’s famous soliloquy reflecting on the contemplation of life and death and the struggle between action and inaction.

Antic Disposition

The feigned madness Hamlet adopts to advance the themes of appearance versus reality.

Elsinore Castle

The specific setting of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The Play-within-a-play (Hamlet)

A device used by Hamlet to advance the plot, test Claudius’s guilt, and develop his own character.

The Ghost of King Hamlet

A character that functions as the primary catalyst for the revenge plot in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Romanticism

A literary movement that differs from the Enlightenment by emphasizing emotion, individualism, the sublime, and a fascination with the past and nature.

The Sublime

A portrayal of nature in Romantic poetry as something powerful, vast, and capable of inspiring awe or terror.

Edgar Allan Poe

A Romantic writer known for incorporating elements of the Gothic into his literary works.

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

A poem by William Wordsworth that exemplifies the Romantic emphasis on individual emotion and the beauty of nature.

Industrial Society Critique

The central message of Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us," addressing the loss of connection between humanity and nature.

Songs of Innocence vs. Songs of Experience

Two contrasting collections by William Blake that explore different thematic perspectives on the human soul and society.

The Tyger

A symbol used by William Blake to explore the nature of creation and the coexistence of beauty and ferocity.

Death (Emily Dickinson)

A frequently portrayed theme in Dickinson’s poetry, often personified as a polite gentleman, such as in "Because I could not stop for Death."

Realism

A literary style used by Anton Chekhov in "The Lady with the Dog" to explore the complexities of human relationships and societal norms through everyday life.

Understatement

A technique used by Chekhov in "The Lady with the Dog" to enhance the narrative's exploration of complex, internal emotions.

García Márquez

The author of "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" who uses Magical Realism to provide social commentary.

Post-colonial Literature

Literature that typically addresses thematic concerns of displacement, belonging, and identity while challenging colonial perspectives.

Cultural Hybridity

A theme explored in Chinua Achebe’s "Chike’s School Days" through the protagonist's education and lineage.

Osu

The outcast group in the context of "Chike’s School Days" relative to the marriage of Chike's father.

Imagery (Neruda)

The tool used in "Ode to the Tomato" to convey the vitality of the tomato and broader themes of community.

"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

A story that explores cultural and gender expectations through maternal advice.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in close proximity.

Allusion

An indirect or passing reference to another work of literature, person, or event.

Aside

A remark made by a character in a play intended to be heard by the audience but not by the other characters.

Deus ex Machina

An unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device.

Dramatic Irony

A situation where the audience knows more about the circumstances or future events than the characters within the work.

Epic

A long narrative poem, typically derived from oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures.

Existentialism

A philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.

Magical Realism

A literary genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which a word