World Literature Essential Vocabulary

Assumption- A thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.

Diary- An individual’s daily record of impressions, events, or thoughts, written for personal use rather than for publication.

Folklore- Traditional beliefs, customs, stories, songs, and dances of a culture. Folklore is passed down through oral tradition and is based on the concerns of ordinary people.

Folktale- An anonymous traditional story passed down orally long before being written down. Folktales include animal stories, trickster stories, fairy tales, myths, legends, and tall tales.

Frame story- A story that surrounds another story or that serves to link several stories together. The frame is the outer story, which usually precedes and follow the inner, more important story.

Myth- A traditional story that deals with goddesses, gods, heroes, and supernatural forces. A myth may explain a belief, a custom, or a force of nature

Novel- A book-length fictional prose narrative, typically having a plot, character, setting, and theme. A short novel is called a novelette or novella.

Parallelism- The use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical structure. This emphasizes relationships between ideas.

Point of View- The standpoint from which a story is told. In a story with first-person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story and uses the words I and me. In a story told from third-person point of view, the narrator is someone who stands outside the story and describes the characters and action.

Rhythm- The pattern of beats created by the arrangement of stressed and unstresdddsed syllables, especially in poetry. Rhythm gives poetry a musical quality, can add emphasis to certain words, and may help convey the poem’s meaning.

Satire- Writing that comments, sometimes humorously, on human flaws, ideas, social customs, or institutions. The purpose of satire may be to reform or to entertain.

Surrealism- A twentieth- century literary and artistic movement that sought to break down the barriers between rational and irrational thoughts and situation.

jdulski Friday, December 14, 2012 1:23:17 PM Central Standard Time 58:b0:35:ad:a8:36 jdulski Friday, December 14, 2012 1:23:17 PM Central Standard Time 58:b0:35:ad:a8:36