ENGL 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Current Literature
Document Summary
Imitatio: imitating the style (and perhaps rhetorical approach) of another author. Designed to be educational: you absorb the good qualities of the original through imitation. Style: diction (copying the writer"s vocabulary and register-- how formal or informal the language is), syntax (sentence structure-- how long and complex the sentences are, how much variety in sentence structure there is), genre (science fiction, mystery, tragedy, etc. ), topic (general subject matter/theme), characterization (types of characters), attitude (positive, negative, neutral, aggressive, polite), amount of/approach to/uses things like imagery and dialogue, point of view (perspective: 1st person (i as opposed to he), etc. ) Canon: a group of the great or classic writers/musicians/artists. The canon represents what is good and thus creates the norms/criteria for what is. Canons can put limits on creativity and originality-- if it"s too far off the original works, it"s not. The themes/ideas that are considered good can get old/stale after awhile.
