Language and Literature Basic Guide
Mrs. Willis’ Notes
**All material is quoted or
received from the United States Academic Decathlon Study Guide. Copyright 2003
by USAD.**
-Works in quiz will not be
previously seen passages in high school curriculum. Answers will be in the
passages.
-Provided with: writer’s
name, published dates of author’s life and work. If well know, no dates
provided.
-Focus on what they know
about writer, typical style, and concerns of time period. Passages chosen from
different types of texts (articles, essays, etc.)
-2 major types of
questions asked: reading for meaning and reading for analysis.
-reading for meaning will ask you what the passage is
saying. Ex: what is the appropriate title for this piece? Writer’s purpose?
-reading for analysis will ask you how the writer says
what he or she says. Ex: recognize literary devices, infer, make conclusions,
organization?
-Also, questions regarding
writer’s attitude. What is the language and tone like? Will pick it up in 1st
few sentences. How is the diction or word choice of the author? What do the
words mean?
-Grammar: Know parts of
speech!
Section II: Reading
Fiction pg 8
A. Techniques for
Understanding Literature
-Read, annotate, re-read,
skim, determine genre, know the length, take notes, retype notes, free writing,
read text aloud.
-Point of view is the lens
through which you the reader view the text. Must look at 2 things: time and
person.
-1st person
narrative: when a story is relayed by one of the characters. This is 1st
person point of view (I saw, I lived)
-3rd person
narrative: when a story is told by a narrator and is not a character in the
story. They are omniscient, they know the inner thoughts of the
characters.
-Points of view may change
throughout the book (Ex: Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner).
-May have an unreliable
narrator-some one whose events of the characters are faulty and dishonest.
-Setting-the time and place in which the story occurs.
-Characterization-manner in which the author develops the personalities
of the characters. May be subtle or straight-forward.
-Protagonist: central
character Antagonist: the character that opposes the protagonist in some
way.
-Dynamic character:
character that changes in some way-usually better in the story.
-Flat character: character
that has a single distinguishing trait abd is not developed into a whole
personality
-Stereotype: character
based on fixed or generalized idea about people or a group of people. Can be
used as foils: to contrast with and highlight some aspect of the
protagonist.
-Plot: events in a
story. The action. Can use flashbacks: scene that occurs out of
chronological order.
-Plot arises out of a conflict.
Types: person conflicting with nature, person conflicting with society, and
person conflicting with him/herself.
-Five major components in
a plot: 1) exposition, 2) rising action, 3) climax, 4) falling action, 5)
denouement.
-Exposition: author establishes
setting, characters, and provides background info.
-Rising action-a force
that builds tension or conflict between the characters
-Climax: decisive
turning point when the action changes course.
-Falling Action-
events that follow the climax. Bring story to close
-Denouement-resolution
to the central conflict.
-Actions can be seen by using
the Freytag Triangle pg 10
-Symbol: an object, person, place, or action that has a meaning
itself but also stands for something larger than itself (attitude, belief,
quality). Ex: Great Gatsby and billboard.
-Theme: Underlying meaning of work of literature. Can be one
theme or many themes in a piece of work. Ex: Oedipus: free will, divine will,
etc.
-Style: manner in which the author writes…how the language is
used to express their ideas.
-Diction: the author’s
choice of words. Look at language and vocab, sentence patterns, hooks,
characters, mood and tone.
-Tone: refers to a storyteller’s attitude toward his/her
subject matter and toward the audience. Can be serious or light.
-Irony: literary tool that is a contrast between what one
expects and what one actually does.
-Situational Irony: an
occurrence that is contrary to what is expected or intended. Ex: murder trial,
defense ends up implicating the defendant of the crime.
-Verbal Irony: when the intended meaning of a statement or work is
different than what was literally said.
-Dramatic Irony: when
the reader and the narrator will be aware of something of which a character in
unaware. Creates anxiety and anticipation.
Section III. Reading
Poetry pg 13
**Many of the terms in
this section are repeated from the fiction section**
-Diction: author’s choice of words.
-Denotation: the most
specific and direct meaning of the word (defined in dictionary)
-Connotation: refers
to the emotional associations and implications surrounding a rod. Ex: Hollywood
-Tone: in poetry, it conveys an author’s attitude toward his/her
subject and the audience.
-Imagery: the use of sensory details to provide vividness to a
work of literature..appeals to reader’s senses.
D. Figurative
Language pg 14
-Fig language: expressions that are used rhetorically in a
non-literal way. Some types are called figures of speech…some are listed below.
