Lit Terms
Terms
undefined, object
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- epitome
- the central summary
- hexastich
- 6 line poetic stanza
- pathos
- any sentimental reaction to a literary event stimulation pity, tenderness, or sorrow
- expletive
- an injection to add emphasis
- prologue
- to give information before the text
- lexicon
- vocabulary of a launguage
- aphorism
- a short witty thought of wisdom
- anima/animas
- spiritial guide anima with man
- flashback
- reference to the past devise
- epistle
- letters in the mail
- epilogue
- a concluding statement that continues the text to the future
- trochee
- only: starts high, ends low
- janus
- symbol with 2 opposite sides
- blue stockings
- women of intellectual interest
- 1/2 rhyme/slant rhyme
- 2 words that rhyme half way
- mantra
- repeated prayer, spiritail utterance
- theme
- central idea
- irony
- figure of speech when actual intent is expressed in words that carry the opposite meaning
- epiphany
- overwhelming realization, clarity
- malapropism
- gramatical error for purpose
- tableau
- frozen moment
- scansion
- marking off a poetic line with stress and unstress syllobls
- epigraph
- quotation at beginning of novel
- revenge tragedy
- -
- pyrrhic victory
- costly victory
- rhapsody
- highly emotional utterance in a poem or speech pathos
- anecdote
- -
- typology
- specific study of biblical allusions
- assonance
- repeated vowel sound in a pattern knee deep
- touchstone
- to measure value, critical standard
- reification
- make the abstract concrete
- afterward
- comments after the text
- caesura
- a pause in a poetic line by a comma or a dash
- relativism
- philosophy that denies immortal standards the meaning of all lit devises is determined soley by their context
- Personification
- -
- Colloquialism
- cultural slang
- ascetic
- a priest in a solitary worshipping cell
- anathema
- against the theme, denounciation
- ethos
- the way the personal ethics of a writer effects the story
- haiku
- 5-7-5
- protagonist
- hero, maincharacter
- semantics
- study of meaning of words
- hybris
- greek name for pride
- alliteration
- repeated consonant sounds
- hiatus
- a period of abesnce
- Similie
- metaphor using like or as
- syzygy
- unification of anima and animas
- exegesis
- close analysis of text
- parable
- short story told to enforce a moral lesson
- farce
- low comedy, dirty humor
- periphrasis
- taking in circles to make a point
- aposiopesis
- an unfinished dialogue interrupted
- fin de siecle
- end of the 1800's 1890
- prosody
- the principles of poetic writing
- double entendre
- a statement with a double meaning
- imagery
- a collection of images, descriptive passage using senses vignettes to enrich the arrative
- hyperbole
- extreme exaggeration
- requiem
- chant, prayer for dead
- xenophobia
- fear of foreigners
- flashforward
- a quick transition from past/present to the future
- deux ex machina
- machine of God random occurance that
- intrusive narrator
- freely/frequently interupts the narrative to say what they want
- synecdoche
- using part of something to signify whole. nicewheels-car
- analogy
- two implied metaphors
- diatrible
- harsh rhetoric
- milieu
- mood/atmosphere
- panegyric
- written something celebrating an achievement
- en media res
- in middle of the action
- epithet
- adjective phrase that symbolizes
- pseudonym
- -
- leitmotif
- recurrent representation in art, or a word, symbol, situation
- euphony
- a good sound
- psyche
- the mind
- oedipal
- reffering to a character who is overly attatched to his mother
- ennui
- boredom
- allusion
- hint or reference to a historical event
- carpe diem
- seize the day
- maxim
- concise statement of wisdom from experience
- bathos
- unsuccessful effort to attain dignity
- scenario
- an outline of the plot
- collective unconscious
- jung's idea, human knowledge, share a collective memory
- hedonism
- no pain, all happiness
- expatriate
- any author writing out of his county
- invective
- very harsh, abusive language directed in novel
- individuation
- the journey to attain identity
- bombast
- inflated speech
- Metaphor
- analogy where one item has qualities of a second
- iconoclast
- rebel icon breaker, breaking traditions
- logos
- logic
- anagram
- rearranging letters to form a second word: i am voldemort=tom marvelo riddle
- Setting
- geography locate, time period, culteral patterns/daily life
- jeu d'esprit
- word play, pun
- pragmatism
- philosophy that argues values by how useful it is
- understatement
- -
- enjambment
- where the idea runs into the next line
- dialectic
- the art of debate
- magnum opus
- tour de force
- refrain
- repeated line or phrase
- marchen
- fairytail, german
- manichean
- belief that good and evil coexist
- eponym
- uses name for quality
- exposition
- to give out information
- doppelganger
- a mysterious double
- picaresque
- the adventures of a rascal
- foil
- a secondary character which heigents the character of a protaginist
- tour de force
- authors greatest work
- aesthetic
- the study of beauty in art
- rune
- one character with magical powers
- agnostic
- not a believer yet not a disbeliever
- rococo
- over decrotive, flowery overdone
- homiliy
- religoius instruction, moral guidence
- iambic
- today: starts low, goes high
- meter
- rhymtm of a poem
- symbols
- a literal object that takes on an abstract apsect
- archetype
- primal symbols through collective unconscious
- naturalism
- darwinism, philosophy based on people are only animals
- rhetoric
- formal arguement
- sibilance
- consonance repearing "s" sounds
- flat character
- character constructed around single quality or idea
- foreshadow
- reference to the future
- canto
- numbered sections of a long poem
- metemphsychosis
- afterlife reincarnation transmigration of souls
- bard
- poet
- tone
- attitude toward subect and audience that is implied in literary work
- apostate
- one who abandons their vows
- persona
- term used to refer to a second self of a character
- consonance
- words where final constonants agree cold, wood
- fable
- mythological story that has a moral conclusion
- euphemism
- making something less harsh being indirect to avoid being offensive
- fabliau
- mythological story that doesn't have a moral conclusion
- paean
- song or joy
- onomatopoeia
- word that sounds suggests its meanings