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Lit Terms Eng 12
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Simile | An explicit comparison between two different things, actions, feelings, using the words ‘like and ‘as’ in the figure of speech. |
| Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to an event, person, place or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained, but relies on the reader’s familiarity of that which is mentioned. |
| Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines two usually contradictory terms in a paradox. |
| Personification | A figure of speech where animals, inanimate objects or abstract ideas are given human characteristics. |
| Assonance | The repetition of vowel sounds n neighbouring words. |
| Alliteration | The repetition of the same initial sounds (usually consonants) of neighbouring words, ‘landscape lover, lord of language’ (Tennyson) |
| Dissonance | Harshness of sound or rhythm, either inadvertent or deliberate. |
| Onomatopoeia | The use of words that seem to imitate the sounds they refer to. |
| Flashback | A writer produces information which occurred prior to events which have already been revealed in a narrative/story. |
| Repetition | Deliberately repeating a word, phrase, format or saying again for the purpose of emphasis. |
| Apostrophe | The speaker in a literary work addresses an abstract idea or an absent person as if he/it is present. |
| Parallel Structure | An arrangement of similarly constructed clauses, sentences or verse lines, the effect being a balanced arrangement by the repetition of syntactic forms. |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis in a figure of speech, not meant literally. |
| Irony | A subtly humourous perception of inconsistency, in which an apparently straightforward statement or event is undermined by its context, so as to give it a very different significance. |
| Metonymy | A figure of speech which replaces the name of one thing with the name of something else closely associate with it. |
| Consonance | The repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighbouring words whose vowel sounds are different. |
| Lyric | A fairly short poem expressing the personal mood, feeling or meditation of a single speaker. |
| Satire | Writing that exposes the failings of individuals, institutions, societies to ridicule or scorn. |
| Parody | A mocking imitation of the style of a literary work, ridiculing the stylistic habits by exaggerated mimicry. |
| Narrative | A story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious. 2. A book, literary work, etc., containing such a story. |
| Cacophony | Harsh discordance of sound; dissonance: a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails. Also, a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds: the cacophony produced by city traffic at midday. |
| Internal Rhyme | A poetic device by which two or more words rhyme within the same line of verse. |
| Pun | A play on words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but they differ in meaning, which results in an odd or ludicrous idea. |
| Juxtaposition | Placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast. |
| Understatement | A form of irony in which something is intentionally represented as less than in fact it is. |
| Ode | An elaborately formal lyric poem often in the form of a lengthy ceremonious address to a person or abstract entity, always serious and elevated in tone. |
| Ballad | A folk song or orally transmitted poem about a popular story/ hero, often about a tragic incident in local history or legend. |
| Dramatic Monologe | In a poem where a single, fictional character/speaker addresses a silent ‘audience’ of one or more persons. |
| Slang | Very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid, and ephemeral than ordinary language. |
| Jargon | Speech filled with unfamiliar terms to those not a member of a specific group for whom the terms have meaning in the context of their group only. |
| Allegory | A story or image with a distinct second meaning. In a narrative, allegory follows a parallel between two or more levels of meaning. It can be used as a method of satire. |
| Antagonist | The character in fiction or drama who stands directly opposed to the protagonist. A rival or opponent of the protagonist. |
| Atmosphere | The mood which is established by the literary work. |
| Blank Verse | Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. |
| Cliché | 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, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox. |
| Climax | The point at which a play or story reaches its highest intensity, especially in drama. |
| Conflict | The problem or issue that the protagonist must face in a narrative. |
| Contrast | The differences between two or more items. To show differences when compared: siblings who contrast sharply in some way or other. |
| Couplet | A pair of rhyming verse lines, usually of the same length. |
| Denotation | he literal meaning of a word (dictionary definition). |
| Dénouement | The unraveling or untying of the complications of a plot in a play or story. |
| Dramatic irony | Words or actions of a character in a play may carry a meaning unperceived by her/himself but understood by the audience. |
| Dynamic character | A dynamic character is one that does undergo an important change in the course of the story. |
| Flat character | A simple, unchanging character in a story. |
| Free verse | Form of poetry that does not conform to a regular meter, line length or specific rhyme scheme. |
| Image/Imagery | Uses of language in a literary work that evoke sense-impressions by literal or figurative reference to seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting. |
| Paradox | A statement or expression that is self-contradictory. |
| Point of view | Refers to the outlook point from which the events in a novel/ short story are related. This involves 1) first person narrative 2) third person narrative (may be omniscient- showing unrestricted knowledge of events from all characters’ perspectives). |
| Quatrain | A verse/stanza of four lines, rhymed or (less often) unrhymed. |
| Refrain | A line, a group of lines or a part of a line repeated at regular intervals in a poem, usually at the end of each stanza. |
| Round character | The representation of persons in a narrative or drama who are complex and therefore more realistic than a ‘flat’ character. |
| Stanza | An arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem. |
| Symbol | Something that stands for something else beyond it. Crosses and flags can function symbolically. In literature a symbol can create especially evocative imagery. |
| Theme | An abstract idea that emerges from a literary work’s treatment of its subject matter. |
| Tone | term usually designating the mood or atmosphere of a work, although in some more restricted uses it refers to the author’s attitude to the reader. |
| Euphemism | A mild or indirect word or expression for one too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. |
| Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa. |
| Metaphor | A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. |
| Monologue | A long speech by one actor in a play or movie, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast program. |
| Elegy | A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead. |
| Didactic | Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive. |
| Melodramatic | A dramatic form that does not observe the laws of cause and effect and that exaggerates emotion and emphasizes plot or action at the expense of characterization. |
| Active Voice | One of the two “voices” of verbs when the verb of a sentence is in the active voice, the subject is doing the acting, as in the sentence. |
| Colloquialism | Informal expressions used in daily speech, differing in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. |
| Anachronism | Misplacement of a person, event, custom or thing outside of its historical time. |
| Aphorism | Wisdom condensed into a few words. |
| Archetype | A theme, symbol, setting or character that embodies some essential element of human existence. |
Created by:
LindsMoulaison
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