-Simile: a direct comparison of 2 essentially unlike objects
or ideas on the basis of some shared quality. Used connectors such as like, as,
than. Ex: You are fat like a cow…
-Metaphor:
a transformation of one thing or idea
into another thing or idea. Use connectors such as “is.” Ex: You are a cow.
-Hyperbole:
a figure of speech in which overstatement or exaggeration is used for an
emphasized effect. Ex: I am three
thousand pounds overweight.
-Understatement:
Language that says less than what the
situation calls for.
-Litotes:
specific form of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by
negating its opposite. Ex: Today was not a good day.
-Personification: a figure of speech in which an author gives an
abstraction, idea, animal, or inanimate object human qualities. Ex: the clouds
wept.
-
Apostrophe: the speaker addresses an
abstract idea, an inanimate object, or a person who is not present.
-Metonymy: a specific word is used in place of another with
which it is closely associated. Ex: The white house issued a statement.
-Synecdoche:
part of something is used to represent
a whole or vice versa (whole represents a part). Ex: I may have to get the law
involved.
Paradox:
-Paradox: statement that at 1st strikes us as
self-contradictory but upon reflection makes sense. Ex: “Success is counted
sweetest/by those who ne’er succeed.”
Oxymoron: seemingly opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are
combined. Ex: “deafening silence.”
See definition above.
-Allegory: narrative with a consistent second level of meaning
that is more important that the literal meaning. Ex: Allegory of the Cave…
-Important in poetry
-Rhyme:
the exact repetition of sounds in at
least the final accented syllables of 2 or more of the words. Many types:
1) End rhyme: words at the ends of poetry lines rhyme
2) Internal rhyme: rhyme that occurs within a line of
poetry Ex: “High
and Dry behind my
stunning life.”
3) Slant Rhyme/Near rhyme/partial rhyme/Half rhyme:
rhymes in which the vowel sounds are nearly, but not exactly, the same. Ex: tress and kiss
4) Feminine Rhyme: rhyme ends on an unstressed syllable.
5) Masculine rhyme: rhyme ends on an stressed syllable
6) Eye rhyme/Sight rhyme: when words are
spelled in similar ways and thus look the same. Ex: move
and love.
-Pattern
of a poem is called its rhyme scheme, and alphabetical letters represent
each sound used. Ex: ababcc
Repitition
Repitition: a sound device where sounds, words, phrases or
sentences are repeated for purposes of style and emphasis. Ex: nevermore in the Raven by Poe.
Alliteration:
-Alliteration: commonly used…repetition of consonant sounds at the
beginning of words or within words. Ex: “silken, sad, and uncertain rustling.”
Both internal and initial alliteration.
Assonance pg 19
-Assonance: involves repetition of similar vowel sounds followed
by different consonant sounds in stressed syllables or words. Ex: “that
dolphin-torn. That gong tormented sea…”
Consonance
-Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds that are preceded by
a different vowel sound. Ex: “forlorn,
bell, toll..”
Onomatopoeia
-Onomatopoeia-sounds imitate the actual sounds to which they refer.
Ex: pop, bang, sizzle.
G. Rhythm and Meter
Rhythm: the
pattern of sound in writing or in speech that is created by stressed and
unstressed syllables.
-Meter: pattern of accented
and unaccented syllables. Basic unit of a meter is called a foot-a group of syllables that is
usually composed of 1 accented syllable and 1 or more unaccented syllables.
-Each syllable can be
stressed or unstressed.
-A new foot begins each time
the pattern repeats itself. Scansion is the process of marking the
accents and dividing them into lines of poetry. “/” is an accented syllable.
“U” is an unaccented syllable.
-Four basic types of metrical
feet:
1)
Iamb: [ U
/ ]
2)
Trochee: [ / U ]
3)
Anapest: [ U U / ]
4)
Dactyl: [ /
U U ]
-Spondee: rare form in which a foot is composed of two accented
syllables [ / / }
-Phyrrhic: rare form in which a foot is composed of 2 unaccented
syllables [ U U ]
-Specific names are used to
indicate the number of feet in a line:
-monometer: one
foot per line
-dimeter: 2 feet per line
-trimeter: 3 feet per line
-tetrameter: 4 feet per line
-pentameter: 5 feet per line
-hexameter: 6 feet per line
-heptameter: 7 feet per line
-octameter: 8 feet per line
-Most common line in English Poetry
is unrhymed Iambic pentameter (blank
verse).
-Poems that do not have a
fixed pattern of meter and rhyme are called free verse.
