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226 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Ad Hominem
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a type of fallacy that involves commenting on or against a person to undermine him instead of his arguments; literally means "against the man"
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Affixation
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adding a prefix or suffix to a word
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Allegory
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a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically moral or political
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alliteration
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Repetition of initial consonant sound
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allusion
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A reference to another work of literature, person, or event
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Ambiguity
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the use of words that allows alternative interpretations; while it can expand the literal meaning of a passage, it may promote errors in understanding
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Analogy
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a figure of speech used to compare one thing to another using similes and metaphors (Ex: comparing the world to a stage or the heart to a pump)
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Analytic Language
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language that uses very few bound morphemes (i.e. –es, –ing, –ed). Example: the English language
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Anapest
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a foot consisting of 3 syllables in which the first two are short or unstressed and the third is long or stressed (Ex: "in the FIRE" or "Twas the NIGHT before CHRISTmas, when ALL through the HOUSE...."
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Anaphora
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a rhetorical term for the repetition of a word phrase at the beginning of several clauses(ex: as the repetition of "one hundred years later" in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech)
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Anastrophe
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changing the subject, verb, and object order in a sentence; also known as inversion
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Anecdote
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a brief story that illustrates or makes a point
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Antagonist
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stands in opposition to the protagonist, the bad/evil element
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Anthropomorphism
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a device on which the writer attributes human characteristics to an animal being or inanimate object(ex: Puss in Boots, veggies in "Veggie Tales", M&M characters, and attributes to the diety like "His eye upon you..."
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Anticlimax
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a disappointing end to a series of exciting events
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Antithesis
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literally means opposite, is a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence for a contrasting effect
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Aphorism
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a concise statement made in a matter of fact tone to state a principle or an opinion that would be considered a universal truth ie "shape up or ship out"
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Apocalypse
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genre of prophetical writing, comes from Greek word meaning revelation
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Apostrophe
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speaker detaches himself from reality and addresses an imaginary character in speech, ie in Macbeth imagines himself talking to a dagger before killing King Duncan
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Archaic
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old–fashioned words that are no longer used in common speech(ex: thee, thy, and thou)
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Archetype
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a reference to a concept, person or object that has served as a prototype of its kind and has come to be used over and over again. ie the hero, the damsel, the villain
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Argument
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logical fallacies....making an error in terms of reasoning..appeal to logic (logos), to emotion (pathos), to the perceived character of the speaker (ethos)
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Assonance
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the repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables (Ex: The green leaves fluttered in the breeze.)
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Backdrop Setting
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a setting that in not essential to the plot; a figurative setting that could have been anywhere and the story would still work
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Backformation
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when a suffix identifiable from other words is cut off of a base which has previously not been a word; that base is then used as a root, and becomes a word through widespread use (Ex: "self–destruct" from "self–destruction" and "burger" from "hamburger")
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Ballad
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a song–like narrative poem, usually written in rhymed stanzas of 4 to 6 lines that feature repetition and strong meter; typically anonymous and often a love story
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Biographical Criticism
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uses knowledge of the author's life experiences to gain a better understanding of the work
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Biography
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account of someones life written by someone else
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Blank Verse
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poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter; Shakespeare writes in this form
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Blending
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combining two words, such as "breakfast" and "lunch" to form "brunch" and "smoke" and "fog" to form "smog"
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Burlesque
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a drama or musical performance that uses caricatures and mockery intended to cause laughter
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Cadence
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the natural rhythmic rise and fall of language as it is normally spoken
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Caesura
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break between words within a metrical foot
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Canon
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a group of literary works considered by some to be central or authoritative to the literary tradition(ex: the Western canon includes works from Homer, Shakespeare, Hemingway, Faulkner, Frost, Dickinson, etc.)
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Caricature
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a picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect.
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Catastrophe
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the "turning downward" of action in a tragedy; an event causing great and often sudden damage
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catharsis
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cleansing of emotions for characters, renewal, emotional discharge
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characterization
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Actions, dialogue, and narrative description that reveal a sense of a character's personality to the reader.
