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| In fiction, an epiphany occurs when a character suddenly grasps a hidden truth or comes to a major realization about him- or herself. |
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| Magical realism is a Latin American genre that combines realism and fantasy, narrating supernatural or impossible events as if they were ordinary occurrences. |
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| A frame narrative is a “story within a story,” with two or more layers of narrative. |
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| A novella is a short novel, such as Heart of Darkness. |
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| A first-person narrator is a narrator who is also a character in the story, using the first person (“I” or “we”) to describe his or her own experience, thoughts or feelings. |
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| A third-person narrator relates events as an observer rather than a participant, using the third person only (“he,” “she,” etc.). |
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| An intrusive narrator makes frequent interjections that ponder, editorialize, or generally interrupt the flow of a story. |
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| An omniscient narrator assumes an all-knowing perspective and is able to move between different times, places, and perspectives and relate the characters’ inner thoughts or secret knowledge. |
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| An unreliable narrator gives a questionable version of events, which the reader knows cannot be trusted as strictly factual, for whatever reason (insanity, limited knowledge, etc.). |
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| In fiction and drama, the exposition establishes the tone, introduces the setting and characters, and supplies other background information necessary to the understanding of a play or story. |
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| A prologue is a explanatory speech by an actor at the beginning of a play, offering background information and context for the events that are about to unfold on stage. |
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| An epilogue is an actor’s concluding remarks addressed to the audience at the end of a play. |
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| A soliloquy is a speech delivered while the speaker is alone, designed to inform the audience of what is going on in the character’s mind. |
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| A tragedy recounts a causally related series of events in the life of a person of significance, culminating in an unhappy catastrophe, the whole production treated with dignity and high seriousness. Tragedy is characterized by an overall decline toward death and destruction, and a loss of agency or free will. |
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| Comedy typically begins with some disturbance of equilibrium but, unlike tragedy, ends with the restoration of order, often in the form of a marriage. Comedy usually involves lower-class characters who speak in the vernacular, as opposed to the formal, poetic language of tragedy. |
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| A romance is a work with extravagant characters, remote and exotic places, highly exciting and heroic events, passionate love, and/or mysterious or supernatural elements. Many critics consider The Tempest a romance rather than a comedy. |
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| For most books, arrange the information into four units, each followed by a period and one space: the author's name; the title and subtitle, italicized; the place of publication, the publisher, and the date; and the medium. Example: Tan, Amy. Saving Fish from Drowning (italicized). New York: Putnam, 2005. Print. |
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Begin with (1) the name of the author of the selection. Then give (2) the title of the selection; (3) the title of the anthology; (4) the name of the editor of the anthology (preceded by "Ed." for "Edited by"); (5) publication information; (6) the pages on which the selection appears; and (7) the medium
Desai, Anita. "Scholar and Gypsy." The Oxford Book of Travel Stories. (indented and italicized) Ed. Patricia Craig. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. 251-73. Print. |
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Hawthorne,
Mansfield,
Joyce,
Poe,
Conrad,
Shakespeare,
García Márquez,
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“The Birthmark” (10-22)
“The Garden-Party” (305-15)
“Araby” (328-32)
“The Purloined Letter” (447-60)
Heart of Darkness, I (233-56)
The Tempest, I (1584-1605)
“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” (472-76) |
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