lit terms

Question 1

allegory

Answer 1

a symbolical narrative

Question 2

archetype

Answer 2

A symbol, theme, setting, or character‐type that recurs in different times and places

Question 3

foreshadowing

Answer 3

to show or indicate beforehand; prefigure

Question 4

villanelle

Answer 4

A poem composed of an uneven number (usually five) of tercets rhyming aba, with a final quatrain rhyming abaa

Question 5

motif

Answer 5

A situation, incident, idea, image, or character‐type that is found in many different literary works, folktales, or myths

Question 6

symbolism

Answer 6

using anything that stands for or represents something else beyond it—usually an idea conventionally associated with it.

Question 7

annotation

Answer 7

a critical or explanatory note or body of notes added to a text.

Question 8

meter

Answer 8

poetic measure; arrangement of words in regularly measured, patterned, or rhythmic lines or verses.

Question 9

poetic syntax

Answer 9

the way in which linguistic elements (as words) are put together to form phrases or clauses

Question 10

poetic form

Answer 10

various sets of “rules” followed by poems of certain types

Question 11

explication

Answer 11

analysis or interpretation, esp of a literary passage or work

Question 12

caesura

Answer 12

A pause in a line of verse, often coinciding with a break between clauses or sentences

Question 13

act

Answer 13

one of the main divisions of a play

Question 14

antagonist

Answer 14

a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another

Question 15

aside

Answer 15

a part of an actors lines meant only to be heard by the audience

Question 16

catastrophe

Answer 16

the point at which the circumstances overcome the central motives, introducing the close or conclusion

Question 17

catharsis

Answer 17

the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through art

Question 18

character

Answer 18

a person represented in drama

Question 19

climax

Answer 19

a decisive moment that is the maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot

Question 20

comic relief

Answer 20

and amusing scene to release the tension

Question 21

conflict

Answer 21

a fight, battle, or struggle

Question 22

crisis

Answer 22

a turning point

Question 23

denouement

Answer 23

the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot

Question 24

deusexmachina

Answer 24

any artificial or improbable device resolving the difficulties of a plot

Question 25

drama

Answer 25

a play

Question 26

epilogue

Answer 26

a concluding part added to the end of a novel or play

Question 27

exposition

Answer 27

dialogue, description, etc. that gives the audience or readers the background of the characters and the present situation

Question 28

enjabement

Answer 28

(striding over) the running on of the thought from one line, couplet, or stanza to the next without a syntactical break

Question 29

falling action

Answer 29

the part of a literary plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the conflict has been resolved

Question 30

farce

Answer 30

a light, humorous play in which the plot depends upon a skillfully exploited situation rather than upon the development of characters

Question 31

foil

Answer 31

a person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast

Question 32

frame story

Answer 32

a story that contains other stories

Question 33

hero

Answer 33

the principal male character in a story

Question 34

hubris

Answer 34

pride that destroys

Question 35

iambic tetrameter

Answer 35

a form of meter used in poetry consisting of four feet which feature a syllable that is unstressed followed by a stressed syllable

Question 36

monologue

Answer 36

a part of a drama in which a single actor speaks alone

Question 37

metonymy

Answer 37

a figure of speech; compares two things where the one thing is compared to another thing tha is commonly connected with it but is not a part of it

Question 38

prologue

Answer 38

an introductory part of a play, discourse, poem, or novel

Question 39

protagonist

Answer 39

the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work

Question 40

play

Answer 40

a dramatic performance, as on the stage

Question 41

rising action

Answer 41

a related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest

Question 42

scene

Answer 42

a division of a play or of an act of a play, usually representing what passes between certain of the actors in one place

Question 43

soliloquy

Answer 43

a devise in drama to disclose a character’s innermost thoughts

Question 44

stanza

Answer 44

an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem

Question 45

senecdoche

Answer 45

a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole

Question 46

tragedy

Answer 46

a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically that of a great person destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or society to downfall or destrucion

Question 47

tragic flaw

Answer 47

the character defect that causes the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy

Question 48

villain

Answer 48

a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot