Lit terms Part 3 Flashcards
A line containing six feet.
hexameter
Deliberate exaggeration, overstatement. As a rule, hyperbole is self-conscious, without the intention of being accepted literally. “The strongest man in the world” and “a diamond as big as the Ritz” are hyperbolic.
hyperbole
A two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. The iamb is the most common foot in English poetry.
iamb
The images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work. Imagery has several definitions, but the two that are paramount are the visual, auditory, or tactile images evoked by the words of a literary work or the images that figurative language evokes. When you are asked to discuss the images or imagery of a work, you should look especially carefully at the sensory details and the metaphors and similes of a passage. Some diction (word choice) is also imagery, but not all diction evokes sensory responses.
Imagery
an allusive or oblique remark or hint, typically a suggestive or disparaging one.:”she’s always making sly innuendoes” “a constant torrent of innuendo, gossip, lies, and half-truths”. Its use is almost always derogatory. However, it must be kept in mind that it is the most thinly-veiled form of satire and when it is strong, it takes the shape of criticism
Innuendo
Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.
“God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the friends, that plague thee thus!-
Why look’st thou so?” - With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross.
internal rhyme
denotes speech or writing that attacks, insults, or denounces a person, topic, or institution. It involves the use of abusive and negative use of language. The tool of invective is generally employed in both poetry and prose to reiterate the significance of the deeply felt emotions of the writer.
Invective
A figure of speech in which intent and actual meaning differ, characteristically praise for blame or blame for praise; a pattern of words that turns away from direct statement of its own obvious meaning.
Irony
The idea that fate, destiny, or a god controls and toys with human hopes and expectations; also, the belief that the universe is so large and man is so small that the universe is indifferent to the plight of man
Cosmic Irony
a pose of ignorance assumed in order to entice others into making statements that can then be challenged.
technique where the questioner admits (falsely) to not knowing something as a way of tricking the other person into revealing his own lack of knowledge or a flaw in his logic.
Socratic irony
The special language of a profession or group.
jargon
a poem that expresses grief, not necessarily about death
Lament
is a figure of speech which employs an understatement by using double negatives or, in other words, positive statement is expressed by negating its opposite expressions.
For example, using the expression “not too bad” for “very good” is an understatement as well as a double negative statement that confirms a positive idea by negating the opposite. Similarly, saying “She is not a beauty queen,” means “She is ugly” or saying “I am not as young as I used to be” in order to avoid saying “I am old”
Litote
Songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination.
lyrical
rhyme that falls on the stressed and concluding syllables of the rhyme-words. Examples include “keep” and “sleep” “spell” and “impel.” “boat” and “denote”
masculine rhyme
A figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term like “as,” “like,” or “than
metaphor
The pattern of repetition of stressed (or accented) and unstressed (or unaccented)syllables in a line of verse.
meter
(Poetic meters such as trochaic and dactylic that move or fall from a stressed to an unstressed syllable) and Rising Meter (Poetic meters such as iambic and anapestic that move or ascend from an unstressed to a stressed syllable)
Falling Meter
a figure of speech which is characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. In this way we commonly speak of the king as the “crown,” an object closely associated with kingship.
metonymy
the mingling of one metaphor with another immediately following with which the first is incongruous. Lloyd George is reported to have said, “I smell a rat. I see it floating in the air. I shall nip it in the bud.”
mixed metaphors
is an object or idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work.
Motif
The methods involved in telling a story; the procedures used by a writer of stories or accounts.Examples of the techniques you might use are point of view, manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue.
narrative techniques
is a literary stock character who embodies the concept of the indigene, outsider, wild human, an “other” who has not been “corrupted” by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity’s innate goodness. Gained popularity during the Romantic period.
Noble Savage
fiction which is shorter than full length novels and longer than short stories.
novella
An eight-line unit, which may constitute a stanza; or a section of a poem, as in the octave of a sonnet
Octave
A lyric poem that is long, elaborate, and on a lofty theme such as immortality or a hero’s victory
Ode
