Literary Terms
Literary History
Explicating Poetry
Nobel Prize
Pulitzer Prize
100

The omission of part of a word. Most often accomplished by the omission of a final vowel preceding an initial vowel, as "th' orient" for "the orient," but it also occurs between syllables of a single word, as "ne'er" for "never."

What is elision?

100

1765-1830 - This period represented by the ascendancy of Jacksonian democracy. It was also a time of literary beginnings.

When was the Revolutionary and Early National Period in American Literature?

100

Poetry that exploits the graphic, visual aspect of writing; a specialized application of what Aristotle called opis ("spectacle") and Pound "phanopoeia." Also a work of graphic art.

What is Concrete Poetry?

100

1938 American writer honored by being awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature. She was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. 

Who is Pearl S. Buck

100

The recipient of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems.

Who is William Meredith?

200

About 800 documents written between the first century B.C. and about A.D. 70, discovered in 1947 (and later) in caves.

What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

200

1607-1765 - From the founding of the colony at Jamestown until the Stamp Act, forcing the colonists to see themselves as separate from their motherland, the writing produced in America was generally utilitarian, polemical, or religious.

When was the Colonial Period in American Literature?

200

Four lines of IAMBIC PENTAMETER rhyming abab - a component of the Shakespearean sonnet - used as a stanza by Dryden and others.

What is Heroic Quatrain?

200

1930 - First American awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Who was Sinclair Lewis?

200

The recipient of the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Who was Tennessee Williams?

300

The language spoken throughout the ancient Greek world; colloquial Attic with numerous supplements from other dialects and other languages. The language of the New Testament. 

What is koine?

300

1865-1900 In the period following the Civil War, modern America was born and grew to a lusty although not always happy or attractive adolescence.

What was the Realistic Period in American Literature?

300

A pattern in which the second part is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed, as in Coleridge's line "Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike."

What is chiasmus?

300

1968 Japanese writer honored by being awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature - the first Japanese author to receive the award.

Who was Yasunari Kawabata?

300

The recipient of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

Who is Michael Chabon?

400

The state of being on a threshold in space or time.

What is liminality?

400

1830-1865 The period between the 'second revolution" of the Jacksonian Era and the close of the Civil War in America saw the testing of a nation and its development by ordeal. It was America's first great creative period.

What was the Romantic Period in American Literature?

400

The continuation of the sense and grammatical construction of a line on to the next verse or couplet.

What is enjambment?

400

1982 Colombian writer honored by being awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century and one of the best in the Spanish language. 

Who is Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

400

The British recipient of the 1925 Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

Who was George Bernard Shaw?

500

The art of argumentation or debate. In classical literature, it refers to the tradition of continuing debate or discussion of eternally unresolved issues, such as "beauty versus truth" or "the individual versus the state."

What is dialectic?

500

1900-1930 America is sharply divided by World War I - the part before the war and the part after. 

What was the Naturalistic and Symlbolistic Period in American Literature?

500

Rhyme that falls on the stressed concluding syllables of the rhyme words, as "mount" and "fount."

What is masculine rhyme?

500

1963 Greek writer honored by being awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the first Greek to receive the prize. 

Who was George Seferis?

500

The recipient of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Heart's Needle

Who was W. D. Snodgrass?