LITERARY TERMS
An abstract word is one that refers to an idea instead of a real object or thing. Friendship, pride, competition, and kindness are Examples of abstract words.
Action refers to everything that goes on or happens in a story.
An allegory is a story in which the characters and action represent an idea or truth about life; often, a strong moral or lesson is taught in this type of story.
An allusion in literature is a reference to a well-known person, place, thing, or event.
An analogy is a comparison of two or more similar objects; the analogy implies that since these objects are alike in some ways, they will probably be alike in other ways as well.
An anecdote is a brief story used to make a point. The story about Abraham Lincoln walking more than two miles to return several pennies he had accidentally overcharged a customer is an Example of an anecdote which shows how honest Abe was.
The antagonist is the person or thing fighting against the hero of a story. If the antagonist is a person, he is usually called the villain.
Antithesis is a contrasting of ideas in the same or neighboring sentences. Example: We decided to have thé bear for supper before he decided to have us!
An autobiography is the writers story of his own life.
A biography is the writers story or account of some other persons life.
Caricature is a description of a character in which his features or characteristics are exaggerated and distorted to the point of being funny or ridiculous.
A character is a person in a story or poem.
Characterization is the authors special way of explaining the people in his story - telling us about their personalities and their reasons for doing things
A cliché is a familiar word or phrase which has been used so much that it is no longer a good, effective way of saying something - as in sharp as a tack or fresh as a daisy.
The climax is the highest point (turning point) in the action of a story.
Comedy is writing which deals with life in a light humorous way, often poking fun at the mistakes people make during their lives.
A concrete word is one that refers to a real object or thing which can be heard, seen, felt, tasted, or smelled. Pizza, book, tree, and tulip are Examples of concrete words.
Conflict refers to the problems and complications in a story.
Connotation is the feeling or emotion a word brings to your mind. For Example, the word sparkle brings a good feeling to mind, while the word mud brings a not-so-good feeling.
The context of a particular word refers to the other words around it. These other words can be used to help you figure out the meaning of the particular word.
Example: It \yas a clear, sunny day, and the sky was a pretty shade of azure. (By looking at the other words in the sentence, you can figure out that azure means blue.)
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Denotation is the dictionary meaning of a word, without the emotion or feeling (connotation) connected with the word.
A denotation of mud. soft, wet earth or dirt
A connotation of mud: an icky, slimy mixture of dirt and water to be avoided - especially when wearing new shoes.
The denouement is the satisfying end of a play or story - that part of the story in which the problems are solved.
Description is a type of writing that creates a clear picture in your mind - a clear picture of a person, place, or thing.
Dialogue refers to the talking that goes on between characters in a story.
Diction is a writers choice of words. There are many ways to describe the different kinds of words a writer can use.
Archaic words are old-fashioned words which sound odd to us today.
Archaic: Hast thou enjoyed thy repast?
Modem: Have you enjoyed your meal?
A colloquialism is a common, everyday expression like Whats happenin? or Hows it goin?. These expressions are used when talking to each other or when writing dialogue.
Profanity is language used to degrade someone or something considered to be holy or sacred.
Slang is language used by a certain group of people when they are talking to each other. For Example, Hes totally awesome is a slang expression used by some people today. Many years ago, the slang expression Hes the cats pajamas would have meant the same thing.
Trite expressions are like clichés. They are used too much to be a very good way of saying something, especially in writing.
Examples-, true blue, red as a beet, hotter than blazes.
Vulgarity is language which is generally crude, gross, and offensive.
Didactic writing is intended to teach you something, especially a moral lesson.
Drama is the form of literature commonly known as plays. The word drama often refers to serious plays written about man and his relationship to society.
A dramatic monologue is a poem in which a character tells a lot about himself by speaking either to himself or to another character.
Empathy is putting yourself in someone elses place and imagining how that person must feel. A writer must imagine how each character would feel or react to whatever is happening in a story.
An epigram is a short; clever poem or saying.
Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
(Ben Franklin)
An epitaph is a short poem or verse written in memory of someone.
An epithet is a word or phrase which describes a certain person and is used in place of (or along with) that persons name. Examples: Richard the Lionhearted (a courageous king), Mr. Good wrench (someone who is food with a wrench), Minnesota Fats (a hefty pool player from Minnesota).
An essay is a piece of writing which gives the authors ideas or point of view about a subject. Usually, an essay contains several paragraphs and has an introduction, body, and conclusion.
Exaggeration is stretching the truth, this can be used effectively in some instances in your writing. For Example, a frightened character in a story might say, I thought that dog was going to bite my leg off!
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The exposition is that part of a play or novel (usually the beginning) which explains the background and setting of thé story; the characters are often introduced in the exposition. (See plot Line.)