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cliche
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expression that has been overused, actions and events that are predictable
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Clipping
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shortening words, as in "math" for "mathematics" and "doc" for "doctors"
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Closet Drama
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a play that is not intended to be performed on stage, but read by a solitary reader or a small group aloud
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Colloquialisms
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expressions that are usually accepted in informal situations or regions(ex: "wicked awesome," "wanna," "go nuts," and "buzz off")
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Comedy
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characters start at a sad beginning and progress to a happy ending
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Compounding
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joining two or more words (Ex: "whitewash" and "skateboard")
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Conceit
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a figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together with the use of similes and metaphors; an elaborate metaphor
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Condescension
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a literary element in which the author talks down to the reader as if they are beneath him or her in age, class, or knowledge
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Confession
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a type of modern fiction in which the reader knows the thoughts and feelings of the main character but not the other characters (Ex: The Hunger Games, The Little House Series)
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Connotation
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the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning; contains an emotional association
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Consonance
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the repetition of final consonant sounds in stressed syllables with different vowel sounds (Ex: The king sang a song.)
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Conversion
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using a word of one category in another category without change (Ex: using the noun "comb" also as then verb "comb")
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Couplet
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a grouping of 2 lines of poetry with the same rhyme
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Cultural Criticism
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focuses on social, historical, and economical contexts of a work
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Dactyl
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a foot of 3 syllables in which the first is long or stressed, and the next 2 are short or unstressed (Ex: "TAKE her up TEN–der–ly...")
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denotation
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dictionary definition of a word
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Denouement
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the final moment of a plot where everything is revealed and explained/the ending of a book
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dialect
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A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.
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Dialogic
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a literary theory term that advances the idea that works of literature carry on a dialogue with other works of literature and other authors
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Diction
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the choice and use of words and phrases in a speech or writing
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Dimeter
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two feet
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Discourse
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denotes language in actual use within its social and ideological contexts (i.e. communication)
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Doublespeak
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the misuse of language, often in a deliberate and even calculating way in order to mislead (Ex: "persuasion" for "torture" or "preowned" instead of "second–hand" or "used")
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Drama
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theater; genre; realistic characters dealing with emotional issues
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Dramatic Irony
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a contrast between what the character believes or says and what the reader believes to be true (Ex: Macbeth appears to be loyal to Duncan, but he is planning Duncan's murder. Duncan doesn't know Macbeth's plans, but the audience know what is going happen.)
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Dramatic Poetry
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a poem that presents the speech of one or more speakers in a dramatic situation
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Dynamic Character
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a character who develops or changes throughout a work
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Elegy
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a poem with a mournful lament for the dead
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End Rhyme
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rhyming words that fall at the ends of 2 or more lines (Ex: crawls, walls, and falls)
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English Sonnet
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a 14–line lyric poem consisting of 3 quatrains and a couplet and written in iambic pentameter; usually rhymed abab cdcd efef gg;
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Enjambment
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also known as a run–on line in poetry; occurs when one line ends and continues onto the next line to complete the meaning(ex: the first line of one of Thoreau's poems is "My life has been the poem I would have writ," and the second completes the meaning––"but I could not both live and utter it."
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Epic
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a long, narrative poem featuring adventures of gods, and/or heroes which is typically derived from oral tradition
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Epilogue
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a section at the end of a book or play that concludes the story further or connects on the story
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epiphany
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that moment in the story where a character achieves realization, awareness or a feeling of knowledge after which events are seen through the prism of this new light in the story.
