Lit 205 Final

Front 1

Allegory

Back 1

narration or description restricted to a single meaning because its events, actions, characters, settings, and objects represent specific abstractions or ideas (ex. Faith in Young Goodman Brown)

Front 2

Alliteration

Back 2

repetition of the same consonant sound in a sequence of words (descending dew drops, luscious lemons)

Front 3

Allusion

Back 3

A brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature.

imply reading and cultural experiences shared by the writer and reader

recalling of something outside the work supplies an emotional or intellectual connection

Front 4

Apostrophe

Back 4

An address either to someone absent or to something nonhuman/inanimate that cannot comprehend

Front 5

Aside

Back 5

a speech directed to audience that is supposedly not audible to other characters onstage at the time

Front 6

Assonance

Back 6

repetition of internal vowel sounds in nearby words that do not end the same (asleep under the tree, each evening)

Front 7

Climax

Back 7

the moment of greatest emotional tension in a narrative (rising action reverses to become the falling action)

Front 8

Consonance

Back 8

common type of near rhyme that consists of identical consonant sounds preceded by different vowel sounds (home, same; worth, breath)

Front 9

Conventional symbol

Back 9

have meaning that are widely recognized by a society or culture

Front 10

Cosmic irony

Back 10

occurs when a writer uses God, destiny, or fate to dash the hopes/expectations of a character or humankind. A discrepancy exists between what a character aspires to and what universal forces provide

Front 11

Denouement

Back 11

french term meaning "unraveling" or "unknotting"; same as resolution or falling action of a plot

Front 12

Doggerel

Back 12

derogatory term describes poetry whose subject is overused ("trite") and whose rhythm and sounds are clumsy/insensitive ("monotonously heavy-handed")

Front 13

Dramatic irony

Back 13

creates discrepancy between what a character believes or says and what the reader/audience knows to be true

Front 14

Dramatic monologue

Back 14

lyric poem; speaker addresses silent audience in such a way to reveal a dramatic situation or aspect of their temperament/personality

Front 15

End-stopped line

Back 15

poem line that has pause at end; reflects normal speech patterns and marked by punctuation

Front 16

Enjambment

Back 16

when one line ends without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning

Front 17

Exposition

Back 17

narrative device used at beginning of work that provides necessary background information (characters and their circumstances, what has gone on before, relationships between characters, development of a theme, introduction of a conflict)

Front 18

Foil

Back 18

Character in a work whose behavior/values contrast with protagonist's to highlight the distinctive temperament of protagonist

Front 19

Foreshadowing

Back 19

introduction early in a story of verbal and dramatic hints that suggest what comes later

Front 20

Genre

Back 20

French word meaning kind or type: poetry, fiction, drama, essays

Front 21

Hyperbole

Back 21

boldly exaggerated statement; adds emphasis without intending to be literally true

Front 22

Imagery

Back 22

word/phrase/figure of speech that addresses the senses

Front 23

In medias res

Back 23

beginning a story in the middle of the action

Front 24

Rising action

Back 24

in which complication creates some sort of conflict for the protagonist

Front 25

Inciting incident

Back 25

something that happens to begin the action

Front 26

Literary symbol

Back 26

setting, character, action, object, name, etc. that maintains literal significance while suggesting other meanings, and gains symbolic meaning within the context of a specific story

Front 27

Lyric poem

Back 27

brief poem that expresses personal emotions and thoughts of a single speaker (not necessarily the poet); dramatic monologue, elegy, haiku, ode, sonnet forms

Front 28

Metaphor

Back 28

figure of speech that makes comparison between two unlike things without using the words like or as: life is a brief candle

Front 29

Implied metaphor

Back 29

subtle comparison that is not so specifically explained

Front 30

Extended metaphor

Back 30

sustained metaphor in which part or all of the poem consists of a series of related metaphors

Front 31

Controlling metaphor

Back 31

Runs through an entire work and determines form/nature of that work ("The Author to Her Book" likens book to a child)

Front 32

Synecdoche

Back 32

part of something is used to signify the whole or vice-versa

Front 33

Metonymy

Back 33

something closely associated with a subject is substituted for it

Front 34

Meter

Back 34

when a rhythmic pattern of stresses occurs in a poem

Front 35

Rising meter

Back 35

metrical feet move from unstressed to stressed

Front 36

Falling meter

Back 36

metrical feet move from stressed to unstressed

Front 37

Monologue

Back 37

a long speech by one actor in a play

Front 38

Onomatopoeia

Back 38

the use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes (buzz, rattle, bang, sizzle, etc.)

Front 39

Oxymoron

Back 39

condensed form of paradox in which two contradictory words are used together (sweet sorrow, original copy)

Front 40

Paradox

Back 40

statement that initially appears contradictory but then turns out to make sense

Front 41

Personification

Back 41

form of metaphor in which human characteristics are attributed to nonhuman things. Assigns familiar human behaviors/emotions to animals, inanimate objects, and abstract ideas

Front 42

Point of view

Back 42

who tells a story and how it is told

3rd person uses he, she, they, and doesn't participate in action

1st person uses I and is major/minor participant in action

Objective uses 3rd person but doesn't see into minds of character

Front 43

Quatrain

Back 43

four-line stanza

Front 44

Resolution

Back 44

conclusion of a plot's conflicts/complications (AKA falling action)

Front 45

Simile

Back 45

Figure of speech that makes explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like, as, than, appears, and seems

"A sip of Mrs. Cook's coffee is like a punch in the stomach."

Front 46

Situational irony

Back 46

an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens due to forces beyond human comprehension/control

Front 47

Soliloquy

Back 47

character alone onstage utters their thoughts aloud (to inform audience of character's motivations/state of mind)

Front 48

Subplot

Back 48

secondary action of a story

Front 49

Synechdoche

Back 49

part of something is used to signify the whole or whole is used to signify the part

Front 50

Tercet

Back 50

three-line stanza

Front 51

Theme

Back 51

central meaning or dominant idea in a literary work (provides unifying point around which plot/characters/setting/point of view/symbols/other elements are organized). abstract concept

Front 52

Tone

Back 52

author's implicit attitude toward reader or people, places, events in a work which is revealed by author's style

Front 53

Verbal irony

Back 53

figure of speech when a person says one thing but means the opposite