Comments on: Reference Question of the Week – 7/31/11

By: Allison

Allison — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:14:37 +0000

I really enjoyed this post! In poetry, a work created in this style is called a pantoum.
http://www.rbuhsd.k12.ca.us/~rgrow/Pantoums.html

By: claritza

claritza — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:33:00 +0000

As a teacher, it bugs me when other teachers give students questions that require this much effort from this many adults/professionals to answer. “Does this question have a name, and if so, what is it?” is a poorly written question.

By: silvia

silvia — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:27:42 +0000

http://www.suzanne-williams.com/endings.htm

By: Brian Herzog

Brian Herzog — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 13:31:47 +0000

Thank you everyone - this is exactly what I was hoping for. I don't often crowd-source reference questions, but it's nice to know it produces results so quickly. In reading through the terms on the link submitted by @Mary Jo, it looks like Circular Structure is exactly what this patron is looking for. But it's also fun that this question is so open-ended and the student has so many options to work with - bookended it interesting too. Thanks again!

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:43:24 +0000

Out of all the terms and words I’ve seen so far, Mary Jo’s sounds perfect. Especially if you look at the literary purpose of having the same beginning and end sentences in the book:

“Hinton’s act of ending the novel by circling back to its beginning provides a balanced symmetry to the story’s structure. More important, however, Ponyboy’s ability to tie the story up so neatly shows that he has dealt with these traumatic events in a healthy way.”

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/outsiders/section6.rhtml

What’s kind of great about the teacher’s question is that it is relatively open-ended. The student can actually answer it as “The closest term I could find is x.”

By: Mary Jo

Mary Jo — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:27:26 +0000

From a literary term list produced by Carson-Newman College (TN):

FRAMING METHOD: Using the same features, wording, setting, situation, or topic at both the beginning and end of a literary work so as to “frame” it or “enclose it.” This technique often provides a sense of cyclical completeness or closure.

http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_F.html#frame_narrative_anchor

By: Adam Steele

Adam Steele — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:49:55 +0000

I’m going to agree with M. Ogle and say that the teacher was thinking about “Book Ending.” Though it’s usually only associated with film, I suppose it’s still the same thing in a book.

http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms3.html

By: Teaspoon

Teaspoon — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:22:11 +0000

The literary term for the identical opening and closing is “framing” or “framing device.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_device

By: Dan Curry

Dan Curry — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:57:55 +0000

There is an element in Greek literature called the “inclusio.” This isn’t quite the same as what you’ve described. Basically, to frame a historical passage in such a way as to indicate the main eyewitness(es) of the passage, the eyewitnesses are mentioned at the beginning of the passage and the end, sometimes in vague ways.

Which makes me think that you might want to venture into Greek literary devices for an answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusio

By: hldavids

hldavids — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:50:12 +0000

I remember discussing this construction in Freshman (high school) English – and I believe our instructor also simply referred to it as circular construction. Unfortunately I do not find any authoritative sites using this term – the Finnegans Wake wiki entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake) says instead cyclical in nature. We also used the term parallelism in high school – which is how this construction is referred to on the following page: http://www.writing-lovers.com/parallelism-in-prose.html.