Teorija Knjizevnosti

The third-person omniscient is a narrative mode in which a story is presented by a narrator with an overarching point of view, seeing and knowing everything that happens within the world of the story, including what each of the characters is thinking and feeling.[1] It is the most common narrative mode found in sprawling, epic stories such as George Eliot's Middlemarch.

The godlike all-knowing perspective of the third-person omniscient allows the narrator to tell the reader things that none of the characters know, or indeed things that no human being could ever know (e.g., what the first conscious creature felt like as it climbed out of the primordial ooze, in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Hence the third-person omniscient is most often associated with sweeping, epic stories, in contrast to third-person limited narratives, which do not stray beyond the characters' knowledge and experiences, and are most often associated with more intimate stories. Nevertheless, Jane Austen's novels are third-person omniscient, sometimes giving us information that the character of focus (as opposed to the point of view character) could not be aware of, but Austen's novels typically focus on a small number of characters.

*Masculine rhyme: A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable (a.k.a., regular old rhyme). *Means, Meaning: This is the big one, the one task you have to do all the time. You are discovering what makes sense, what’s important. There is literal meaning which is concrete and explicit, and there is emotional meaning. *Melodrama: A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure. (It sounds dumb, but melodramatic movies make tons of money every year.) *Metaphor and simile: A metaphor is a comparison, or analogy that states on thing is another. His eyes were burning coals, or In the morning, the lake is covered in liquid gold. It’s a simple point, so keep it straight: a simile is just like a metaphor but softens the full out equations of things, often, but not always by using like or as. His eyes were like burning coals, or In the morning the lake is covered in what seems to be liquid gold. *Metaphysical conceit: see conceit *Metonym: A word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with. For example, a herd of 50 cows could be called 50 head of cattle. This is Greek for "name change," and denotes a closely related word for something. For example, a crown is a metonym for a king, and a cane, a metonym for old age. Also, books are metonyms for knowledge. Metonyms work to give you a more abstract stance, while still stating your concrete thought. The Oval Office=the activity of the presidency. *Mood: the atmosphere of a story. The feeling created in the reader by a literary work. See tone. *Nemesis: The protagonist’s arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty. *Neologism: See coinage *Non-Sequitur. The term non sequitur literally means "it does not follow". *Objectivity and Subjectivity: An objective treatment of subject matter is an impersonal or outside view of events. A subjective treatment uses the interior or personal view of a single observer and is typically colored with that observer's emotional responses. *Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like what they mean. Examples: Boom. Splat. Babble. Gargle. Sizzle. Buzz. Roar. *Opposition: This is one of the most useful concepts in analyzing literature. It means that you have a pair of elements that contrast sharply. It is not necessarily “conflict” but rather a pairing of images (or setting or appeals, etc.) whereby each becomes more striking and informative because it’s placed in contrast to the other one. This kind of opposition creates mystery and tension. Oppositions can be obvious. Oppositions can also lead to irony but not necessarily so. *Oxymoron: A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction. Bright Black. A calm frenzy. Jumbo Shrimp. Dark Light. A truthful lie. *Parable: Like a fable, or an allegory, a parable is a story that instructs. *Paradox: A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not. Here are two examples: "A single death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic." Joseph Stalin "To become rich, I became poor." -Andy Evans *Parallelism: Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect. *Paraphrase: To restate phrases and sentences in your own words, to re-phrase. Paraphrase is not analysis or interpretation, so don’t fall into thinking that traps so many students. Paraphrasing is just a way of showing that you comprehend what you’ve just read-that you can now put it in your own words, no more, no less. *Parenthetical phrase: A phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail. Jack’s three dogs, including that miserable, little spaniel, were with him that day. *Parody: The work that results when a specific work is exaggerated to ridiculousness. *Pastoral: A poem set in tranquil nature or even more specifically, one about shepherds. *Pathetic fallacy: the description of inanimate natural objects in a manner that endows them with human emotions, thoughts, sensations and feelings. The pathetic fallacy is not a logical fallacy since it does not imply a mistake in reasoning. As a rhetorical figure it bears some resemblance to personification, although it is less formal. Examples: "The stars will awaken / Though the moon sleep a full hour later" -Percy Bysshe Shelley. "The fruitful field / Laughs with abundance" -William Cowper. "Lo, the most excellent sun so calm and haughty" -Walt Whitman. *Persona: The narrator in a non first-person novel. In a third person novel, even though the author isn’t a character, you get some idea of the author’s personality. However, it isn’t really the author’s personality because the author is manipulating your impressions there as in other parts of the book. This shadow-author is called the author’s persona. *Personification: When an inanimate object takes on human shape. The darkness of the forest became the figure of a beautiful, pale-skinned woman in night-black clothes. *Plaint: A poem or speech expressing sorrow. *Platitude: A trite or banal remark or statement, especially one expressed as if it were original or significant. *Point of View: The point of view is the perspective from which the action of a novel (or narrative poem) is presented, whether the action is presented by one character or from different vantage points over the course of the novel. Be sensitive to point of view, because the College Board likes to ask questions about it likes to mention point of view in the essay questions. There are three main types of narration: first person limited, The third person limited and the the omnicient. ---The first person limited: This a narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from his or her point of view. This is when a character in the story tells the story. For example: "I felt great about the AP English Literature Test. I knew I was prepared." When the first person narrator is crazy, a liar, very young, or for some reason not entirely credible the narrator is unreliable. ---The third person limited.: This is a third person narrator who generally reports only what one character (usually the main character) sees, and who only reports the thoughts of that one privileged character. For example: "Pip felt great about the AP English Literature Test. Pip knew he was prepared." This narrator can also be limited, biased. ---The omniscient narrator or third person omniscient: This is narrator who sees, like a God, into each character’s mind and understands all the action going on. For example: "Pip feels great about the AP Test. Cornelius is stressed. Ivanka is confused. Ritalia is overconfident."

