Literature 1st reading 6-11-2009

This is my first literature class at Illinois Central College. I look forward to expanding my knowledge of literature! Our first reading out of A POCKET OF ANTHOLOGY was Introduction to Fiction. Literature has two common modern forms, the short story and the novel which have been in existence for more than two centeries. Before the invention of writing, ancient people developed complex oral traditions of literature, primitive stories.(myths, legends just to name a few) The development of modern short story was influenced my the Italian novella of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. A novella is a short story long enough to be published separately in book form. The great period of the growth of the short story as a distinct literary genre took place during the first half of the nineteenth century, its rise took place in many countries around the same time. A story theat contains elements that are exotic or supernatural and depart from the ordinary experience are considered Tales. Realism profoundly influenced the arts in the middle years of the nineteenth century with its "slice of life" approach. An outgrowth of realism that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century was Naturalism proved it was influential because it joined realistic treatments of everyday life with understandings of human behavior drawn from the new sciences of psychology and sociology. The entertainment of short stories is called escapist literature. I also learned that forshadowing is when the arthur provides hints of the future actions in the story. I learned the difference between unified plot and episodic plot, unified plot meaning when a action is more or less continuous within a single day, episodic plot is when a action is stretched over weeks or even longer. The final plot is called the denouement. This can be either open or closed denouement. Open denouement meaning the ending leaves us with questions. Closed denouement means that everything is tied up neatly at the end leaving the reader with no questions at all. These are just some of the few things we have learned in the two days of Literature 110 class. I look forward to learning more on the days to come!