Literary Terms Flashcards
Whats the authors purpose?
The reasoning behind why the author wrote the piece
Ex: Persuade, Inform, Explain, Entertain
Rhetorical Devices
Use of language that is intended to have an effect on its audience
Ex: Repetition and figurative language
Gettysburg: we cannot…
Symbol
A person, a place, an object, or an activity that stands for something beyond itself
Ex: In Gettysburg:
battlefield=grave
Theme
The central idea or underlying message that the writer wants the reader to understand
Ex: The theme of Gettysburg is reunification
Inference
A logical assumption or conclusion that is based on observed facts and oneś own knowledge and experience
Ex: In Night Calls I can Infer that the girlś dad is an alcoholic because she says he smells like brandy.
Parallelism
When the same patterns of words or structures are used to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance
Ex: Gettysburg several sentences in a row start with ¨we cannot¨
Repetition
A literary technique in which a sound, word, phrase or line is repeated for emphasis
Ex: The Gettysburg speech repeats ¨nation¨ several times
Text Structure
How an author’s story arranges parts of a story
Ex: Speech, short story, letter, etc.
Simile
Comparing two things using like or as
Ex: Cute as a kitten
Supporting Textual Evidence
Material that serves to prove a claim
Ex: Specific page/line #s from the text
Metaphor
Comparing two things using like or as
Ex: Her tears were a river
Claim/ Point of view
A primary pint to support or prove an argument
Mood
The feeling the reader gets during the story
Foreshadowing
To give an indication or hint of what is to come later in the story
Extended Metaphor
A metaphor explained with more detail
Pace
How fast or slow the story is moving for the reader
Authors Tone
How the authors text makes the reader feel, what the author is trying to get at
Irony: verbal/situational
Whenever a person says or does something that departs them from what they expected for them to do
Figurative Language
when you describe something by comparing it to something else
Fortune’s Fool
the idea is that Romeo believes he is being used for the god’s entertainment, like a fool in a royal court.
Tragic Hero
a character in a dramatic tragedy who has virtuous and sympathetic traits but ultimately meets with suffering or defeat.
Foil
their image is reflected off of you in a positive light.
Pun
a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word
Dramatic Irony
an audience’s awareness of the situation in which a work’s characters exist differs substantially from that of the characters
