Academic Vocabulary Flashcards
Allegory
Def: A longer story with a moral truth or lesson
Ex: Lord of the Flies
Anaphora
Def: in writing or speech, the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effect
Ex: Rudyard Kipling’s “If”
Parable
Def: a short story typically with a moral lesson at the end
Ex: “The Good Samaritan”
Fable
Def: a short story/tale w/animals meant to teach a lesson/moral truth
Ex: Aesop’s “The Fox and the Crow”
Allusion
Def: a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance
Ex: LOF Bible allusion w/Simon=Jesus
Microcosm
Def: a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger
Ex: LOF island represents (British) society/ the world
Symbol
Def: signify ideas and qualities by giving them meanings that are different from their literal sense
Ex: LOF Beastie symbolized savagery and fear
Imagery
Def: to use figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses
Ex: Genesis and Eden; LOF pinkish color of island
Motif
Def: an image, sound, action or other figures that have a symbolic significance and contributes toward the development of theme that repeats itself throughout a literary work
Ex: LOF conch
Context
Def: Anything beyond the specific words of a literary work that may be relevant to understanding the meaning
Ex: LOF and WWII
Juxtaposition
Def: a literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts
Ex: William Blake’s “The Tyger” and “The Lamb”
Implicit
Def: implied/suggested and not plainly expressed
Ex: implicit thesis
Explicit
Def: clear and obvious
Ex: explicit thesis in Twenge’s “Social Media is a Narcissism Enabler”
Connotation
Def: refers to a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly; Words carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings in addition to their literal meanings or denotations
Ex:
Denotation
Def: literal or dictionary meanings of a word in contrast to its connotative or implied meanings
Ex:
