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83 Cards in this Set

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Abstract
thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances.
Aesthetic Distance
-a degree of detachment from or non identification with the characters or circumstances of a work, permitting the formation of judgments based on aesthetic rather than extra-aesthetic criteria.
Allegory
a symbolic narrative.
Alliteration
the commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group.
Allusion
a passing or casual reference to a work within another work.
Ambiguity
doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention.
Anachronism
an error in chronology in which a person, object, event, etc., is assigned a date or period other than the correct one.
Analogy
a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based.
Anastrophe
inversion of the usual order of words.
Anecdote
a short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature, often biographical.
Antagonist
a person or force that is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary.
Anthology
a book or other collection of selected writings by various authors, usually in the same literary form, of the same period, or on the same subject.
Anticlimax
an event, conclusion, statement, etc., that is far less important, powerful, or striking than expected.
Antithesis
opposition; contrast.
Antonym
a word opposite in meaning to another.
Aphorism
a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation. Example- “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).
Apologue
another term for a moral fable--especially a beast fable. Example- the tortoise and the hair.
Aposiopesis
breaking off as if unable to continue, stopping suddenly in the midst of a sentence, or leaving a statement unfinished at a dramatic moment. Sometimes the interruption is an artificial choice the author makes for a dramatic effect. Example- Aisha’s pet peeve is when Breia starts to say something, but then gets distracted and doesn’t finish her sentence.
Apostrophe
the act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present. Example- "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art” (John Keats).
Archetype
An original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life. Often, archetypes include a symbol, a theme, a setting, or a character that some critics think have a common meaning in an entire culture, or even the entire human race. Example- Light and dark represent good and evil.
Archive
any extensive record or collection of data. Example – a library.
Argument
A statement of a poem's major point--usually appearing in the introduction of the poem.
Aside
In drama, a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker's words. It is a theatrical convention that the aside is not audible to other characters on stage. Contrast with soliloquy. Example – Like in Anne Frank, there are two scenes on stage at the same time, completely separate from each other.
Assonance
Repeating identical or similar vowels (especially in stressed syllables) in nearby words. Assonance in final vowels of lines can often lead to half-rhyme. Example – "I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless."
Asyndeton
The artistic elimination of conjunctions in a sentence to create a particular effect. Example – I went to the pool, it was fun!
Atmosphere
The emotional feelings inspired by a work. The term is borrowed from meteorology to describe the dominant mood of a selection as it is created by diction, dialogue, setting, and description. Often the opening scene in a play or novel establishes an atmosphere appropriate to the theme of the entire work.
Autobiography
A non-fictional account of a person's life--usually a celebrity, an important historical figure, or a writer--written by that actual person. Example – The only person who can write an autobiography about you, is you!
Folk Ballad
a song that is traditionally sung by the common people of a region and forms part of their culture. Example – “Oh, Susanna.”
Literary Ballad
deliberately imitates the form and spirit of a folk ballad. Example- Keats with "La Belle Dame sans Merci."
Ballad Stanza
the four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, most often found in the folk ballad. This form consists of alternating four- and three-stress lines. Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme. Example- “Roses are red/ Violets are blue/ I think you’re pretty/ And I love you.”
Bard
a tribal poet-singer skilled in composing and reciting verses on heroes and their deeds; a composer, singer, or declaimer of epic or heroic verse. Example- William Shakespeare.
Bibliography
a complete or selective list of works compiled upon some common principle, as authorship, subject, place of publication, or printer.
Biography
an account of the series of events making up a person's life. Example- Amelia Earhart by Doris L. Rich
Blank Verse
type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme.
Burlesque
is a humorous theatrical entertainment involving parody and sometimes grotesque exaggeration.
Cacophony
harsh discordance of sound; dissonance; a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds. Example— A noisy
Caesura
a break, especially a sense pause, usually near the middle of a verse, and marked in scansion by a double vertical line. Example-- know then thyself || presume not God to scan.
Caricature
a picture, description, etc., ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities or defects of persons or things.
Carpe diem
Latin for seize the day; enjoy the present, as opposed to placing all hope in the future.
Catharsis
the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music. Example- When people get angry about the world around them and violently splatter paint on blank canvases.
Characterization
portrayal; description; the act of characterizing; the creation and convincing representation of fictitious characters. Example-- When Boo Radley, in To Kill A Mockingbird, is described by the kids as ghost like, a hermit, an annoyance, and insane.
Chronicle
a chronological record of events; a history; to record in or as in a chronicle.
Circumlocution
a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea; a roundabout expression.
Classicism
the principles or styles characteristic of the literature and art of ancient Greece and Rome; the classical style in literature and art, or adherence to its principles (contrasted with Romanticism).
Cliche
a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse. Example—easy as pie.
Climax
the moment in a play, novel, short story, or narrative poem at which the crisis reaches its point of greatest intensity and is thereafter resolved. It is also the peak of emotional response from a reader or spectator and usually the turning point in the action.