-A pause in the line of a
verse is called a caesura.
-A line of poetry that
contains a complete thought and thus usually ends with a period, semi-colon or
colon is called an end-stopped line.
-Enjambment: a run-on line from one line of poetry to the next.
H. Stanzas-Poetic Divisions pg 20
-Stanza: a part of a poem. A group of lines that is set off and
forms a division in a poem.
-A two line stanza is called
a couplet; 3 line stanza is called a
tercet; 4 line stanza a quatrain; a 6 line stanza is a sextet, a 8 line stanza is an octet.
Section IV: Poetic Forms pg 21
A. Types of Poems
-2 types of
poems: lyric poems- those that convey a particular emotional state, or
narrative poems-those that tell a story.
Lyrical Poems
-Ode: lyric poem written to celebrate or commemorate a special
occasion.
-Elegy: lyric poem of lamentation and in some cases meditation or
reflection
-Dramatic monologue: lyric poem that features a speaker who is a
specific character presented in a specific situation.
Narrative Poems
-Epic: long
narrative form that usually involves great heroes and major events: The Iliad
by Home.
-Ballad: narrative poem that has been passed on orally that has
repetition, dialogue and rhyme.
-Romance: formed in Middle Ages where the poem describes adventure,
love, and magic.
-Epigram: a
short, witty verse that concludes with a wry twist.
-Limerick: humorous poem that is comprised of 5 lines-1st,
2nd and 5th are trimeter, and 3rd and 4th
are dimeter: Rhyme scheme: aabba
-Parody: poet imitates another poet’s form, tone, or language.
B. Poetic Structures and Forms pg 22
-Sonnet: lyric poem consisting of 14 lines with rhymes,
-Italian sonnet/Petrarchan sonnet: rhyme
scheme of abbaabba/cdecde. 2 part poem: 1st 8 line part is an
octave. 2nd part is a sester. Challenging to write in English
-Led
to the creation of the English
sonnet/Shakespearean sonnet: rhyme scheme of abab/cdcd/efef/gg. Has a 4
part structure comprised of 3 quatrains followed by a couplet.
Villanelles
-Villanelles: created by the French in the Middle Ages; 19 line
poem, comprised of 5 tercets and a final quatrain. Rhyme scheme of
aba/aba/aba/aba/aba/abaa
Sestina
-Sestina: called the “song of sixes” that was developed by
Arnaut Daniel. 6 six line stanzas and 1 3 line envoy (closing stanza)
-The
end words of the 1st stanza are repeated in a varied order.
Haiku- Japanese form poem; 3 unrhymmed lines of 5, seven, and 5 syllables.
Section V: Drama pg 24
-Drama comes
from the Greek word dran which means “to act.”
A. Elements of Drama
-Aristotle defined it as “an
imitation of an action.” This includes any action performed on stage that will
hold the audiences attention.
-Action starts with the intro
of a dramatic situation, usually a
conflict. The character must face and overcome certain obstacles. Plot arises
from the dramatic situation.
-Drama is usually a 5 act
structure, just like a piece of fiction! :exposition, rising action, climax,
falling action, denouement (untying in French). Freytag’s Pyramid of Dramatic
Structure.
B. Types of Drama and Their Characteristics pg 25
-Tragedy: common, the protagonist is brought to ruin or suffers
extreme sorrow or hardship because they have a tragic flaw. Tragedies feature a reversal of fortune from good to
bad know as perpeteia. This may lead
to tragic irony-the character
experiences a misfortune that they did not expect.
-After a play, the audience
usually feels a catharsis- a
cleansing and a release of emotion.
-A tragicomedy is a drama that alternates between seriousness and
comedy. Can have comic relief: scene with light laughter.
-Comedy:
drama that focuses on the follies of an individual and are written to amuse the
audience. We view the character’s misshaps and mistake from a detached point of
view.
-High comedy: comedy that appeals to the intellect of the audience.
-Low comedy: comedy based on slapstick or clowning around.
-Farce: type of comedy that is truly a low comedy…light-hearted
featuring unlikely situations.
-Function of a comedy is satire- pokes fun at human or societal
vices or follies, often with the aim of provoking some sort of change.
C. Dramatic Characters pg 26
-Protagonist:
main character…can be sometimes called the hero or heroine.
-Antagonist: opposes
main character in conflict…often called the villain.
-Supporting characters:
help move the plot along…may provide contrast or comic relief
-Stock Characters:
represent a particular type of person…exaggerated and can use stereotypes.
Section VI: Vocabulary Words….Study! Some are
Repeated.