Praxis ELA 5038

This section covers the literary half of the Reading category: the forms and devices of prose, poetry, and drama; the vocabulary of literary analysis and the major critical lenses; theme, plot, and the allusions and archetypes that recur across literature; the major works, authors, and periods of British, American, world, and young adult literature; and the research-based strategies teachers use to build students' comprehension of literary texts.

Understanding Prose

Prose is written or spoken language that follows the natural patterns of speech and ordinary grammatical structure, without the regular metrical patterns of verse. Prose includes both fiction and nonfiction and accounts for most written communication. Its basic unit is the sentence and the paragraph, whereas the basic unit of poetry is the line.

Form	TypicalLength	FeaturesandExamples
Novel	Over40000words ,	Extendednarrativewithcomplexplot multiplecharacters subplots and , , ,
		thematicdepth;genresincluderealistic historical sciencefiction fantasy , , , ,
		mystery romance andliteraryfiction , ,
Novella	About 17 ,500–40 ,000	Focusednarrativewithfewsubplotsandalimitedcast;Conrad'sHeartof
	words	Darkness Steinbeck'sOfMiceandMen ,
Shortstory	Underabout7500words ,	Singleeffectorrevelation limitedcharacterdevelopment compressedtime; , ,
		Poeargueditshouldbereadableinonesittingandproduceaunified
		impression
Flashfiction	Underabout1000words ,	Extremelycompressednarrativethatoftenimpliesmorethanitstates

Form	Defi ningFeatures
Essay	Focusedexplorationorargumentonasingletopic Formalessaysuseathesis organizedsupport anda . , ,
	logicalconclusion;informal(familiar)essaysareconversationalandpersonal Types:expository . ,
	argumentative narrative descriptive , , .
Autobiography	Theauthor'saccountofhisorherownwholelife usuallychronological ,
Memoir	Theauthor'saccountofaspecificperiod theme orrelationshipfromhisorherlife;balancesfactual , ,
	accuracywithliterarycraftandemotionaltruth
Biography	Anaccountofanotherperson'slifebuiltfromresearch interviews andprimarysources;maybeauthorized , ,
	(withthesubject'sorestate'scooperation)orunauthorized
Journalism	Newsreporting features investigativepieces andeditorials;valuesaccuracy timeliness objectivityin , , , , ,
	newsreporting andclearattributionofsources ,

Memoir and autobiography are both first-person life writing. The difference is scope: an autobiography covers the whole life; a memoir focuses on one period, theme, or relationship. A biography is always written by someone other than the subject.

Narrative Techniques in Prose

Point of view is the perspective from which a story is told, and it controls what the reader can know.

Pointofview

PointofView	HowItWorks
Firstperson	Narratoruses“I”;knowledgeislimitedtothenarrator'sownexperienceandperceptions Thenarrator .
	may be reliable or unreliable depending on honesty perceptiveness and self -awareness , , .
Secondperson	Addressesthereaderas“you”;rareinfiction
Third -person limited	Uses“he”“she”or“they”andstayswithonecharacter'sthoughtsandperceptions , ,
Third -person omniscient	An all -knowing narrator enters multiple characters' minds and moves freely through time and space
Third -person objective	A camera-like narrator reports only words and actions never thoughts (Hemingway's “Hills Like White ,
	Elephants”)

An unreliable narrator is signaled by internal contradictions, gaps between what the narrator says and what events show, and evident bias or limited understanding. Poe's narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” who insists on his sanity while describing a murder, is a standard example; Huck Finn is unreliable in a different way, because his naïve judgments are often morally wiser than he realizes.

Characterization develops fictional people. Direct characterization states a character's traits outright; indirect characterization reveals them through dialogue, actions, thoughts, other characters' reactions, and physical description, leaving the reader to infer.

A foil is a character whose contrasting traits highlight those of another character, as the impulsive Laertes and Fortinbras throw Hamlet's hesitation into relief.

Setting establishes time, place, and social environment. It may serve as a backdrop or actively shape plot and character, and it can function symbolically or even as an antagonist. Atmosphere is the emotional quality created through setting details, imagery, and word choice. Dialogue advances plot, reveals character, and supplies information while sounding natural but more focused than real speech; subtext is the unstated meaning beneath what characters say.

