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77 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Alienation
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from Marxism, suggests that under Capitalism we live estranged from our true human natures
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Allegory
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a story of some complexity that corresponds to another situation on a deeper level, a dual perspective giving...(e.g. interest and wit)
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Alliteration
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repetition of an identical consonant sound at the beginning of stressed words, usually close together - look at the effet it creates... (e.g. draw together unlike ideas for contrast, suggest meaning through the sound effect, link similar things for emphas
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Allusion
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a reference to an event, person, place, work of literature etc. that gives additional layers of meaning to a text or enlarges its frame of reference
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Ambiguity
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where language and tone are (usually deliberately) unclear and may have two or more interpretatins or meanins
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Ambivalence
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where the writer's attitude to, e.g., a character or event is not clear-cut, but may seem to hold at least two responses
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Antithesis
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contrasting ideas by balancing words of opposite meaning and idea
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Apostrophe
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an exclamatory passage where the speaker or writer breaks off in the flow of a narrative or poem to address a dead or absent person, a particular audience, or object (often personified)
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Assonance
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repetition of similar vowel sounds close to one another - can create atmosphere in descriptive poetry
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Atmosphere
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often confused with 'mood', it refers specifically to place, a setting, or surroundings
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Bathos
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a sudden descent from the sublime or serious, to the ridiculous or trivial
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Bildungsroman
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German term for a novel focusing on the development of a character from youth to maturity
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Blank verse
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unrhymed poetry not broken into stanzas, keeping to a strict pattern in each line, usually in iambic pentameter - clost to the rhythm of speech
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Caesura
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a break or pause within a line of poetry by comma or full stop or unmarked pause, used for emphasis, or to change direction or pace
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Caricature
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an exaggerated representation of a character often by emphasising a small number of features, usualy for comic or satiric purposes
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Colloquial
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everyday speech and language as opposed to literary or formal register - the inclusion of the odd colloquial word or phrase in an otherwise formal work can be striking
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Conceit
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a witty thought or idea or image, a fanciful or deliberately far-fetched comparison, as found in 16th and 17th century English poetry
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Concrete
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refers to objects or aspects that may be percieved by the senses
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Connotation
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an association that a word may suggest
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Consonance
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where the final consonants are the same in two or more words close together
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Couplet (rhyming couplet)
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two consecutive rhyming lines of verse - may clinch or emphasise an idea
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Defamiliarization
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the technique of making the familiar seem new and strange, and thus making us see more vividly - may be done through point of view
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Denouement
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how the ending of of a novel or play turns out, how the plot is unravelled or revealed - literally, from the French, 'unknotting'
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Diction
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the writer's choice of words or vocabulary
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Didactic
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describes the tone or intention to preach a (usually) moral, political or religious point - usually has a negative connotation
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Dramatic irony
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tool especially in drama, used for tragic or comic purposes - where a character(s) is/are unaware of somethign that the audience/reader and possibly other characters on stage are away of
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Elegy
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a mournful lament for times past or the dead - has particular poetic from but can be used more generally - 'elegiac' describes a meditative mood in prose or vers, reflecting on the past
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End-stopped line
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a line of poetry where the meaning pauses or stops at the end of the line - a statement or idea can stand out clearly, and provide a pause for reflection
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Enjambement
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the opposite of end-stopped line, the sense flows over from one line to another, perhaps even to the next stanza - can reflect a build-up of emotion or create dramatic effect
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Epigram
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a concise, pointed, witty statement - epigrammatic' style in prose or poetry
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Form
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the shape of a work, the arrangement of its parts, the patterns, divisions and structures used - in poetry, there are traditional, metrical and rhyming 'forms' (ode, ballad, sonnet etc.) and modern, non-metrical forms
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Free verse
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verse written without any fixed or traditional structure in metre or rhyme - very flexible because it follows the speech rhythms of the language
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Genre
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a specific type or kind of literature, such as drama, prose, poetry, essay, autobiography
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Grain
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a reader can go acceptingly along wih assumptions and values in a text, or go 'against the grain', resisting and questioning values and assumptions in that text - also apply to other situations...
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Hyperbole
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a deliberate exaggeration for various effects, comic, tragic, etc.
