Literary Devices Flashcards
Setting
Time and place of the action of the story.
Characterization
Refers to the methods that writer used to develop characters.
Mood
The feeling or atmosphere that the writer creates for the reader. Setting, description, and figurative language.
Allusion
A reference in literature or in art of previous literature, history, mythology, pop culture/current events or religious texts.
Repetition
A word or phrase used more than once to emphasize an idea.
Tragic Flow
This is the weakness of the tragic hero and it can be excessive pride, arrogance, hubris, etc.
Connotation
Associations words or emotional attachment given a word.
Personification
The attribution of human characteristics to an animal or to an inanimate object.
Hubris
Greek word of extreme pride or arrogance.
Simile
A comparision of unlike things using the words like, as or so.
Climax
Often called the turning point, the moment when the reader’s interest and emotional intensity reach the highest point.
Author’s Purpose
Writer usually writes to express him or himself, to inform or explain, to persuade, and to entertain.
Protagonist
The main or principal character in a work; often considered the hero or heroine.
Foil
A character that acts as a contrasting force of the main personality, to emphasize the personality of the main character.
Point of View: First Person
“Raw and chill was the winter morning; MY teeth chatter as I hastened down the drive”(as told by character herself).
Antagonist
A character that functions as a resisting force to the goals of the protagonist. The antagonist is often a villain, but in a case where the protagonist is evil, the antagonist is good.
Conflict
The plot of a story that always involved some sort of struggle between opposing forces.
Plot
Refers to the actions and events in a literary work.
Tragic Hero
A character that is typically a noble person of dignified or heroic status, but possesses a tragic flaw that leads to his/her downfall. However, the hero realized it, but it becomes too late.
Theme
The central idea of a literary work.
Dramatic Irony
When a reader or viewer knows something that a character doesn’t in the story.
Hyperbole
An extreme exaggeration for literary effect that is not meant to be interpreted.
Stanza
A grouping of poetic lines; a deliberate arrangement of lines of poetry.
Symbolism
Person, place and activity or an object that stands for something beyond itself.
Tone
Refers to the author’s attitude toward the subject and often sets the mood of a piece.
Foreshadowing
Hints at what is to come. It is sometimes noticeable only in hindsight, but usually it is obvious enough to set the reader wondering.
Verbal Irony
Occurs when someone knowingly exaggerates or says one thing and means another.
Point of View: Third Person Omniscient
“Elizabeth related to Jane the next day what had passed between Mr. Wickham and herself.” An all-seeing narrator who knows the thoughts and feelings of all the characters tells the story.
Denotation
The dictionary or literal meaning of a word or phrase.
Onomatopeia
Words that imitate sounds meow, clip-clop, and whirr.
Point of View: Third Person Limited
“Mr. Oakhurst seldom troubled himself with a sentiment, till less with propriety; but he had a vague idea that the situation was not fortunate.” The story is told from Mr. Oakhurst’s point of view, but through the narrator.
Metaphor
A figure of speech, which compares two dissimilar things, asserting that one thing is another thing, not just that one is like another.
Situational Irony
Contrast between what reader or character expects and what actually exists or happens.
Flashback
Interruption of a narrative by the introduction of an earlier event or by an image of a past experience.
Imagery
Anything that affects or appeals to the reader’s five senses.
Alliteration
The repetition of accented consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to each other, usually to create an effect, rhythm or emphasis. Ex) The noisy gnat knit nine sweaters.
Figurative Language
Communicates ideas beyond the literal meanings of word using simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, etc.
Archetype
A pattern in literature that is found in works from different cultures. It can be plot, character, image or setting.
Parallelism
A repeated grammatical structure to emphasize an idea.
Analogy
Clarifies or explains an unfamiliar concept or object, or one that cannot be put into words, by comparing it with one which is familiar.
Rhetorical Question
A question with an obvious answer, so no response is expected; used for emphasis or to make a point.
Pun
Humorous play of words that have several meanings or words that sound the same but have different meanings.
Anachronism
An element in a story that is out of its time frame; sometimes used to create a humorous or jarring effect.
Heroic Couplet
A rhymed couplet written in iambic pentameter.
Iambic Pentameter
Unrhymed poetry that has five unstressed and five stressed syllables. The unstressed and stressed alternate.
Soliloquy
A character’s speech to the audience, in which emotion and ideas are revealed.
Aside
It is a short speech directed to the audience or another character that is not heard by the other characters on stage.
Metonymy
A figure of speech that replaces the name of something with a word or phrase closely associated with it. Like synecdoche.
Paradox
Seemingly contradictory or absurd statement that my nonetheless suggest an important truth.
Diction
The deliberate choice of a style of language for a desired effect or tone.
Apostrophe
A rhetorical(not expecting an answer) figure of direct address to a person, object or abstract entity.
Free Verse Poetry
Poetry that does not have a regular rhythm or rhyme.
