Essential Terms: Genres and Literary Movements
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Created by:
cowewow on December 10, 2011
Subjects:
english, ap english literature and composition
Description:
AP English Literature and Composition essential terms for Mr. Pierce's class
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29 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 absurdist literature | Works that use absurdity as a device to depict the actual absurdity of the modern human condition, often with implicit reference to humanity's loss or lack of religious, philosophical, or cultural roots. Such works depict the individual as essentially isolated, even when surrounded by others. |
| aestheticism | A movement that developed in Europe in the late 1800s and whose proponents insisted on the separation of art from morality, maintaining that art need not be moral to have value. Essentially, art for art's sake. |
| allegory | The concrete presentation of an abstract idea, typically in narrative --- whether prose, verse, or drama --- with at least two levels of meaning. The first level is the surface story; the second level is typically moral, political, philosophical, or religious. |
| black comedy | A dark, disturbing, and often morbid or grotesque mode of comedy found in certain, generally modern or absurdist works. Such humor often concerns death, suffering, or other anxiety-inducing subjects. |
| dystopia | From the Greek for "bad place," the opposite of a utopia. It is usually set at some point in the future and describes a nightmarish society in which few would want to live. |
| elegy | A reflective work that laments the loss of someone or something. |
| epic | A long and formal narrative work(usually poetic) written in an elevated style that recounts the adventures of a hero of almost mythic proportions who often embodies the traits of a nation or people. |
| existentialism | A philosophical school concerned with the human condition, particularly with questions of existence and meaning for human beings, and with the individual's perpetual, anguished struggle to navigate a complex and perplexing world. |
| fable | A short, fictional story in prose or verse told to illustrate a moral point or lesson; a type of allegory. |
| fabliau | A short, comic, often cynical or satiric verse narrative, which commonly involves trickery and ribaldry. The characters of a fabliau are generally middle- to lower-class people. |
| fairy tale | A prose narrative intended to entertain or instruct that typically relates fantastic or magical occurrences involving a hero or heroine. |
| farce | A type of low comedy that employs improbable or otherwise ridiculous situations and mix-ups, slapstick and horseplay, and crude or even bawdy dialogue. This kind of comedy lacks subtlety. |
| folktale | A short narrative that has been orally transmitted through successive generations within a given community and that typically evolves over time. |
| legend | A story often handed down through oral tradition, typically detailing the adventures of a human cultural hero but sometimes addressing the allegedly remarkable attributes of a place. Unlike myths, legends are often grounded in historical fact and rely less on the supernatural. |
| magical realism | A mode or genre in prose fiction characterized by a mixture of realistic and fantastic elements. Works of magical realism are set in the real world and treat the magical or supernatural as an inherent, even mundane part of reality requiring no explanation. |
| melodrama | A work that relies on the improbable or sensational for dramatic effect and emotional appeal. They typically feature implausible plots emphasizing romance and thrilling action, stock or flat characters, extravagant emotion and a happy ending in which virtue prevails. |
| memoir | A narrative, nonfiction account typically written by an individual that depicts things, persons, or events he or she has known or experienced. |
| myth | A traditional anonymous story, originally religious in nature, told by a particular cultural group in order to explain a natural or cosmic phenomenon. |
| naturalism | A movement of the late 1800s that represented people in a deterministic and generally pessimistic light as products of heredity and environment. An extreme, Darwinian version of realism. |
| parable | A short, realistic, but usually fictional story told to illustrate a moral or religious point or lesson; a type of allegory. A parable addresses a specific situation, whereas a fable is broader in scope. |
| parody | A comic work that imitates a specific, generally serious work or the style of an author or genre; a form of satire. |
| pastoral | Works that focus upon a rural setting, often ideal or utopian in nature. |
| realism | The accurate depiction of everyday life. |
| romance | A fictional work that employs a combination of the following: high adventure, thwarted love, mysterious circumstances, arduous quests, and improbable triumphs. |
| romanticism | Refers to a set of beliefs, attitudes, and values that emphasizes emotion, innovation, nature, the individual, and subjective experience. |
| satire | Scathing social commentary utilizing humor or sarcasm. |
| tragedy | A serious and often somber drama, written in prose or verse, that typically ends in disaster and that focuses on a character who undergoes unexpected personal reversals. |
| tragicomedy | A work, usually a play, that encompasses elements from both tragedy and comedy. |
| utopia | An ideal place that does not exist in reality. |
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