Coincidence
the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection; also : any of these occurrences.
Colloquialism
a word or phrase used everyday in plain and relaxed speech, but rarely found in formal writing. Example- dude, kinda, wanna, gotta, etc.
High Comedy
characterized by witty banter and sophisticated dialogue rather than the slapstick physicality and blundering
Low Comedy
consists of silly, slapstick physicality, crude pratfalls, violence, scatology, and bodily humor rather than clever dialogue or banter. Example- The 3 Stooges, The Office
Comedy of ideas
dramatic genre that combines comedy with political, philosophical, and controversial attitudes. The aim is to make an impact upon the audience's social conscience as well as upon their emotions. Example- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.
Comedy of Manners
a comic drama consisting of five or three acts in which the attitudes and customs of a society are critiqued and satirized according to high standards of intellect and morality. The dialogue is usually clever and sophisticated, but often risqué. Characters are valued according to their linguistic and intellectual prowess. It is the opposite of the slapstick humor found in a farce or in a fabliau. Example- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.
Comic relief
a humorous scene, incident, character, or bit of dialogue occurring after some serious or tragic moment. Comic relief is deliberately designed to relieve emotional intensity and simultaneously heighten and highlight the seriousness or tragedy of the action.
Conceit
an elaborate or unusual comparison--especially one using unlikely metaphors, simile, hyperbole, and contradiction.
Concrete
the opposite of abstract, and refers to a thing that actually exists or a description that allows the reader to experience an object or concept with the senses.
Conflict
the issue to be resolved in the story. It usually occurs between two characters, the protagonist and the antagonist, or between the protagonist and society or the protagonist and himself or herself.
Connotation
the impression that a word gives beyond its defined meaning.
Consonance
occurs in Poetry when words appearing at the ends of two or more verses have similar final consonant sounds but have final vowel sounds that differ, as with "stuff" and "off."
Convention
any widely accepted literary device, style, or form.
Couplet
any widely accepted literary device, style, or form.
Criticism
the systematic study and evaluation of literary works, usually based on a specific method or set of principles.
Criterion
a standard on which a judgment or decision may be based; a characterizing mark or trait.
Critique
derives from the Greek term kritik (κριτική), meaning "discerning judgment", usually of the value of something. Especially in philosophical contexts it is influenced by Kant's use of the term to mean a reflective examination of the validity and limits of a human capacity or of a set of philosophical claims and has been extended in modern philosophy to mean a systematic inquiry into the conditions and consequences of a concept, theory, discipline, or approach and an attempt to understand its limitations and validity.
Deductive reasoning
the process of logic in which a thinker takes a rule for a large, general category and assumes that specific individual examples fitting within that general category obey the same rule.
Syllogism
a method of presenting a logical argument.
Non sequitur
a conversational and literary device, often used for comical purposes (as opposed to its use in formal logic). It is a comment which, due to its apparent lack of meaning relative to what it follows, seems absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing, as in the following joke:
Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Fish.
Inductive reasoning
the logical assumption or process of assuming that what is true for a single specimen or example is also true for other specimens or examples of the same type. For instance, if a geologist found a type of stone called adamantium, and he discovered that it was very hard and durable, he could assume through induction that other stones of adamantium are also very hard and durable. The danger in such an assertion is the risk of hasty generalization.
Deus ex machina
An unrealistic or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonists or resolve the story's conflict.
Denotation
the minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation.
Denouement
a French word meaning "unknotting" or "unwinding," 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.
Dialect
The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons
Dialogue
the lines spoken by a character or characters in a play, essay, story, or novel, especially a conversation between two characters, or a literary work that takes the form of such a discussion (e.g., Plato's Republic).
Diary
an informal record of a person's private life and day-to-day thoughts and concerns.
Diction
the choice of a particular word as opposed to others
Didactic
writing that is "preachy" or seeks overtly to convince a reader of a particular point or lesson.
Doggerel
a comic or burlesque verse, and usually loose or irregular in measure. Ex.- “To Banbury I came, O profane one!/ Where I saw a Puritane-one/ Hanging of his cat on Monday/ For killing of a mouse on Sunday.”
Double Entendre
The deliberate use of ambiguity in a phrase or image--especially involving sexual or humorous meanings. Ex.- “You dirty hoe!” from The Cat and the Hat.
Dramatic convention
the specific actions or techniques the actor, writer or director has employed to create a desired dramatic effect/style.
Dramatic irony
when the words and actions of the characters of a work of literature have a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters. This is the result of the reader having a greater knowledge than the characters themselves.
Dramatic monologue
a piece of spoken verse that offers great insight into the feelings of the speaker.
Elegy
to any poem written in elegiac meter (alternating hexameter and pentameter lines).
Ellipsis
the artful omission of a word implied by a previous clause.
Empathy
which literally translates as 'in feeling', is the capability to share and understand another's emotions and feelings. It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes".