WELCOME TO ENGLISH 10 MS. RUSSO

AMERICAN LITERATURE : AN OVERVIEW OF ENGLISH 10

What is the American Dream?  How is it achieved?  Who do you know that has achieved it? What are your dreams for the future? Why? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?  How do you know? What qualities and skills do you need to attain your dreams? What can influence your ability to achieve your dreams?

How do the stories of others influence us? How can literature allow us to explore the evolution of our society? In what ways does literature become a vehicle through which we engage in critical thinking? Sit with a partner and discuss the questions above.

LET’S REVIEW!!! LITERARY TERMS

Direct Characterization  When a writer uses this method, we do not have to figure out what a character’s personality is like—the writer tells us directly. Indirect Characterization  When a writer uses this method, we have to exercise our own judgment, putting clues together to infer what a character is like—just as we do in real life when we are getting to know someone. Characters are often classified as static or dynamic.  A static character is one who does not change much in the course of a story.  A dynamic character, on the other hand, changes in some important way as a result of the story’s action.

REVEALING CHARACTERS IN A NOVEL WHERE? …in the structure of the text  Narration  What he does, etc.  Dialogue  What he says, what others say to him or about him  Note: Other structures such as stage direction and narrative essays will exist when studying a play HOW? …with his or her craft elements  Setting (including historical context) and Mood  Tone, Diction, and Style  Connotative and Figurative Language

UNDERSTANDING SETTING & HISTORICAL CONTEXT What do we need to do to learn the historical context of a piece of literature? RESEARCH  …the time period; use the internet and other resources ANNOTATE  You have to sift through and find the important “stuff” CONNECT  …what you learn about the time period to the characters in the story-their conflicts, their motivation, their choices, etc. (text to world, text to self, text to text)WHY? …to enhance your understanding of the story and of American life in the present by comparing, contrasting, and stepping into the shoes of the characters’ of our past. APPLY  …what you learned to the context of the story told using visualizing, questioning, inferencing, predicting and synthesizing strategies.

1. LITERARY TERMS DEFINED… MOTIVATION: The reasons for a character’s behavior.  In order for us to understand why characters act the way they do, their motivation has to be believable, at least in terms of the story. At times a writer directly reveals motivation; in subtler fiction we must use details from the story to infer motivation. It is helpful to understand the setting and historical context of a story to better understand conflict and motivation. MOOD: The overall emotion created by a work of literature.  Mood can usually be described with one or two adjectives such as bittersweet, playful, or scary. All the elements of literature, including sound effects, rhythm, and word choice, contribute to a work’s mood.

2. LITERARY TERMS DEFINED… TONE: The attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience.  In speaking we use voice inflections and even body language to show how we feel about what we are saying. Writers manipulate language in an attempt to achieve the same effect. Tone is dependent on diction and style, and we cannot say we have understood any work of literature until we have sensed the writer’s tone. Tone can usually be described in a single word: objective, solemn, playful, ironic, sarcastic, critical, reverent, irreverent, philosophical, cynical, and so on.

3. LITERARY TERMS DEFINED… TONE IS DEPENDENT ON DICTION DICTION: A speaker’s or writer’s choice of words.  Diction can be formal, informal, colloquial, full of slang, poetic, ornate, plain, abstract, concrete, and so on. Diction depends on the writer’s subject, purpose, and audience. Some words, for example, are suited to informal conversations but are inappropriate in a formal speech. Diction has a powerful effect on the tone of a piece of writing. TONE IS DEPENDENT ON STYLE STYLE : The distinctive way in which a writer uses language.  Style can be plain, ornate, metaphorical, spare, descriptive, and so on. Style is determined by such factors as sentence length and complexity, syntax, use of figurative language and imagery, and diction.

4. LITERARY TERMS DEFINED… CONNOTATION: The associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.  The words determined, firm, rigid, stubborn, and pigheaded have similar dictionary definitions, or denotations, but widely varying connotations, or overtones of meaning. Determined and firm both suggest an admirable kind of resoluteness; rigid suggests an inability to bend and a kind of mindless refusal to change. Stubborn and pigheaded, on the other hand, have even more negative connotations. Stubborn has associations with a mule, and pigheaded with the pig, which, wrongly or not, is an animal often associated with mindless willfulness. Words with strong connotations are often called loaded words or suggestive words.  Here are some other words that are more or less synonymous but which have vastly different connotations: fastidious and fussy; day-dreamer and escapist; scent, odor, smell, and stink