Syntactic Fluency-transcendalism Flashcards
Syntactic fluency
Ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length.
Syntactic permutation
Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved. Often difficult for a reader to follow.
Tall tale
An outrageously exaggerated, humorous story that is obviously unbelievable.
Telegraphic sentence
A sentence shorter than five words in length
Theme
The insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work
Tone
The attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization
Tragedy
In general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end
Tricolon
Sentence of three parts of equal importance and length, usually three independent clauses
Understatement
A statement that says less than what is meant
Unity
Unified parts of the writing are related to one central idea or organizing principle. Unity is dependent upon coherence
Vernacular
The language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality
Impressionism
A nineteenth-century movement in literature and art which advocated a recording of the artist’s personal impressions of the world, rather than a strict representation of reality
Modernism
A term for the bold new experimental styles and forms that swept the arts during the first third of the twentieth century
Naturalism
A nineteenth century literary movement that was an extension of realism and that claimed to portray life exactly as it was
Plain style
Writing style that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression (but will still utilize allusions and metaphors), and was the main form of the Puritan writers
Puritanism
Writing style if America’s early English-speaking colonists, emphasizes obedience to God and consists mainly of journals, sermons and poems
Rationalism
A movement that began in Europe in the seventeenth century, which held that we can arrive at truth by using our reason rather than relying of the authority of the past, on the authority of the church, or an institution. Also called neoclassicism and age of reason
Realism
A style of writing, developed in the nineteenth century, that attempts to depict life accurately without idealizing or romanticizing it
Regionalism
Literature that emphasizes a specific geographic setting and that reproduces the speech, behaviour, and attitudes of the people who live in that region
Romanticism
A revolt against rationalism that affected literature and the other arts, beginning in the late eighteenth century and remaining strong throughout most of the nineteenth century
Surrealism
A movement in art and literature that started in Eurole during the 1920s. Surrealists wanted to replace conventional realism with the full expression of the unconcious mind, which they considered to be more real than the “real” world of appearances
Symbolism
A literary movement that originated in late nineteenth century France, in which writers rearranged the world of appearances in order to reveal a more truthful version of reality
Transcendentalism
A nineteenth century movement in the romantic tradition which held that every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition, which transcends reasons and sensory experience