Literary Analysis Glossary: Techniques

Question 1

Anachronism

Answer 1

An element in a story that is out of place, given its time period

Question 2

Amphiboly

Answer 2

When two or more different literal meanings can be reasonably derived

Question 3

Antithesis

Answer 3

A figure of speech in which words expressing opposite ideas are juxtaposed

Question 4

Apophasis

Answer 4

A rhetorical devices in which the speaker sneakily mentions something by claiming not to mention it

Question 5

Apostrophe

Answer 5

A figure of speech in which an absent person or non-human entity is addressed at though capable of responding

Question 6

Archaism

Answer 6

The use of language characteristic of an earlier time period

Question 7

Asyndeton

Answer 7

The omission of a conjunction where one is normally expected

Question 8

Blazon

Answer 8

The detailed enumeration and idealized poetic description of each of a beloveds body parts

Question 9

Conciet

Answer 9

A figure of speech that established a striking or far fetched analogy between seemingly very dissimilar things

Question 10

Ekphrasis

Answer 10

Description of a work of visual art such as a painting or statue

Question 11

Ellipse

Answer 11

Three periods used to mark a long pause or the omission of a word or phrase

Question 12

Litotes

Answer 12

A kind of understatement in which something affirmed merely by defining its opposite

Question 13

Malapropism

Answer 13

Someone says the wrong word by accident

Question 14

Parody

Answer 14

A humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature

Question 15

Persona

Answer 15

The character projected by the author

Question 16

Redundance (pleonasm)

Answer 16

The use of more words than necessary to convey an idea

Question 17

Polysyndeton

Answer 17

The use of more conjunctions than are required

Question 18

Prolepses

Answer 18

A figure of speech in which something in the future is represented as already done or present

Question 19

Shared line

Answer 19

When one character finished a line begun by another (finishing somebody else’s sentence)

Question 20

Significant name

Answer 20

A name chosen to hint at that elements nature or role in the story

Question 21

Stock Sharacter

Answer 21

Any of a number of traditional characters easily identified by a single stereotypical character

Question 22

Zeugma

Answer 22

The linking of a word with several other parts of a sentence when the word must be taken in a different sense with regard to each.