Literary terms Flashcards
1
Q
Alliteration
A
Repetition of a sound at the beginning of words.
2
Q
Ambiguity
A
Word or phrase with more than one possible meaning.
3
Q
Antagonist
A
Someone opposed to the protagonist.
4
Q
Anti-hero
A
A central character who does not have the qualities usually associated with a ‘hero’.
5
Q
Antithesis
A
Direct opposite.
6
Q
Aside
A
Words addressed to the audience in a play.
7
Q
Assonance
A
Repetition of vowel sound.
8
Q
Caesura
A
A pause in a line of poetry, usually shown by a punctuation mark.
9
Q
Colloquial language
A
Informal language - the sort used in conversation; may include dialect words or phrases.
10
Q
Connotation
A
A suggested meaning of a word.
11
Q
Couplet
A
A pair of lines in poetry.
12
Q
Dialect
A
Words or phrases particular to a region or area.
13
Q
Dialogue
A
Conversation, especially in a play.
14
Q
Diction
A
The kind of words and phrases used, e.g. formal diction, violent diction, technical diction.
15
Q
Dramatic irony
A
When the audience knows more than the characters.
16
Q
Elegy
A
A poem of mourning. It can also be a poem that reflects on death and passing time in a melancholy mood.
17
Q
End-stopped
A
When a line of poetry ends at the end of a line (as opposed to enjambment).
18
Q
Enjambment
A
When a clause or sentence runs from one line of poetry to another.
19
Q
Eye rhyme
A
When words look as though they rhyme but do not (bear/fear).
20
Q
Genre
A
A specific type of writing, with its own conventions, e.g. detective story, romance, science fiction.
21
Q
Half rhyme
A
An ‘imperfect’ rhyme, where the consonants agree but the vowels do not, e.g. swans/stones.
22
Q
Hyperbole
A
Exaggeration.
23
Q
Imagery
A
Painting a picture in words, using descriptive language, metaphors, or similes.
24
Q
Imperatives
A
Commands or instructions.
25
Irony
The use of words to imply the opposite of their meaning.
26
Juxtaposition
Putting words or phrases (they do not have to be contrasting but they often are) next to each other for effect.
27
Litotes
An understatement made by denying the opposite of something, e.g. not averse to a drink.
28
Metaphor
An image created by referring to something as something else.
29
Meter
The formal arrangement of a poem's rhythm (iambic pentameter).
30
Narrative
A story or an account of something.
31
Narrator
The person who tells the story.
32
First person narrator
A narrator who is present in the story, using the pronoun 'I'.
33
Intrusive narrator
A narrator who occasionally interrupts a third person narrative to make comments.
34
Omniscient narrator
A narrator who knows everything and can tell us about the thoughts and feelings of all the characters.
35
Unreliable narrator
A narrator that may not be telling the truth.
36
Onomatopoeia
A word that sounds like what it describes.
37
Oxymoron
Two contradictory words placed next to each other.
38
Paradox
A statement that is contradictory or seems to be nonsensical, but it true, e.g. to gain peace, they went to war.
39
Pathetic fallacy
When the surroundings reflect the mood of a character.
40
Pathos
The emotional quality of a text or part of it, causing feelings of pity, sympathy, or sadness in the reader.
41
Persona
A 'voice' or character adopted by a writer writing in the first person.
42
Personification
Writing about an object or animal or idea as if it were a person, giving it human qualities.
43
Polemic
A written attack on an opinion or policy.
44
Protagonist
The main character.
45
Quatrain
A set of four lines of poetry.
46
Rhetorical question
A question that does not require an answer, used to make the listener think about an issue.
47
Rhythm
The beat of the writing, especially in poetry - fast or slow, regular or irregular.
48
Satire
Writing that makes fun of people or society in order to criticise them.
49
Sibilance
Repetition of the 's' sound.
50
Simile
A direct comparison of one thing to another, using the words 'as', 'like', or 'than'.
51
Soliloquy
A speech addressed to the audience by a character in a play, telling the audience what they really think.
52
Sonnet
A poem, usually a love poem, consisting of 14 lines.
53
Stanza
A division in a poem; the equivalent of a paragraph in prose.
54
Structure
How a text or story is organised and arranged.
55
Symbol
An object that represents an idea or feeling.
56
Tone
The overall feeling or attitude of the writing, e.g. formal, informal, sad, playful, angry, ironic.
57
Verse
Poetry. The word is also used as an alternative to 'stanza'.
58
Anaphora
Repetition at the beginning of a line.
59
Parallelism
Repeated phrasing structures - 'pulse for pulse, breath for breath'
60
Aristotelian drama
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who believed the three vital ingredients for theatrical success were thus: Plot, Place, and Time, known now as his Three Unities.
61
Blank verse
Verse written usually in iambic pentameter that is unrhymed.
62
Closure
How authors give the feeling of finality in their work - a requirement of Renaissance dramas.
63
Denouement
How the plot finally resolves itself.
64
Double entendre
An ambiguous remark, often a pun without sexual connotations.
65
Malcontent
A character who is dissatisfied, often showing signs of melancholia.
66
Parody
An imitation of a work of prose or poetry that is meant to ridicule.
67
Rhetoric
Writing intended to persuade.
68
Sophism
An argument intended to mislead.
69
Asyndetic list
A list without the use of a conjunction between the last two items.
70
Abstract noun
A concept or idea, e.g. love, joy.
71
Clause
A sentence that contains a minimum of both a subject and verb.
72
Concrete noun
A tangible object, e.g. book, sausage, door.
73
Contractions
Abbreviated words joined using an apostrophe.
74
Coordinating conjunction
Words such as 'and', 'but' and 'or' used to link together independent clauses.
75
Declarative
A sentence taking the form of a statement.
76
Exclamative
A sentence taking the form of an exclamation, indicated by an exclamation mark.
77
Antonym
A word or phrase that has an opposite meaning to another.
78
Lexical field
Words associated with a particular topic or meaning (semantic field).
79
Lexis
The words in a language.
80
Adjacency pair
A pattern of speech in which one utterance is followed by a linked response.
81
Hedge
A word of phrase such as 'maybe' or 'perhaps' used to soften the impact of what is said.
82
Holding the floor
A speaker who dominates and speaks the most.
83
Idiom
A phrase which has a particular meaning known through common usage rather than literal meaning.
84
Subtext
The meaning beneath the surface of spoken or written dialogue.
85
Parallelism
A form of repetition in which similar grammatical structures are used.
86
Analepsis
A flashback
87
Eponymous character
The character that gives their name to the title of a text (Hamlet)
88
Allegory
A story that has a second, strongly intended meaning.
89
Gothic
A genre that usually exploits a tone that is gloomy or horrifying.
90
Intrusive narrator
A narrator that inserts their own opinion into the story.
91
Soliloquy
A speech delivered by a character who is alone on the stage in which their inner thoughts and feelings are revealed to the audience.
92
Anapest
Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (xx/).
93
Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter.
94
Dactyl
A stressed syllable followed by an two unstressed syllable (/xx).
95
Iamb
Unstressed followed by a stressed syllable (x/).
96
Internal rhyme
Rhyming words placed within a line.
97
Pentameter
A line consisting of five feet.
98
Feminine ending
An unstressed syllable at the end of a line of poetry, usually by adding an extra syllable.
99
Rhyming couplet
A pair of lines which rhyme.
100
Spondee
Two stressed syllables (//).
101
Trochee
A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (/x).
102
Anaphora
Repetition of a word or phrase at the start of two or more successive lines.
103
Hendiadys
The expression of a single idea by two words connected with 'and', e.g. nice and warm.
