Lit Terms Handout

Front 1

Alexandrine

Back 1

a line of poetry in iambic hexameter

Front 2

allegory

Back 2

a narrative work or a drama in which almost all the characters, settings, and events are symbols

Front 3

alliteration

Back 3

the repetition of nearby consonant sounds

Front 4

alliterative verse

Back 4

poetry that uses alliteration of a specific sound in each line

Front 5

allusion

Back 5

a short reference in a work to something outside the work

Front 6

anapest

Back 6

a poetic foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable(--'); also called an anapestic foot

Front 7

anecdote

Back 7

a short written or oral account of an event in a real person's life

Front 8

anglo-saxon

Back 8

see Old English

Front 9

Antagonist

Back 9

in a work with an external conflict, the person or force that the protagonist must face

Front 10

aphorism

Back 10

a short, pointed statement expressing a wise or clever observation about life

Front 11

apostrophe

Back 11

a figure of speech in which an object, an animal, or idea, or an absent person is directly addressed as if capable of hearing

Front 12

Art for Art's Sake

Back 12

an attitdue that reacted to 19th century realism by claiming that art is superior to nature, has no purpose other than to exist and be beautiful, and need not portray real life at all

Front 13

aside

Back 13

in a play, a character's comment that is heard by the audience but not other characters on stage

Front 14

assonance

Back 14

the repetition of nearby vowel sounds

Front 15

atmosphere

Back 15

the prevailing mood of a work of literature

Front 16

autobiography

Back 16

a person's account of his or her own life

Front 17

ballad

Back 17

a usually simple narrative poem that recounts an exciting or dramatic episode and is composed to be sung or recited

Front 18

ballad stanza

Back 18

a quatrain in which the first and third line shave four stressed syllables, and only the second and fourth lines rhyme, though the basic foot is the lamb, there tend to be many irregularities involving substitute feet

Front 19

biography

Back 19

a nonfiction account of a person's life and character, written by someone else

Front 20

blank verse

Back 20

poetry or lines of verse drama written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Front 21

byronic hero

Back 21

the unconventional, brooding, romantic character popularized by lord byron in some of his own verse, and to a degree, his own life

Front 22

caesura

Back 22

a pronounced pause in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line

Front 23

canto

Back 23

a section of division of a long poem

Front 24

caricature

Back 24

exaggerated portrayal of a character used for humorous effect and satire

Front 25

carpe diem

Back 25

a term applied to lit works in which the theme suggests that life is short and that we must therefore enjoy life while we can - "sieze the day"

Front 26

Catharsis

Back 26

see TRAGEDY

Front 27

Character

Back 27

a person who appears in a literary work

Front 28

characterization

Back 28

ther personality of a character and the means by which it is revealed

Front 29

classicism

Back 29

a style that reflects the principles and concerns of the art and lit of ancient greece and rome, the 17th and 18th century movement to imitate the balanced, orderly rationality of the ancients was called "neoclassicism

Front 30

comedy

Back 30

a drama or another lit work that ends happily or aims to amuse its audience

Front 31

comedy of Manners

Back 31

a realistic, satirical drama that pokes fun at the fashions, behavior, and outlook of sophisticated society

Front 32

conceit

Back 32

an elaborate or farfetched metaphor or simile

Front 33

conflict

Back 33

the struggle between two opposing forces that is central to a plot and that involves the main character, or protagonist

Front 34

connotation

Back 34

all the suggested meanings and associations that a word brings to mind beyond its denotation, or dictionary definition

Front 35

consonance

Back 35

repetition of consonant sounds at the ends of words or stressed syllables in order to create near rhyme

Front 36

couplet

Back 36

a two line stanza, poem, or poetic saying

Front 37

dactyle

Back 37

a poetic foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables

Front 38

decadents

Back 38

see art for art's sake

Front 39

denounment

Back 39

see plot

Front 40

denotation

Back 40

the basic meaning or dictionary definition of a word

Front 41

devotional verse

Back 41

lyric or poetry devoted to religion

Front 42

dialect

Back 42

a variety of a language spoken in a particular region or by a particular group of people, dialects differ in pronunciation, vocab, and sometimes grammar

Front 43

dialogue

Back 43

the conversation between two characters in a work

Front 44

diary

Back 44

an individual's personal, day to day account of impressions and events, usually more intimate than journals

Front 45

diction

Back 45

the author's word choice, or use of apporopriate words to convey a particular meaning, good writers choose their words carefully in order to expres exactly what they intend

Front 46

drama

Back 46

a story written to be performed, oras if to be performed, before an audience, distinguished from poetry and prose by its formate

Front 47

dramatic convention

Back 47

practice that audience accepts on stage as realistic but differ from real life behavior, includes quick shifts in time, soliloquies, and asides

Front 48

dramatic monologue

Back 48

a dramatic poem that consists of the speech of one character

Front 49

dramatic poetry

Back 49

poetry that reveals character through speech and that consits entirely of dialogue or monologue

Front 50

elegiac stanza

Back 50

see heroic stanza

Front 51

elegy

Back 51

a serious poem of lament, usually in mourning of a death

Front 52

epic

Back 52

a long narrative poem that recounts, in grave and stately language, the exploits of a larger than life hero who usually embodies ideals of culture that produced him

Front 53

epic conventions

Back 53

elements that traditionally appear in epics and are imitated in mock epics, amound these elements are a brave hero who overcomes great trials

Front 54

epic simile

Back 54

see Homeric Simile

Front 55

epigram

Back 55

a brief, witty, often philosphical saying in prose or verse

Front 56

epigraph

Back 56

a quotation at the beginning of a chapter, a poem, a book, or another literary work

Front 57

Epiphany

Back 57

a sudden realization, by the reader as well as a character, of the true nature of something

Front 58

epitaph

Back 58

a tombstone inscription or brief poem in memory of someone who has died

Front 59

Epithet

Back 59

a characterizing nickname or adjective phrase, more specifically, in oral poetry or written epics, modeled on oral ones, a formalized nickname or adjective phrase used to identify or describe a person

Front 60

essay

Back 60

a short prose composition that deals with a single topic

Front 61

exemplum

Back 61

a story that serves to illustrate the moral of the sermon in which it appears

Front 62

existentialism

Back 62

a modern euro philosphy that considers life to be empty of any meaning, purpose, or value other than that which people give their own lives