Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM


Top Flashcards (Certified)
All Flashcards

American Literature > MIDTERM > Flashcards

MIDTERM Flashcards

(92 cards)

Start Studying
1
Q

myth

A

a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

folklore

A

consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs included in the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It also includes the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

oral tradition

A

a community’s cultural and historical traditions passed down by word of mouth or example from one generation to another without written instruction.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

narrator

A

a person who gives an account or tells the story of events, experiences, etc.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

focalization

A

to bring or come to a focus.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

characterization

A

representation

  • direct methods: attributions of qualities in description
  • indirect methods: infer qualities
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

genre

A
  • A recognizable and established category of written work

- Employs common conventions the prevent readers from mistaking it from another category.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

narrative

A

a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

polemic

A

a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

bitter/caustic

A

severely critical or sarcastic

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

thesis

A

a proposition stated or put forward for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or to be maintained against objections:

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

antithesis

A

The placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas, as in “Give me liberty or give me death

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

debunk

A

to expose or excoriate (a claim, assertion, sentiment, etc.) as being pretentious, false, or exaggerated

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

expose

A

exposition, when you list facts to support your case.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

individualism

A

a social theory advocating the liberty, rights, or independent action of the individual.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

intellect

A

the power or faculty of the mind by which one knows or understands, as distinguished from that by which one feels and that by which one wills; the understanding; the faculty of thinking and acquiring knowledge.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

autobiography

A

written by the person

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

apostrophe

A

a rhetorical figure in which the speaker addresses a dead or absent person, or an audience

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

time

A

time of telling: the time at which a story is told as opposed to the time at which a story takes place

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

chronology

A

sequential order in which events occur

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

anachrony

A

a discrepancy between the order of events in a story and the order in which they are presented in the plot:

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

analepsis

A

When a narrator recounts events that took place before the present moment in which a story occurs
i.e. flashback: enables a storyteller to fufill background info