Understanding Poetry

Poetry is literary expression marked by concentrated language, heightened imagery, rhythm, and deliberate attention to sound. It compresses meaning into limited space, is organized in lines and stanzas, and invites multiple interpretations.

Sonnet

14 lines, usually iambic pentameter, with a set rhyme scheme and a

Petrarch; Shakespeare's Sonnets 18

volta (turn) in argument or perspective

and 130; Milton's “When I consider how my light is spent”

Haiku

Japanese form of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables (Japanese

Matsuo Bashō's frog-and-pond haiku

counts sound units); traditionally includes a seasonal reference and juxtaposes two images; English haiku often adapt the count

Free verse

No regular meter or rhyme, but retains imagery, line breaks, rhythm,

Whitman's Leaves of Grass, which

and compression

pioneered American free verse

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter; approximates natural English speech

Shakespeare's plays; Milton's

while keeping formal dignity

Paradise Lost; Frost's “Mending Wall”

Ode

Elevated lyric addressing a subject with serious tone. Pindaric:

Keats's “Ode on a Grecian Urn”;

triads of strophe, antistrophe, epode. Horatian: uniform stanzas.

Shelley's “Ode to the West Wind”

Irregular: free structure.

Elegy

Meditative lament for a death or loss; the pastoral elegy sets

Milton's “Lycidas”; Shelley's “Adonais”

mourning in an idealized rural landscape

(for Keats); Whitman's “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd” (for Lincoln)

Ballad

Narrative song-poem in simple language, usually quatrains (often

“Sir Patrick Spens”; Coleridge's “The

ABCB), frequently with a refrain; folk ballads come from oral

Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

tradition, literary ballads imitate them

Epic

Long narrative of heroic deeds in elevated style; conventions include

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; Virgil's

invocation of the muse, opening in medias res, epic similes,

Aeneid; Milton's Paradise Lost

catalogues, and divine intervention

Villanelle

19 lines: five tercets and a quatrain, rhyming ABA … ABAA, with two

Dylan Thomas's “Do Not Go Gentle

refrains that alternate and then close the poem

into That Good Night”; Elizabeth Bishop's “One Art”

Dramatic monologue

A single speaker addresses a silent listener and unintentionally

Browning's “My Last Duchess”; Eliot's

reveals his or her character

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

The two main sonnet types differ in how they divide the fourteen lines and where the turn falls. The Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet divides into an octave (eight lines, ABBAABBA) that presents a problem or situation and a sestet (six lines, typically CDECDE or CDCDCD) that responds to it, with the volta at line 9. The Shakespearean (English) sonnet uses three quatrains and a closing couplet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG), and its sharpest turn usually comes in the couplet. A third variant, the Spenserian sonnet, links its quatrains with shared rhymes (ABAB BCBC CDCD EE).

The closing couplet of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 shows the English sonnet's summary turn, here asserting that the poem itself will preserve the

beloved:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Meter and Rhythm

Meter is the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. The basic unit is the foot; scansion is the process of marking stresses to identify the foot and the number of feet per line.

Foot	Pattern	ExampleWord/FamousUse
Iamb	unstressed –stressed (da-DUM)	“beLIEVE”;iambicpentameterinShakespeare'ssonnetsandplays
Trochee	stressed –unstressed (DUM -da)	“GARden”;trochaictetrameterinLongfellow'sTheSongofHiawatha
Anapest	unstressed –unstressed –stressed	“underSTAND”;Byron's“TheDestructionofSennacherib”
Dactyl	stressed –unstressed –unstressed	“HAPpily”;dactylichexameterinHomerandLongfellow'sEvangeline
Spondee	stressed –stressed	“HEART -BREAK”; used for emphasis rarely sustained ,

Line length is named by the number of feet: monometer (1), dimeter (2), trimeter (3), tetrameter (4), pentameter (5), hexameter (6), heptameter (7), octameter (8). An iambic hexameter line is an alexandrine, which ends each Spenserian stanza. Rhythm within the line is shaped by the caesura (a pause inside a line), end-stopped lines (which close with punctuation), and enjambment (a sentence running over a line break without pause).

Name meter by foot first, then line length: five iambs per line is iambic pentameter. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is blank verse; verse with no regular meter is free verse. Test writers pair these two terms as distractors.

Sound Devices and Rhyme

Device	Defi nition
Endrhyme/internalrhyme	Rhymeatlineendings/rhymewithinaline
Perfectrhyme	Identicalstressedvowelandfollowingsounds(light/night)
Slantrhyme	Nearorhalfrhyme;soundsapproximatebutdonotmatch(soul/all) favoredbyDickinson ,
Eyerhyme	Spellingsmatch pronunciationsdonot(love/move) ,
Alliteration	Repetitionofinitialconsonantsoundsinnearbywords
Assonance	Repetitionofvowelsoundswithinnearbywords
Consonance	Repetitionofconsonantsoundswithinorattheendsofwords
Onomatopoeia	Wordsthatimitatethesoundstheyname(buzz hiss) ,

Imagery, Figurative Language, and Symbol

Imagery is language that appeals to the senses: sight (visual), sound (auditory), touch (tactile), taste (gustatory), smell (olfactory), and movement (kinesthetic). Concrete imagery names specific particulars; abstract language names general qualities. Figurative language departs from literal meaning for effect.

Figure	Defi nition
Simile	Comparisonofunlikethingsusinglikeoras
Metaphor	Assertsidentitybetweenunlikethingswithoutacomparisonword
Extendedmetaphor	Acomparisonsustainedthroughapassageorwholework;aconceitisanelaborate surprisingone , ,
	typicalofDonne'smetaphysicalpoetry
Personification	Giveshumanqualitiestononhumanthings
Apostrophe	Directaddresstoanabsentperson anabstraction oranobject(“Death benotproud”) , , ,
Hyperbole/understatement	Deliberateexaggeration/deliberateminimizing;litotesisunderstatementbynegatingtheopposite
	(“notbad”)
Metonymy/synecdoche	Substitutinganassociatedthing(“thecrown”forthemonarch)/apartforthewhole(“all	handson
Oxymoron/paradox	deck”) 1 Contradictorywordsjoined(“sweetsorrow”)/aseeminglycontradictorystatementthatrevealsa truth

A symbol is a concrete object, character, or action that carries meaning beyond its literal sense. Universal (conventional) symbols carry broadly shared associations (light for knowledge, winter for death); contextual symbols gain their meaning within a single work, such as the green light in The Great Gatsby.

Understanding Drama

Drama presents a story through dialogue and action performed by actors before an audience. A script is written for performance, so readers must attend to stage directions and imagine staging, gesture, and delivery.

In the Poetics, Aristotle named six elements of tragedy in order of importance: plot (mythos), character, thought, diction, song, and spectacle. He held that a plot should arrange incidents causally rather than merely chronologically and should have unity of action, probability, and appropriate magnitude. The nineteenth-century German critic Gustav Freytag modeled five-act dramatic structure as a pyramid, which is now applied to plot in general.

Three-act structure divides a play or screenplay into setup, confrontation, and resolution, corresponding roughly to beginning, middle, and end.

Genre	Characteristics
Tragedy	Aprotagonistofstaturefallsfromprosperitytocatastrophethroughhamartia(atragicerrororflaw);
	evokespityandfeartoproducecatharsis
Comedy	Endshappily ofteninmarriageorreconciliation Romanticcomedycentersonloveplots;satiriccomedy , .
	attackssocialfolly;farcereliesonphysicalhumorandimprobablesituations;comedyofmannersmocks
	theconventionsofasocialclass OldComedy(Aristophanes)mixedfantasywithpoliticalsatire;New .
	Comedy(Menander adaptedbytheRomansPlautusandTerence)useddomesticplotsandstock ,
	characters .
Tragicomedy	Mixesseriousandcomicelements;threatenscatastrophebutendshappily orsustainsanambiguoustone ,
Melodrama	Emphasizes plot over character sharply divides heroes from villains and uses suspense and last-mi1 nute , , rescuestostirstrongemotion