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Episodic Plot
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features individual chapters or episodes that are related (containing the same character, setting, theme) to each other but which include stories unto themselves
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Epistrophe
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the repetition of a words or phrases at the end of successive clauses or sentences; typically appeals to the emotions of the audience
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Epithet
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a descriptive phrase or word frequently used to characterize a person or thing(ex: "the father of psychology" refers to Sigmund Freud)
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Ethno Linguistics
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a study of how language determines and reflects worldview of people
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Euphemism
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the substitution of less–offensive words for words considered explicitly offensive (Ex: "passed away" for "died")
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Exact or True Rhyme
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words that end in both the same vowel and the same consonant sounds (Ex: sun and run)
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Existentialism
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a literary movement of the 19th and 20th centuries that emphasized individual existence, freedom, and choice; members contend that there is no objective, rational basis for moral choice; writers include Sorn Kierkegaard, Blaise Pascal, Friederick Nietzsche, Martin Heideggar, and Jean–Paul Sartre
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exposition
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literary device used to introduce characters, background, setting etc
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Extended Metaphor
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a metaphor introduced and then further developed throughout all or part of a literary work, especially a poem (Ex: Robert Frost's use of two roads in "The Road Not Taken.")
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Fable
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a fictional story in prose that usually involves animals, mythical creatures and/or forces of nature that are given human qualities and that teach moral lessens
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Fairy Tale
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a narrative made up of fantastic characters and creatures; they often follow a certain pattern and present an "ideal" to the listener or reader (i.e. a beautiful, kind and long–suffering woman waits for her prince to come and save her from any disappointment or disaster that may occur)(Ex: "Cinderella," Snow White," and "Repunzel")
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Feminist Criticism
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understanding from a woman's point of view; seeks to correct or supplement what os regarded as a predominantly male–dominated critical perspective with a formal consciousness
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Figurative Language
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language not meant to be interpreted literally (i.e. a way of adding information to the writing and of encouraging the reader to think about the text)
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figure of speech
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a word or phrase used in a nonliteral sense to add rhetorical force to a spoken or written passage.
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First Person Point of View
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the story unfolds through the eyes of one central character; the story may be biased; uses, I, me, and my
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Flat Character
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a character who is not fully developed
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Folktale
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a tale or legend originating and traditional among people, especially one forming part of the oral tradition
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Foot
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one stressed syllable and a number of unstressed syllables; in a line, eight are possible
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foreshadowing
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literary device that uses images or phrases to hint at whats to come
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Formal Criticism
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focuses on formal elements of the work such as language, structure, and tone, plot, characterization, and narrative technique, etc.
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Formal Verse
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poetry that follows fixed patterns
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Frame Story
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a literary device in which a story is enclosed in another story
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free verse
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poetry form free from limitations of regular meter and rhythm and does not rhyme in fixed forms
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Genre
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a category of literature defined by its style, form, and content
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Haiku
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an unrhymed 3–line lyric poem, usually focused on images from nature, in which lines 1 and 3 have five syllables and line 2 has seven syllables (think 5–7–5)
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Hermeneutics
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the art and science of text interpretation
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Heroic Couplet
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a pair of lines of poetic verse written in iambic pentameter
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Historical Criticism
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uses history to understand works along with social and intellectual currents in which the author wrote
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Homonym
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one of a group of words that share the same spelling and pronunciation but may have different meanings (Ex: "bark" can mean the outer layer of a tree trunk or the sound a dog makes)
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Homophone
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a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning and may differ in spelling (Ex: "rose" can American Modernist; the past tense of "to rise" to the flower; also "carrot," "carat," and "caret")
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Hubris
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the flaw that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero
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Humor
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a type of tone that conveys fun
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Hyperbole
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an exaggeration to make a point or to emphasize (Ex: I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!)
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Iambic Pentameter
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refers to a certain kind of line poetry, and has to do with the number of syllables in the line and emphasis placed on those syllables; a line consists of 5 feet, each consisting of one short or unstressed syllable followed by one long or stressed syllables (Ex: "Two HOUSEholds BOTH aLIKE in DIGniTY.)
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Iambic Unit
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a foot of 2 syllables which consists of an unstressed or short syllable followed by a stressed or long syllable (Ex: goodBYE)
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Idiom
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an expression specific to a certain language that means something different from the literal meaning(Ex: "bought the farm" and "jump the gun")
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Imagery
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descriptive language that creates word pictures (Ex: "A thick–yellow haze hung over the city blocking out buildings, blinding the sun."