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

essay

A

a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

allusion

A

a passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Neologism
the introduction or use of new words or new senses of existing words.
26
short story
a piece of prose fiction, usually under 10,000 words.
27
gothic novel
A story of terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old medieval setting
28
grotesque
bizarre distortions
29
uncanny
having or seeming to have a supernatural or inexplicable basis; beyond the ordinary or normal; extraordinary:
30
symbolism
represents something
31
imagery
evoke sense expressions
32
the Fantastic
Possible and impossible are confounded
33
foreshadowing
to show or indicate beforehand; prefigure:
34
slave narrative
written account by an escaped or freed slaves or his/her experiences of slavery.
35
antagonist
a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary.
36
meter
Pattern measured sound units recurring more or less regularly in lines of verse.
37
verse
A line of poetry
38
stanza
A group of verse lines forming a section of a poem and sharing the same structure as all or some of the other sections of the same poem
39
rhyme
The similarity of sound within words
40
rhyme scheme
Pattern in which rhymed line endings are arranged in poem or stanza.
41
4 Categories of Interpretation
1. Form: Type of stanza, verse, rhyme scheme, etc. 2. Meter: Length and structure of individual verses 3. Sound: How words sound: Alliterations, Onomatepoeia 4. Meaning: Formal features that affect interpretation: imagery
42
antihero
a protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, as nobility of mind and spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose, and the like.
43
intentional fallacy
an assertion that the intended meaning of the author is not the only or most important meaning; a fallacy involving an assessment of a literary work based on the author's intended meaning rather than on actual response to the work.
44
Naturalism
-lack of free will -lower class -nature is indifferent to man --detached method of narration and the use of formal tone -writing sounds objective a manner or technique of treating subject matter that presents, through volume of detail, a deterministic view of human life and actions.
45
Realism
``` 2 types: -middle class recording actual life in detail physical- psychological- ```
46
Naturalism vs. Realism
Realism seeks to only describe subjects as they really are, naturalism attempts to determine the underlying forces influencing the actions of its subjects.
47
Transcendentalism
- American Renaissance - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau - rejected organized religion in favor of an extremely individualistic behavior of the divinity in each human being. - reliance on man's intuition and conscience - antimaterialism - individualism - the ordinary - nonconformism
48
Individualism
a social theory advocating the liberty, rights, or independent action of the individual.
49
Sensationalism
subject matter, language, or style producing or designed to produce startling or thrilling impressions or to excite and please vulgar taste.
50
Expansionism
a policy of expansion, as of territory or currency 1803: Thomas Jefferson purchases Louisiana Territory from France 1846-1848-Mexican American War 1849-California seeks admission to Union -gold rush
51
Romanticism
- 1800-1860 First half of 19th century, there was a shift in attitudes towards art and creativity -literary and philosophical theory: individual at the center of life and experience -rejection of Enlightenment -valued emotional intensity -interest in irrational: dreams, delirium, self expression -natural growth and free development -freedom and self expression, personal experience -paved the way for the rise of a celebrity author
52
Enlightenment
- The Great Awakening - Investment in intellectualism - scientific revolution - induvidualism - increased social mobility - rise of literacy - POLITICS - Locke, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson
53
Beginnings to 1700
Early Americans: | -NA's, Mexicans,
54
The Malahado Way of Life through The Falling Out with Our Countrymen
by Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca | 1490-1558
55
Mourt's Relation
1622 by William Bradford and Edward Winslow
56
A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
1637-1729 by Mary Rowlandson
57
1700-1820
-The Enlightement
58
Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America
by Benjamin Franklin 1784 - Writing about Europeans - Polemic
59
The Federalist No. 10
1787 James Madison | -About the Enlightenment
60
Olaudah Equiano
1745-1797 -captured and inslaved -born in South Carolina? -trying to represent slave stories as a whole Equiano vs. Douglass -freedom -born into slavery -bought freedom -got to experience freedom later -teaching people -escaped and didn't tell how -education -activism
61
1840-1865
Transcendentalism
62
The American Scholar
``` 1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson -argumentative both HDT and RWH -simplicity, thoughts, reflection ```
63
Where I Lived, What I Lived For
Henry David Thoreau - nonconformism - allusion
64
The Fall of the House of Usher
1839 Edgar Allan Poe -transcendentalism -gothic
65
The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass
1852, 1855 Compared with Equiano, would not say how he excaped abolitionist for change
66
Spontaneous Me, When I Heard the Learned Astronomer, Beat! Beat! Drums!
Transcendentalism
67
Emily Dickinson Readings
Grandmother of poetry
68
Bartleby, The Scrivener
1853 Herman Melville | -I would prefer not to
69
1865-1900
Realism and Naturalism
70
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
Realism/Naturalism | Ambrose Bierce
71
Was The World Made For Man?
Realism/Naturalism | Mark Twain
72
The Lowest Animal
Realism/Naturalism | Mark Twain
73
Up From Slavery
Realism/Naturalism | Booker T. Washingtion
74
Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others
Realism/Naturalism
75
The Story of an Hour
Realism/Naturalism | Kate Chopin
76
The Yellow Wallpaper
Realism/Naturalism | Charlotte Perkins Gilman
77
The Art of Fiction
Realism/Naturalism | Henry James
78
Novel-Writing and Novel- Reading
Realism/Naturalism | William Dean Howell
79
Zola As a Romantic Writer
Realism/Naturalism | Frank Norris
80
A Plea For Romantic Fiction
Realism/Naturalism | Frank Norris
81
To Build A Fire
Realism/Naturalism | Jack London
82
The Blue Hotel
Realism/Naturalism | Stephen Crane
83
litotes
A figure of speech by which an affirmation is made indirectly by denying its opposite.
84
free verse
type of poetry that does not conform to ant regular meter
85
onomoatopeia
the words that imitate sound
86
simile
comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as"
87
metaphor
same but without using "like" or "as"
88
Darwinism
Survival of the fittest
89
Causes of the Enlightenment
1. Diversity 2. Privileging of Social over Spiritual Concerns 3. Print 4. Colonies Push For Independence from Freedom
90
Difference Romanticism and Transcendentalism
Same, Romanticism is the American version
91
Social Darwinism
Applying survival of the fittest, social political, economic fields
92
Frontier Myth
1890 - All land was claimed, Expansionism ends

American Literature (2 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2025 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions