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41 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Allegory:
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an allegory is a story or narrative, often told at some length, which has a deeper meaning below the surface. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan is a well-known allegory. A more modern example is George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which on a surface level is about a group of animals who take over their farm but on a deeper level is an allegory of the Russian Revolution and the shortcomings of Communism.
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Alliteration:
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the repetition of the same consonant sound, especially at the beginning of words, for example, ‘Five miles meandering with a mazy motion’ (Kubla Khan by S. T. Coleridge).
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AMBIGUITY:
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In common conversation, ambiguity is a negative term applied to a vague or equivocal expression when precision would be more useful. Sometimes, however, intentional ambiguity in literature can be a powerful device, leaving something undetermined in order to open up multiple possible meanings. When we refer to literary ambiguity, we refer to any wording, action, or symbol that can be read in divergent ways.
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Allusion:
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a reference to another event, person, place or work of literature- the allusion is usually implied rather than explicit and often provides another layer of meaning to what is being said.
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Ambiguity:
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use of language where the meaning is unclear or has two or more possible interpretations or meanings. It could be created through a weakness in the way the writer has expressed himself or herself, but often it is used by writers quite deliberately to create layers of meaning in the mind of the reader.
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Ambivalence:
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this indicates more than one possible attitude is being displayed by the writer towards a character, theme, or idea, etc.
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Anthropomorphism:
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the endowment of something that is not human with human characteristics.
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Antithesis:
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contrasting ideas or words that are balanced against each other. Using opposite phrases in close conjunction. Examples might be, "I burn and I freeze," or "Her character is white as sunlight, black as midnight." The best antitheses express their contrary ideas in a balanced sentence. It can be a contrast of opposites: "Evil men fear authority; good men cherish it." Alternatively, it can be a contrast of degree: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind."
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Archaic:
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language that is old-fashioned- not completely obsolete but no longer in current use.
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Ballad:
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a narrative poem that tells a story (traditional ballads were songs) usually in a straightforward way. The theme is often tragic or contains a whimsical, supernatural, or fantastical element.
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Bathos:
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an anti-climax or sudden descent from the serious to the ridiculous- sometimes deliberate, sometimes unintentional on the part of the writer. One of the most common types of bathos is the humorous arrangement of items so that the listed items descend from grandiosity to absurdity. In this technique, important or prestigious ideas precede an inappropriate or inconsequential item. For instance, "In the United States, Usama bin Laden is wanted for conspiracy, murder, terrorism, and unpaid parking tickets."
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Blank verse:
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unrhymed poetry that adheres to a strict pattern in that each line is an iambic pentameter (a ten-syllable line with five stresses). It is close to the natural rhythm of English speech or prose, and is used a great deal by many writers including Shakespeare and Milton. Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents. Blank verse has been called the most "natural" verse form for dramatic works, since it supposedly is the verse form most close to natural rhythms of English speech, and it has been the primary verse form of English drama and narrative poetry since the mid-sixteenth Century. Such verse is blank in rhyme only; it usually has a definite meter
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Caesura:
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a conscious break in a line of poetry. ): A pause separating phrases within lines of poetry--an important part of poetic rhythm. The term caesura comes from the Latin "a cutting" or "a slicing." Some editors will indicate a caesure by inserting a slash (/) in the middle of a poetic line. Others insert extra space in this location. Others do not indicate the caesura typographically at all.
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CATHARSIS:
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An emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety. According to Aristotle, this technique is the marking feature and ultimate end of any tragic artistic work
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Conceit:
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an elaborate, extended, and sometimes surprising comparison between things that, at first sight, do not have much in common.
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Dénouement:
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the ending of a play, novel or drama where ‘all is revealed’ and the plot is unravelled. DENOUEMENT: A French word meaning "unknotting" or "unwinding," denouement refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events, an aftermath or resolution that usually occurs near the final stages of the plot. It is the unraveling of the main dramatic complications in a play, novel or other work of literature. In drama, the term is usually applied to tragedies or to comedies with catastrophes in their plot. This resolution usually takes place in the final chapter or scene, after the climax is over. Usually the denouement ends as quickly as the writer can arrange it--for it occurs only after all the conflicts have been resolved.
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DEUS EX MACHINA (from Greek theos apo mechanes):
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An unrealistic or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonists or resolve the story's conflict. The term means "The god out of the machine," and it refers to stage machinery. A classical Greek actor, portraying one of the Greek gods in a play, might be lowered out of the sky onto the stage and then use his divine powers to solve all the mortals' problems. The term is a negative one, and it often implies a lack of skill on the part of the writer. In a modern example of deus ex machina, a writer might reach a climactic moment in which a band of pioneers were attacked by bandits. A cavalry brigade's unexpected arrival to drive away the marauding bandits at the conclusion, with no previous hint of the cavalry's existence, would be a deus ex machina conclusion. Such endings mean that heroes are unable to solve their own problems in a pleasing manner, and they must be "rescued" by the writer himself through improbable means.
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Elegy:
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a meditative poem, usually sad and reflective in nature. Sometimes, though not always, it is concerned with the theme of death.
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End stopping:
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a verse line with a pause or a stop at the end of it.
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Enjambment:
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a line of verse that flows on into the next line without a pause. A line having no pause or end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing into the next line. Here is an example from George S. Viereck's "The Haunted House": I lay beside you; on your lips the while Hovered most strange the mirage of a smile Such as a minstrel lover might have seen Upon the visage of some antique queen. . . .
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EPIPHANY:
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Christian thinkers used this term to signify a manifestation of God's presence in the world. It has since become in modern fiction and poetry the standard term for the sudden flare into revelation of an ordinary object or scene. In particular, the epiphany is a revelation of such power and insight that it alters the entire world-view of the thinker who experiences it. (In this sense, it is similar to what a scientist might call a "paradigm shift.") Shakespeare's Twelfth Night takes place on the Feast of the Epiphany, and the theme of revelation is prevalent in the work.
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Euphemism:
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expressing an unpleasant or unsavoury idea in a less blunt and more pleasant way.
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Euphony:
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use of pleasant or melodious sounds. (opposite: cacophony)
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FORESHADOWING:
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Suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative. Foreshadowing often provides hints about what will happen next. For instance, a movie director might show a clip in which two parents discuss their son's leukemia. The camera briefly changes shots to do an extended close-up of a dying plant in the garden outside, or one of the parents might mention that another relative died on the same date. The perceptive audience sees the dying plant, or hears the reference to the date of death, and realizes this detail foreshadows the child's death later in the movie. Often this foreshadowing takes the form of a noteworthy coincidence or appears in a verbal echo of dialogue. Other examples of foreshadowing include the conversation and action of the three witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
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Free verse:
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verse written without any fixed structure (either in metre or rhyme).
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HUBRIS (sometimes spelled Hybris):
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The Greek term hubris is difficult to translate directly into English. It is a negative term implying both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence
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iambic pentameter:
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A type of meter in poetry, in which there are five iambs to a line. (The prefix penta- means “five,” as in pentagon, a geometrical figure with five sides. Meter refers to rhythmic units. In a line of iambic pentameter, there are five rhythmic units that are iambs.) Shakespeare's plays were written mostly in iambic pentameter, which is the most common type of meter in English poetry. An example of an iambic pentameter line from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is “But soft!/ What light/ through yon/der win/dow breaks?” Another, from Richard III, is “A horse!/ A horse!/ My king/dom for/ a horse!” (The stressed syllables are in bold.)
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IMAGISM:
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An early twentieth-century artistic movement in the United States and Britain. Imagists believed poets should use common, everyday vocabulary, experiment with new rhythm, and use clear, precise, concentrated imagery. Ezra Pound, Richard Aldington, Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, and T. E. Hulme are all poets who were adherents of imagism and were known as imagists. Carl Sandburg's "Fog" is an example of an imagist poem, and T. E. Hulme's "Above the Dock." Here is the opening lines to "Above the Dock": Above the quiet dock in midnight, Tangled in the tall mast's corded height Hangs the moon. What seemed so far away Is but a child's balloon, forgotten after play. Likewise, the concrete imagery is clear in Sandburg's opening lines to "Fog": "The fog comes / on little cat feet." Imagism had its heyday slightly before World War I, but the emphasis on strong, concrete imagery appears in other literary periods as well.
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Motif:
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a dominant theme, subject or idea which runs through a piece of literature. Often a ‘motif’ can assume a symbolic importance.
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Onomatopoeia:
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the use of words whose sound copies the sound of the thing or process that they describe. On a simple level, words like ‘bang’, ‘hiss’, and ‘splash’ are onomatopoeic, but it also has more subtle uses.
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Oxymoron:
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a figure of speech which joins together words of opposite meanings, e.g. ‘the living dead’, ‘bitter sweet’, etc.
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Paradox:
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a statement that appears contradictory, but when considered more closely is seen to contain a good deal of truth.
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Parody:
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a work that is written in imitation of another work, very often with the intention of making fun of the original.
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Pastoral:
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generally, literature concerning rural life with idealised settings and rustic characters. Often pastorals are concerned with the lives of shepherds and shepherdesses presented in idyllic and unrealistic ways.
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Pathos:
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the effect in literature which makes the reader feel sadness or pity.
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Quatrain:
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a stanza of four lines which can have various rhyme schemes.
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Romanticism:
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The principles and ideals of the Romantic movement in literature and the arts during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Romanticism, which was a reaction to the classicism of the early 18th century, favored feeling over reason and placed great emphasis on the subjective, or personal, experience of the individual. Nature was also a major theme. The great English Romantic poets include Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.
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Satire:
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the highlighting or exposing of human failings or foolishness within a society through ridiculing them. Satire can range from being gentle and light to being extremely biting and bitter in tone, e.g. Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels or A Modest Proposal, and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
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Sonnet:
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A lyric poem that is 14 lines long. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line “sestet,” with the rhyme scheme abba abba cdecde (or cdcdcd). English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are composed of three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. English sonnets are written generally in iambic pentameter.
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Stream of consciousness:
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a technique in which the writer records thoughts and emotions in a ‘stream’ as they come to mind, without giving order or structure.
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Synaesthesia:
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A rhetorical figure that describes one sensory impression in terms of a different sense, or one perception in terms of a totally different or even opposite feeling. Example: "darkness visible" "green thought"
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