Those are the basic types of narration. Here are a few more that are slight variations. ---The universal omniscient: differs from the omniscient because the narrator reveals information that the characters do not have. This is also called "Little Did He Know" writing as in "Little did he know he'd be broken-hearted by morning." ---The objective, or camera eye narrator: This is a third person narrator who only reports on what would be visible to a camera. The objective narrator does not know what the character is thinking unless the character speaks of it. ---The Stream of consciousness technique: This method is like first person narration but instead of the character telling the story, the author places the reader inside the main character’s head and makes the reader privy to all of the character’s thoughts as they scroll through her consciousness. *Polysyndeton is the use of several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted (as in "he ran and jumped and laughed for joy"). It is a stylistic scheme used to slow the rhythm of prose and can add an air of solemnity to a passage. Polysyndeton is used extensively in the King James Version of the Bible. For example: "And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." Genesis 7:22-24 *Prelude: An introductory poem to a longer work of verse. *Protagonist: The main character in the story. *Pun: The usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest more meanings. *Refrain: A line or set of lines repeated several times over a course of a poem. *Repetition: a sound, a word, a phrase, a sentence, or a verse that is repeated. *Requiem: A song of prayer for the dead. *Rhapsody: An intensely passionate verse or section of verse, usually of love or praise. *Rhetorical Question: A question that suggests an answer. In theory, the effect of a rhetorical question is that it causes the listener to feel she has come up with the answer herself. Well, we can fight it out, or we can run-so are we cowards? For example, "Why are you so stupid?" is likely to be a statement regarding one's opinion of the person addressed rather than a genuine request to know. Similarly, when someone responds to a tragic event by saying, "Why me, God?!" it is more likely to be an accusation or an expression of feeling than a realistic request for information. *Satire: This is an important term for the AP test. The College Board is fond of satirical writing, again because it lends itself well to multiple-choice questions. Satire exposes common character flaws to the cold light of humor. In general, satire attempts to improve things by pointing out people’s mistakes in hope that once exposed, such behavior will become less common. The great satirical subjects are hypocrisy, vanity, and greed, especially where those all to common characteristics have become institutionalized in society. Examples: Candide, Pride and Prejudice. *Setting: the time and place of a story. *Soliloquy: A speech spoken by a character alone on stage. A soliloquy is meant to convey the impression that the audience is listening to the character’s thoughts. Unlike an aside, a soliloquy is not meant to imply that the actor acknowledges the audience’s presence. *Sophistry: Plausible but fallacious argumentation. A plausible but misleading or fallacious argument. *Stanza: A group of lines roughly analogous in function in verse to the paragraph’s function in prose. *Stock characters: Standard or clichéd character types: the drunk, the miser, the foolish girl, etc. *Subjunctive Mood: If I were you, I’d learn this one! That’s a small joke because the grammatical situation involves the words “if” and “were.” What you do is set up a hypothetical situation, a kind of wishful thing: if I were you, if he were honest, if she were rich. You can also get away from the person and into the “it”: I wish it were true, would it were so (that even sounds like Shakespeare and poetry). *Suggest: To imply, infer, indicate. This is another one of those basic tools of literature. It goes along with the concept of implicit. As the reader, you have to do all the work to pull out the meaning. *Summary: A simple retelling of what you’ve just read. It’s mechanical, superficial, and a step beyond the paraphrase in that it covers much more material and is more general. You can summarize a whole chapter or a whole story, whereas you paraphrase word-by-word and line-by-line. Summary includes all the facts. *Suspension of disbelief: The demand made of a theater audience to accept the limitations of staging and supply the details with their imagination. Also, the acceptance on a reader’s part of the incidents of plot in a play or story. If there are too many coincidences or improbable occurrences, the reader can no longer suspend disbelief. For example, one might say "how can Superman fly---that's not possible." Well, this person has not suspended his disbelief. *Syllogistic reasoning: taking two statements, which are assumed to be true, (i.e. syllogisms) and evaluating a conclusion (also a syllogism). For example: 1. AP English Literature is a fun, caring, informative class at Westmont. 2. Mr. Evans teaches AP English Literature at Westmont. Conclusion: Mr. Evans is fun, caring, informative. Hee-hee! *Symbolism: A device in literature where an object represents an idea. *Synecdoche: (si-NECK-de-key). a figure of speech in which a part stands for a whole, or vice versa. “lend me your ears.” In other words, give me your attention. “All hands on decks” means all people. There were some “new faces” at the meeting (new people). *Synesthesia: When two (or more) sensory details are combined. Example: Amber Clark had a "prickly laugh" (touch, sound). Jonnnnnny Wahl wore a "loud shirt" (sight, sound). *Syntax: see diction *Technique: The methods, the tools, the “how-she-does-it” ways of the author. The elements are not techniques. In poetry, onomatopoeia is a technique within the element of rhythm. In drama, blocking is a technique, and lighting. Concrete details are not techniques, but tone is. Main idea is not a technique, but opposition is. *Theme: The main idea of the overall work; the central idea, the meaning. It is the topic of discourse or discussion. The College Board will ask for the theme on every single essay question. *Tone: the writer's attitude toward his or her audience and subject. A writer can be formal or informal, sarcastic or bitter or playful. Often confused with mood. *Tragic flaw: In a tragedy, this is the weakness of character in an otherwise good (or even great) individual that ultimately leads to his demise. *Zeugma: The use of a word to modify two or more words but used for different meanings. He closed the door and his heart on his lost love.