Literary Terms: Memoir

1. Literary Terms: Memoir • Advanced English 9

2. Point of View • Point of View- method of narration used in a short story, novel, narrative poem, or work of nonfiction

3. Point of View • First-Person Point of View- the narrator is a character in the story

4. Point of View • Third-Person Point of View- the narrative voice is outside the action; not one of the characters

5. Point of view • Third-Person Limited Point of View- the narrator tells what only one character thinks, feels, and observes • Third-Person Omniscient Point of View- the narrator is all-knowing; the narrator sees into the minds of all characters

6. Devices • Mood- the feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader • Descriptive words, imagery, and figurative language contribute to the mood of a text • the way the reader feels as he or she reads a story

7. Setting

8. Speaker • The voice of the person assume by the author of a poem

9. Devices • Style- particular way in which a literary text is written- not what is said but HOW it is said • many elements contribute to style- word choice, sentence structure, tone, figurative language, and point of view • Possible styles include- formal, informal, journalistic, conversational, wordy, ornate, poetic, or dynamic

10. Devices • Tone- an attitude a writer takes toward a subject • may be described in a variety of ways- serious, humorous, playful, academic, bitter, ironic, etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8Jm0Z7rt5U

11. Voice • The way in which language reveals an author’s personality, awareness of audience, and passion for his or her subject

12. Anecdote • a brief illustrative account, often based on a personal incident or actual event

13. Dialogue

14. Narrative structure • Flashback- an account of a conversation, an episode, or an event that happened before the beginning of the story • often interrupts the chronological flow of a story to give the reader information needed for the understanding of a character’s present situation

15. Narrative structure • Foreshadowing- writer’s use of hints or clues to suggest events that will occur later in a story • hints or clues might be included in a character’s dialogue or behavior, or they might be included in details of description • creates suspense and makes readers more active participants in the story

16. Audience • The person(s) meant to see and/or hear the work VS

17. Author • Author’s Purpose- a writer usually writes for one of the following purposes: to express thoughts or feelings, to inform or explain, to persuade, or to entertain

18. Devices • Allusion—an indirect reference to a person, place, event, or thing—real or fictional

19. Devices • Cliché—an expression that has become lifeless from overuse

20. Devices • Denotation- the literal, or dictionary, meaning of a word

21. Devices • Connotation- an attitude or feeling associated with the word • a nuanced significance

22. Devices • Diction- a writer’s or speaker’s choice of words • can be described in many ways, including- formal, informal, technical, ornate, plain, abstract, concrete, etc

23. Devices • Dialect—a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation

24. Hyperbole • Hyperbole—exaggeration to express strong emotion or create comic effect

25. Devices • Imagery- descriptive words and phrases that re-create sensory experiences for the reader • appeals to one of the five senses- sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch • helps the reader imagine exactly what is being described

26. Devices • Pun—a phrase that deliberately confuses similar-sounding words for humorous effect

27. Device • Rhetorical question—a question that is not actually meant to be answered

28. Device • Sarcasm—a particularly cutting remark, sometimes ironic, in which praise is used tauntingly to indicate it is opposite in meaning; intended to wound

29. Devices • Simile— comparing two things using like or as • Ex. Nir is as quiet as a mouse. • Metaphor— comparing two or more unlike things without using like or as • Ex. I aced the test; I hit it out of the park.

30. Devices • Symbol- a person, place, an object, or an activity that stands for something beyond itself

31. Devices • Syntax- arrangement of words, phrases, and clauses into sentences.

32. Devices • Understatement—a figure of speech that says less than what it really meant or says something with less force than is appropriate

33. Roman a clef • Roman a clef- French for novel with a key, is a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction • The “key” is the relationship between nonfiction and fiction • Ex. Fictitious names