Lit Terms TEST
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Trickster Tale
- in oral traditions worldwide, a story featuring a protagonist (often an anthropomorphized animal) who has magical powers and is characterized as a compendium of opposites. TT= FEMT
- Slant Rhyme
- These are all general terms referring to rhymes that are close but not exact: (lap/shape and glorious/nefarious.)
- Genre
- A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content; a kind of literary or artistic work
- Figurative Language
- speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning, speech or writing employing figures of speech
- Dialogue
- the conversation between characters in a novel, drama, etc
- Allusion
- A reference to a work of literature, or to a person, place, or event outside of literature, with which the writer or speaker expects an audience to be familiar
- Parody
- a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing
- Point of View
- the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters
- Literary Criticism
- a written evaluation of a work of literature; the informed analysis and evaluation of literature
- Voice
- author's style, the quality that makes his or her writing unique, and which conveys the author's attitude, personality, and character
- Situational Irony
- an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected, the difference between what is expected to happen and what actually does
- Elegy
- a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, esp. a funeral song or a lament for the dead
- Mythos
- An appeal to tradition and/or pride; appeal to the status quo
- Setting
- the locale or period in which the action of a novel, play, film, etc., takes place; includes when and where.
- Social Commentary
- act of expressing an opinion on the nature of society
- Premise
- A proposition upon which an argument is based or from which a conclusion is drawn
- Tone
- the manner in which written words might be said; convey a certain mood
- Irony
- The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning
- Onomatopoeia
- The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to
- Personification
- the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects; giving human characteristics to inanimate objects
- Stanza
- an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem
- Metaphor
- a word which is ordinary usage signifies one kind of thing, quality, or action is applied to another, without indication of the relationship between them; a comparison without the use of like or as
- Protagonist
- the leading/main character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work
- Repetition
- Reiteration, or repeating the same word, or the same sense in different words, for the purpose of making a deeper impression on the audience
- Oxymoron
- a paradoxical statement combining two terms that in ordinary usage are contraries; "pleasing pains" "loving hate"
- Diction
- style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words
- Versimilitude
- The quality of appearing to be true or real; seems true but is not a fact
- Ad hominem
- Reply to an argument by attacking a belief of the opposition rather than by addressing evidence of the claim
- Anecdote
- A short account of an interesting or humorous incident
- Antimetabole
- Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order
- Characterization
- the creation and convincing representation of fictitious characters
- Anastrophe
- Inversion of the natural or usual word order; Inverted Syntax
- Hortative Sentence
- Exhortation; admonishing that one do something: "Let us..."
- Simile
- a comparison between two essentially different items is expressly indicated by a term such as "like" or "as"
- Connotation
- The meaning that a word suggests or implies; includes the emotions or associations that surround a word
- Omniscient
- having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things; (narrator)
- Quatrain
- a stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternate rhymes
- Vernacular
- the native/indigenous speech or language of a place
- Local Color Realism
- realistic aspects of a certain region; the real portrayal of a lifestyle of a certain area or region
- Alliteration
- The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables
- Episodic Novel
- An episodic novel is a narrative composed of loosely connected incidents, each one more or less self-contained, often connected by a central character or characters.
- Monologue
- A dramatic soliloquy; a long speech made by one person
- Parallelism
- The use of identical or equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding clauses or phrases; similar structure
- Myth
- A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world
- Fable
- a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue
- Dialect
- a variety of a language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially
- Epistrophe
- Repetition of the same word or group of words at the end of sentences, clauses, or phrases: "....you bled ... you bled ....you bled."
- Free Verse
- Free verse is sometimes confused with blank verse, which does not rhyme but has a set metrical pattern. Free verse, on the other hand, has no rules whatsoever. The lines are irregular and may or may not rhyme.
- Logos
- appeal to reason
- Narrative
- a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious
- Catalogue
- a complete list of things; usually arranged systematically; a list
- Theme
- a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc., as in a work of art; the central message
- Picaresque
- Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers; often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society
- Refrain
- a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a song or poem, esp. at the end of each stanza; chorus
- Antithesis
- The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure
- Satire
- A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit
- Flashback
- a transition (in literary or theatrical works or films) to an earlier event or scene that interrupts the normal chronological development of the story
- Exposition
- The part of a play that provides the background information needed to understand the characters and the action; normally in the beginning
- Analogy
- a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based. Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar
- Extended Metaphor
- a metaphor that is extended through a stanza or entire poem, often by multiple comparisons of unlike objects or ideas
- Subjective
- Heavy with emotions; Proceeding from or taking place in a person's mind rather than the external world
- Allegory
- A symbolic narrative
- Dramatic Irony
- irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play; audience knows something the characters don't
- Aphorism
- A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage
- Objective
- Fact; unbaised; the purpose of the author for writing his/her work
- Elevated Language
- formal, dignified language; it often uses more elaborate figures of speech
- Symbolism
- the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character; using objects to represent a greater meaning
- Denotation
- the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression
- Asyndeton
- Deliberate omission of conjunction between a series of related clauses, phrases, or words: "I came, I saw, I conquered."
- Blank Verse
- Verse consisting of unrhymed lines, usually of iambic pentameter
- Foreshadowing
- the presentation in a work of literature of hints and clues that tip the reader off as to what is to come later in the work
- Style
- The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed
- Rhetorical Question
- A question that does not demand a response because the answer is obvious
- Foil
- a character that distinctly contrasts with another character; normally the protagonist
- Pathos
- an appeal to emotion
- Antagonist
- The principal character in opposition to the protagonist or hero of a narrative or drama
- Prose
- the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse
- Bildungsroman
- a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist; a coming of age novel
- Hyperbole
- The use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or effect
- Paradox
- a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth