WORD OF THE DAY
A vignette is a brief but powerful scene. A good vignette leaves you wanting more.
Over the centuries a vignette has taken on different forms. Originally it was one of those small sketches you find in the front of old books, often with decorative bands of ivy around its edges (the word comes from the French vigne for vineyard). When cinema came along, a vignette became a quick portrait in film of a character. Some films, like Robert Altman's Short Cuts, are essentially just a compilation of individual vignettes.
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Vocabulary lists containing vignette
If you are gearing up to take the Advanced Placement English Literature exam, you better be able to distinguish between your elegies and your allegories! This list will help.
As you read Etgar Keret's "What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?" learn this word list. Here are links to lists for texts in Grade 10's Collection 1: What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?, texts about flag burning, The Lottery
A borrowing from Middle French, -ette is a diminutive suffix. There are two widely used senses of this suffix: the first denotes the smallness of an object and the second refers to a woman carrying out the role of the root word.
As you read Louise Erdrich's "The Leap," learn this word list. Here are links to lists for texts in Grade 9's Collection 5: Night, Is Survival Selfish?, Deep Survival, The Leap, The End and the Beginning
