Essential Literary Terms: A Brief Norton Guide with Exercises

by Sharon Hamilton

Overview

Help your students get the most out of their literature course.

Updated with new terms, examples, and exercises, and to reflect the 2016 MLA guidelines, the Second Edition of Essential Literary Terms defines more than 225 must-know literary terms in clear and concise prose, and offers an abundance of examples and exercises to enhance understanding. Master teacher Sharon Hamilton has drawn on decades of teaching experience at the college and AP® levels to design this book especially for introductory students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393283891
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/31/2016
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Sharon Hamilton (Ph.D. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) has taught college literature courses at Eastern Michigan, Baylor, and Hunter, and advanced-placement English at Phillips Exeter Academy and the Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, where she currently teaches. She is an award-winning teacher, NEH teaching workshop leader, and AP Consultant for the College Board. She is author of Shakespeare’s Daughters, Shakespeare: A Teaching Guide, as well as multiple books on solving common writing problems.

Table of Contents

Preface     XIII
Acknowledgments     XVII
Literary Forms     1
Drama     1
Comedy     3
High and low comedy     3
Farce     3
Romantic comedy     4
Comedy of manners     4
Stock characters     4
Tragedy     4
Classical tragedy     4
Senecan tragedy     4
Revenge tragedy     4
Domestic tragedy     5
Tragicomedy     5
Theater of the Absurd     6
Periods of Drama     7
Ancient Greek     7
Roman     7
English medieval     7
Morality plays     7
Mystery plays     7
Elizabethan and Jacobean     7
Restoration and Eighteenth Century     7
Modern     7
Fiction     8
Novel     8
Novel of incident     9
Novel of character     9
Realistic novel     9
Romance     9
Bildungsroman     10
Historical novel     10
Epistolary novel     10
Anrinovel     10
Metafiction     10
Short Story     11
Novella     12
Poetry     13
Verse     13
Epic Poetry     13
Dramatic Poetry     14
Lyric Poetry     14
Specialized Forms     15
Dramatic Monologue     15
Exercise: Dramatic Monologue     16
Epigram     19
Aphorism     20
Exercise: Epigram     20
Satire     21
Direct (formal) satire     21
Indirect satire     22
Horatian satire     22
Juvenalian satire     22
Exercise: Satire     24
Figurative Language     32
Figures of Thought (Tropes)     32
Simile     32
Metaphor     33
Tenor     33
Vehicle     33
Mixed metaphor     34
Extended metaphor     35
Subtext     36
Exercises: Similes and Metaphors     36
Personification     39
Allegory     39
Pathetic fallacy     40
Synecdoche      41
Metonymy     41
Exercise: Personification, Pathetic Fallacy, Synecdoche, and Metonymy     42
Irony     44
Verbal irony     44
Sarcasm     44
Structural irony     45
Unreliable narrator     45
Dramatic irony     46
Tragic irony     46
Cosmic irony     46
Exercises: Irony     47
Tropes Dependent on Contrasting Levels of Meaning     54
Hyperbole     54
Understatement     55
Paradox     56
Oxymoron     57
Litotes     57
Periphrasis     58
Pun     59
Equivoque     60
Exercise: Tropes Dependent on Contrasting Levels of Meaning     60
Figures of Speech (Schemes)     62
Apostrophe     62
Invocation     63
Rhetorical Question     63
Anaphora     64
Antithesis     64
Chiasmus     65
Exercise: Figures of Speech (Schemes)     66
Rhetorical Strategies     68
Diction     68
Formal vs. colloquial language     68
Abstract vs. concrete language     70
Poetic diction     72
Allusion     74
Analogy     76
Exercises: Allusion, Analogy, and Diction     78
Imagery     83
Symbolism     86
Atmosphere     89
Exercises: Imagery, Symbolism, and Atmosphere     92
Repetition     98
Selection and Order of Details     99
