Lit-2300 Exam 1

W. Somerset Maugham

The Appointment in Samarra

Aesop

The Fox and the Grapes

Bidpai

The Camel and His Friends

Chuang Tzu

Independence

Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm

Godfather Death

John Updike

A & P

William Faulkner

A Rose for Emily

Katherine Anne Porter

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

Jack London

To Build a Fire

Ray Bradbury

A Sound of Thunder

Ernest Hemingway

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

O. Henry

The Gift of the Magi

Stephen Crane

The Open Boat

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Harrison Bergeron

Ursula K. Le Guin

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

Shirley Jackson

The Lottery

Jorge Luis Borges

The Gospel According to Mark

Kate Chopin

The Story of an Hour

Zora Neale Hurston

Sweat

Flannery O'Conner

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Fable

A brief, often humorous narrative told to illustrate a moral. The characters in ——- are traditionally animals whose personality traits symbolize human traits.

Parable

A brief, usually allegorical narrative that teaches a moral. In ——-, unlike fables (where the moral is explicitly stated within the narrative), the moral themes are implicit and can often be interpreted in several ways.

Tale

A short narrative without a complex plot. —- are an ancient form of narrative found in folklore, and traditional tales often contain supernatural elements. A tale differs from a short story by its tendency toward lesser-developed characters and linear plotting.

Tall Tale

A humorous short narrative that provides a wildly exaggerated version of events. Originally an oral form, the ——usually assumes that its audience knows the narrator is distorting the events. The form is often associated with the American frontier.

Fairy tale, folktale

A traditional form of short narrative folklore, originally transmitted orally, which features supernatural characters such as witches, giants, fairies, or animals with human personality traits. ——— often feature a hero or heroine who strives to achieve some desirable fate—such as marrying royalty or finding great wealth.

Short story

A prose narrative too brief to be published in a separate volume—as novellas and novels frequently are. The ——- is usually a focused narrative that presents one or two characters involved in a single compelling action.

Initiation story

(also called coming-of-age story) A narrative in which the main charac- ter, usually a child or adolescent, undergoes an important experience (or “rite of passage”) that prepares him or her for adulthood.

Protagonist

The main or central character in a narrative. The ———-usually initiates the main action of the story, often in conflict with the antagonist.

Antagonist

The most significant character or force that opposes the protagonist in a narra- tive. The ——- may be another character, society itself, a force of nature, or even—in modern literature—conflicting impulses within the protagonist.

Exposition

The opening portion of a narrative. In the ———, the scene is set, the protagonist is introduced, and the author discloses any other background information necessary for the reader to understand the events that follow.

Conflict

The central struggle between two or more forces in a story. ——-generally occurs when some person or thing prevents the protagonist from achieving his or her goal. Conflict is the basic material out of which most plots are made.

Complication

The introduction of a significant development in the central conflict between characters (or between a character and his or her situation). ———-may be external (an outside problem that the characters cannot avoid) or internal (a complication that originates in some important aspect of a character’s values or personality).

Crisis

The point in a narrative when the crucial action, decision, or realization must take place. From the Greek word krisis, meaning “decision.”

Climax

The moment of greatest intensity in a story, which almost inevitably occurs toward the end of the work. The ———often takes the form of a decisive confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist.

Conclusion

In plotting, the logical end or outcome of a unified plot, shortly following the climax. Also called resolution or dénouement (“the untying of the knot”), as in resolving—or untying the knots created by—plot complications earlier in the narrative.

Foreshadowing

An indication of events to come in a narrative. The author may introduce specific words, images, or actions in order to suggest significant later events.

Flashback

A scene relived in a character’s memory. ———may be related by the narrator in a summary, or they may be experienced by the characters themselves. Flash- backs allow the author to include significant events that occurred before the opening of the story.

Epiphany

A moment of profound insight or revelation by which a character’s life is greatly altered.

In medias res

A Latin phrase meaning “in the midst of things”; refers to the narrative de- vice of beginning a story midway in the events it depicts (usually at an exciting or significant moment) before explaining the context or preceding actions.

Total omniscience

Point of view in which the narrator knows everything about all of the characters and events in a story. A narrator with ———can move freely from one character to another. Generally, a totally omniscient narrative is written in the third person.

