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2Q Literary Terms
Question | Answer |
---|---|
means "to or against"; argument that attacks the person rather than his/her position | ad hominem |
logical argument involving a major premise, minor premise, and a conclusion; "all birds have feathers, penguins are birds, therefore penguins have feathers" | syllogism |
poetry written in iambic rhythm (U/) with consecutive rhyming lines; "the sun that brief December day Rose cheerless over hills of gray" | iambic couplet |
the use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning; ex-buzz, snap, clang | onomatopoeia |
the person who speaks in a literary work, from the Latin word for "mask"; not to be confused with the author | persona |
a type of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things. it may be brief or extended throughout the poem; ex-Franklin's epitaph | poetic conceit |
a monologue in which a character speaks his/her thoughts | soliloquy |
a type of comedy based on a farfetched humorous situation, often with ridiculous or stereotyped characters | farce |
a crude, coarse, often bitter satire ridiculing the personal appearance or character of a person | lampoon |
a form of satire in which a heroic elevated style of the classical epic is applied to a trivial subject | mock epic |
speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or vituperates against someone or something; it employs a heavy use of negative emotive language | invective |
the use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complimentary in structure or meaning | parallelism |
a simple and clear style of writing | plain style |
a highly elaborate style of writing | ornate style |
the attitude a writer takes toward his or her subject, characters, and readers | tone |
marked by or exhibiting a fawning activeness | obsequious |
the quality in a work that arouses a feeling of pity, sorrow, or compassion in the reader | pathos |
a question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; "are we to believe that the world is flat?" | rhetorical question |
a tone or mood that is characterized by cheerful optimism; characterized by a ruddy complexion and courageous, optimistic, and romantic temperament | sanguine |
a character who sets off another character by contrast; ex- Antonio and Shylock | foil |
the writing device of placing two or more things together, especially in order to suggest a link between them or emphasize the contrast between them | juxtaposition |
a style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character's thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character feels them | stream of consciousness |
a figure of speech using exaggeration or overstatement for special effect; "I tried to call you a thousand times last night" | hyperbole |
a figure of speech in which understatement is used to create emphasis by negotiation; "not bad", "no mean feat" | litotes |
a figure of speech in which something very closely associated with a thing is used to stand for or suggest the thing itself: ex- Crown for King, White House for President | metonymy |
a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory ideas or terms; not to be confused with paradox; "wise fool", "sweet sorrow" | oxymoron |
statement that appears self-contradictory but contains truth; "much madness is divinest sense" | paradox |
a figure of speech in which part of a thing is used to stand for or suggest the whole; ex-faces for people | synecdoche |
a movement or tendency in art, literature, and music reflecting the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome; emphasizes the traditional and the universal, placing value on reason, clarity, balance and order; rational over irrational | classicism |
a movement that flourished in literature, philosophy, music, and art in Western culture during most of the 19th century, beginning as a revolt against classicism; emphasizes emotion, intuition and the imagination over reason and logic; | romanticism |
a philosophy which holds that basic truths can be reached through intuition rather than reason; intuition, rather than reason, allows us to "transcend" the material world and know our souls and their relation to the spiritual world | transcendentalism |