Humanities Study Guide

Humanities Study Guide

participants to express themselves, but modern dance keeps expression as its central focus, above form and storytelling, unlike ballet and popular dance 1.7 Literature Before we as humans could write down the lessons and stories of our ancestors, we used songs and the spoken word. Ezra Pound once described great literature as “language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree." We use literature to encompass a variety of writing types, but we can classify them all into two groups: poetry or prose. Poetry is work that uses stanzas to arrange words into a free-flowing piece, and prose is formed by paragraphs that follow traditional grammar rules. In other art forms, usually we discuss the elements of style in detail before analyzing, but with literature, we need to knowwhat to look for before reading it. When reading poetry or prose, a person should reflect on the underlying meaning. The first step includes discussing how the author uses rhetorical devices to communicate a message to readers. Next, we address the time period in which the work was created and decide if additional context is needed. Lastly, after we read, we look for a deeper meaning or theme to understand the message the author is trying to convey. Authors use many literary devices to convey meaning in text. To understand literature at its greatest, we must become familiar with these terms. Firstly, an allegory is something that represents a real- life event, person, or issue. Think of it as a reference to something real in that time period or culture. An allusion is an indirect reference to a historical, cultural, social, literary, or political event, figure, or concept. Martin Luther King Jr's I have a Dream speech refers to the political, social, and cultural unrest at the time. Anaphora is the repetition of the first part of a sentence or phrase. We can see examples of this in many great works of literature. One famous example can be found in the following biblical verse: "There is a time for everything and a season for everything under the heavens; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,..." The phrase "a time for" repeats several times in this paragraph. An antithesis is a juxtaposition or a meeting of two opposing ideas. An author uses antithesis when he presents two different thoughts in a sentence: "United we stand, divided we fall." A euphemism is a gentler, more diplomatic way of saying something. People use euphemisms to describe something without explicitly stating it. Instead of saying "he is bald," a person might say, "he is getting thin on top." A hyperbole is an overstatement or an exaggeration. Some common hyperboles are "I had to wait in line all day" or "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse." We consider statements like these to be hyperboles because the person exaggerates the truth to some extent. Imagery is an author's use of descriptive words to paint a mental picture for the reader. Imagery evokes all five senses and draws on our shared human experiences to create an idea or image. Irony is the use of words so that the intended meaning is different from the actual purpose. An author uses irony when they say one thing, but often mean or do the opposite. For instance , sharing an article on Facebook about the uselessness of Facebook would be an example of irony. Personification is the assignment of human characteristics

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