Literary Elements
The time and place where an event or story occurs, or the environment or circumstances in which something happens.
What is Setting?
The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.
What is Diction?
This is an idea that applies to anyone, anywhere, regardless of cultural differences.
What is Universal Theme?
(1200 BCE–455 CE) This time period had a focus on balance and form, an emphasis on reason vs. irrationality/ chaos, an incorporation of myth, direct expression, and an emphasis on the relationship of man to the gods.
Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Aesop, Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Homer, Sappho, Virgil, and Ovid were all prevalent in this time period.
What is the Classical Time Period?
The time and place where an event or story occurs, or the environment or circumstances in which something happens.
What is Plot?
The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
What is Syntax?
This theme explores concepts like bereavement, grief, the realization of what departed, and the impact on identity and purpose. It encompasses personal narratives of sorrow, themes of finding meaning in absence, the universal fear of death, and the process of adapting to new realities.
What is Loss?
(455 CE–1485 CE) This time period starts with a continuation of the focus on the epic hero and dictated memoirs. Later in the period, there's a shift in focus to everyday, common people.
What is the Medieval Time Period?
Known mostly for his plays and poems, particularly his timeless tragedies and comedies like Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, which explore universal themes of love, power, and human nature and have significantly influenced the English language.
Who is William Shakespeare?
This is how authors reveal a character's personality, traits, and motives, either directly by stating qualities or indirectly through their actions, speech, thoughts, appearance, and how others react to them.
What is Characterization or Character Development?
Opposition, disagreement, or struggle between people, groups, ideas, or even within oneself, arising from incompatible goals, interests, values, or needs. It can manifest as fighting or battles, including military disputes, or as subtle forms of dispute, argument, and inner mental struggle. Common causes include miscommunication, differing values, competition for resources, and power struggles.
What is Conflict?
This is a person's transition from childhood to adulthood, encompassing biological, psychological, and social changes, which can be marked by legal milestones, cultural rituals, or personal experiences. It also focuses on a young protagonist's journey of self-discovery and maturation through challenging experiences.
What is Coming of Age?
(1300–1660) Known for new thinking, innovation and philosophy, a "rebirth” returning to many of the ideas of the Classical period, a focus on philosophy, humanistic ideals, greater reproduction and distribution of literature because of invention of the printing press, and the recovery of ancient texts.
What is the Renaissance Time Period?
In 1953, she experienced postpartum depression and was admitted to a mental hospital. On the advice of her psychiatrist, she began writing poetry. This began an era of self-discovery in her poetry, including Transformations (1971).
Who is Anne Sexton?
This is the overall emotional feeling and atmosphere that a writer wants to create for the reader, such as happy, sad, scary, or hopeful. Authors establish this through descriptive language, setting, and details related to characters, conflicts, and themes, evoking a specific emotional response in the audience.
What is mood?
The central, unifying, and significant idea or message explored throughout a creative work, representing a universal truth or insight about life that goes beyond the plot and characters.
What is theme?
Refers to different facets that are examined as a central idea, revealing its capacity for both good and destruction, its connection to sacrifice and longing, and the various forms it takes, such as romantic, familial, and platonic. Its role in relationships, complexities and emotional depth, and potential to inspire great deeds or drive people to madness are common subjects within this broad theme.
What is Love?
(1660–1790) Known as a great age of satire in English literature, including a flowering of comic drama, revival of classical models, the rise of the novel as a major literary form, and a concern over the boundary between reason and madness.
What are the Restoration and 18th Century Time Periods?
He was the first black American to earn a PhD from Harvard. He co-founded the NAACP. Among plays, poems, histories and more, he wrote 21 books and published over 100 essays and articles. His most famous work remains Souls of Black Folk (1903), a collection of essays where he explored themes around black American lives. Today, the book is considered a major landmark of black American literature.
Who is W.E.B. DuBois?
This is an author's attitude toward their subject and readers, conveyed through word choice, sentence structure, and other writing choices. This reveals the author's feelings, such as if they are being humorous, serious, formal, or critical, and helps to establish the overall mood of the text. To identify it, look for specific adjectives, adverbs, imagery, and other stylistic elements that suggest the author's emotional stance.
What is Author's Tone?
This is the main reason an author writes a text, often identified as to inform, persuade, or entertain. To determine this, one needs to consider the author's point of view, word choice, text structure, and features like headings or graphics to understand their primary goal in conveying a message to the audience.
What is Author's Purpose?
These themes are recurring ideas about existence, like birth, death, pain, joy, relationships, the search for meaning, and freedom, that explore the universal experiences of being human.
What is Human Condition?
(1600–1830) Known for a Puritan influence-strongest during first part of period, marked by short prose, rooted in colonial and early national beliefs, inspired by cultural, societal, and political forces, rhetorical devices and persuasive writing techniques, and the rise of the short story as a form.
What are the Colonial and Early National Time Periods?
(1910–1945) This time period is known for strong reactions to established religious, political, and social views, thematic, formal and stylistic innovation.
What is the Modernist Time Period?
The narrative perspective from which a story is told, determining who narrates and what information the reader receives.
What is Point of View?
This is an author's unique and recognizable way of using language, encompassing elements like word choice, sentence structure, tone, figurative language, and overall organization to create meaning and evoke a specific mood or image. It's their verbal identity, distinguishing their writing and conveying their individual voice to the reader.
What is Author's Style?
This type of theme explores the conflict between moral righteousness and malevolent forces, often using characters and contrasts like light and darkness to represent these opposing concepts. This universal theme manifests in various cultural narratives, examining morality, the potential for redemption, and the choices characters make to overcome evil or succumb to it.
What is Good v Evil?
(1790–1870) There was an emphasis on imaginative freedom and modern individualism, experiments with form and style, inspired by nature, emotion, and sensibility.
What is the Romantic Time Period?
(1870–1910) This time period is known for a focus on real life experiences and human frailty and an emphasis on social commentary.
What are Realism and Naturalism Time Periods?