American Literature Spring Final

oversoul

force that unites everything in nature, communion with nature/intuition (transcendentalism)

local color

representation of characters’ dialect, customs, experiences, topography, etc. of a particular region in a story (regionalism)

vernacular/dialect

a form of a language commonly spoken by the people in a particular region to add understanding and credibility to a story (regionalism)

frame story

“a story within a story” often used to tell what the narrator knows/ was told (ethan frome)

slice of life theory

a narrative style that focuses on the mundane, everyday experiences and relationships of characters, emphasizing realism and reliability (realism)

symbol

literary device used when a person, place, or object contains several layers of meaning more than its literal meaning (great gatsby)

motif

a reoccurring symbol, image, phrase, or idea that helps develop a story’s theme or mood (great gatsby)

juxtaposition

when two or more ideas, places, or characters and their actions are placed side by side for comparison and contrasts (great gatsby)

transcendentalism

“non-conformists”

-rise above conformity; embrace individuality and uniqueness

-man is good and reliable; ultimate respect for nature bc its divine

-release of puritan values and religion having authority

-education, literature, philosophy, and social reforms

regionalism

ITS A BRIDGE

-portraying through pictures what the country looked like in various regions

-redefining/solidifying of American culture

-emphasizes specifics: history, dialect, culture, customs, topography; the setting is a character

-less romantic optimism; development of industry; new voices (black people and women); post-civil war

realism/naturalism

bold and uncharted

-life as it is; describing life without idealization/romantic subjectivity

-needed the bridge after a time of division by showing the good and bad of the culture in details

-appearance vs reality, mundane, no embellishments, not including personal interpretation

-naturalism: environment determines character, family and social condition, struggle for survival in hostile envirnoment

modernism

make it new

-a break from traditional writing that focused on inner self/consciousness, loss of tradition, rejections of the past, science can explain everything, no need for God

-verbal ambiguity and complexity, sense of disenchantment, new voices, fluidity of consciousness

-fragmented identity, turn into internal matters, lots of juxtaposition

comma splice

using a comma when something stronger is needed

run-on

two independent clauses joined together without punctuation or conjunctions

fragment

not a full thought

pronoun-antecedent agreement

pronoun (he, she, they) must match what it is referring to (noun or noun phrase) in gender, person, and number

superfluous comma

unneeded comma

oxford comma

comma before “and” in a list

MLA heading

name, teacher, class, date