English Language Arts (US High School)
English Language Arts for US High School grades 9-12 (Common Core). Covers reading literature and informational texts, writing, language conventions, literary movements, and canonical American and world works.
Ämne: Engelska · Nivå: Gymnasium (16–19) · 510 kort
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- A theme is a central insight or message about life that a literary work explores. It is usually implied rather than stated outright and is universal in scope.
- Characterization is the process by which an author reveals a character's personality. Direct characterization tells readers what a character is like; indirect characterization shows it through speech, thoughts, actions, appearance, and others' reactions.
- First-person point of view uses the pronouns I and we; the narrator is a character within the story. It limits readers to that narrator's perceptions and biases.
- Third-person omniscient narration uses he, she, and they and grants the narrator knowledge of every character's thoughts and feelings. Third-person limited restricts that access to one character.
- A plot's classic five-stage structure is exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution (or denouement). The climax is the moment of greatest tension or the turning point.
- Setting refers to the time, place, and social context in which a story occurs. Setting can shape mood, influence characters, and function symbolically.
- Mood is the emotional atmosphere a text creates for the reader, while tone is the author's or speaker's attitude toward the subject. Mood is felt; tone is heard.
- Conflict is the struggle that drives a narrative. It can be external (character vs. character, society, nature, or technology) or internal (character vs. self).
- A protagonist is the central character whose goals drive the plot. An antagonist is the force or character that opposes the protagonist; the antagonist need not be a villain.
- A foil is a character whose traits contrast with another character's, highlighting qualities in that character. Laertes serves as a foil to Hamlet, both being grieving sons who choose different paths.
- A dynamic character undergoes meaningful internal change over the course of a story, while a static character remains essentially unchanged.
- A round character has multiple, sometimes contradictory traits and is complex and believable. A flat character is defined by one or two traits and lacks depth.
- A simile is a comparison using like or as. A metaphor states one thing is another. Both are forms of figurative language that build imagery.
- Personification gives human qualities to nonhuman things or abstract ideas (the wind whispered). It builds emotional connection between reader and subject.
- Hyperbole is deliberate, extreme exaggeration for effect (I've told you a million times). It can convey strong feeling, humor, or emphasis.
- An understatement deliberately presents something as smaller or less significant than it is. Litotes is a specific form using a double negative, as in not bad meaning quite good.
- An oxymoron pairs contradictory terms (bittersweet, deafening silence). It compresses paradox into a phrase and often suggests complexity beneath the surface.
- A paradox is a statement that appears self-contradictory but reveals a deeper truth on reflection. Example: less is more.
- An allusion is a brief reference to a person, event, or text the reader is expected to recognize. Allusions to the Bible, Greek myth, and Shakespeare are common in US literature.
- Imagery is language that appeals to the senses — sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and movement. Concrete imagery turns abstract ideas into vivid experiences.
- A symbol is a person, object, or action that represents an idea beyond its literal meaning. The green light in The Great Gatsby symbolizes Gatsby's longing for an unreachable future.
- Allegory is an extended narrative in which characters, settings, and events stand for abstract ideas. Animal Farm functions as an allegory of the Russian Revolution.
- A motif is a recurring image, idea, or pattern in a work that supports the theme. Blindness recurs as a motif in Oedipus Rex and connects to the play's idea of insight.
- Verbal irony occurs when a speaker says one thing and means another (often the opposite). Sarcasm is a sharp, mocking form of verbal irony.
- Situational irony occurs when an outcome is the opposite of what the audience or characters expected. The events undercut their assumptions about how things should turn out.
- Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something a character does not. In Oedipus Rex, the audience knows the king's true identity long before he discovers it.
- Foreshadowing is the use of hints early in a work to suggest events that will occur later. It builds suspense and helps readers feel the story's coherence in retrospect.
- A flashback interrupts the chronological flow of a narrative to depict an earlier event. Flashbacks deepen characterization and provide motivation.
- In medias res, Latin for in the middle of things, is the technique of beginning a narrative in the midst of action. Homer's epics famously begin in medias res.
- Diction is a writer's word choice, considered for connotation, formality, and precision. Diction shapes tone and influences how readers respond.
- Syntax is the arrangement of words and phrases in sentences. Syntactic choices — sentence length, parallelism, fragments, inversions — contribute to style and rhythm.
- Denotation is a word's dictionary definition. Connotation is the cluster of associations and feelings the word evokes beyond that literal meaning.
- An unreliable narrator is one whose credibility is compromised, often by bias, naivety, or self-deception. Readers must reconstruct events from clues the narrator misses.
- Stream of consciousness is a narrative style that mimics the unfiltered flow of a character's thoughts. James Joyce and Virginia Woolf are famous practitioners.
- Onomatopoeia is the use of words whose sound suggests their meaning, such as buzz, crash, or hiss. Poets use it to make verse aurally vivid.
- Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words (silent sea). Consonance repeats interior or ending consonants; assonance repeats vowel sounds.
- Meter is the rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Iambic pentameter has five iambs per line and is the dominant meter of English verse.
- A sonnet is a 14-line poem usually in iambic pentameter. The Shakespearean (English) sonnet uses three quatrains plus a couplet; the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet has an octave and a sestet.
- Free verse is poetry that does not follow regular meter or rhyme. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is a landmark of free verse in American poetry.
- Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote most of his dramatic dialogue in blank verse, and Milton used it in Paradise Lost.
- A stanza is a grouped unit of lines in a poem, separated by spacing. Common types include the quatrain (4 lines), tercet (3 lines), and couplet (2 lines).
- Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break in poetry without a pause. It creates momentum and can complicate meaning.
- A caesura is a deliberate pause within a line of poetry, often signaled by punctuation. It can slow rhythm or create dramatic emphasis.
- An iamb is a metrical foot of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable (da-DUM). Words like below and beneath are iambic.
- A trochee is a metrical foot of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed (DUM-da). Trochaic meter sounds urgent and is common in chants and incantations.
- A villanelle is a 19-line poem with two refrains and a strict ABA rhyme structure across five tercets and a final quatrain. Dylan Thomas's Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is a famous example.
- A haiku is a Japanese poetic form of three lines in 5-7-5 syllables, usually evoking a moment in nature. Many US poets, like Richard Wright, adapted the form in English.
- An epic is a long narrative poem on heroic subjects, often featuring a protagonist of legendary stature and elevated style. The Odyssey is the foundational Western example.
- A bildungsroman, German for novel of formation, traces a protagonist's psychological and moral growth from youth to adulthood. The Catcher in the Rye is often read as one.
- A tragedy traces the downfall of a protagonist of high standing, usually due to a fatal flaw and circumstances beyond their control. Greek and Shakespearean tragedy are foundational.