Credibility and Realism in Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko In the Dictionary of Literary Terms, Harry Shaw states, "In effective narrative literature, fictional persons, through characterization, become so credible that they exist for the reader as real people." (1) Looking at Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (2) and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (3) the reader will find it difficult to make this definition conform to Moll and Behn's narrator. This doesn't mean that Defoe's and Behn's
accomplish their common goal. According to A Handbook of Literary Terms, satire is defined as "a work or manner that blends a censorious attitude with humor or wit for improving human institutions or humanity" (Harmon and Holman 461). The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics further asserts that satire is "both a mode of discourse or vision that asserts polemical or critical outlook, and also a specific literary genre, embodying that mode in either prose or verse" (Preminger and
The Use of Chiasmus to Highlight the Irony of Slavery in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass According to Barton and Hudson's Contemporary Guide to Literary Terms, a chiasmus is a rhetorical scheme that is "particularly effective in creating irony through the reversal of accepted truths or familiar ideas" (189). Frederick Douglass uses the chiasmus throughout his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave to highlight the irony of slavery's existence in a country
them into left-bank Paris of the 1920's within the first few pages. By using a unique style made up of many different aspects of writing, Hemingway achieves a spectacular level of realism in The Sun Also Rises. According to the Handbook of Literary Terms, "Style combines two elements: the idea to be expressed and the individuality of the author" (Harmon). In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingw... ... middle of paper ... ... voice, Hemingway is able to cause the reader to become completely enveloped
mortally meant to have. The character of Dr. Faustus is, in conception, an ideal of humanism, but Marlowe has taken him and shown him to be damned nonetheless, thus satirizing the ideals of Renaissance Humanism. M. H. Abram's A Glossary of Literary Terms defines Renaissance Humanism, stating that some of the key concepts of the philosophy centered around "the dignity and central position of human beings in the universe" as reasoning creatures, as well as downplaying the "'animal' passions" of
absurdity of fighting over the cutting of one's hair. In fact, Horation satire is defined by K. Lukes as a device that is: " urban, smiling, witty" and "seeks to correct the human foibles." and is further reiterated in The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Literary terms as: "Horation satire, often contrasted with the bitterness of Juvenalian satire, is a more indulgent, tolerant treatment of human inconsistencies and follies, ironically amused rather than outraged" (101). Thus, Alexander Pope's intentions in
a major seaport in the former British Empire. In administrative terms at least the city remains “British” today. A clear result of its history is the present demographic pattern of the city and the nomenclature that accompanies it. I intend to discuss an aspect of this nomenclature — the names of Belfast streets, which are evocative of an Imperial past. Such titles should be seen in respect of the political implications and literary function of naming. It is safe to assert that a name is a construct
The Absurd in The Metamorphosis and Endgame The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms defines the Absurd as “A phrase referring to twentieth-century works that depict the absurdity of the modern human condition, often with implicit reference to humanity’s loss or lack of religious, philosophical, or cultural roots. Such works depict the individual as essentially isolated and alone, even when surrounded by other people and things.” (Murfin 2) Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett were two
In “Oxford Concise Dictionary Literary Terms” by Chris Baldick, characterization is defined as the representation of persons in narrative and dramatic works which include direct and indirect methods in inviting the readers to infer qualities from characters’ actions, speech, or appearance. However, modals in literature context serve as an eye opener to the personality and traits of the characters in short stories. It enables the readers to learn of the characters’ abilities, capabilities, prohibitions
the play because of the family issues that Shakespeare incorporates throughout the work. Lear's family is definitely a dysfunctional one. However, the disrupted family unit is the basis for the play's tragedy. The Contemporary Guide to Literary Terms defines tragedy as "a piece of writing that inspires fear or pity, through which the audience/reader experiences catharsis" (a purging of emotions). Tragic plots should have a clear beginning, middle and end that all involve the protagonist
Literary; associated with literary works or other formal writing; having a marked style intended to create a particular emotional effect. Term; a word or phrase used to describe a thing or to express a concept, especially in a particular kind of language or branch of study. Device; a thing made or adapted for a particular purpose. Literary terms/devices is defined as the typical structures used by writers in their works to convey his or her messages in a simple manner to the readers. When employed
Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter has been a highly debatable topic of numerous critical essays, written by scholars who approach the novel from various perspectives of literary criticism. Due to the diversity of perspectives, the questions proposed by these scholars vary and hence the conclusions they arrive at by examining the same literary text may differ not only within a range, but in addition may even seem contrary to one another. The aim of this paper is to provide a comparison between three of the
Distant Grief Author Seamus Heaney, in the poem “Mid-Term Break,” gives the reader a snapshot of death, detached from any emotional perspective, using narration, imagery, and foreshadowing. This event greatly affected the young poet and he recalls to the reader his memory the events precisely to the hour, with bells dismissing classes at two o’clock, to the ambulance arriving at ten o’clock. The speaker in the poem, assumed to be the poet himself, a young college student returns home mid-semester
A. 1) The tone, mood or atmosphere in the story begins with that of happiness and euphoria, by setting us up with a wonderful day that most everyone would enjoy. (Quote: “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day…”[pg147] ) However, later on in the story, it takes a different tone, and by the very end the tone is that of panic, disdain and fear. (Quote: “‘It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” [pg 155]
evaluative (i.e. judge the literary worth on stylistic criteria), but more commonly attempts to simply analyse and describe the workings of texts which have already been selected as noteworthy on other grounds. Stylistic analysis in linguistics refers to the identification of patterns of usage in speech and writing. Analyses can appear objective, detailed and technical, even requiring computer assistance, but some caution is needed. Stylistic analysis in literary studies is usually made
Postmodern Literary Criticism Postmodernism attempts to call into question or challenge the notion of a single absolute unified master narrative without simply replacing it with another. It is a paradoxical, recursive, and problematic method of critique. It encourages transcendence through or in spite of limitation, while simultaneously decentering the concept of absolute transcendence. To this end, it encourages the development of a heightened sense of self in relation to itself and
critically analyse a range of arguments and perspectives by literary critics which will be pertinent to the study of Romanticism . Due to the scale of research in Romantic literature as a discipline, the main focus in this paper will concentrate primarily on defining the two aspects of Romantic literature. These two aspects are called Romantic nature and the sublime; the paper will look at the main purpose of these definitions by literary scholars. The review will also compare and contrast different
is a literary technique in which one question if something is realistic or fiction. “In American literature, the term “Realism” encompasses the period of time from the civil war to the turn of the century. Realism was a movement that encompasses the entire country. In general Realism is a literary movement that attempts to discover life. Realism is the quality or fact of representing a person, thing, or situation accurately or in a way that is true to life. Realism later evolves into literary movements
manner? (Susan Barton, Foe, 58) Of the many literary conventions used to describe JM Coetzee's Foe, one of the more commonly written about is metafiction. Since about 1970, the term metafiction has been used widely to discuss works of post-modern fiction and has been the source of heated debate on whether its employ marks the death or the rebirth of the novel. A dominant theme in post-modern fiction, the term "metafiction" has been defined by literary critics in multiple ways. John Barth offers
probably the most distinguished long poem by an Irishman. Despite the popularity of The Deserted Village it became the focus of criticism from Goldsmith's contemporaries. Not all criticism, however, was negative. Literary criticism refers to a balanced analysis; even when literary critics supplement, they generally discuss the merits as well as faults of a work in order to arrive at a sound, deliberate assessment (Murfin 64). Most criticism of Goldsmith's The Deserted Village tended to be positive