English Lit Midterm

Front 1

Pacing

Back 1

Duration of particular episodes, especially relative to each other and to time they would have taken in real life.

Front 2

Discriminated Occasion

Back 2

When author slows down to home in on a particular moment and scene, often introduced by a phrase such as "later that evening" or "the day before Maggie fell"

Front 3

Climax

Back 3

Turning point, epiphany

Front 4

Limited Third Person

Back 4

Single character's views and thoughts, also known as focal character or central consciousness

Front 5

Implied author

Back 5

Not to be confused with flesh & blood person who wrote the work or the narrator who relates words top us. The perspectives and values govern whole work, including narrator

Front 6

Foreshadowing

Back 6

Subtle hints or clues of what's to come

Front 7

Flat character

Back 7

Don't learn anything, 1 dimensional

Front 8

Round character

Back 8

Fleshed out, 3 dimensional

Front 9

Stock

Back 9

Stereotype

Front 10

Static

Back 10

Character doesn't change

Front 11

Dynamic

Back 11

Character changes, major character

Front 12

Archtype

Back 12

Transcends time and place; idea, symbol, character; pushing boundaries on how nature and people function; literary elements that recur in literature and myths of multiple cultures

Front 13

Liminal space

Back 13

Threshold, such as marriage alter, grad stage; cross roads; time such as dawn, dusk, midnight; transitional; good or bad

Front 14

Allegory

Back 14

An extended association, often sustained in every element (character, plot, setting, etc) throughout an entire work, between two levels of meaning, usually literary and abstract (animal farm allegory for revolution in Russia)

Front 15

Allusion

Back 15

A reference, usually brief, to another text or some person or entity external to the work.

Front 16

Irony

Back 16

A meaning or outcome contrary to what is expected; a verbal irony, a speaker or narrator says one thing and means the reverse. When the intended meaning is harshly critical or mocking, it is called sarcasm.

Front 17

Metaphor

Back 17

A representation of one thing as if it were something else, without a verbal signal such as like or as

Front 18

Metonymy

Back 18

Using the name of one thing to refer to another thing associated with it. The common phrase red tape is a metonym for excessive paperwork and procedure that slows down an official transaction.

Front 19

Oxymoron

Back 19

A combination of contradictory and opposite ideas, qualities or entities, as in wise fool

Front 20

Personification

Back 20

Sometimes called anthropomorphism, attributing human qualities to objects or animals

Front 21

Simile

Back 21

A representation of one thing as if it were something else, with an explicit signal, such as like or as

Front 22

Symbol

Back 22

A person, place, object or image that represents more than its literal meaning. A symbol usually associates more than 2 entities or ideas and may be obscure or ambiguous in its meaning. (Short stories may refer to the central symbolic figure in the title, such as cathedral)

Front 23

Synedoche

Back 23

A form of metonymy (or name substitution) in which the part represents the whole (sail refers to a ship)

Front 24

Synethesia

Back 24

Blurred senses; seeing red

Front 25

Dramatic irony

Back 25

Audience knows something the characters do not

Front 26

Freytag's pyramid

Back 26

Five parts of plot: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, conclusion

Front 27

Temporal setting

Back 27

The plot time or time in which the story takes place

Front 28

Theme

Back 28

A general idea or insight conveyed by the work in its entirety

Front 29

Moral

Back 29

Rule of conduct or maxim for living