British Literature Study Guide
Topics Covered:
1. Jonathan Swift: “A Modest Proposal” and
Gulliver’s Travels
2. Satirical techniques, Persuasive Appeals, and
Logical Fallacies
3. Romanticism and Romantic Poetry
4. The Gothic
5. Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
6. Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea
7. Literary Theories
Format:
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

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Short Answer (choose 3 of 4)
Quotes and related questions (choose 2 of 3)
Application of a theory to a passage (choose 1
of 2)
Essay (1 question, some choice within that
question
Satire and Argument:
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“A Modest Proposal”:
o What was the satirical point?
o
What was the real point?
o
Why would Swift write this way?
Gulliver’s Travels:
 Characters:

Plot:

Satirical Points:

Other?
Satirical Techniques:
o Exaggeration: To enlarge, increase, or represent something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes
ridiculous and its faults can be seen.


o
Incongruity: To present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to its surroundings.
o
Reversal: To present the opposite of the normal order (e.g., the order of events, hierarchical order).
o
Parody: To imitate the techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing.
Persuasive Appeals
o Ethos:
o
Logos:
o
Pathos:
Logical Fallacies:
o Dicto simpliciter:
o
Hasty Generalization:
o
Post hoc:
o
Contradictory premises:
o
Ad misericordiam:
o
False analogy:
o
Hypothesis contrary to fact:
o
Poisoning the well:
Romantic Poetry:

Poems:
o Keats: “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”
o Wordsworth: “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
o Blake: “The Tyger” and “The Lamb”
o Byron: “She Walks in Beauty”

Poetic Terms, including:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

diction
tone
mood
image
personification
simile
metaphor
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
repetition
refrain
stanza
enjambment
meter
alliteration
assonance
Characteristics of Romanticism:
o Interest in the common man and childhood
o Strong senses, emotions, and feelings
o Awe of nature
o Celebration of the individual
o Importance of imagination
The Gothic:
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
Dickens: “A Madman’s Manuscript”
Elements of the gothic:
o Setting: what kind?
o
Atmosphere of mystery or suspense: how is it created?
 Prophesies
 Omens
 The supernatural
o
Extreme emotion
o
Women in distress
o
Images that suggest gloom and horror: examples?
o
o
o
o
o
o
end rhyme
internal rhyme
rhyme scheme
verbal irony
situational irony
dramatic irony
Jane Eyre:
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Characters:

Plot:

Themes:

Symbols:

Elements of Romanticism:

Elements of the Gothic:

Other?
Wide Sargasso Sea:

Characters:

Plot:

Themes:

Genre:

Narration:

Other?
Literary Theories

Feminist Theory

Marxist Theory

Post-Colonial Theory

Reader Response Theory

New Historical Theory