Eduqas Vocab List Flashcards
Allegory
A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Allusion
A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art
Alliteration
Repetition of consonant sounds
Ambiguity
An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way.
Archaic
Very old or old-fashioned
Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds
Ballad
A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas
Blank Verse
Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter
Caesura
A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line.
Characterisation
The way a writer creates a character in order to convince the reader
Cliché
An overused expression
Colloquial
Characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation
Conciet
Extended metaphor
Diction
A writer’s or speaker’s choice of words
Didactic
Instructive
Dramatic Irony
When a reader is aware of something that a character isn’t
Dramatic Monologue
A poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener
Dramatic Tension
The suspense in a story when you know something bad is going to happen
Enjambment
A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the next.
Irony
Whe use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning
Mock-heroic
Imitating the style of heroic literature in order to satirize an unheroic subject
Monosyllabic
Having only one syllable
Motif
A recurring theme, subject or idea
Narrative Stance
The viewpoint adopted by the character telling the story.
Octave
8 line stanza
Oxymoron
Conjoining contradictory terms (as in ‘deafening silence’)
Paradox
A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
Parody
A work which imitates another in a ridiculous manner
Pathos
Emotional appeal
Quatrain
4 line stanza
Rhyming Couplets
Pairs of rhyming lines, usually of the same meter and length
Soliloquy
A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage
Sonnet
A verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
Staging
All the devices except dialogue which a dramatist uses to communicate to an audience
Stream of Consciousness
A style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character’s mind.
Syntax
Sentence structure
Tragic Hero
A protagonist with a fatal flaw which eventually leads to his or her demise
Unreliable Narrator
A narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised