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Incongruity
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the intentional joining of opposites
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Integral Setting
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a setting that is essential to the plot
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Internal Rhyme
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rhyming words placed with in a line (Ex: The mouse in the house woke the cat.)
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inversion
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practice of changing the conventional placement of words
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irony
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A contrast or discrepancy between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen.
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Italian Sonnet
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lines are divided into a group of 8 (octet) and group of 6 (sestet); the fist 8 lines are set up with an "abba abba" rhyme scheme, and the second 6 lines are set up with a "cdcdcd" or "ceded" rhyme scheme
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Legends
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stories––usually exaggerated––about people, places, and things (Ex: Paul Bunyan: he may have been a lumberjack, but it is doubtful that he had a blue ox or was as big as they say.)
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Limerick
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a humorous verse composed of five anapestic lines with the rhyme scheme of aabbaa, popularized by Edward Lear (Ex: There was an Old Man of Nantucket...)
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Limited Omniscient Point of View
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narrator who does not share all information about characters' thoughts and/or actions
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Literary Criticism
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defines, classifies, analyzes, interprets, and evaluates literature; types include historical, textual, feminist, biographical, cultural, and formal
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Lyrical Poem
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a type of poem that is not clearly narrative and where a single speaker conveys a thought, emotion, or sensory impression; originally meant to be sung, the poem can be of any length
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Malapropism
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a type of pun or play on words that results when two words become mixed up in the speaker's mind(Ex: "The police are not here to create disorder; they are here to preserve disorder.")
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Memoir
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an historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special resources
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Menippean Satire
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a type of modern fiction which allows the reader to see the world through the eyes of another; characterized by attacking mental attitudes instead of specific individuals (EX: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
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metaphor
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a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
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Metaphysical Poetry
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a kind of poetry exhibiting a highly intellectual style, which is witty, subtle, and somewhat fantastic; poets include John Donne, George Hebert, Andrew Marvell, Abraham Cowley, John Cleveland, Richard Crashaw, Thomas Trahane, and Henry Vaughan
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Meter
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rhythmic patterns built on the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in poems
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Metonymy
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a thing or concept is called not by its own name but rather by the name of something associated inmeaning with that thing or concept
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mock heroic
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(of a literary work or its style) imitating the style of heroic literature in order to satirize an unheroic subject.
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Modernism
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literary movement occurring during the first decades of the 20th century; typical is experimentation and the realization that knowledge isn't absolute; common themes are a loss of a sense of tradition and the dominance of technology; influential theories were Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, Max Planck's quantum theory, and Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious
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monologue
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a long speech delivered by a character
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Monometer
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one foot
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Monosyllabic
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a word consisting of one syllable; also describes a person using brief short words to signify a reluctance to conversation
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mood
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A story's atmosphere or the feeling it evokes.
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Morpheme
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the smallest grammatical unit in language
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Motif
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a recurring element that has symbolic significance in the story
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Myth
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a traditional story concerning the history of early people or civilizations or explaining some natural phenomenon involving supernatural beings or events
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Narrative Poem
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a poem that tells a story
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Naturalism
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sought to identify the underlying cause for a person's actions or beliefs; writers include Edith Wharton, Frank Norris, Emile Zola, Stephen Crane, Jack London, John Steinbeck, Ellen Glasgow, Richard Wright
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Noodle–head Tale
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a type of humorous folk tale; has characters whom the listener can out smart
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Novel
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a type of modern fiction that recounts realistic stories that could or could not have happened; believable characters with believable setting
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Objective Point of View
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a narrator who tells the happenings without opinion; does not share thoughts or feelings of characters
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Octet
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a group of 8 lines in poetry that share a rhyming pattern
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Ode
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a long lyric poem on a serious subject usually written in precise structure
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Omniscient Point of View
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"all knowing"; narrator knows and shares about all characters' thoughts and actions
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Onomatopoeia
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the use of words to imitate sounds (Ex: the bees buzzed, and the brook gurgled)
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overstatement
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making to seem more important than it really is
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Oxymoron
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a statement that contradicts itself (Ex: "jumbo shrimp")
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Parable
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a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson (Ex: stories told by Jesus like "The Good Samaritan" and "The Lost Coin"
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paradox
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A statement that appears to be self–contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity.
