CSET - English Subtest 1

Villanelle

An intricate French poetic form with 19 lines divided into 5 3-lined stanzas (called tercets), and one final quatrain. It has only 2 rhyming sounds, so it is difficult to write one in English.

Petrarchan sonnet

Italian sonnet with the rhyme scheme of abba abba. It divides into 2 parts, the first part being an octet and the second being a sestet.

Elizabethan or Shakespearean Sonnet

Written in iambic pentameter and consisting of three quatrains and a final couplet with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg.

Limerick

a humorous, 5 line poem, verse of three long and two short lines rhyming aabba, popularized by Edward Lear in Ireland

Short story

Brief work of prose fiction that often concentrates on a single incident and 1-2 main characters

Iambic Meters

a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable, for example Two households, both alike in dignity.

Couplet

2 lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.

Volta

the turn in thought in a sonnet that is often indicated by such initial words as But, Yet, or And yet.

The volta occurs between the octet and sestet in a Petrarchan sonnet and sometimes between the 8th and 9th or between the 12th and 13th lines of a Shakespearean sonnet.

Bildungsroman

is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age)

Modernism

1900-1960 literature

- Rejecting past forms and experiementing with new ones.

-Rebelling against tradition and values

- Disillusion, uncertainty, shock and despair due to WW1/2

-Unsettling atmosphere is common in this era

- industrialization. (T.S. Eliot, Kafka, Orwell, Virginia Woolf, John Steinbeck, James Joyce (Ulysses) )

Postmodernism

1960-Present literature

- Fragmentation of reality - Parody - pastiche - irony - black humour - Paradox - Unreliable Narrator (Paul Auster, Italo Calvino, Allen Ginsberg)

- general feeling of cultural exhaustion

Romanticism Period

1800-1850 literature

-overflowing of feelings and emotions

- Imagination, creativity, individualism, and curiosity

- glorification of nature and the past

-Reaction to Industrial Revolution

- Formed lyrical poetry and gothic novels

- Wordsworth, Coleridge (Lyrical ballads), Dickens, Juan

Hellenistic (Ancient Literature)

323 BC-31BC literature

- Ancient Greek

- The Epic/Epic Poems

- Gods, Humans, Heroes

(Homer: The Odyssey and IIiad)

- Aesop Fables with Greek mythology)

Ab Ovo

Latin "from the egg" - narrative that starts at beginning of the plot as earliest as possible

In Medias Res

Latin "in the middle of things" - starts in middle of the plot

-heighten dramatic tension

-create sense of mystery

-flashback/memories

Stream of Consciousness

Character's thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and memories are presented in discombobulated, fragmented form.

- can repetitive and going from

Subject to subject

-Can be interior monologue

(Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner)

Unreliable Narrator

Credibility is compromised

-most likely first person narration

Post Colonialism/ Multi Culture Literature

Literature from Asia, Africa, Middle East, etc. that is in response to European colonization & imperialism.

-Addresses problems of decolonization

- Nigerian Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe

Victorian Era

1835~1900 Literature

- Further Development of the English novel

-Focus on morality and behavior

-Charles Dickens made bildungsromans and novels like David Copperfield and Great Expectations focused on social problems

-French poetic movement made symbolism

Postcolonial African Literature

1960~1970 Literature

-African nations gained political independence

-political activists

-political & social problems

-Horrors/Sufferings. Spiritual and emotional bankruptcy associated with loss of traditional value and wealth

Naturalism

Explores the darker aspects in life that people go through

-Pessismistic with themes of violence or lower class characters

-Detachment from story (objective)

-Determinism (opposite of free will)

Transcendentalism

~1820/30s - living close to nature - Spiritual living

-View objects in world as small versions of whole universe

- Favored imagination and intuition over logic

-Leader: Ralph Waldo Emerson: Self Reliance and Nature

- Artists: Thoreua, Dickinson, Whitman, and Melville

Round Character

Major character in fiction that is fully developed.

-Goes through change

Static Character

Flat character that goes through little or no change

Archetypal Character

Universal symbol - present in all forms

Antagonist

Character who actively opposes or is hostile towards someone.

-Opposition of protagonist

External Rhyme

Rhymes on the edges of poem - usually a rhyme scheme forms

Apostrophe

When speaker directly addresses someone/thing that is NOT present in poem.

-Could be addressing abstract concept like love, dead person, place, a thing, etc.

Cultural Knowledge

Norms, practices, beliefs based on certain culture

-Social, economic, political

Folk tale

A story originating in popular culture, based on word of mouth.

-Morals/teaches a lesson

-Creation myths (how something came to be)

Hyperbole

Greek "over-casting" - Exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally.

EX: My purse weighs a ton

Fable

Main characters are usually animals that has ability to speak & reason. Ends with a lesson

Myth

Traditional story concerning early history of gods or heroes explaining some natural or social phenomenon.

-Usually contains supernatural beings or events

Metonymy

figure of speech in which a words is substituted for another word that is somehow linked or closely associated

- suit for a business executive

-Track for horse racing.

- corpo for a high corporate worker

Alliteration

The occurrence of the same letter or SOUNDS at the beginning of a word or closely connected words.

-EX: Sally sells seashells

Anthropomorphism

Attribution of human characteristics/behavior to a god, animal, or objects.

(They literally are acting like a human)

Anaphora

Deliberate repetition of the FIRST word of line or sentence.

Ex. I have a dream

Epistrophe

Repetition of a word at the END of successive sentences.

Internal Rhyme

Middle rhyme - occurs within a single line of verse or between internal phrase

Paradox

A situation or statement that leads to a senseless, self-contradictory conclusion

-NOT Logical or possible. (Time travel/grandfather situation)

Metaphor

when two unlike things are compared WITHOUT like or as

EX: The assignment was a breeze.

Personification

Human qualities given to animals, objects or ideas. (In a metaphorical sense, not literal)

deus ex machina

An unexpected power or event that saves a (seemingly) hopeless situation. Formed from greek works

Ad hominem

Latin "against the man" -

An argument/reaction directed against a persons character in order to undermine them instead of their arguments or ideas

Circular Logic

Logical Fallacy - reasoner begins with what they are trying to END with.

-Petitio Principii

Red Herring

argument avoids the key issue by introducing another issue as a diversion (example, sterioids are unfair in sports and harmful! then someone makes the argument that it isnt as bad as drug dealers who get people on drugs)

Pathos

Appealing to a reader's sense of emotion

Anecdote

Short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident that serves to elucidate a point or idea

Syllogism

Form of deductive reasoning with a Major premise, minor premise, & conclusion

Major: all players on a team are students

Minor: marsh is a player on the team

Conclusion: marsh is a student

Realism

Representing the nature of life and social world, as it would appear to the common reader. Usually of practical everyday life

Ovid

Roman poet from the 8th c. BC. Wrote "Metamorphoses"- tales about gods and humans who are transformed in to plants and animals- and "Ars Amatoria" (the Art of Love), which uses wit to explain the pleasures and pain of love. Was an inspiration to Shakespeare.

- talked about how resourceful determination makes a true romantic hero

Medieval Drama

Mystery and morality plays from the Middle Ages written to teach Christian stories and values through the use of allegory and symbolism.

humanity's journey towards salvation and the consequences of their choices. the battle between good and evil. redemption

Metaphysical Poetry

uses far-fetched or unusual metaphor, extended comparison, and subtle wit to explore the nature of reality and human's place in it. Notable authors are John Donne, George Herbert, and Andrew Marvelle.

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it represents

BOOM! BANG! Meow, BARK!

Neoclassical Period

- Ranged from the late 1600s - the late 1700s

- Age of Enlightenment). Took place during the Restoration of England.

- Reason and progress, separating itself from the Christian morals of the renaissance by mocking the Catholic church and satirizing the follies of mankind.

- Primary Subjects: Human beings thoughts, feelings, experiences and characteristics

- Samuel Johnson, Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope

- satires are very common in this era

Gothic Novels

A result of the Romantic's infatuation with ancient ruins are the horror stories such as Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" and Anne Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho"

- Questions the limits of science of the modern world

Allegory

A fictional narrative that contains a second, symbolic meaning in addition to its overt story. Characters represent human qualities such as virtues of vices or abstract concepts such as death.

Triolet

An eight-line poetic form based on French models where the first, fourth, and seventh lines are identical as are its second and final lines. Ex= Hardy's "How Great my Grief".

anachronism

A detail of a literary work that is not appropriate for its time setting. For example, having a woman in Victorian England make a cell phone call.

Assonance

The repetition of VOWEL sounds in a sentences or line of poetry.

Structuralist Criticism

Draws many of its ideas from sociology and anthropology and holds that certain underlying patterns and symmetries are common to the literatures of almost all societies.

- larger cultural context

Formalist Criticism

- Concerned purely with how a texts literary elements contribute to a coherent whole.

- style, word choice, and use of convention over biographical or historical context.