Term	Meaning
Hamartia	Thetragichero'serrorinjudgmentorflawthatsetsthefallinmotion
Hubris	Excessive pride or self -confidence a common form of hamartia ,
Peripeteia	Reversaloffortune oftentheoppositeofwhatthecharacterintends ,
Anagnorisis	Recognition:themomenttheherodiscoversthetruth(Oedipuslearninghisidentity)
Catharsis	Thepurgingorpurificationofpityandfeartheaudienceexperiences

Convention	Defi nition
Soliloquy	Acharacteraloneonstagespeaksthoughtsaloud(Hamlet's“Tobe ornottobe”) ,
Aside	Abriefremarktotheaudiencethatothercharactersonstagesupposedlycannothear
Monologue	Anextendedspeechbyonecharacteraddressedtoothercharacters
Stichomythia	Rapidexchangeofsinglealternatinglines ofteninargument ,
Chorus	InGreekdrama agroupthatcommentsontheactionandvoicescommunalresponse ,
Stagedirections	Notesonsetting movement gesture andtechnicaleffects;detailedinmodernrealisticdrama , , , ,
	minimalinclassicaltexts
Actsandscenes	Structuraldivisions;scenechangestraditionallymarkshiftsintimeorplace AFrenchsceneisaunit .
	definedbyacharacter'sentranceorexit .
Dramaticirony	Theaudienceknowssomethingthecharactersdonot

The deciding question is who hears the speech. A soliloquy is spoken alone; an aside is spoken to the audience while others are present but “cannot hear”; a monologue is addressed to other characters who do hear it.

Major Dramatic Periods

Period	KeyFeatures	DramatistsandWorks
ClassicalGreek	FestivalshonoringDionysus;masks chorus outdoor , ,	Aeschylus(Oresteia) Sophocles ,
	amphitheaters	(OedipusRex Antigone) Euripides , ,
		(Medea) Aristophanes(Lysistrata The , ,
		Clouds)
Medieval	Mysteryplaysdramatizedbiblicalstories;moralityplays	Everyman(moralityplay);English
EnglishRenaissance	allegorizedthesoul'sstruggle;secularfarces ElizabethanandJacobeantheaterfusedclassicallearningwith popularentertainmentandpsychologicaldepth	mysterycyclessuchasYorkand 1 Wakefield Marlowe (blank -verse tragedy Doctor , Faustus) Shakespeare Jonson(comedy , , ofhumors Volpone) Webster , ,

Dramaticperiodsandtheirdramatists(Continued)

Period	KeyFeatures	DramatistsandWorks
Neoclassical	Observedtheunitiesoftime place andactiondrawnfrom , ,	FrenchdramatistsCorneille Racine ,
	classicalprecedent;decorumandrestraint	(Phèdre) Molière(Tartuffe) ,
Romantic	Rejectedneoclassicalrules;emotion individualism historical , ,	VictorHugo whoseHernaniprovoked ,
	subjects	riotsinParis;Goethe;Schiller
Realism	Contemporary middle-class life psychological accuracy social , ,	Ibsen(ADoll'sHouse HeddaGabler); ,
	problems	Chekhov(mood subtext ensemble , ,
		casts:TheCherryOrchard)
Modern	Expressionism epictheater theabsurd metatheater , , ,	Strindberg(ADreamPlay) Pirandello ,
		(SixCharactersinSearchofanAuthor) ,
		Brecht(epictheater alienationeffect , ,
		MotherCourage) Beckett(Waitingfor ,
		Godot) Pinter ,
American	Psychologicalrealism poeticnaturalism socialtragedy , , ,	O'Neill(LongDay'sJourneyintoNight) ,
	absurdism	Williams(TheGlassMenagerie A ,
		StreetcarNamedDesire) Miller(Death ,
		ofaSalesman TheCrucible) Hansberry , ,
		(ARaisinintheSun) Albee August , ,
		Wilson(Fences)

Arthur Miller argued in “Tragedy and the Common Man” that an ordinary person can be a tragic hero. Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman is the standard example of this modern redefinition of Aristotle's noble protagonist.

Literary Analysis and Critical Approaches

Literary analysis interprets a text systematically, examining how its formal elements create meaning and effect. It moves beyond personal response to an interpretation demonstrated through textual evidence. The elements below supply the vocabulary; the critical approaches that follow supply the questions an analyst brings to a text.