Falling action is that part of a story which follows the climax or turning point; it contains the action or dialogue necessary to lead the story to a resolution or ending.
Farce is literature (stories or plays) written for one purpose: to make the reader laugh.
Figurative language is language used in a special way to create a special effect. It is made up of words and phrases which dont mean what they first appear to mean. Example: You three put your heads together and plan the class party. (This does not mean bump your heads together, it means share the ideas you have in your heads.) (See figures of speech.)
A figure of speech is a device used by authors to create a special meaning for their readers.
In a flashback, the author goes back to an earlier time in the story and explains something that will help the reader understand the whole story better.
Foreshadowing is the writers hints and clues about what is going to happen in the story.
Form is the way a piece of writing is put together or organized.
Genre is the French word for the form or type of literature. The novel, short story; and poem are three of many genres.
A gothic novel is a special type of book in which a mysterious, sometimes scary story is told. The action usually takes place in a large, old mansion or castle and may include a ghost or two. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a well-known gothic novel.
Impressionism is writing which contains impressions about an event or situation instead of only the facts about the event. It is writing which gives the reader a general impression or picture (much like a painting) rather than a true-to-life picture (like a photograph).
Irony is using a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its normal meaning. Example: My favorite pastime is cleaning my room.
Local color is the use of details which are common in a certain place (a local area). For example, a story taking place on the western seacoast would probably contain some details about the ocean and the life and people near it.
A malapropism is a mistake which happens when a character mixes up two words in his mind and then uses the wrong word, creating a pun or play on words. Example: A young student, who had the word watt confused with what, wrote on a science report, I know a lot about electricity, but I still cant figure out those whats!
Melodrama is drama written in an exaggerated way to produce strong feeling or excitement in the reader or viewer. TV soap operas are Examples of modem melodrama.
Mood is the feeling(s) a reader gets from a piece of writing: happy, sad, peaceful, etc.
The moral is the lesson an author is trying to teach in his story. Childrens stories often have rather obvious morals. Dont take or use what doesnt belong to you is a lesson taught in the story of The Three Bears.
The motif is a repeated incident or idea in literature. The forces of good fighting against the forces of evil is a common motif in the Superman and Star Wars stories.
A myth is a story that tries to explain a certain belief, especially a belief having to do with nature or religion. Hercules is a famous character in Greek mythology.
The narrator is the person or character who is telling the story. For example, Black Beauty tells his own story in the book Black Beauty by Anna Sewell; so,in this instance, the narrator is a horse.
A narration is a story. It tells you about an event or a series of events.
A novel is a book-length, prose story. It is also Actional, which means it is made up or created by the authors imagination.
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A parable is a short, descriptive story which explains a certain belief or moral.
A paradox is a statement that seems to go against common sense but is actually true. A construction worker or farmer may say, My muscles ache from working hard all day, but it's a good feeling (Because they are happy to have done a hard days work, they arc able to appreciate their sore muscles.)
Parallelism is the repeating of phrases or sentences that are written or constructed in the same way. Example: "On our vacation we will Lie on the beach, swim in the ocean, and sleep undo' the stars. Each verb (lie, swim, and sleep) is followed by a prepositional phrase.
Pathos describes that part of a story that makes you feel sorry for the characters.
Plagiarism is copying someone elses writing or ideas and then using them as if they were your own.
The plot is the action of the story. This action is usually made up of a series of events called the plot line.
The plot line shows the action or series of events in the story. It has live parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
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Poetry is writing which is imaginative and emotional. Poetry is written with words that are vivid and colorful. These words are then arranged so that they have pleasing sound and rhythm.
The point of view is the angle from which a story is told. This depends upon who is telling the story. A first-person point of view means that one of the characters is telling the story: I walked slowly, wishing I could turn and run instead of facing Mrs. Grunch. A third person point of view means that someone outside of the story is telling it: She walked slowly, wishing she could turn and run instead of facing Mrs. Grunch.
There are three basic third-person points of view:
The unlimited (omniscient) point of view allows the narrator or storyteller to write about the thoughts and feelings of all the characters as if he were able to read their minds.
The limited (limited omniscient) point of view allows the narrator to relate the thoughts and feelings of one character.
The camera view (objective view) allows the narrator to see and record the action from a neutral or unemotional point of view. The narrator can write about what the characters are doing but not what they are thinking.
The protagonist is the hero of the story.
A pseudonym is the name an author may use in place of his real name. For example, Mark Twain was a pseudonym for the authors real name, which was Samuel Clemens.
A pun is a word or phrase used in a way that gives it a funny twist. The words used in a pun sound the same, but they have different meanings. Example: I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! (I scream sounds like ice cream.)
Realism is writing that shows Life as it really is rather than as the author or reader might like it to be. This kind of writing often includes the everyday, ordinary happenings of life - like spilling milk at breakfast or trying to get a knot out of your shoelaces.
The resolution is the satisfying end of a play or story - that part in which the problems are solved.
The rising action is the central part of a story during which various problems arise, leading up to the climax.
Romance is writing that shows life as the author or reader might like it to be rather than as it really is. Often, a romance is full of adventure and excitement - like secret agents chasing evil spies or superheroes saving damsels in distress.
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Sarcasm is the use of praise to ridicule or put down someone or something. The praise is not sincere and is actually intended to mean the opposite thing. Calling a turtle-like person a real go-getter would be sarcasm.
Satire is writing that ridicules or makes fun of peoples mistakes and weaknesses. Satire is often used to raise questions about a current trend or political decision.
The setting is the time and place in which the action of a story takes place.
Slapstick comedy uses exaggerated, sometimes violent action to make the audience laugh, as when someone is hit in the face with a pie.
A slice of life describes the kind of writing the author of a realistic story is trying to give to his readers. He wants them to see a part or slice of real everyday life, not romantic or pretend life.
A soliloquy is a speech given in a play by a character who is alone on stage.
A stereotype is a pattern that does not change. When a character is stereotyped, it means he is exactly like a certain type of person and has no individuality. For Example, athletes are sometimes stereotyped as being trig, dumb, and having no other talents than being good at a sport. Stereotyping creates characters who are so predictable they are not very interesting to read about in a story.
Stream of consciousness is a style of writing in which the author records his exact thoughts and feelings as they come and go. The author writes about whatever is on his mind at the time.
Structure means much the same thing as form in writing. When an author has something to say, he must fit his words into a form or pattern in order to get his point across to the reader. If a piece of writing has no form or structure, it will probably be difficult to read. One writer may use a poem to organize his words, another may use an essay, another a romantic novel, and so on.
Style is how the author writes (his choice and arrangement of words) rather than what he writes (his message to the readers).
A symbol is a concrete or real object used to represent an idea. Examples: A bird, because it can fly, has often been used as a symbol for freedom. The flag is a symbol of nation.
The theme is the subject or message being written about or discussed.
The tone is the authors attitude or feeling about a piece of writing. The authors tone may be serious, humorous (funny), satiric, and so on.
The total effect of a piece of writing is the overall influence it has on you, the reader - the way it makes you feel and the ideas it gives you.
Undestatement is the opposite of exaggeration. The author restrains himself or holds back in his writing, thereby bringing special attention to an object or idea. The author Mark Twain once described Tom Sawyers Aunt Polly as being prejudiced against snakes. Since she hated snakes, this way of saying so is called understatement.
Understatement: Aunt Polly wasprejudiced against snakes.
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What is literature?
What is it that qualifies a piece of writing as literature? There is no agreed answer to this question; a working definition is
proposed in the next paragraph. Dr Johnson thought that if a work was read a hundred years after it had appeared, it had stood the test of time. This has the merit of simplicity. Although favourable social, cultural and academic factors play their parts in the fact that Homer has lasted twenty-seven centuries, a work must have unusual merits to outlive the context in which it appeared, however vital its relations to that context once were. The contexts supplied by scholars literary, biographical and historical (not to mention theoretical) change and vary. A literary text, then, is always more than its context.
This is a history of a literature, not an introduction to literary studies, nor a history of literary thought. It tries to stick to using this kitchen definition as a simple rule: that the merit of a piece of writing lies in its combination of literary art and human interest. A work of high art which lacks human interest dies. For its human interest to last - and human interests change - the language of a work has to have life, and its form has to please. Admittedly, such qualities of language and form are easier to recognize than to define. Recognition develops with reading and with the strengthening of the historical imagination and of aesthetic and critical judgement. No further definition of literature is attempted, though what has been said above about `cultural studies', academic pluralism and partisanship shows that the question is still agitated. In practice, though the core has been attacked, loosened and added to, it has not been abandoned.
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In literary and cultural investigations, the question of literary merit can be almost indefinitely postponed. But in this book it is assumed that there are orders of merit and of magnitude, hard though it may be to agree on cases. It would be unfair, for example, to the quality of a writer such as Fanny Burney or Mrs Gaskell to pretend that the work of a contemporary ovelist such as Pat Barker is of equal merit. It would be hard to maintain that the Romantic Mrs Felicia Hemans was as good a poet as Emily Bronte. And such special pleading would be even more unjust to Jane Austen or to Julian of Norwich, ractitioners supreme in their art, regardless of sex or period. It is necessary to discriminate.
The timescale of this history extends from the time when English writing begins, before the year 680, to the present day, though the literary history of the last thirty years can only be provisional. The first known poet in English was not Geoffrey Chaucer, who died in 1400, but C.dmon, who died before 700. A one-volume history of so large a territory is not a survey but a series of maps and projections. These projections, however clear, do not tell the whole story. Authors have to be selected, and their chief works chosen. If the discussion is to get beyond critical preliminaries, authors as great as Jonathan Swift may be represented by a single book. Half of Shakespeares plays go undiscussed here, though comedy, history and tragedy are sampled. Readers who use this history as a textbook should remember that it is selective.
Lesson 1. Bronze Age.
BRONZE AGE. BRITAIN.
Bronze Age Britain
In Britain the Stone Age changed slowly into the Bronze Age from about 2100 BC. Metal started to be used for the first time instead of stone to make tools. The skill to make things with metal may have been brought to Britain soon after 2000 BC by the Beaker Folk who were named after the bell-shaped beakers (= cups with wide mouths) found in their tombs. Copper was used at first, then bronze, a mixture of copper and tin. Tools were made by pouring the metal into a mould. In the latter part of the Bronze Age most settlements (= villages) had their own smiths or skilled craftsmen.
Bronze Age people built the impressive stone circles still to be seen at Stonehenge and other places. The double circle of standing stones at Stonehenge dates from about 2100 BC. Several pairs of stones still have a large, thick horizontal stone across the top of them. The upright sandstone boulders, called sarsens, are thought to have been dug from the ground about 20 miles (32 kilometres) away, but the smaller blue-coloured stones laid across the top come from Wales. It is not known whether they were transported by people using rollers or whether they were left near the site of Stonehenge by glaciers during the Ice Age. In either case, many people would have been involved in building the monument. Stonehenge now attracts a lot of visitors and is a source of wonder and pride. Some people believe that it has a special religious or astronomical meaning and was originally used to calculate when the seasons began and ended. Since the 1980s young people, including many hippies and New Age Travellers, have been going there for their own midsummer celebrations, but the police usually prevent them from getting near the stones. Stonehenge was made a World Heritage Site in 1986.
In the Bronze Age important people were buried in round barrows (= piles of earth) made near the top of a hill. Over 20000 round barrows are known. There was usually only one person buried in each, together with metal goods and pottery.
Iron Age Britain
In about 500 BC iron began to be used instead of bronze for making tools, and the period after this became known as the Iron Age. Iron tools were harder and more efficient, and also cheaper. Bronze became used only for decorated items such as bowls or brooches.
In Britain the Iron Age began about 500 BC. Some time before this, Celts had begun arriving in the British Isles from Europe and had mixed with the people already living there. Some were farmers and grew wheat and beans, and kept animals. The Celts are best known for their metalwork, and there is archaeological evidence of metal workshops in southern England and near Grimsby on the east coast. There was a trading centre at Hengistbury Head near Bournemouth until the middle of the 1st century BC. Metal items such as weapons and jewelry were made near there and sold in Britain and abroad. Iron bars were used as currency before coins were introduced in the 1st century BC. Pieces of pottery indicate that at the same time food and wine were imported from France.
Hill forts such as that at Maiden Castle in Dorset were the headquarters of local chiefs and centres of administration, craftwork and trade for their tribes, as well as being used for defence. Hill forts covered a large area of land, usually on top of a hill, and were surrounded by ditches and earth ramparts (= banks) with a wooden fence on top. Inside were round thatched houses, workshops and grain stores. Each hill fort also had a shrine or religious building.
The Celtic tribes, now often called the ancient Britons, were defeated by the Julius Caesar in 55 BC and 54 BC, and again when the Romans invaded Britain in 43 BC. After peace was established the hill forts ceased to be used, though some were later repaired and used for defence against the Anglo-Saxons in the late 5th century. In the Roman period new artistic influences came to southern Britain and many Celtic chiefs adopted Roman ways. Further north and west, the Celts fought to remain outside the Roman province of Britannia. The Iron Age ended in England and Wales during Roman times, but little is known of the Celtic regions further north until their culture reached its highest point of achievement in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Lesson 2-3. Civilization Developing.
The British archeologist Gordon Childe worked out a theory explaining how a culture transforms into a civilization. He wrote that a civilization is characterized by the invention of writing, mathematics, monumental architecture, long-distance trade, wheeled carts, irrigation technology and some other features.
Modern scholars say that a civilization has the following basic characteristics: political and religious structures and administration of the territories, a complex devision of labour, with full-time artisans, soldiers, peasants and administrators.
Anthropologists in the 19th c. formulated a theory of cultural evolution in which they divided human development into three stages: savagery, barbarism and civilization. Speaking of civilizations they mentioned only a few peoples of antiquity. Within the past 100 years archeological research has more than doubled the list.
Historians have differed greatly in deciding how many civilizations there were in the past. Nowadays scholars study not only civilizations of the Western World going back to Ancient Greece and Rome but also the civilizations of Islam, Byzantium, India, China, Japan and African kingdoms.
