Introduction to Literature Several topics mentioned during the play: • Language codification, standardization, standard language, slang, dialects, written literature • National determination, the right to use own language • Slovak people - small ethnics, small nations, non-governing/non-dominant nation (like Irish) • The future of the Slovak language (internationalisms, influence of English language) Topics mentioned during the play: • English language - Lingua Franca • The language of the youth • Virtual age - virtual (internet) communication versus face-to-face communication Literature - Introduction • Everything in print - broadest sense • Literature as art - aesthetic function • Literature changed during different historical periods Imaginative and non-imaginative writing • Non-imaginative writing - use of logical abstractions • Imaginative writing (creative literature) - use of artistic images Literary scholarship • Literary history (development of literature from the earliest times to the present) • Literary criticism (analyses the content and the form of creative literature) • Literary theory (studies the forms, techniques, types, genres, language, composition, aspects of creative writing)
Literary genres • Fiction • Poetry • Drama Literary figures • Figures of speech - tropes • Stylistic figures
Figures of speech - tropes • The Simile • The metaphor • The personification • The synecdoche • The metonymy • The irony • The sarcasm • The euphemism • The pun • The symbol