Lesson Content - Midterms

What is Literature

“Written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit. "a great work of literature"

Themes

Ideas that are central to a story,

How do we recognize themes in a story

1. Consider the context in which the story was written.

2. Analyze the major characters

3. What is the conflict.

4. Have a lookout for repetition.

5. Examine the major turning points in the story

Plot structure and Freytag’s pyramid

Symbolism

Uses objects, people, places, or actions to represent deeper, often abstract ideas, adding layers of meaning beyond the literal text to explore themes like love, death, or hope

Hermaneutics

The theory and practice of interpretation, focusing on understanding the meaning of texts, symbols, and human actions

Atmosphere

The feeling or emotions a writer instills in their work

The period of The Enlightenment

a transformative 17th and 18th-century European intellectual movement emphasizing reason, individualism, and scientific inquiry to challenge tradition, superstition, and absolute authority (church and state

The head vs the heart

The "head vs. heart" conflict in literature explores the classic struggle between logic/reason (head) and emotion/passion (heart

Romantacism

A movement emphasizing emotion, individualism, nature, and the common person, reacting against Enlightenment reason and Industrialization by valuing subjective experience, imagination, and spiritual connection with the natural worl

Strum und Drang

A late 18th-century German literary and artistic movement emphasizing intense emotion, individualism, and rebellion against societal norms

Modernism

A revolutionary movement marked by a conscious break from traditional forms, experimenting with style and structure to reflect rapid societal changes, industrialization, and the aftermath of World War I, focusing on subjective experience, fragmentation, alienation, and the inner consciousness

“The wasteland”

A highly eloquent account of despair, its powerful vision of urban alienation spoke to a generation of young post-war readers and in doing so, it changed poetry forever.

The dark satanic mills

The grim, polluting factories of Britain's Industrial Revolution

Ad fontes

(Latin for "to the sources") literature refers to the classical texts of Greek and Roman antiquity,