Unit Two

1. Unit Two Humorous Fiction

2. Who is your favorite comedian? • On a clean sheet of paper describe your favorite comedian. • What makes this person humorous? • Write one paragraph about this person now. • You have five minutes!!!

3. Background Information • Humor allows people to see the fallacies (error) of human nature in a non-threatening way. • The essence of humor is surprise. • Humor may often be culture based. • Remember, what is funny to one person may not be funny to another.

4. Irony • Irony: A literary technique for implying, through words, plot or character development, that the actual comments or situation is quite different from what is asserted. The author’s use of tone, exaggeration, or understatement often suggests the opposite of the literal meaning of the words used. • Ex. You might get your planner signed to go to the restroom, only to have the bell ring as soon as you open the door.

5. Types of Irony • Verbal Irony- a discrepancy (difference) between what is said and what is meant. • Structural Irony- involves the use of a naïve (trusting to a flaw) character whose view of the world differs from the circumstances recognized by the author and readers. Ex. Forrest Gump

6. Types of Irony • Situational Irony: a contrast between what a reader or character expects to happen and what actually happens. • Dramatic Irony: when the reader or viewer knows something that the character does not.

7. Satire: A literary technique or work that uses ridicule, humor, and wit to expose vices and fallacies. It may provoke change in the targeted beliefs, attitudes, or institutions.

8. Theme • Theme: The central meaning or dominant idea in a literary work. A theme provides a unifying point around which the plot, characters, setting, point of view, symbols, and other elements of a work are organized. It is important not to mistake the theme for the actual subject of the work; the theme refers to the abstract concept that is made concrete through the images, characterization, and action of the text.

9. Flashback • An interruption in the chronological order of a story designed to introduce events that have taken place before the beginning of a story.

10. Point of View • Point of View: In fiction, the narrative perspective used by an author to tell a story: • Third-person points of view: • omniscient – gives the reader an all-knowing position from which to see actions and the characters’ thoughts • limited— point of view that presents the story from outside any single character’s perception, but the reader has no special insight into the characters' minds or motivations • First person points of view -events are related as they are perceived by one character. • self-conscious narrator- aware that he or she is composing a work of art and takes the reader into his or her confidence about problems involved either seriously or for comic purposes • fallible or unreliable narrator- his or her interpretation of matters does not coincide with the implicit beliefs and norms of value held by the author, whose beliefs and norms the author expects the reader to share.

11. Puns • Pun- the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications. • The use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words. • Ex. “I’m hungry Mr. Williams, "said Joe. “I’m Mr. Williams, nice to meet you Hungry.”

12. Hyperbole: A figure of speech in which subject exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, such as That tree must be a mile tall! • Paradox: An apparently contradictory or illogical statement that goes against common sense but suggests a truth, such as Less is more.

13. Understatement: The opposite of hyperbole, understatement (or litotes) refers to a figure of speech that says less than is intended. Understatement usually has an ironic effect, and sometimes may be used for comic purposes, as in Mark Twain’s statement, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." See also hyperbole, irony.

14. Allusion: A brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature. Allusions conjure up biblical authority, scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, historic figures, wars, great love stories, and anything else that might enrich an author’s work. • Example: a poem about current racial struggles calling up the memory of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation

15. Subplot: The secondary action of a story, complete and interesting in its own right, that reinforces or contrasts with the main plot. There may be more than one subplot, and sometimes as many as three, four, or even more, running through a piece of fiction.

16. Types of Irony • Structural irony • Verbal Irony • Situational irony • Dramatic irony