Epiphany     102
Exercises: Repetition, Selection and Order of Details, and Epiphany     104
Narration     112
Voice     112
Narrator     112
Point of View     113
First-Person     113
Third-Person     114
Third-person omniscient     114
Intrusive narrator     115
Objective narrator     116
Narrator in drama     117
Third-person limited     118
Stream of consciousness     118
Second-person     120
Exercise: Point of View     122
Characterization     125
Flat Characters vs. Round Characters     126
Showing vs. Telling     127
Exercises: Characterization     127
Roles in the Plot     129
Protagonist     129
Hero, heroine     129
Antagonist     130
Villain     130
Foil     131
Exercises: Roles     132
Dialogue     132
Verisimilitude     137
Speech headings     137
Stage directions     137
Direct and indirect discourse     139
Repartee     140
Soliloquy     141
Aside     143
Exercise: Dialogue     144
Setting     150
Exercises: Setting     152
Theme     154
Tone     156
Pathos     161
Exercises: Theme and Tone     162
Structure     167
In Medias Res     167
Exposition     168
Flashback     168
Narrative Pace     170
Parenthetical Observation     172
Subplot     174
Shift in Style     176
Exercises: Structure     178
Syntax     184
Independent clause     184
Dependent clause     184
Subject      184
Simple subject     184
Complete subject     184
Predicate     184
Simple predicate     184
Complete predicate     184
Direct object     184
Indirect object     185
Appositive     185
Sentence Fragments     185
Kinds of Sentences     186
Simple sentence     186
Compound sentence     186
Coordinating conjunction     186
Complex sentence     186
Subordinate clause     186
Means of Linkage     186
Coordination     186
Subordination     187
Parallelism     188
Syntactical Order     189
Loose sentence (cumulative sentence)     189
Periodic sentence     190
Inversion     190
Sentence Variety     191
Exercises: Syntax     194
Prosody     198
Meter     198
Quantitative meter     198
Syllabic meter     198
Stress     198
Accentual meter     198
Accentual-syllabic meter     198
Foot      199
Metrical Feet     199
Iamb     199
Anapest     200
Trochee     200
Dactyl     200
Number of Feet in a Line     200
Mowometer     200
Dimeter     200
Trimeter     201
Tetrameter     201
Pentameter     201
Hexameter     201
Heptameter     201
Naming the Meter     201
Iambic pentameter     201
Trochaic trimeter     202
Dactylic tetrameter     202
Common Substitutions     202
Spondee     202
Catalexis     203
Masculine and feminine endings     203
Pauses within and between Lines of Verse     204
End-stopped lines     204
Enjambed lines     204
Caesura     205
Scansion     205
Exercises: Meter     207
Rhyme     210
End Rhyme     211
Double rhyme     211
Triple rhyme     211
Masculine rhyme     211
Feminine rhyme     211
Internal Rhyme     211
Rhyme Scheme      212
Perfect and Imperfect Rhyme     213
Eye rhyme     213
Half-rhyme (off-rhyme, slant rhyme, imperfect rhyme)     213
Exercise: Rhyme     215
Sound and Sound Patterns     217
Alliteration     217
Internal alliteration     218
Consonance     219
Assonance     220
Onomatopoeia     221
Exercises: Sound and Sound Patterns     223
Poetic Forms     226
Stanzas     226
Couplet     226
Heroic couplet     226
Closed couplet     226
Open couplet     227
Tercet (Triplet)     228
Terza rima     228
Quatrain     229
In Memoriam stanza     229
Ballad meter (common meter)     229
Refrain     230
Sonnet     231
Italian (Petrarchan)     231
English (Shakespearean)     231
Volta (turn)     231
Sonnet sequence     233
Curtal sonnet     234
Blank Verse     234
In poetry     234
In drama     236
Free Verse (Open Form Verse)     239
Exercises: Poetic Forms     242
MLA Style     247
MLA In-Text Documentation     249
Notes     254
MLA List of Works Cited     254
Sample Research Paper, MLA Style     268
Permissions Acknowledgments     275
Index of Terms     277