Literary Devices and Dramatic Devices Flashcards
Allegory
A narrative in which characters and events stand for ideas and actions on another level.
Allusion
An incomplete reference to something that those who share our knowledge or background will understand.
Ambiguity
The quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.
Analogy
Any resemblance, in form or function, between otherwise unlike objects.
Anaphora
When two or more lines begin with the same word.
Audience
An Audience is the person for whom a writer writes, or composer composes.
Ballad
The ballad is a poem that is typically arranged in quatrains with the rhyme scheme ABAB. Ballads are usually narrative, which means they tell a story.
Ballad structure
- An intense and immediate story concerning crucial and popular events
- An impersonal omniscient narrator relating these events
- An emotional impact with the climax
- Language that is plain, vivid and concrete
- Conversational words of at least one participant that are often quoted exactly
- Short stanzas throughout
- Rhythms that are pronounced and regular
- Rhymes that are pronounced and regular
- Repetitions of words or phrases, sometimes with variations; this includes alliterations
- A closing stanza that is often very similar - or connects in some way - to the opening one
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character in any story, such as a literary work or drama.
Antagonist
The antagonist is the opposing force in a story. It could be a human enemy, or it could be non-human, like an animal or something less tangible, like fear.
Flat character
Do not know much about this character
Round character
Know a lot about this character
Static character
Does not change throughout the story
Dynamic character
Changes throughout the story
Foil character
In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character - usually the protagonist— to highlight particular qualities of the other character.
Connotation
Connotation refers to a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly.
Denotation
Denotation refers to the literal, dictionary definition of a word.
Flashback
An interruption of the chronological sequence (as of a film or literary work) of an event of earlier occurrence.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.
Foot
A unit whose repetition makes up any rhythm.
Meter
Meter is a unit of rhythm in poetry, the pattern of the beats.
Iambus
ᴗ -
Anapest
ᴗ ᴗ -
Trochee
- ᴗ
Dactyl
- ᴗ ᴗ
Trimeter
Trimeter is a poetic device that is defined as a meter or a line that consists of three iambic feet.
Tetrameter
When four beats are placed together in a line of poetry, it is called tetrameter.
Stressed and unstressed syllables
Stressed: /
Unstressed: ᴗ
Hyperbole
A kind of overstatement. An over exaggeration.
Image
A piece of news from the world outside or from our own bodies which is brought into the light of consciousness through one of the senses.
Concrete Image
An image that has a physical substance.
Abstract Image
An image that lacks physical substance.
Types of Imagery
- Visual
- Auditory
- Tactile
- Olfactory
- Gustatory
Irony
The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
Dramatic
When a result is the contrary of what was intended.
Verbal
Words with a double meaning.
Situational
Situational irony is a literary device that you can easily identify in literary works. Simply, it occurs when incongruity appears between expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead.
Metaphor
The transfer to one thing the identity of something else that we associate with it.
Metonymy
Referring to an object associated to a person or being to refer to them.
Synecdoche
Referring to a part of an object, generally a body, but meaning the whole.
Synesthesia
The perception or interpretation of the data of one sense in terms of another.
Microcosm
A representation of something on a much smaller scale.
Mood
In literature, mood is a literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions. Usually, mood is referred to as the atmosphere of a literary piece, as it creates an emotional setting that surrounds the readers.
Tone
Tone, in written composition, is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words, or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject.
Narrative perspective
- First person: Subjective
- Third person limited: Objective
- Third person omniscient: Objective
Narrative structure
- Exposition
- Inciting incident
- Rising action
- Complication
- Climax
- Falling action
- Denouement
- Resolution
Oxymoron
A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.
Personification
Giving an inanimate object animate qualities.
Quatrain
A quatrain is a stanza in a poem that has exactly four lines.
Couplet
A couplet is a literary device that can be defined as having two successive rhyming lines in a verse, and has the same meter to form a complete thought.
Simile
An unusual comparison between two essentially different items specifically stated with the use of ‘like’ or ‘as’.
Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound or diphthong in non-rhyming words.
Consonance
Consonance refers to repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase.
Euphony
Euphony is a sound device consisting of several words that are pleasing to the ear. The sounds made by these words are meant to be soothing rather than harsh or alarming.
Cacophony
If we speak literally, cacophony points to a situation in which there is a mixture of harsh and inharmonious sounds.
Alliteration
The repetition of a sound at the beginning of a word in a short space.
Internal rhyme
In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across multiple lines.
End rhyme
End rhyme is defined as when a poem has lines ending with words that sound the same.
Rhyming couplet
A rhyming couplet is two line of the same length that rhyme and complete one thought.
Refrain
Just like in songs, a refrain in poetry is a regularly recurring phrase or verse, especially at the end of each stanza or division of a poem or song.
