Literary Terms 3

Front 1

Periodic Sentence

Back 1

Sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after all introductory elements - e.g. "Across the stream, beyond the clearing, from behind a fallen a tree, the lion emerged."

Front 2

Persona

Back 2

A writer often adopts a fictional voice to tell a story. This is usually determined by a combination of subject matter and audience

Front 3

Personification

Back 3

Figurative Language in which inanimate objects, animals, ideas, or abstractions are endowed with human traits or human form

Front 4

Plot

Back 4

System of actions represented in a dramatic or narrative work

Front 5

Point of View

Back 5

The perspective from which a fictional or nonfictional story is told. First-person, or third-person, or third-person omniscient are commonly used.

Front 6

Protagonist

Back 6

Chief character in a dramatic or narrative work, usually trying to accomplish some objective or working toward some goal

Front 7

Pun

Back 7

A play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings

Front 8

Red Herring

Back 8

Device through which a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue

Front 9

Repetition

Back 9

Word or phrase used two or more times in close proximity

Front 10

Rhetoric

Back 10

The art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse. Rhetoric focuses on the interrelationship of invention, arrangement, and style in order to create discourse.

Front 11

Rhetorical Question

Back 11

A question asked to emphasize a point; no answer is expected

Front 12

Round Character

Back 12

A character drawn with sufficient complexity to be able to surprise the reader without losing credibility

Front 13

Satire

Back 13

A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. It doesn't simply abuse (as with invective) or get personal (as with sarcasm). It usually targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals; its purpose is customarily to inspire change.

Front 14

Sarcasm

Back 14

A type of verbal irony in which, under the guise of praise, a caustic and bitter expression of strong and personal disapproval is given. Sarcasm is personal, jeering, and intended to hurt.

Front 15

Setting

Back 15

Locale and period in which the action takes place

Front 16

Similie

Back 16

A figurative comparison of two things, often dissimilar, using the connecting word: "like," "as," or "then."

Front 17

Situational Irony

Back 17

When the audience expects one outcome and gets another.

Front 18

Soliloquy

Back 18

When a character in a play speaks his thoughts aloud - usually by him or herself

Front 19

Stock Character

Back 19

Conventional character types that recur repeatedly in various literary genres. E.g. the wicked stepmother or Prince Charming

Front 20

Stream of Consciousness

Back 20

Technique of writing that undertakes to reproduce the raw flow of consciousness, with the perceptions, thoughts, judgements, feelings, associations, and memories presented just as they occur without being tidied into grammatical sentences or given logical and narrative order.

Front 21

Style

Back 21

The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes. In combination they create a work's manner of expression. This is thought to be conscious and unconscious and may be altered to suit specific occasions.

Front 22

Symbol

Back 22

A thing, event, or person that represents or stands for some idea or event. Symbols also simultaneously retain their own literal meanings. A figure of speech in which a concrete object is used to stand for an abstract idea

Front 23

Synechdoche

Back 23

Part of something is used to stand for the whole - e.g. "threads" for clothes; "wheels" for cars

Front 24

Syntax

Back 24

In grammar, the arrangement of words as elements in a sentence to show their relationship.

Front 25

Theme

Back 25

A central idea of a work of fiction or nonfiction, revealed and developed in the course of a story or explored through argument

Front 26

Tone

Back 26

A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization of the sentence and global levels

Front 27

Tragedy

Back 27

Representations of serious actions which cause pity and fear in the viewer

Front 28

Tragic Flaw

Back 28

Tragic error in judgement; a mistake act which changes the fortune of the tragic hero from happiness to misery; also known as hamartia.

Front 29

Understatement

Back 29

Deliberately representing something as much less likely that it really is

Front 30

Verbal Irony

Back 30

When the reader is aware of a discrepancy between the real meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the writer's words.