New Criticism

A critical movement similar to formalism, but that focuses primarily on lyrical poems and their diction, imagery, and underlying meaning.

Historical Criticism

A type of literary criticism theory that focuses on a work's historical context and how its allusions, style, and point of view fit the conventions of its period. The effects a work had on the social views and politics of the time might also be examined.

Postcolonial Criticism

Examines literary works as examples of western colonization and imperialism and try to show how these works helped further the ideas of racial and cultural inequity they portray.

Psychoanalytic Criticism

Searches through the fine details of literary works for examples of Freudian concepts such as repressed consciousness and the struggles of the superego, or Jungian ideas of archetypes.

Reader-Response Criticism

Focuses on the reader's role in the creation of a piece of literature with the notion that the reader brings his/her own experiences, biases, and expectations, which causes the reading to be different than the author may have intended.

Marxist Criticism

Views literature through a political lens, as in how a work depicts or glosses over the exploitation of workers by the wealthy.

Philosophical Criticism

Looks at the ethical or religious questions raised by a work of literature, and seek to discover the author's own ideas about what is ethical and how life should be lived.

Appositive

A noun or noun phrase that renames another noun nearby such as "Stephanie Landon, ESL teacher, works at COD."

Farce

A comic play that employs stock situations and characters and exaggerated emotions- considered by many to be the lowest form of drama.

Synaesthesia

The production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body

Medieval/Renaissance Period (500- 1485)

-Middle Ages where Anglo-Saxon and Old English formed

-Mystery/Morality Plays (arts, music, literature, Shakespeare operas like Hamlet, Romero and Juliet)

- The Divine Comedy by Dante (Epic allegory), Beowulf (oldest surviving epic), Songbook by Petrach and Moccaccios Decameron. Everyman

American Literature

- First Started with native American oral myths

-Native Americans warning about surrendering cultural values and traditions due to European civilization

- First Literature in America was Anne Bradtreet To my deer and loving husband

-Slave Narrative (washington Irving)

- Gothic Literature: Edgar Allen Poe

Young Adult Literature

- Short stories/novels that usually feature teenager characters trying to negotiate problems/emotions of leaving childhood and going into the adult world "problem novels/coming of age"

- Short period of time (like a summer)

- Common Trends: alienation, belonging, personal authenticity and immediacy

Absurdist literature/ Theater of the Absurd

novel or play that presents humanity's plight as meaningless and without purpose

Ballad

songlike poem that tells a story and has refraining or repated lines (iambic form)

Epic

long narrative poetic work that features a heroic lead character who undertakes a journey or a great trial to overcome a powerful foe

Epistolary Novel

written in the forms of letters, diaries and journal entries

Fairy Tale

story that features fantasy characters from folklore and usually ends happy (once upon a time...)

Fantasy

genre that blends historical material with invented elements like wizards or dragons (Mistborn)

Allusion

reference to some famous person, place, event or work of art. Can be fictional like Greek gods

Dystopia

an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian world

Utopia

an ideal or perfect society

Satire

A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.

Analogy

when a writer emphasizes two unlike things are actually similar

Antithesis

figure of speech that is the direct opposite of an idea said

Connotation

use of words to give a positive/negative meaning. What the word implies and it may suggest more than its straightforward meaning

Example: Fragrance is positive, stench is negative, both mean smell

Home (instead of house)

Dramatic Monologue

form generally written in blank verse that presents thoughts and emotions in a situation. Character speaks with their own voice to an implied listener (using words like I)

Epiphany

A sudden realization of something

Irony

A contrast between expectation and reality

Meters

- Ways of measuring the rhythm in formal verse

1 = monometer

2 = Dimeter

3 = trimeter

4 = tetrameter

5 = pentameter

6 = hexameter

Oxymoron

A PHRASE made of of words that seem contradictory when placed together (passive aggressive, deafening silence)

Point of Views

1st: main character tells a story (using I)

2nd: Author uses pronouns such as you to describe something

3rd: Person outside of story is the narrator

Omniscient: Narrator has knowledge of everything, including characters thoughts (Mistborn)

Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as"

Biographical Criticism

How writers life and the period they lived in are reflected in their work

Feminist Criticism

criticizes the role of women in literature either as authors or poets. femine viewpoints

Soliloquy

dramatic speech in which a character talks to themselves, allowing the audience to overhear and judge the characters state of mind

Deconstructionist Criticism

assumption that language can accurately represent reality or what the author intends. linked to postmodernism

Qualitative evaluation

level of meaning, structure conventionality and clarity of language and demands on background knowledge

Is the structure complex? Too many dependent clauses?