Response to Course Material (September 9)-
The only material we have really covered in class so far has been the literary terms. The rest of the time has been devoted to outlining the course and our goals for the year. The literary terms were somewhat overwhelming, and a lot of them are quite similar and difficult to distinguish. I have used many of these terms before in AP Latin, but it is more clear cut in Latin because most of the literary devices depend on the word's case, so they can be easily identified without even knowing what the sentence is saying. In English it's a lot harder, and it seems you often have to understand the context well to identify the literary device. Often, as we saw an example of on the terms test, multiple literary devices can be present in the same sentence. It also seems a lot of the terms are a little redundant. For example, "caesura" means "a pause". That's all, just "a pause", so there is really no reason that using the word "pause" instead would change the meaning of what is being said. In addition, if literary terms are so difficult to identify at times that a student who has studied them and is specifically looking for them, and analyzing the sentence for some time can still not correctly identify them, how much effect could they possibly have on a normal reader? If the literary device is too subtle to be noticed, then it probably has no effect on the reader, and therefore should not really be considered a literary device.
I am so happy that somebody shares my view on the terms test! I also found it difficult to remember the words due to the fact that some of the definitions were extremely confusing or vague. I thought it was a very interesting and true point you made about how the difficulty of identifying the terms would make it impossible for a normal reader to find them while trying to read a text. Before I took this class I wouldn't of had a chance seeing these literary devices in the literature I read. I also found it difficult to study for this test because it is completely new material, while most of the other topics we see in english classes are a build up of ideas that we have been learning throughout our education. I feel much better now that I know other people share the frustration that I felt!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about the terms being a bit overwhelming. Especially if you, like me, didn't start studying them until right before the terms test. Yeah, not a great idea. Also, Holmes told us not to make flashcards because they wouldn't help, and I did, and she was right. So glad she decided to not put that in powerschool. I bet AP Latin helped with getting familiar with the terms. That class is probably going to help in many ways for AP Lit. A lot of the terms sounded so similar, and had similar meanings, so I definitely mixed up a lot on the test. Also because, as you said, you have to understand the context to better understand the literary devices that are being used, and I only looked at definitions of the words, not examples.
ReplyDeleteIt is good that you related what we are learning in AP lit class to your other classes. Drawing connections like this is very helpful in solidifying ideas we learn in class. It is also good that you are forming opinions about the effect of literary terms. Its interesting to see that you don't think that subtle literary devices have any effect on the reader. Do you think that maybe these types of literary devices have subconscious effects?
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