English Final Exam Review

Narrator

Fiction is always mediated or represented to us by someone else, a narrator. When we read fiction, our sense of who is telling us the story

Point of View

The vantage point from which a narrative is told. Typically, from first-person (“I”) or third-person (“he, she, they”) point of view

First Person Narrator (2 Subkinds)

The narrator may be a major or minor character within the story (internal narrator). May be telling a story mainly about someone else or about their own experience

May make make claims that other characters or the audience know to be false or distorted (unreliable narrator)

Third Person Narrator. (Name Subkinds)

Tells an unidentified listener or reader what happened, referring to all characters using the pronouns he, she, or they. Can be:

• Omniscient/Unlimited

• Limited

• Objective

Omniscient/Unlimited Narrator

3rd Person. An omniscient or “unlimited” narrator has access to the thoughts, perceptions, and experiences of more than one character

Limited Narrator

3rd Person. A limited narrator is an external, third-person narrator who tells the story from a distinct point of view, usually that of a single character

Objective Narrator

3rd Person. An objective narrator does not explicitly report the characters’ thoughts and feelings but may obliquely suggest them through the characters’ speech and actions

Discourse (Name Subkinds)

The thoughts, statements, or dialogue of characters in a literary work. Can be:

• Direct

• Indirect

• Free Indirect

Direct Discourse

Combines quoted speech of a character with third-person narration

Example: She thought, “Maybe I should take an umbrella.”

Indirect Discourse

Uses third-person narration without using quotation marks to report the thoughts, statements, or dialogue of characters

Example: She thought that it might be a good idea to take an umbrella.

Free Indirect Discourse

The narrator takes on the speech of the character, or, if one prefers, the character speaks through the voice of the narrator, and the two instances then are merged

Example: Maybe it would be smart to take an umbrella.

Example: He rummaged through his closet, desperately looking for something suitable to wear. He would be late for the party.

Character (4 Kinds, 2 Pairs)

Any personage in a literary work who acts, appears, or is referred to as playing a part. Not necessarily human. Can be:

• Flat vs. Round

• Major vs. Minor

Characterization (2 Ways)

The art and technique of representing fictional personages

• Indirect (“showing”) vs direct (“telling”)

Setting

Where and when the action or communication in the novel takes place. In other words, setting covers the spatial and the temporal

Plot (3 Devices)

In narratology (i.e. “the study of narratives”), plot is the arrangement of events in a narrative work, chosen and designed to engage the reader’s attention and interest (or even to arouse suspense or anxiety). Can use:

• In media res

• Analepsis

• Prolepsis

In Media Res

(“into the midst of things”): beginning a narrative in the middle of the action

Analepsis

(or “flashback”): The evocation of scenes or events that took place at an earlier point in the story

Prolepsis

(or “flashforward”): The evocation in a narrative of scenes or events that take place at a later point in the story

Theme

Refers to larger, more general, message(s)

• Put differently, theme is the tone towards a subject (or, tone + subject = theme). Note: “love” is a subject; “love is dangerous” is a theme

• I.e. focus on how a novel is saying something rather than merely on what it is saying (e.g., “the novel uses x to express y”)

Story

Story is the narrative of events ordered chronologically, not selectively. Story is the raw material from which the plot is constructed.

Speaker

All poems have a voice, which can be called a speaker (or in some case speakers, if there is more than one person speaking the poem).

Voice

The sound of a particular poetic speaker, encompassing tone, diction, rhythm, and melody; it may or may not be embodied in a definable character.”

Addressee

The person or thing (for example a tree, idea, or emotion) to whom the voice in the poem is speaking

Setting (Poem)

Where and when the action or communication in the poem takes place. In order words, setting covers the spatial and the temporal. Although, not all poems have an identifiable setting

Eg. London by William Blake is set in London

Ambiguity

The presence of two or more possible meanings in a word, phrase, or figure of speech. Ambiguity allows for alternative meanings without necessary incorrectness.

Eg. You fit into me like a hook into an eye (Atwood, Hook and Eye)

Word Order/Syntax

How words and phrases are organized and arranged in sentences.

Scheme (7 Kinds)

A type of figure of speech that relies on the structure of a sentence. Includes:

Anaphora, anadiplosis, parallelism, chiasmus, antimetabole, anastrophe, ellipsis

Trope

A figure of speech that relies on a play of the meaning of a word

Anaphora

Repetition of a sequence of words at the beginning of neighbouring clauses Example:

“In every cry of every man, / In every infant's cry of fear (Blake, “London”)

Anadiplosis

The repetition of the last word of a preceding clause at the beginning of the next clause Example:

My bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry. (Burns, Red Red Rose)

Parallelism

Repeated syntactical similarities introduced for rhetorical effect. Example:

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself” (Whitman, Song of Myself)

Chiasmus

The order of the terms in the first of the two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. (Note that this does not have to be the exact same words) Example:

To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream (Hamlet)

Antimetabole

A pair of words is repeated in reverse order (Must be the same words) Example:

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action (Hamlet)

Anastrophe

The normal word order of the subject, verb, and/or object is changed. Much like how Yoda speaks. Example:

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day (Sonnet 73, Shakespeare)

Ellipsis

Omission of a word or short phrase implied by context. Example:

I must to england (hamlet)

Rhythm

The speed at which and cadence of how lines, stanzas, and poems move, as determined by their syllables and stresses. Stress is relative, not absolute. Perceived by 3 things

• pitch change

• duration

• amplitude/volume

Meter + Accent

The pattern of stressed (/) and unstressed (U) syllables in a poetic line. The stressed syllable is called the accent. A stressed and unstressed syllable together is called an iamb.

Line (Lengths)

whereas syntax refers to the order of words, “line” refers to the amount of feet, or units of syllables. One foot per line is a monometer, two is a dimeter, etc.

Feet

Patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables that contribute to meter. Can be disyllabic or trisyllabic

Melody

Refers to sound effects, such as rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and consonance, with each producing a unique melodic effect

Rhyme (2 Kinds)

Effect where two words have the same (“perfect rhyme”), or nearly the same (“slant rhyme”), final consonant and vowel sound

Alliteration

The use of the same consonant sound to begin two or more words or stressed syllables. Example:

Prancing, proud (Aunt jennifers tigers, Rich)

Assonance

The use of the same or similar vowel sounds in two or more words or syllables. Example:

We slowly drove (dickinson, because I could not stop for death)

Consonance

The repetition of the same consonant sound(s) in two or more words or syllables following different vowel sounds. Example:

Whips and scorns of time (Hamlet)

Figurative Language

Words or phrases that are unusual and not “literal” in their meaning

Tenor, Vehicle, Ground

Used to describe a thing in figurative language.

Tenor: the thing being described

Vehicle: the thing doing the describing

Ground: the things they have in common

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which two different things are compared implicitly, so that the comparison clarifies and expands the meaning. Example:

This flea is you and I (The flea, Donne)

Imagery

When figurative language (like metaphor or simile) evokes as a kind of mental image any of the five senses. Example:

where late the sweet birds sang. (Shakespeare, sonnet 73)

Personification

A figure of speech in which an idea, object, or thing is described as if it were human. Example:

All of “I could not stop for Death (dickinson)”

Simile

A figure of speech in which two very different things are directly compared using the words “as” or “like”. Example:

My love is like a red red rose (Burns)

Form

Poetic form usually refers to the structure that holds or gives shape to the poem—in a way, what it looks like to you on the page. Includes groupings or sets of lines, called stanzas

Genre

Another, more interesting way to consider form is to say that it shapes the content of the poem. This is especially the case with particular genres, like ballad, epic, or sonnet. Certain genres have conventions of structure like meter or rhyme

Ballad:

A “simple” narrative poem often in four-line stanzas, usually on a tragic subject, and often with a refrain. The rhyme is usually in the 2nd and 4th lines, and is characterized by certain repeating elements. Its origin is in popular song

Epic

A long, serious, narrative poem, usually centered on the adventures or deeds of a hero; often has mythological or nationalistic dimensions (illiad)

Sonnet

A poem of 14 lines, often in one of two styles–English (Shakespearean) or Italian (Petrarchan)--and usually introducing, in order, a problem, a turn, and a resolution (sonnet 73 shakespeare)