Lit Terms (Rest Of Them) Flashcards
Pastoral
A poem, play, or story that celebrates and idealizes the simple life of shepherds and shepherdesses. The highly conventional form was popular until the late 18th century. The term has also come to refer to an artistic work that portrays rural life in an idyllic or idealistic way.
Pathos
The quality of literary work or passage, which appeals to the reader’s or viewer’s emotions – especially pity, compassion, and sympathy. Pathos is different from the pity one feels for a tragic hero in that the pathetic figure seems to suffer through no fault of his/her own.
Periodic Sentence
A sentence that delivers its point at the end; usually constructed as a subordinate clause followed by a man clause.
Personification
The attribution of human characteristics to an animal or to an inanimate object.
Point of View
Perspective of the speaker or narrator in a literary work.
Protagonist
The main or principal character in a work; often considered the hero or heroine.
Pun
Humorous play on words that have several meanings or words that sound the same but have different meanings.
Quatrain
Four-line stanza.
Refrain
Repetition of a line, stanza, or phrase.
Repetition
A word or phrase used more than once to emphasize an idea.
Rhetorical Question
A question with an obvious answer, so no response is expected; used for emphasis or to make a point.
Satire
The use of humor to ridicule and expose the shortcomings and failings of society, individuals, and institutions, often in the hope that change and reform are possible.
Sestet
A six-line stanza of poetry; also, the last six lines of a sonnet.
Shift
In writing, a movement from one thought or idea to another; a change.
Simile
A comparison of unlike things using the word “like”, “as”, or “so”.
Soliloquy
A character’s speech to the audience, in which emotions and ideas are revealed. A monologue is a soliloquy only if the character is alone on the stage.
Sonnet, English or Shakespearean
Traditionally, a fourteen-line love poem in iambic pentameter, but in contemporary poetry, themes and form vary. A conventional Shakespearean sonnet’s prescribed rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The final couplet (gg) sums up or resolved the situation described in the previous lines. Milton, Donne, Sidney, Rossetti, and the Browings also wrote sonnets, but not necessarily in Shakespearean form.
Stanza
A grouping of poetic lines; a deliberate arrangement of lines of poetry.
Stock Character
A stereotypical character; a type. The audience expects the character to have certain characteristics. Similar to conventional character and flat character.
Stream of Consciousness
A form of writing which replicates the way the human mind works. Ideas are presented in random order; thoughts are often unfinished.
Structure
The particular way in which parts of a written work are combined.
Style
The way a writer uses language. Takes into account word choice, diction, figures of speech, and so on. The writer’s “voice”.
Symbol
A concrete object, scene, or action which has deeper significance because it is associated with something else, often an important idea or theme in the work.
Synecdoche
A figure of speech where one part represents the entire object, or vice versa.
Syntax
The way in which words, phrases, and sentences are ordered and connected.
Theme
The central idea of a literary work.
Tone
Refers to the author’s attitude toward the subject, and often sets the mood of the piece.
Tongue in Cheek
Expressing a thought in a way that appears to be sincere, but is actually joking.
Tragic Flaw
Traditionally, a defect in a hero or heroine that leads to his or her downfall.
Transition/Segue
The means to get from one portion of a poem or story to another; for instance, to another setting, to another character’s viewpoint, to a later or earlier time period. It is a way of smoothly connecting different parts of a work. Authors often use transitional sentences or phrases to achieve this.
Parody
A comical imitation of a serious piece with the intent of ridiculing the author or his work.
