Frontier/Western movement theme: concept that if things go sour or static
in an area or life, one can always move WEST to a better life and land.
Harlem Renaissance: term referring to the attempt of black artists
in many media to develop a strong cultural presence in America, both to
demonstrate that black artists could equal white artists in their achievements
and to articulate their own cultural traditions and values [adopted from
the Norton Anthology of American Literature].
Initiation theme: when the protagonist grows towards or is initiated
into adulthood or certain lessons or truths about life
International theme (James): the drama, both comic and tragic, of the
newly rich, inexperienced Americans, abroad in Europe [adopted from the
Norton Anthology of American Literature].
Leitmotif (Whitman): "in literature, an intentional and recurrent repetition
of a word, phrase, a situation, or an idea; tends to unify a work." [Holman]
Metaphysical poetry (Taylor): poetry "unified by a philosophical conception
of the universe and of the role assigned to the human spirit in the great
drama of existence"
Modernism: modern writing is marked by a strong and conscious
break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes
that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies
historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, and of despair.
It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers
the unconscious to the self-conscious [Holman].
Naturalism: "a method or school of literary composition that aims at
a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man.
It holds to the philosophy of determinism and believes man is controlled
by his instincts or by his social and economic environment and circumstances."
an offshoot of realism in the late nineteenth-century [Oxford Companion
to American Literature].
Organic Literature (American romanticism and transcendentalism):
-writing opposed to the Deistic, mechanistic, clocklike universe
-writing which is interconnected, like a spider's web, or plant
parts
-writing showing the material and natural world linked together
-distinctly American form; depends on American materials as subject
Oxymoron(Dickinson): "a rhetorical antithesis bringing together two contradictory terms," such as "dazzle gradually" or "sumptuous destitution" [adopted from Holman],
Personae: a mask or identity given to a speaker, narrator or character
by the author; "a voice not directly the author's but created by the author
and through which he speaks" [adopted from Holman]
Picaresque novel (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn): A chronicle, usually
autobiographical, presenting the life story of a rascal of low degree engaged
in menial tasks and making his living more through his wits than his industry.
Episodic in nature, the picaresque novel is, in the usual sense of the
term, structureless.
Polar Opposites (Thoreau): a series of oppositions which exist only
in the presence of each other which are not self-canceling but which must
always be in steadfast opposition to one another
Ratiocination (Poe): to reason with formal logic, used in reference
to detective stories
Realism: "literary composition that aims at an interpretation of the
actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism,
or romantic color. It is opposed to the concern with the unusual
which forms the basis of romance, but it does not proceed, as does naturalism,
to the philosophy of determinism and a completely amoral attitude" [Oxford
Companion to American Literature]
Residual statement (Thoreau): summary of text itself, condensation,
what's left after burnt away
Slave narratives: autobiographical accounts of slavery by escaped
slaves which were published between 1830 and 1860 as part of the abolition
movement in America. Yet, at this time, the black voice was almost
always 'authorized' by a "white" abolitionist's introduction [adopted from
Holman].
Symbol: multiple representations of the physical standing for
the abstract; a concrete object, not "love" or "envy"
Tabula Rasa (Edwards): John Locke's theory that each person is born
with a "blank slate" of knowledge; as opposed to the Puritan idea of original
sin
Undulation: a movement in organic literature resembling tides or other
natural cycles showing constant flux and return
Unreliable Narrator (Poe): "a narrator or viewpoint character
who may be in error in his/her understanding or report of things and who
thus leaves the reader without the guides essential to making judgments
about the character and the actions without any confidence that those conclusions
are those intended by the author" [Holman].
Volatile meaning (Thoreau): what goes beyond writing, will cause
action, will go beyond words to the spiritual