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parallelism
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a literary technique in which Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning are placed side by side, balancing each other
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Parody
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a type of tone that is a humorous or ridiculing imitation of something else
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Pastoral
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literature portraying an idealized notion/picture of country life
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Pathetic Fallacy
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the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals(Ex: the somber clouds darkened our moods)
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Pentameter
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a line of 5 metrical feet
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persona
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the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others
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personification
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A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes
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picaresque
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of or relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero.
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plot
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Sequence of events in a story
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point of view
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mode of narration. First person– I and we. Second person– you. Third person– He, she, They.
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Progressive Plot
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requires the reader to read the entire book or story to find the answer to the questions
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Prose
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ordinary grammatical structure with no rhythmic pattern; natural flow of speech
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Pun
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a play on words based on multiple meanings or on words that sound alike but have different meanings
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quatrain
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4 line stanza
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Realism
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a literary movement which was a 19th century reaction to Romanticism; the novel gained popularity during this time; the movement embraced a true–to–life approach to subject matter––focussing on everyday life; writers include Honore de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, George Eliot, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Mark Twain
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Refrain
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the repetition of a line or phrase of a poem at regular intervals, particularly at the end of each stanza
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Reversal of Fortune Theme
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a form of fiction that usually includes a change or a complete transformation of a character in situation and/or attitude
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Rhetoric
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persuasive writing
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Rhetorical Question
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a question that is posed but does not actually require an answer
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Rhyme
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the repetition of alike sounds in poetry
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rhyme royal
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A seven–line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ababbcc, used by Chaucer and other medieval poets.
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Rhyme Scheme
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a set pattern of rhyme; types include true rhyme, slant rhyme, end rhyme, and internal rhyme
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Rhythm
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the flow or cadence of words
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Romance
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a type of modern fiction that while it may or may not involve a love story, it always contains fantasy; an idealized version of life
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Romanticism
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a literary movement that "emphasized imagination, fancy, and freedom, emotion, wildness, beauty of the natural world, the rights of individual, the mobility of the common man, and the attractiveness of pastoral life"; writers include William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Victor Hugo
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Round Character
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a character who is fully developed
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sarcasm
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A type of verbal irony in which, under the guise of praise, a caustic and bitter expression of strong and personal disapproval is given.
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Satire
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an artist critique, sometimes heated, on some aspect of human immorality or absurdity
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scansion
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The process of marking lines of poetry to show the type of feet and the number of feet they contain
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Second Person Point of View
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a narrator who employs "you"
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Sentimentality
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a type of tone that involves excessive use of feeling or emotion
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Sestet
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a group of 6 lines in poetry that share a rhyming pattern
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setting
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The context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs.
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Short Story
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a prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that generally describes just one event or a tightly constructed series of events; it must contain a beginning, middle, and end
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Simile
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comparing unlike things using "like" or "as"
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Situational Irony
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a discrepancy between what happens and what the reader expects to happen (Ex: a vegan who eats something with meat because they are hungry)
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Slant Rhyme
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words that end in similar but not exact sounds (Ex: prove and love)
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soliloquy
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a monologue usually revealing the actor's inner feelings and delivered while alone on stage
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Spenserian stanza
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the stanza used by Spenser in The Faerie Queene, consisting of eight iambic pentameters and an alexandrine, with the rhyming scheme ababbcbcc.
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Spondee
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a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, both of which are stressed
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Sprung Rhythm
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poetic rhythm designed to imitate natural speech; the first syllable is stressed followed by variable unstressed syllables; poet Hopkins gets credit for the rhythm
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Static Character
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a character who does not change
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stock character
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A character type that appears repeatedly in a particular literary genre, one which has certain conventional attributes or attitudes.
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stream of consciousness
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a literary style in which a character's thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue. James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Marcel Proust are among its notable early exponents.
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Stress Shift
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changing the stress from one syllable to another changes the meaning and the pronunciation (Ex: "record" as a noun and "record" as a verb)
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strophe
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the first section of an ancient Greek choral ode or of one division of it; a structural division of a poem containing stanzas of varying line–length, especially an ode or free verse poem.
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Style
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enhances the flow of words to make writing more appealing and clarify the meaning; types are denotation, connotation, alliteration, consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, and rhythm
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Superego
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the part of the personality representing the conscience, the one that holds morals
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Surrealism
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a literary movement of the 20th century in which works feature the elements of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions, and non–sequiturs; it was aimed to free people from false rationality and restrictive customs and structures
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Survival of the Fittest Theme
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when characters are faced with many life–threatening situations (Ex: Treasure Island)
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Symbol
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a thing that stands for an idea
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Symbolism
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a literary movement (beginning in France) in which writers aimed to evoke, indirectly, and symbolically, an order of being beyond the material world of the 5 senses; the aim was to express in words the highly complex feelings that grew out of everyday contact with the world (i.e. flags representing a nation, empty cupboards suggesting hopelessness, poverty, and depression); writers include Charles Baudelaise, Arthur Rimbauld, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and T.S. Eliot
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Synecdoche
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a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something (Ex: "coke" for all carbonated drinks, "suits" referring to businessmen, "gray beard" refers to an old man)
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Synesthesia
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the juxtaposition of one sensory image with another that appeals to an unrelated sense(Ex: from Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale"––"Tasting of Flora and the green country..." where visual and gustatory senses are triggered)
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Terza Rima
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a 3–line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern aba–bcb–cdc–ded; first used by Italian poet Dante Alighieri
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Tetrameter
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a line of 4 metrical feet
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Textual Criticism
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either uses recension (the selection of the most trustworthy evidence on which to base a text) or emendation (the effort to eliminate all errors in even the best manuscript
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Theme
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the main idea or central meaning of the book
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Third Person Point of View
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a narrator who doesn't participate in action but can reveal thoughts and actions of characters; employs he, she, it, they, and them
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tone
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Attitudes and presuppositions of the author that are revealed by their linguistic choices (diction, syntax, rhetorical devices)
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Tragedy
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a dramatic work that presents the downfall of a hero, usually his/her death; this bad ending is the hero's own fault.
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Transcendentalism
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a religious and philosophical movement that was developed during the late 1820's and 1830's in the Eastern region of the U.S. as a protest against the general state of spirituality; writers include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau
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Transcendentalist Writers
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Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Louisa May Alcott, George Ripley, William Ellory Channing
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Trimeter
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a line of 3 metrical feet
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trochaic pentameter
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pattern of stressed – unstressed (2 syllables) repeated five times (or for five feet)
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Trochee
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a foot that has two syllables in which the first long or stressed, and the second syllable is short or unstressed (Ex: from Macbeth––"DOUble, DOUble, Toil and TROUble..."
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Types of Traditional Literature
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fable, folklore, myth, legend, fairy tale, parable, noodle–head tale
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Understatement
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a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is
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Verbal Irony
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a contrast between what is said and what is meant (Ex: "The water is as clear as mud." ––The speaker is saying that the water is not really clean.)
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villain
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a wicked or evil person, often the antagonist
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Villanelle
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a 19–line poem with 2 rhymes throughout, consisting of 5 tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the end of the concluding quatrain
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Voice
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describes the writer's individual writing style and the author's use of dialogue, diction, alliteration, and other devices; the "fingerprint" of the writer
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zeugma
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a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g., John and his license expired last week ) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts ).
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Argument |
the main statement of a poem, an essay, a short story, or a novel that usually appears as an introduction or a point on which the writer will develop his work in order to convince his readers. |
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Logos |
Greek word meaning logic. Logos is a literary device that can be defined as a statement, sentence or argument used to convince or persuade the targeted audience by employing reason or logic. |
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Pathos |
quality of an experience in life or a work of art that stirs up emotions of pity, sympathy and sorrow. Pathos can be expressed through words, pictures or even with gestures of the body. |
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Ethos |
represents credibility or an ethical appeal which involves persuasion by the character involved. |
