STPM Literature in English 920 cheat sheet

Dramatic structure commonly follows exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement; tragedy often adds peripeteia (reversal) and anagnorisis (recognition).

Aristotle's Poetics defines tragedy through mimesis, hamartia, and catharsis; unity of action matters more than the unities of time and place.

A soliloquy is spoken alone and reveals private thought; an aside is addressed to the audience or another character and often creates dramatic irony.

Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter; Shakespeare switches to prose to signal lower status, madness, comic realism, or emotional disorder.

Dramatic irony formula: audience knowledge exceeds character knowledge; soliloquy, aside, and foreknowledge are common mechanisms.

Genre decision rule: a play ending in death or irreversible loss is tragedy; one ending in marriage or social reconciliation is comedy, regardless of incidental dark scenes.

Stage directions and setting are evidence of power, confinement, and public versus private space; cite act, scene, and line where available.

Tragicomedy or problem play mixes comic and tragic conventions; its resolution may be ambiguous rather than cathartic, so do not force a pure genre label.

The speaker is a constructed voice, not automatically the poet; identify addressee, occasion, and attitude before linking words to biography.

Closed form uses fixed meter, rhyme, or stanza pattern; free verse lacks regular meter and rhyme but still uses line breaks, spacing, and syntax for emphasis.

Shakespearean sonnet: 14 lines, three quatrains plus couplet, rhyme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG; Petrarchan sonnet: octave ABBAABBA plus sestet CDECDE or variant.

Iambic pentameter contains five iambs per line, each iamb an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable; count feet, not syllables alone.

Enjambment runs syntax past a line end; caesura is a pause within a line; both alter pacing and can force emphasis on a particular word.

Figurative-language decision rule: simile uses like or as; metaphor states identity; metonymy substitutes an associated object; synecdoche uses part for whole or whole for part.

Tone is produced by diction, imagery, syntax, rhythm, and speaker attitude together; reduce it to a single adjective only after citing textual evidence.

Sound-device formula: alliteration repeats initial consonants; assonance repeats vowel sounds; consonance repeats consonants; onomatopoeia imitates sound.

Unseen-poem sequence: paraphrase literal sense, map structure and turns, identify devices, then link form to theme; the volta often marks the interpretative turn.

Point of view decision rule: first person is limited to a narrator's knowledge; third-person omniscient accesses multiple minds; third-person limited stays within one character's range.

Story is the chronological sequence of events; plot is the causal arrangement of those events, which may use analepsis (flashback) or prolepsis (flash-forward).

Characterisation is direct when the narrator tells traits and indirect when traits emerge through action, dialogue, thought, appearance, or other characters' responses.

Setting functions as backdrop, symbol, social context, or structural contrast; location alone is not analysis until it is linked to character or theme.

Short-story compression often produces a single effect, a limited time span, or an epiphany; the novel can sustain multiple plotlines and developed subplots.

Symbol versus motif: a symbol carries meaning beyond its literal object; a motif is a recurring element that builds pattern and reinforces theme.

Irony types: verbal irony says the opposite of what is meant; dramatic irony gives the audience more knowledge; situational irony reverses expectation and outcome.

Theme formula: abstract idea plus textual pattern plus character conflict; a one-word theme without evidence is a topic, not an interpretation.

Close-reading sequence: establish literal meaning, identify formal features, analyse figurative language and tone, then relate pattern to theme.

Thesis rule: an essay thesis must be arguable, specific, and predictive of the line of reasoning; a statement of fact or a summary is not a thesis.

Paragraph formula PEEL: Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link; quotation must be analysed for diction and effect, not merely retold.

Critical-approach decision rule: formalism prioritises text and form; historical or biographical criticism uses context; feminist criticism examines gender and power; postcolonial criticism examines empire and identity; Marxist criticism examines class and ideology.

Intentional fallacy judges meaning by the author's supposed intention; affective fallacy judges meaning mainly by reader response; both are avoided by grounding claims in textual evidence.

Unseen-text annotation categories: speaker or narrator, situation, structure, diction, imagery, syntax, tone, and shift; these generate analysis across poetry, prose, and drama.

Comparative essay rule: organise by analytical criteria such as theme, character, or technique, discussing both texts in each paragraph rather than summarising text by text.

Quotation integration rule: embed a short phrase in your own sentence, cite location, and explain the effect of word choice; block quotations require special justification.

Context rule: historical or cultural information is used only when it illuminates a specific textual detail; context must not replace close analysis of the words on the page.