Key Term Summer Vocab Flashcards
Allegory
a prose or poetic narrative in which the characters, behavior, and even the setting demonstrates multiple levels of meaning and significance
Alliteration
The sequential repetition of a similar initial sound, usually applied to consonants, usually heard in closely proximate stressed syllables.
Allusion
A reference to a literary or historical event, person, or place.
Anapestic
A metrical foot in poetry that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed
Anaphora
The regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses
Anecdote
A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature
Antagonist
Any force that is in opposition to the main character or protagonist
Antithesis
the juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words, phrases, grammatical structures, or ideas
Apostrophe
an address or invocation to something that is inanimate- such as an angry lover who might scream at the ocean in their despair
Archetype
recurrent designs, patterns of action, character types, themes, or images which are identifiable in a wide range of literature Ex: femme fatale
Assonance
a repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually those found in stressed syllables of close proximity
Asyndeton
a style in which conjunctions are omitted, usually producing a fast paced, more rapid prose
Attitude
the sense expressed by the tone of voice and/or the mood of a piece of writing; the feelings the author holds towards his subject, the people in his narrative, the events, the setting, or even the theme
Ballad
A narrative poem that is, or originally was, meant to be sung. Repetition and refrain characterize the ballad
Ballad Stanza
a common stanza form consisting of a quatrain that alternates 4 beat and 3 beat lines: 1 and 3 are unrhymed and 2 and 4 are rhymed
Blank Verse
the verse form that most resembles common speech, blank Verse consists of unrhymed lines in iambic pentameter
Juxtaposition
the location of one thing as being adjacent or juxtaposed with another. This placing of 2 items side by side creates a certain effect, reveals an attitude, or accomplishes, some purpose of the writer
Limited point of view
a perspective confined to a single character.
Litote
a figure of speech that emphasizes its subject by conscious understatement`
loose sentence
a sentence grammatically complete, and usually stating its main idea, before the end
lyric
originally designated poems meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre; now any short poem in which the speaker expresses intense personal emotion
message
a misleading term for theme; the central idea or statement of a story, or area of inquiry or explanation
metaphor
one thing pictured as if it were something else, suggesting a likeness or analogy between them. It is an implicit comparison or identification of one thing with another unlike itself without using like or as
meter
the more or less regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Determined by the kind of “foot” and by the number of feet per line
metonymy
a figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something
mood
a feeling or ambiance resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the author’s attitude and point of view. Created through descriptions of feelings or objects that establish an emotion
motif
a recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event
Narrative structure
a textual organization based on sequences of connected events, usually present in a straightforward, chronological framework
narrator
the “character” who “tells” the story
occasional poem
a poem written about or for a specific occasion, public or private
ode
a lyric poem that is somewhat serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style and sometimes uses elaborate stanza structure, often patterned in sets of 3, to praise/exalt a person, characteristic, quality, or object
omniscient point of view
a perspective that can be seen from one character;s view, then another’s, then another’s, or can be moved in or out of the mind of any character at any time
onomatopoeia
a word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes, like “buzz”
style
a distinctive manner of expression, expressed through diction, rhythm, imagery, and so on. includes word choice, tone, figurative language, rhythm, etc.
symbolism
a person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary work that designates itself and at the same time figuratively “represents” something else
synecdoche
when a part is used to signify a whole
syntax
the way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences
Terza rima
a verse form consisting of 3 line stanzas in which the second line of each rhymes with the first and third of the next
theme
a generalized, abstract, paraphrase of the central or dominant idea or concern of a work
tone
the attitude a literary work takes toward its subject and theme
tragedy
a drama in which a character is brought to a disastrous end in their confrontation with a superior force
trochaic
a metrical foot in poetry that is the opposite of iambic. the first syllable is stressed, the second is not
turning point
the 3rd part of plot structure, the point at which the action stops rising and begins falling or reversing
villanelle
a verse form consisting of 19 lines divided into 6 stanzas- five tercets and one quatrain
voice
acknowledged or unacknowledged source of the words of the story
