Glossary 9
Bildungsroman German word, meaning “novel of education,” that has been
taken into English. Traditionally the protagonist was a young man learning
to make his way in the world, moving from innocence to experience, but in
contemporary literature the protagonist is just as likely to be female. Sandra
Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street (1983) is both a bildungsroman and a
künstlerroman (see below). John Barth’s “Lost in the Funhouse” (1968) is a
famous parody of the genre.
Black humor Also known as black comedy or dark comedy. A style of writing
prominent in the 1960s and 1970s, especially by writers such as John Barth,
Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, and Kurt Vonnegut, it draws attention to the
absurd, the morbid, and the grotesque. The black humorist attitude is that
contemporary life presents so many absurd situations that the only possible
response is laughter.
Bricolage Like a collage, a work of art or literature put together through the
juxtaposition of various pieces but with the added element that the pieces are
found materials that happen to be available; the word is adapted from the
French for “do-it-yourself.”
Carnivalesque A frequently encountered term in criticism of contemporary
American literature. Coined by the literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, it refers
to the presence of carnival-like activity: fun, play, and games; defiance of
authority; humor; chaos; and heteroglossia (see below).
Chicano/Chicana A man/woman of Mexican heritage in the United States;
the term came into usage in the late 1960s. Prominent Chicano writers
include Rudolfo Anaya, Gary Soto, and Dagoberto Gilb; among well-
known Chicana authors are Sandra Cisneros, Ana Castillo, and Denise
Chávez.
Chick lit A fiction genre that became popular in the late 1990s and early
2000s. Typified by English writer Helen Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones’s Diary
(1996), it features single women who struggle with careers and romantic
relationships.
Choreopoem A work that integrates dance, music, and poetry so that each ele-
ment complements the others; it is more than simply poetry set to music with
accompanying dance steps. Each performer of a choreopoem may improvise.
The term first appeared in the subtitle of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls
who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem (1975).
Code-switching Occurs when speakers fluent in more than one language
alternate among those languages in speech. The term also refers to the
practice of moving between dialect and more-formal language, as between
African American vernacular and standard English, in different social set-
tings. Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (2007) code-switches
between English and Yiddish.
Creative nonfiction A recently developed genre that employs the techniques of
fiction to deal with factual subject matter. Among the forms it may take are
memoir, journalism, and essay.