Key terms

• Gothic


  Originated in Britain, originally about medieval architecture. Applied in Coraline and The House with a Clock in Its Walls
• Gothic


  • Uncanny
  • Doubles (e.g. Coraline's 2 sets of parents)
  • No clear good vs evil
  • Similar to horror but for kids
  • Secret rooms/doors/places
  • Family secrets
  • Suspense and unexpected turn of events
  • Can be supernatural but usually feels "too real"
• Couplet: pairs of rhyming words
• Rhyme scheme: pattern of end rhymes within the poem
• Repetition: of words, sounds, ideas
• Alphabet rhyming: dr Seuss uses this. Using words and letters instead of sense and meaning - nonsense
• Dr. Seuss used - alliterations, bouncing rhythm, made up creatures, energy. Not always a consistent rhyme scheme.
• A house is a house for me- images that become busy and full of different things to look out. Uses: tumble of things, rhyme and cadence, alliteration, repetition, play, exaggeration,
• Alligator pie- less imaginary characters. Trying to make none sense out of things that kids can see in their everyday lives ex. Hockey sticks.
• a mythopoeic writer; that is, one who creates a fantasy hovering between the allegorical and the mythopoeic.
• parody: a comic imitation of something serious or respectable, especially one that ridicules it. Ex. The light princess, a parody of the classic fairy tale. to imitate in a way that is a parody; esp. to copy or mimic for comic or derisive effect; to make fun of, satirize.
• poetic justice: the idea that the punishment fits the crime and that the criminal gets what they deserve
• metatextual: the text itself is aware of its own existence and its relationship to the reader
• irony: the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect
• types of narrating: first person narrator, third person narrator, omniscient narrator.
• types of pov: omniscient, limited, first person, third person, third person limited
• omniscient narrator: a narrator who knows everything that happens in the story
• fairy tale: a story with a happy ending, often about a prince and a princess, or a hero and a heroine
• fantasy: the faculty or activity of imagining impossible or improbable things. different from a fairy tale because it is not based on reality and is not intended to be taken literally
• levity: the treatment of a serious matter with humour or lack of due respect vs. gravity: the treatment of a serious matter with respect
• fairy tale convention: a story that has a happy ending, usually involving a prince and a princess
• parodic effect: a literary device that imitates or parodies another literary work
• comic elaboration: the process of adding details to a story to make it funny
• Domestic novel: A novel that focuses on the lives of ordinary people, often in the countryside. usually written for girls.
• adventure novels: a genre of fiction that is characterized by the use of adventure and excitement as a plot device. usually for boys
• adventure novel formula: boy leaves home, goes to a foreign land, fights the enemy (Indians, pirates, whatever), and comes home with lots of treasure.
• individualistic hero, a second key element of the boys’ adventure novel is life-and-death adventure.
• Where girls’ books tend to revolve around domestic mishaps like spoiled cakes or disastrous dinner parties,
• Treasure island by Robert Louis Stevenson is a novel about a boy who finds a treasure map and goes on an adventure to find it.
• Long john silver: main villain in the story, he is a cruel man who is obsessed with money. He manipulates others.