Exam Flashcards
Ambiguity
Deliberately suggesting two or more different/ conflicting meanings in a work
Analogy
Comparison of two things to show they are alike
Anaphora
Repetition of word or phrase at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row
Antihero
Central character lacking all qualities traditionally associated with heroes.
Apostrophe
Calling out to an imaginary, dead or absent person, place or thing, or a personified abstract idea.
Comedy
in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters.
Colloquialism
a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations.
Connotation
Associations and emotional overtones attached to a word/phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition
Conceit
an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different
Dialect
Way of speaking typical of a certain social group or geographical area.
Epic
Long poem recounting the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the value of a particular society
Epigraph
Quotation/ aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.
Fable
Short story time in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in Life
Farce
Type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far fetched situations.
Foreshadowing
Use of hints/ clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot
Hyperbole
A figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect.
Inversion
The reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase
Dramatic irony
Where a character thinks one thing is true, but the audience knows better.
Situational irony
Takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen
Juxtaposition
Where normally unassociated ideas, are placed next to one another, creating
Litotes
Is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form
Metaphor
A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as than, or resembles.
Metonymy
A figure of speech in which a noun is referred to by something closely associated with it.
Motivation
The reasons for a characters behavior
Parable
Short story teaching a moral about how to lead a good life
Paradox
Statement appearing self contradictory but reveals a kind of truth
Omniscient point of view
Omniscient/ all knowing narrator tells the story, using 3rd person pronouns
Objective point of view
A narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events
Parallel structure
The repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures
Protagonist
Central character who initiates action
Ballad
A popular narrative song passed down orally
Caesura
a pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, usually indicated by punctuation or by a grammatical boundary, such as a phrase or clause.
Couplet
two lines of verse, usually in the same meter, with the same end-rhymes.
Elegy
a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died
Enjambment
the continuation of the sense and grammatical construction from one line of poetry to the next.
Eulogy
s great praise or commendation, a
laudatory speech, often about someone who has died.
Romance
in general, a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest and is successful
Satire
a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change
Soliloquy
a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage
Sonnet
normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem
Stereotype
a fixed idea or conception of a character or an idea which does not allow for any individuality, often
based on religious, social, or racial prejudices
Synecdoche
a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole.
Theme
the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work.
Tragedy
in general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy
Villanelle
a nineteen-line poem divided into five tercets and a final quatrain.
