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Lit and Rhet Terms
Literary and Rhetorical terms
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| aphorism | a short often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life |
| apostrophe | (usually in poetry but sometimes in prose) the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction |
| argumentation | writing that attempts to prove the validity of a point of view or an idea by presenting reasoned arguments (persuasive writing is a form of argumentation) |
| assonance | the repetition of vowel sounds (such as neigh/fade) |
| authority | support for an argument that is based on recognized experts in the field |
| burlesque | broad parody; whereas a parody will imitate and exaggerate a specific work, such as Romeo and Juliet, a burlesque will take an entire style or form, such as myths, and exaggerate it into ridiculousness |
| cacophony | hars, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony |
| caricature | descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person's appearance or a facet of personality |
| classicism | the principles & styles admired in the classics of Greek and Roman literature, such as objectivity, sensibility, restraint, and formality |
| coherence | quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme or organizing principle |
| colloquialism | a word/phrase used in everday conversation and informal writing but that is often inapporpriate in formal writing |
| conceit | an elaborate figure of speech in which two seemingly dissimilar tthings/situation are compared |
| connotation | implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind |
| consonance | the repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowel sounds, as in boost/best (it can also be seen within several compound words, such as fulfil and ping-pong) |
| conundrum | a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; it may also be a paradox or difficult problem |
| denotation | literal meaning of a word as defined |
| description | the picturing in words of something or someone through detailed observation of color, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch (one of the 4 MODES OF DISCOURSE) |
| diction | word choice, an element of style (also called SYNTAX) |
| discourse | spoken or written language, including literary works; the 4 traditionally classified Modes of Discourse are 1)description 2)exposition 3)narration 4)persuasion |
| dissonance | harsh or grating sounds that do not go together |
| epigram | a concise, witty saying in poetry or prose that either stands alone or is part of a larger work (it may also refer to a short poem of this type) |
| euphony | a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose (the opposite of cacophony) |
| exemplum | a brief tale used in medieval times to illustrate a sermon or to teach a lesson |
| exposition | the immediate revelation to the audience of the setting and other background info. neccessary for understanding the plot (also, explanation; one of the 4 MODES OF DISCOURSE) |
| figurative language | language that contains FIGURES OF SPEECH, such as similies and metaphors, in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal |
| figures of speech | expressions such as similes, metahpors, and personifications, that make imaginative, rather an literal, comparisons or associations |
| folklore | traditional stories, songs, dances, and customs that are preserved among a people (folklore usually precedes literature, being passed down orally from generation to generation until recorded by scholars |
| foreshadowing | the use of a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs later in the work |
| genre | a type of literary work, such as a novel or poem (there are also subgenres, such as science fiction or sonnent, within the larger genres |
| hubris | the excessive pride or ambition that leads a tragic hero to disregard wanings of impending doom, eventually causing his/her downfall |
| humor | antying that causes laughter or amusement (up until the end of the Renaissance, humor meant that a person's temperament |
| hyperbole | deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis |
| idyll | ashort descriptive narrative, usually a poem, about an idealized country life (also called a PASTORAL) |
| imagery | words or phrases that use a collection of images to appeal to one or more of the five senses in order to create a mental picture |
| interior monologue | writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head |
| inversion (effectively) | reversing the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase; it is used effectively in many cases, such as posing a question: "Are you going to the store?" |
| inversion (ineffectively) | often it is used ineffectively in poetry, making it sound artificial and stilted: "to the hounds she rode, with her flags behind her streaming" |
| irony | a situation or statement in which the actual outome or meaning is opposite to what was expected |
| lose sentence | a sentence that is complete before its end such as "Thuy played the violin with excitement" |
| metaphor | a FIGURE OF SPEECH in which one thing is reffered to as another; for ex, "my love is a fragile flower" |
| metonymy | a FIGURE OF SPEECH that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using "the crown" to refere to a monarch |
| mode | the method or form of a literary work; the manner in which a work of literature is written |
| mood | similar to tone, mood is the primary emotional attitude of a work |
| motif | main theme or subject of a work that is elbaorated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea |
| myth | one story in a system of narratives set in a complete imaginary world that once served to explain the origin of life. religious beliefs and the forces of nature as supernatural occurences |
| narration | the telling of a story in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama; one of the four MODES OF DISCOURSE |
| naturalism | a literary movement that grew out of realism ini France, the US, & England. It portrays humans as having no free will, being driven by the natural forces of heredity, environment, and animalistic urges over which they have no control |
| objectivity | an impersonal presentation of events and characters |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that sound like what they mean such as hiss and boom |
| oxymoron | a FIGURE OF SPEECH composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool" |
| parable | a short tale that reaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory |
| paradox | a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in this quotation from Hengry David Thoreau: "I never found the companion that was so companionable as soltitude." |
| parallelism | the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form |
| parody | a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements |
| periodic sentence | a sentence that is not complete until its last phrase such as, "Despite Glenn's hatred of his sister's laziness and nosity heating habits, he still cared for her." |
| persona | a fictional voice that a writer adopts to tell a story, determined by subject matter and audience; eg. Mark Twain |
| personficiation | the attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or an inanimate object |
| persuasion | a form of argumentation, one of the four MODES OF DISCOURSE; language intended to convence through appeals to reason or emotion |
| point of view | the perspective from which a story is presented |
| first person narrator | a narrator, referred to as "I," who is a character in the story and relates athe actions through his own perspective, also revealing his own thoughts |
| stream of consciousness narrator | like a first-person narrator, but instead of placing the reader inside the character's head, making the reader privy to the continous, chaotic flow of disconnected, half-formed thoughts and impressions in the character's mind |
| omniscient narrator | a third-person narrator, reffered to as "he," "she," or "they," who is able to see into each character's mind and understands all the action |
| limited omniscient narrator | a third-person narrator who reports the thoughts of only one chracter and generally only what that one character sees |
| objective narrator | a thrid-person narrator who only reports what would be visible to a camera; thoughts anf eelings are only revealed if a character speaks of them |
| protagonist | the main character of a literary work |
| realism | a 19 century literary movement in Europe & the US that stressed accuracy in the portrayal of life, focusing on characters with whom middle-class readers could easily identify; it is in direct contrast with romanticism |
| regionalism | an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the local and its influences as a major part of the plot |
| rhetoric | the art of using language effectively |
| What does rhetoric involve? | 1)writer's purpose 2)his consideration of the audience 3)the exploration of subject 4)arrangement & organization of the ideas, 5)style & tone of expression 6)form |
| rhetorical modes | exposition, description, narration, argumentation |
| When did the romanticism movement began? | a literary, artistic, & philosophical movement that began in 18 century as a reaction to neoclassicism |
| What are the focal points of the romanticism movement? | imagination, emotion, freedom, stressing subjectivity, individuality, the love and worship of nature, & a fascination with the past |
| sarcasm | harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony |
| simile | a FIGURE OF SPEECH that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between tow different objects, actions, or qualities; for ex: "the sky looked like an artist's canvas" |
| speaker | the voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or as a fictitious persona |
| stereotype | a character who represents a trait that is regarded to a social or racial group and who lacks individuality |
| style | an author's characteristics manner of expression |
| subjectivity | a personal presentation of events and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions |
| suspension of disbelief | the demand made that the reader accept the incidents recounted in the literary work |
| symbolism | the use of symbols or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as representative of a higher and more complex significance |
| synecdoche | a FIGURE OF SPEECH in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "wheels" to mean a car |
| syntax | word choice of diction |
| theme | the central idea of "message" of a literary work |
| tone | the characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience |
| unity | quality of a piece of writing (see COHERENCE) |
| voice | the way a written work conveys an author's attitude |
Created by:
Tiffastic
Popular English Verbs sets