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Iambic
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'iamb' is a metrical measure, or foot, in which an unstressed sullable is followed by a stressed syllable - iambic pentameter (five iambs in a line) is the commonest metrical pattern in English poetry - tetrameter (four-iamb line)
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Idyll/idyllic
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refers to innocent simple life in idealised rural setting
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Imagery
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concrete descriptions (images) we can see and sense in works of literature
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Internal rhyme
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where there are rhymes within a line instead of, or as well as, at the ends of lines
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Irony
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a gap or mismatch between what is being said, and what is intended, perhaps between the way a character or group sees him/her/itself, and the way the author wishes us to see him/her/it - exposes hypocrisies and lack of awareness
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Lyric
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originally a song performed to a lyre (early harp) - now a sonlike poem expressing personal feeling - prose can be lyrical too, expressive of feelings
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Metaphor
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a comparison of two things without using a comparing word such as 'like' - to see a striking similarity between to normally unlike things can be an indicator of originiality - it provides richness of sensation and meaning - comparison may be implied rathe
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Metre
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the organisationg of lines of verse into regular patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to achieve a rhythmic effect
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Mimesis
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describes an interesting and common effect: the use of words that suggest movement, shape, size, texture (smooth, rough, soft)
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Mood
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refers to people, describes a person's (a character's or the narrator's) frame of mind or state of feeling - may also indicate the emotional response the author hopes to evoke in the mind of the reader
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Monologue
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speech, usually of some length, by a single speaker - a 'dramatic monologue' has a listener present and reveals the character of the speaker in a striking way
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Motif
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recurrent elements (images, ideas) in a work - not as significant as themes but have a cumulative effect like a refrain and can assume symbolic importance
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Omniscient Narrator
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'all-knowing', describing one who stands outside and can see into all characters and happenings
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Onomatopoeia
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effect of words that imitate the sound of things
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Oxymoron
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where two words of opposite meaning are joined - can suggest something quite complex or provocative
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Paradox
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seemingly contradictory statement, but on reflection, it makes sense, contains its own resolution or truth
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Parody
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usually comic imitation of another work
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Pastiche
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a literary work composed in the style of a well-known author
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Persona
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the identity or character assumed by the author in a work of literature
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Personification
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where the human feelings or sensations are attributed to an inanimate object - human qualitites may also be given to abstract ideas
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Plot
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the events of a narrative in the order the author has chosen to present them - chronology may be distorted for particular effects, as in flashbacks or flash forwards; e.g. a novel may begin with the ending of the story
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Point of view
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the angle from which the narrative is seen or told - who sees? who speaks? - may shift in a work
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Protagonist
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main character in a work
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Quatrain
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stanza or group of four lines that can have different rhyme schemes
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Refrain
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repetition in a work of literature of a phrase or lines
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Rhythm
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aplies to both prose and poetry and has to do more generally with the flow of sound created by stressed and unstressed syllables (steady, irregular?)
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Satire
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exposing and ridiculing of human follies in a society, sometimes with the aim to reform, sometimes predominantly to deflate - may be gentle, comin, biting or bitter, or a combination
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Setting
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context in which a work of literature takes place: geographical, social, historical, generalised, conventional, symbolic etc.
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Simile
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where the comparison is made explicit with 'as' or 'like' - make descriptions vivid and unusual
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Skaz
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a technique of narration that mirrors oral narration with its hesitations, corrections, grammatical mistakes, interations etc.
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Soliloquy
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a speech by a character alone on stage, thinking aloud, revealing thoughts and emotions, or communicating directly with the audience - tool for revealing psychological complexity
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Sonnet
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a fourteen-line rhyming poem often in iambic pentameter - rhyme schemes and organisation of lines vary, depending on the type of sonnet, but often set out as a block of 8 lines (octave) or 6 lines (sestet)
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Stanza
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blocks of lines into which a poem is organised - in traditional forms of poetry each stanza follows a scheme governing metre, lines and rhymes
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Story
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the events of a narrative in the chronological order which they actually happened
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Stream of consciousness
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the impression of a random stream of thoughts
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Style
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the distinctive traits in an author's work, the 'how' of writing - concerns theme, diction (emotional, abstract, poetic), sentence structure, imagery, sound, etc.
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Subtext
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ideas, feelings, thoughts, not dealt with directly in the text but existing underneath - plays: characters don't always express their real thoughts
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Symbol
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objects that represent or evoke an idea or concept of wider, abstract significance
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Syntax
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grammatical structure of words in a sentence - normal order of words can be slightly displaced to create a particular effect, without losing the sense
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Theme
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central ideas or issues, often abstract, explored or illustrated in a text - can also refer to an argument raised or pursued in the text, like a thesis
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Tone
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the technique of writing to convey the attitude of the writer towards his/her subject, created through aspects of language like diction, syntax, rhythm, which will suggest a 'tone of voice' - emotional meaning
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Trochee/trochaic
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the reverse of iambic, it may be used as a contrast within an iambic line, to stress an idea
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