I'm Feeling Profound
Death has no reason, perhaps no meaning, except in that it comes for us all.
Barthelme - "The School"
When I read Gordimer's "Soft Voice of the Serpent," I couldn't help but notice that the only female character filled two stereotypical female roles of nurturer/caretaker and the person responsible for the misfortune of the male.
Feminist
People don't die, they 'move on'
Euphemism
I should have known by the fact that they called it "Dragon's Teeth" that we might get bitten...
Husband/Wife - Nadine Gordimer - "Once Upon A Time"
PEEL
In giving into fear, we give power to that which we fear.
Gordimer - "Once Upon a Time"
The fragment sentences, each of which is given its own paragraph at the beginning of "Once Upon a Time," interrupts the flow of the story in the same way that the narrator's thoughts were interrupted by the noise.
Formalist
What it's called when I make a reference to something outside of the world of the story.
Allusion
She just wouldn't stop talking about the record player we bought.
Boy - Raymond Carver - "Why Don't You Dance"
Close-reading
In his story, "Reunion," Cheever uses Charlie, the pseudo-child looking forward to meeting his adult father, to explore the unfulfilled and unfulfillable longing to return home. Charlie calling his father 'daddy' at the end is a desperate attempt to sustain or recapture the image Charlie once had of him.
Psychoanalyst
Of the three types of irony (verbal, situational, dramatic), this one describes the ending of "Once Upon a Time"
Dramatic
I sympathize with the children's need for affirmation, but I wish he would have made his move before they asked.
Helen - Donald Barthelme - "The School"
The two types of meanings of words and phrases have that are important to think about during analysis.
Denotative and connotative/
Denotation and connotation
Our fates are written in our DNA
Cheever - "Reunion"
Meaning is not found within what the writer has written, but the dialogue between the text and the reader. The reader, in a way, co-writes the story.
Reader-response
Direct, Free-Indirect
Is he really so arrogant he thinks if he speaks to me in Italian, he'll look cultured and will get what he wants?
Waiter - John Cheever - Reunion
The feeling or atmosphere of a text
The attitude of a writer towards their subject matter
Mood
Tone
The stories that we read growing up do not prepare us for the world that waits outside.
Gordimer - "Once Upon a Time"
In Gordimer's story, "Once Upon a Time," race is presented as being at the heart of the social conflict, where in reality race is less the cause than it is the means by which the ruling elite protect control over the means of production.
Marxist
A idea, theme, symbol, type of character, etc. that occurs in many different texts and situations.
Trope
All I wanted was a cup of sugar...
Wolf - Three Little Pigs
The topic of the next unit
Textual analysis:
Language and Representation/ Gender and Identity/ Gender and Representation