Demiculverins

A kind of cannonball weighing from nine to thirteen pounds.

Protagonist

The central figure in a literary work.

Antagonist

The character who opposes or works against the protagonist.

Sensory Details

Descriptions or images that relate to the five senses.

Deconstruct

To break a literary work into parts and examine closely each part.

Alliteration

The repetition of the first sounds of many words in a poem.

Monologue

Aside

A short speech delivered directly to the audience as if the other characters could not hear it

Vernacular

The everyday language spoken by a people as distinguished from the literary language.

Frame Story

A narrative structure containing or connecting a series of otherwise unrelated tales.

Poignancy

Profoundly moving; piercing; incisive

Volubility

Marked by a ready flow of speech; fluent

Formal Criticism

_______ _______ makes use of the literary terminology and prefers to categorize literature into genres.

Historical Criticism

Examines the culture and the society from which a literary work came and how these influences affect the literature.

Reader Response Criticism

Focuses on how the reader constructs the meaning of, or responds to, the text.

Biographical Criticism

Relates an author's life and thoughts to the author’s works; An approach to literature which suggests that knowledge of the author’s life experiences can aid in the understanding of his or her work.

Point of View

A rejection of the single, authoritative, omniscient point of view for a narrative focalized instead through the consciousness of one character whose point of view is limited--or through several characters who establish relative, multiple points of view--or through several simultaneously-held positions maintained by the one character.

Style

Stream of consciousness"--tracing non-linear thought processes, moving by the "logic of association" or the "logic of the unconscious"; imagistic rather than logical connections.

Indolent

Disinclined to exert oneself; habitually lazy

Sedentary

Requiring much sitting; accustomed to sitting or to taking little exercise.