American Literature Flashcards
The repetition of a similar sound most often consonant sounds at the beginning of words
Alliteration
A reference in a work of literature to a character, a place or situation from history from music and art or another work of literature
Allusion
A comparison to show similarities between two things that are otherwise dissimilar. Writers often use an analogy to explain something unfamiliar by comparing it to something familiar
Analogy
A person or a force that opposes the protagonist or central characters in a story or drama. The reader is generally meant not to sympathize with the antagonist.
Antagonist
A short pointed statement that expresses a wise or clever observation about the human experience.
Aphorisms
In play a comment made by a character that is heard by the audience or another character but is not heard by the audience or another character is not heard by another character on stage
Aside
The dominant mood or feeling conveyed by a piece of writing.
Atmosphere
The story of a person’s life written by that person.
Autobiography
An account of someone’s life written by someone else.
Biography
The creation or construction of a fictional character.
Characterization
Greek or Roman principles and style in art and literature, generally associated with harmony, restraint, and adherence to recognized standards of form and craftsmanship, especially from the Renaissance to the 18th century.
Classicism
The climax or turning point of a narrative work is its point of highest tension and drama, or it is the time when the action starts during which the solution is given. The climax of a story is a literary element.
Climax
is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.
Comedy
A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group
Dialect
Conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie
Dialogue
The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.
Diction
is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television
Drama
A long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation
Epic
A pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way
Epigram
An adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.
Epithet
is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author’s own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have traditionally been sub-classified as formal and informal.
Essay
A comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory.
Exposition
A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.
Fable
A comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.
Farce
literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types of literature in the fiction genre include the novel, short story, and novella. The word is from the Latin fictiō, “the act of making, fashioning, or molding.”
Fiction
Phrasing that goes beyond the literal meaning of words to get a message or point across. This definition dates back to the mid-nineteenth century and comes from the Old French word “figuratif,” meaning “metaphorical.” Writers create figurative language through figures of speech.
Figurative language
is when memories of a past trauma feel as if they are taking place in the current moment
Flashback to
Prevent (something considered wrong or undesirable) from succeeding
Foil
The traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth.
Folklore
A story originating in popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth
Folktale
is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or a chapter, and it helps the reader develop expectations about the upcoming events
Foreshadowing
is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories.
Frame Story
A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.
Genre
A person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities
Hero
is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting located in the past.
Historical Fiction
is the practice of writing history in a story-based form. It tends to entail history-writing based on reconstructing series of short-term events, and ever since the influential work of Leopold von Ranke on professionalising history-writing in the nineteenth century has been associated with empiricism.
Historical Narrative
The quality of being amusing or comic, especially as expressed in literature or speech.
Humor
Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
Hyperbole
Phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase.
Idiom
Part of the figurative language in a literary work, whereby the author uses vivid images to describe a phenomenon.
Imagery
The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
Irony
The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with a contrasting effect.
Juxtaposition
A traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.
Legend
Okay A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources.
Memoir
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
Metaphor
is a scene that temporarily takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future.
Flash-forward
The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with a contrasting effect.
Juxtaposition
An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect
Parody
The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
Personification
A plan made in secret by a group of people to do something illegal or harmful.
Plot
A particular attitude or way of considering a matter.
Point of View-
A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing
Stereotype
A person’s thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow. The term was introduced by William James in his Principles of Psychology (1890).
Stream of Consciousness
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
Metaphor
The manner, position, or direction in which something is set. 2 : the frame or bed in which a gem is set also : style of mounting. 3a : the time, place, and circumstances in which something occurs or develops. b : the time and place of the action of a literary, dramatic, or cinematic work.
Setting
An event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe.
Tragedy
The presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is.
Understatement
An act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play
Soliloquy
is a figure of speech that directly compares two things. differ from other metaphors by highlighting the similarities between two things using comparison words such as “like”, “as”, “so”, or “ than”, while other metaphors create an implicit comparison.
Simile
based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets
Science Fiction
A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.
Paradox
A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g. faith unfaithful kept him falsely true ).
Oxymoron
is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as oink, meow, roar, and chirp
Onomatopoeia
A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.
Myth
Prose writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people, such as biography or history.
Nonfiction
To adorn or embellish to display conspicuously, to publish or proclaim widely
Blazon
the right or condition of self-government
Autonomy
Self-evident expressing a universally accepted principle or rule
Axiomatic
A general pardon for an offense against a government in general, any act of forgiveness or absolution
Amnesty
A warning or caution to prevent misunderstandings or discourage behavior
Caveat
Fair, just embodying principles of justices
Equitable
To free from entanglement or difficulties to remove with effort
Extricate
To steal,especially in a sneaky way and in petty amount
Flich
To mock , test with contempt
Flout
Tending to be troublesome unruly quarrelsome contrary unpredictable
Fractious
A rule of conduct or action
Precept
Beneficial helpful healthful wholesome
Salutary
Bitterly severe withering causing great harm
Scathing
To whip punish severely a cause of affliction or suffering a source of severe punishment or criticism
Scourge
Funereal typical to the tomb extremely gloomy
Sepulchral
Tending to cause sleep relating to sleepiness or something that induced sleep
Soporific
Extremely strict in regard to moral standards and conduct prudish puritanical
Straitlaced
Lasting only a short time fleeting one who stays only a short time
Transient
Not easily carried or handled or managed because of size or complexity
Unwieldy
Dull uninteresting tiresome lacking in sharpness flavor liveliness or force
Vapid
Her approach to the problem seems to have been guided by the time-honored blank that force is the remedy for nothing
Precept
Since the close of World War 2 almost 100 former colonies have gained full blank and joined the family of nation
Autonomy
She has made so many contradictory promises to so many people that I don’t see how she can blank herself from the situation
Extricate
Shiver went up and down our spines as in blank voice the teacher spoke to us of ghosts vampire and the living dead
Sepulchral
The new government seeking to restore normal conditions declared blank for all political prisoner
Amnesty
Guided by stem Principles
Precept
A doleful atmosphere during the service
Sepulchral
Flog the oxen unmercifully
Scourge
Dubious motto to live by
Axiomatic
Subjection of small nation
Autonomy
To conceal the famous trademark
Blazon
As the opens
Blanche has just arrived at Elysian Fields and is looking for Stella apartment
Blanche feels guilty about her husband death because
He killed himself after she told him that he disgusted her
Blanche last abs most famous line in the play is
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers
The real reason Blanche left her job in Mississippi is that
She seduced a student which caused her to be fired
The plantation where Blanche and Stella grew up is called
Belle Reve
Stanley is meant to represent
The primitive nature of man
When Blanche first meets Mitch
She thinks he is more sensitive than the others men present
Who puts up the paper lantern for Blanche
Mitch
When Blanche tells Stella that Stanley attacked her Stella
Refuses to believe it is true
Stella is primarily attracted to Stanley
Physical being and animal energy
Blanche prefer dimly lit rooms because
Babe believes that her looks are fading
When the young man comes to the door collecting for the papers Blanche
Invites him in and attempt to seduce him
The play’s climax occurs when
?
Blanche says sometimes there’s god so quickly when
Mitch shows that he understand her and appears to fall in love with her
How does William use light and shadow to dramatize the rape scene
He has grotesque sinuous shadow appears on the wall behind Blanche
Blanche constantly bathing in symbolic of her
Desire to purify herself of corruption
When Stanley first finds out about the loss of Belle Reve he ?
Think that Blanche has sold the place and has swindled him and Stella
When Stanley bellows for Stella to come downstairs after their fight he is compared
A baying hound
On the day Blanche is sent to the asylum where does she believe she is going
To the Caribbean on a cruise with Shep Huntleigh
Has a dying mother
Mitch
Is going to have a baby
Stella
Is very sensitive about her age
Blanche
Is romantically interested in Blanche
Mitch
Is married to Stanley
Stella
Is a disgraced school teacher from Mississippi
Blanche
One of the players at the poker party
Mitch,Stanley,Pablo,Steve
Angry alpha male
Stanley
Is married to Steve
Eunice
Blanche sisters
Stella
Has a sordid past
Stanley
Kissed a young man when he comes to the apartment
Blanche
Stanley best friend
Mitch
Can’t stand his sister in law because of her superior attitude
Stanley
Was married once but her husband committed suicide
Blanche
Is married to Eunice
Steve
Tom is frightened when he first sees the devil
False
The buried treasure that the devil presided in ver was said to have come from
Kidd
Tom feels grateful to the devil for ridding him of his wife
True
On the day that toms walker meets the devil he kicks what?
Skull
When Tom walker finds his wife checked apron tied to a tree he discover?
A heart and liver
