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2022 English 11 Final Exam Review

Terms in this set (32)

Native Americans
The earliest and original group of American authors, most of their stories were told orally and the movement is known for its "Trickster Tales" featuring sly animals and their "Creation Myths" about how the world came to be.
Puritan
This period featured simple diction and metaphors to convey strict religious messages; authors like Arthur Miller used religion as a basis for plot in texts like "The Crucible" which featured a judgmental town that blamed strange happenings on Satan and magic.
Gothic Literature
Known as "Dark Romanticism" this literary movement featured eerie, chilling settings and grotesque, bizarre, distorted imagery which explored the dark side of humanity. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe fit into this movement.
Romanticism
A movement that featured the belief that emotion and intuition were more important than reason.
Transcendentalism
A movement that expressed the philosophy that God exists within all parts of nature and that everything in nature is connected. Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson are the epitome of this movement.
Naturalism
Literary movement focused on "survival of the fittest" which portrayed characters in a battle with the natural world. Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" fits well with this movement.
Realism
Literary movement focused on real people doing real things, portraying the good and bad of life, as if we are looking through a glass window at characters.
This movement also depicted a sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in "the American Dream," as we saw in The Great Gatsby.
Harlem Renaissance
This movement involved a cultural, social, and artistic explosion after WWI and into the 1930's; it was the most influential movement in African American literary history. Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston are key figures in this movement which paved the way for the later Civil Rights Movement.
Postmodernism
These writings deal with realistic threats of the modern world, such as nuclear warfare, pollution, terrorism, and genetic engineering, as well as more unrealistic threats like time travel. This movement, which rejects the traditional boundaries between high and low art, began post-WWII in 1950 and continues today.
Edgar Allan Poe
His works defined gothic literature and included insane narrators, physical torment, and encounters with death.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
His works were considered gothic; he explored society's fear of the unknown in texts like "The Minister's Black Veil." He also had a connection to the Salem Witch Trials, as his great-great-grandfather was one of the judges.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Author of "Self-Reliance" and the father of the transcendentalist movement.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
A novelist and coiner of the term "the jazz age," and author of The Great Gatsby.
Henry David Thoreau
Transcendentalist who lived simply in nature for a year. He wrote "Walden" about this experience.
Zora Neale Hurston
African American writer and folklore scholar who played a key role in the Harlem Renaissance.
Arthur Miller
Author of "The Crucible;" he wrote the play to point out the awful events happening in Salem during the witch trials and to connect them to McCarthyism in modern America. He explored the effects of hysteria and intolerance in society.
Langston Hughes
A leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
Jack London
Author of "To Build A Fire" who drew from his personal experiences.
Allusion
A reference to another work of literature (i.e. the Bible, mythology, etc), person, or event
Metaphor
A comparison without using like or as
Example: She is a rose.
Simile
A comparison using "like" or "as"
EX: She is like a rose.
Tone
The attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character
Irony
A contrast between expectation and reality; when something happens in a text that is the opposite of what we expect.
EX: A child runs away from someone throwing a water balloon at him and falls into the pool.
Theme
Central idea of a work of literature
Imagery
Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)
Paradox
A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
EX: Less is more.
Onomatopoeia
A word that imitates the sound it represents.
EX: Buzz, pop, crack
Alliteration
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
EX: Peter passed out pickles to the people.
Personification
A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.
EX: The wind whispered.
First-person narrator (point of view)
A narrator, referred to as "I," who is a character in the story and relates the actions through his or her own perspective, also revealing his or her own thoughts.
Second-person narrator (point of view)
A narrator who tells a story using the pronouns "you," "your," and "yours" to address a reader or listener directly.
Third-person narrator (point of view)
Point of view in which the narrator is outside of the story and sees the world through characters' eyes, referring to them as "he," "she," or "they."
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