Lit Terms... fuck Flashcards
Anachronism
Putting things in the wrong time period. For example, if a character from rome talks about a clock.
Absurd
A style in which structure, plot, and characterization are diregarded or garbled in order to stress lack of logic. Rabits eat carrots. Eating the crust first on a pizza. Both absurd
Antithesis
Literary technique using opposites to balance something and give a sense of yin and yang. AP is to live a healthy life. IB is to fucking die and lose sleep. Fuck IB. Fuck this test.
Aphorism
Pithy… what’s pithy? Fuck if I know. A concise statemen or observation of a doctrine or principle.
Anticlimax
When something makes a big lead up and shifts to completely irrelevant or trivial thing. Like in How I Met Your Mother, basically every commercial break. They end with something that sounds dramatic and makes your wonder what’s next, then the commercial ends and they say something ridiculous and not dramatic.
Ballade
A verse form consisting of three eigthline stanzas, each with a consistent meter and a particular rhyme scheme.
Bildungsroman
Coming of age story. This word probably means puberty in german.
Bombast
Using lots and lots of big and pompous words to say something with very little meaning. For an example, read one of those IB brochures.
Cacaphony
Gross sounds put together that sound bad to the ears. Like finger nails on chalkboard but with words.
Caesura
Break or pause in a metrical line of poetry, often marked by a punctuation.
Chiasmus
Occurs when order of words is reversed in parallel expressions… ? From wikipedia: “Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves.”
Deus Ex Machina
A very good video game. Eagles from lord of the rings.
Doppelganger
When a character is split in two or has a polar opposite.
Emulation
To parody. The ambition to equal, excel, or surpass another. To compete by copying. Android emulates iOS by being a ripoff bastard
Euphemism
tee hee
Gothicism
Medieval and morbidly attractive writing.
Ekphrastic
Commentary of a work of art. Movie reviews. Amazon reviews. When I say “booooo” to Joon’s bad puns.
Epithet
A rhetorical term for “adjective”… seriously it just means adjective. Something that describes something.
Hyperbaton
Disruption or inversion of customary word order to produce a distinctive effect. Also, when a figure of speech takes a sudden turn… like a plot twist but literary. I still don’t get it.
In Medias Res
skip the boring parts and start in the middle.
Nemesis
GODDESS OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION. Punishes those who suffer from extreme hubris or pride. KARMA
Pathetic Fallacy
fallacy of attributing human feelings and emotion to inanimate objects.
Periphrasis
Basically circumlocution. Talking around something to describe it. Using more words than necessary.
Periodic Structure
Long and frequently involved sentence marked by suspended syntax.
Polysyndeton
Using several conjunctions where some might be ommitted. He drank and got drunk and ran around and drank more and talked to people he didnt know and puked in the grass and layed in the grass.
Portmanteau
combining words into nonsense words. Brunch
Spoonerism
Transposition of sound in two or more words. Aminals (instead of animals), Nuckin Futs.
Stream of Consciousness
Faulkner
Sturm & Drang
Storm and Stress. LOUD WORDS AND RAAAAAWR in literature. BIG NOISE. ALL CAPS. BLITZKRIEG
Zeugma
Use of one word to govern two or more words but should only work for one. “He stole my heart and my sandwich.” You don’t steal people’s hearts. It doesnt work by itself.
Syllepsis
Ellipsis in which one word is understood differently in relation to two or more other words which it modifies or governs. Basically zeugma but it makes sense for both. “You may execute your laws and your citizens”. Makes sense for both independently.
Malapropism
Absurd or numerous misuse of a word. Especially when it sounds the same as another. Only-One Kenobi (obi wan). Fire distinguisher (fire extinguisher).
Metonymy
One word, phrase, or idea is replaced with something closely related to it. White house for Obama
Synecdoche
Part is used to represent the whole.
Satire
South Park. Colbert Report.
Synesthesia
Describe one sensation using another.
Verisimilitude
Trying to make something very life-like. Adding tons of details.
Naturalism
Apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings… ?
Negative Capability
Our ability to accept uncertainty and cliffhangers.