General terms

Question 1

Allegory

Answer 1

Rhetorical device that creates a close comparison

Question 2

Burlesque

Answer 2

Satire that uses caricature

Question 3

Colloquial language

Answer 3

the informal language of conversation

Question 4

Denouement

Answer 4

Culmination or result of an action, plan or plot

Question 5

Diatribe

Answer 5

Impassioned rant or angry speech of denunciation

Question 6

Empiricism

Answer 6

basing knowledge on direct, sensory perceptions of the world. Facts established by experience not theory

Question 7

Foreground

Answer 7

Emphasise or make prominent

Question 8

Form

Answer 8

Type of literary expression chosen by an author

Question 9

Genre

Answer 9

Different literary forms. General categories, (poetry) but also specific ones (sonnet)

Question 10

Hype

Answer 10

Used to indicate an attempt to deceive the public by over-rating the value of a commodity or experience

Question 11

Hyperbole

Answer 11

Use of exaggeration for effect

Question 12

Intertextuality

Answer 12

Describing the many ways in which texts can be interrelated, ranging from direct quotation to parody

Question 13

Ludic origin

Answer 13

From the Lation word “ludo”, a game

Question 14

Ludic

Answer 14

A text that plays games with readers’ expectations and/or the expectations aroused by the text itself.

Question 15

Meta origin

Answer 15

from the Greek meaning “above or beyond”

Question 16

Meta

Answer 16

Often used in compound words “metatext” etc. To describe moments when a text goes beyond its own fictionality.

Question 17

Metaphor

Answer 17

A comparison that creates a direct correspondence

Question 18

Modernism

Answer 18

Name given to experiments carried out in poetry, prose, and art from around 1920-39

Question 19

Narrator/narrative voice

Answer 19

Conveys a story. Different types

Question 20

Oxymoron

Answer 20

Language device where two opposite words or meanings are used side by side

Question 21

Parody

Answer 21

The reducing of another text to ridicule by hostile imitation “reductio ad absurdum”

Question 22

Pathetic fallacy

Answer 22

The use of setting, scenery or weather to mirror the mood of a human activity

Question 23

Poetic justice

Answer 23

Literary version of the saying “hoist with his own petard”. The trapper is caught by the trap in an example of ironic but apt justice. Doesn’t usually turn up in poetry

Question 24

Point of view

Answer 24

is an opinion

Question 25

viewpoint

Answer 25

the foundation on which an opinion is based

Question 26

Postmodernism

Answer 26

Postmodern texts tend to be aware of their own artifice, be filled with intertextual allusions, and ironic rather than sincere (Ode to a Grayson Perry Urn)

Question 27

Reportage

Answer 27

Literally means reporting news. Literary criticism often means the inclusion of documentary material in a text

Question 28

Satire

Answer 28

A destructive reduction of an idea, image, concept or text. Can employ exaggeration, mimicry, irony or tone.

Question 29

Semantics

Answer 29

The study of how words create meaning

Question 30

Semantic field

Answer 30

The area of language from which a text draws most of its tropes

Question 31

Signifier

Answer 31

an indicator

Question 32

signified

Answer 32

the indicated

Question 33

Simile

Answer 33

a comparison introduced with ‘like’ or ‘as’

Question 34

Stream of consciousness

Answer 34

Removal of conventional sentence structure and grammar in an attempt to imitate the free flow of thoughts

Question 35

Symbol

Answer 35

More independent that a metaphor and less specific than an allegory. Often elusive in their exact meaning

Question 36

Symbolism

Answer 36

Creating or detecting symbols within a work

Question 37

Text

Answer 37

postmodernist concept designed to eradicate distinction between literary genres

Question 38

Transgressive

Answer 38

Crossing of a boundary of culture or taste, usually with a subversive intention

Question 39

Trope

Answer 39

Any of the devices whereby art language differentiates itself from functional language

Question 40

Valorise

Answer 40

To invest with value

Question 41

Writing back

Answer 41

Describes the appropriation of a text or genre and a rewriting in response. Frequently employed by post-colonial writers or feminist writers