IB English Glossary Flashcards
Alienation
Suggests that under Capitalism we live estranged from our true human nature
Allegory
A story of some complexity that corresponds to another situation on a deeper level
Alliteration
Repetition of an identical consonant sound at the beginning of stressed words, usually close together
Allusion
A reference to an event, person, place, work of literature, etc. that gives additional layers of meaning to a text or enlarges its frame of reference
Ambivalence
Where the writer’s attitude to, for example, a character or event is not clear-cut, but may seem to hold at least two responses
Antithesis
Contrasting ideas by balancing words of opposite meaning an idea
Apostrophe
An exclamatory passage where the speaker or writer breaks off in the flow to address a dead or absent person, a particular audience, or object
Assonance
Repetition of similar vowel sounds close to one another
Atmosphere
Refers specifically to PLACE, a SETTING, or SURROUNDINGS
Bathos
A sudden descent from the sublime or serious, to the ridiculous or trivial
Bildungsroman
German term for a novel focusing on the development of a character from youth to maturity
Blank Verse
Unrhymed poetry not broken into stanzas, keeping a strict pattern in each line, usually in iambic pentameter
Caesura
A break or pause WITHIN A LINE of poetry by comma or full stop or unmarked pause, used for emphasis, or to change direction or pace
Caricature
An exaggerated representation of a character by emphasizing a small number of features, usually for comic and satiric purposes
Colloquial
Everyday speech (ain’t) and language as opposed to literary or formal register
Conceit
A witty thought or idea or image, a fanciful or deliberately far-fetched comparison (16th and 17th century English poetry)
Concrete
(As in concrete detail) Refers to objects or aspects that may be perceived by the senses
Connotation
An association that a word may suggest
Consonance
Where the final consonants are the same in two or more words close together
Contradiction
Stating or implying the opposite of what has been said or suggested
Couplet (rhyming couplet)
Two consecutive rhyming lines of verse
Defamiliarization
The technique of making the familiar seem new and strange
Denouement
How the plot is unraveled or revealed
Diction
The writer’s choice of words or vocabulary
Didactic
Describes the tone or intention to preach a (usually) moral, political, or religious point
Dramatic Irony
Where a character is unaware of something that the audience/reader and possibly the other characters on state are aware of
Elegy
Describes a meditative mood in prose or verse, reflecting on the past
End-stopped line (opposite of enjambment)
A line of poetry where the meaning pauses or stops at the end of a line
Enjambment (opposite of end-stopped line)
The meaning flows over from one line to another; can reflect a build-up of emotion or create a dramatic effect
Epigram
A concise, pointed, witty statement
Form
The shape of a work, the arrangement of its parts, he patterns, divisions, and structures used
Free Verse
Verse written without any fixed or traditional structure in meter or rhyme (early 20th century)
Genre
A specific type or kind of literature, such as drama, prose, poetry, essay, autobiography
Grain
(“Reading against the grain”); Resisting and questioning values and assumptions in that text
Hyperbole
A deliberate exaggeration for various effects, comic, tragic, etc.
Iambic
A metrical measure, or foot, in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable
Idyll/Idyllic
Refers to innocent simple life in idealized rural setting
Imagery
Concrete descriptions (images) we can see and sense in works of literature
Interior Monologue
The character is thinking to him/herself in language, in words, conscious of what he/she is thinking
Internal Rhyme
Where there are rhymes within a line instead of, or as well as, at the end of lines
Irony
A gap or mismatch between what is being said, and what is intended
Lyric
A songlike poem expressing personal feeling
Metaphor
A comparison of two things without using a comparing word such as “like” or “as”
Meter
The organization of lines of verse into regular patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to achieve a RHYTHMIC EFFECT
Mimesis
The use of words that suggest movement, shape, size, texture
Mood
Describes a person’s (a character or the narrator’s) frame of mind or state of feeling
Monologue
Speech, usually of some length, by a single speaker
Motif
Recurrent elements (images, ideas) in a work
Omniscient Narrator
It literally means ‘all-knowing’
Onomatopoeia
The effect of words that imitate the sound of things (‘hiss,’ ‘crash.’)
Oxymoron
Where two words of opposite meaning are joined - “an open secret”
Paradox
Seemingly contradictory statement, but on reflection, it makes sense, contains it’s own resolution or truth (“Nature’s first green is gold:”)
Parody
Usually comic imitation of another work
Pastiche
A literary work composed in the style of a well-known author
Persona
The identity or character assumed by the author in a work of literature
Personification
Where human feelings or sensations are attributed to an inanimate object
Plot
Refers to the events of a narrative in the order the author has chosen to present them
Point of View
It is the angle from which the narrative is seen or told
Protagonist
Main character in a work
Quatrain
Stanza or group of four lines that can have different rhyme schemes
Refrain
Repitition in a work of literature of a phrase or lines
Rhythm
The flow of sound created by stressed and unstressed syllables
Satire
Exposing and ridiculing of human follies in a society, sometimes with the aim to reform, sometimes predominantly to deflate
Setting
Context in which a work of literature takes place
Simile
Where a comparison is made explicit with ‘as’ or ‘like’
Skaz
A technique of narration that mirrors oral narration with its hesitations, corrections, grammatical mistakes, interactions, etc.
Soliloquy
A speech by a character alone on stage, thinking aloud, revealing thoughts and emotions, or communicating directly with the audience
Sonnet
A fourteen-line rhyming poem often in iambic pentameter
Stanza
The blocks of lines into which a poem is organized
Story
The events of a narrative in the chronological order in which they actually happened (think time line)
Stream of consciousness
The impression of a random stream of thoughts; this is the representation of a random succession of thoughts and sensations in a character’s mind, especially when alone
Style
The distinctive traits in an author’s work, the ‘how’ of writing. It concerns theme, diction, sentence construction, imagery, sound, etc.
Subtext
Ideas, feelings, thoughts, not dealt with directly in the text but existing underneath
Symbol
Objects that represent or evoke an idea or concept of wider, abstract significance (as roses represent love)
Syntax
The grammatical structure of words in a sentence
Theme
Central ideas or issues, often abstract explored or illustrated ina text
Tone
Conveys the attitude of the writer towards his/her subject
Trochee/trochaic
May be used as a contrast within an iambic line, to stress an idea
