Literary Genres Flashcards

1
Q

Apocalyptic

A

Prophetic of devastation or ultimate doom

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2
Q

Allegory

A

Short moral story

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3
Q

Autobiography

A

Book or account of your own life

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4
Q

Ballad

A

Narrative song with short stanzas

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5
Q

Bildungsroman

A

Novel focusing on the growth of the main character

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6
Q

Biography

A

Account of the series of events making up a persons life

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7
Q

Comedy

A

Light and humorous drama with a happy ending

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8
Q

Drama

A

Work intended for performance by actors on a stage

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9
Q

Dystopia

A

Work set in an imaginary place where life is extremely bad

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10
Q

Elegy

A

Mournful poem, a lament for the dead

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11
Q

Epic

A

Long narrative poem telling of a hero’s deeds

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12
Q

Epistolary

A

Written in the form of letters or correspondence

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13
Q

Epitaph

A

Summary statement of commemoration for a dead person

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14
Q

Essay

A

Analytic or interpretive literary composition

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15
Q

Fable

A

Short story, features animals, legends, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that become anthropomorphized

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16
Q

Fantasy

A

Fiction with large amount of imagination

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17
Q

Farce

A

Comedy characterised by broad satire

18
Q

Folklore

A

Unwritten stories, proverbs, and songs of a culture

19
Q

Folktale

A

Traditional story or legend circulated by word of mouth

20
Q

Gothic

A

Characterised by gloom, mystery and grotesque

21
Q

Haiku

A

Epigrammatic Japanese verse form of three short lines

22
Q

Homily

A

A sermon on a moral or religious topic

23
Q

Lyric

A

Short poem of songlike quality

24
Q

Melodrama

A

Story with characters behaving in an extremely emotional way

25
Q

Memoir

A

Account of an authors personal experiences

26
Q

Mystery

A

Story about crime presented as a novel, play or movie

27
Q

Myth

A

Traditional story serving to explain a world view, widely held but false

28
Q

Novel

A

Extended fictional work in prose

29
Q

Novella

A

Short novel

30
Q

Ode

A

Lyric poem with complex / irregular stanza forms

31
Q

Parable

A

Short moral / spiritual story

32
Q

Pastoral

A

Literary work idealising rural life

33
Q

Picaresque

A

Involving clever adventures of a mischievous hero

34
Q

Poetry

A

Literature in metrical form

35
Q

Romance

A

Story dealing with love

36
Q

Satire

A

Witty language used to convey insults or scorn

37
Q

Sonnet

A

Verse form of 14 lines with fixed rhyme scheme

38
Q

Science Fiction

A

Speculative fiction, deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts (science, technology, space, time travel)

39
Q

Supernatural

A

Speculative fiction is centered on unexplainable phenomena / beyond what is natural

40
Q

Thriller

A

Suspenseful story, play or movie

41
Q

Tragedy

A

Drama exciting terror or pity

42
Q

Utopia

A

Work of fiction describing an ideal state