Limited or selective omniscience

Point of view in which the narrator sees into the minds of some but not all of the characters. Most typically, ———-sees through the eyes of one major or minor character.

Impartial omniscience

Point of view employed when an omniscient narrator, who presents the thoughts and actions of the characters, does not judge them or comment on them.

Editorial omniscience

Point of view employed when an omniscient narrator goes beyond reporting the thoughts of his characters to make a critical judgment or commentary, making explicit the narrator’s own thoughts or attitudes.

objective point of view

Point of view in which the third-person narrator merely reports dialogue and action with little or no interpretation or access to the characters’ minds.

Interior monologue

An extended presentation of a character’s thoughts in a narrative. Usually written in the present tense and printed without quotation marks, an interior monologue reads as if the character were speaking aloud to himself or herself, for the reader to overhear.

Stream of consciousness

A type of modern narration that uses various literary devices, es- pecially interior monologue, in an n attempt to duplicate the subjective and associative nature of human consciousness.

Characterization

The techniques a writer uses to create, reveal, or develop the characters in a narrative.

Flat character

A term coined by English novelist E. M. Forster to describe a character with only one outstanding trait. ———-are rarely the central characters in a narrative and stay the same throughout a story.

Round character

A term also coined by E. M. Forster to describe a complex character who is presented in depth in a narrative. ———are those who change significantly during the course of a narrative, or whose full personalities are revealed gradually throughout the story.

Stock character

A common or stereotypical character. Examples of ——— are the mad scientist, the battle-scarred veteran, and the strong but silent cowboy.

Setting

The time and place of a story. The ——— may also include the climate and even the social, psychological, or spiritual state of the characters.

Locale

The location where a story takes place.

Atmosphere

The dominant mood or feeling that pervades all or part of a literary work. ——— is the total effect conveyed by the author’s use of language, images, and physical setting.

Regionalism

The literary representation of a specific locale that consciously uses the particulars of geography, custom, history, folklore, or speech. In regional narratives, the locale plays a crucial role in the presentation and progression of the story.

Naturalism

A type of fiction in which the characters are presented as products or victims of environment and heredity. ———-is considered an extreme form of realism (the at- tempt to reproduce faithfully the surface appearance of life, especially that of ordinary people in everyday situations).

Tone

The attitude toward a subject conveyed in a literary work. No single stylistic device creates ———; it is the net result of the various elements an author brings to creating the work’s feeling and manner.

Style

All the distinctive ways in which an author uses language to create a literary work. An author’s ———depends on his or her characteristic use of diction, imagery, tone, syntax, and figurative language.

Diction

Word choice or vocabulary. ——-refers to the class of words that an author decides is appropriate to use in a particular work.

Irony

A literary device in which a discrepancy of meaning is masked beneath the surface of the language. ——-is present when a writer says one thing but means something quite the opposite.

Dramatic irony

Where the reader understands the implication and meaning of a situation and may foresee the oncoming disaster or triumph while the character does not.

Cosmic irony or irony of fate

A type of situational irony that emphasizes the discrepancy between what characters deserve and what they get, between a character’s aspirations and the treatment he or she receives at the hands of fate.

Verbal irony

A statement in which the speaker or writer says the opposite of what is really meant. For example, a friend might say, “How graceful!” after you trip clumsily on a stair.

Sarcasm

A conspicuously bitter form of irony in which the ironic statement is designed to hurt or mock its target.

Summary

A brief condensation of the main idea or plot of a literary work. A ———is similar to a paraphrase, but less detailed.

Theme

The main idea or larger meaning of a work of literature. A ——-may be a message or a moral, but it is more likely to be a central, unifying insight or viewpoint.

Symbol

A person, place, or thing in a narrative that suggests meanings beyond its literal sense. ———is related to allegory, but it works more complexly. A symbol often contains multiple meanings and associations.

Symbolic act

An action whose significance goes well beyond its literal meaning. In literature, ——— often involve some conscious or unconscious ritual element such as rebirth, purification, forgiveness, vengeance, or initiation.

Allegory

A narrative in which the literal events (persons, places, and things) consistently point to a parallel sequence of symbolic equivalents. This narrative strategy is often used to dramatize abstract ideas, historical events, religious systems, or political issues. An allegory has two levels of meaning: a literal level that tells a surface story and a symbolic level in which the abstract ideas unfold.