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English > Literary terms > Flashcards

Literary terms Flashcards

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1
Q

Alliteration

A

Repetition of a sound at the beginning of words.

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2
Q

Ambiguity

A

Word or phrase with more than one possible meaning.

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3
Q

Antagonist

A

Someone opposed to the protagonist.

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4
Q

Anti-hero

A

A central character who does not have the qualities usually associated with a ‘hero’.

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5
Q

Antithesis

A

Direct opposite.

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6
Q

Aside

A

Words addressed to the audience in a play.

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7
Q

Assonance

A

Repetition of vowel sound.

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8
Q

Caesura

A

A pause in a line of poetry, usually shown by a punctuation mark.

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9
Q

Colloquial language

A

Informal language - the sort used in conversation; may include dialect words or phrases.

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10
Q

Connotation

A

A suggested meaning of a word.

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11
Q

Couplet

A

A pair of lines in poetry.

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12
Q

Dialect

A

Words or phrases particular to a region or area.

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13
Q

Dialogue

A

Conversation, especially in a play.

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14
Q

Diction

A

The kind of words and phrases used, e.g. formal diction, violent diction, technical diction.

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15
Q

Dramatic irony

A

When the audience knows more than the characters.

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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.

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17
Q

End-stopped

A

When a line of poetry ends at the end of a line (as opposed to enjambment).

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18
Q

Enjambment

A

When a clause or sentence runs from one line of poetry to another.

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19
Q

Eye rhyme

A

When words look as though they rhyme but do not (bear/fear).

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20
Q

Genre

A

A specific type of writing, with its own conventions, e.g. detective story, romance, science fiction.

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21
Q

Half rhyme

A

An ‘imperfect’ rhyme, where the consonants agree but the vowels do not, e.g. swans/stones.

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22
Q

Hyperbole

A

Exaggeration.

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23
Q

Imagery

A

Painting a picture in words, using descriptive language, metaphors, or similes.

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24
Q

Imperatives

A

Commands or instructions.

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25
Q

Irony

A

The use of words to imply the opposite of their meaning.

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26
Q

Juxtaposition

A

Putting words or phrases (they do not have to be contrasting but they often are) next to each other for effect.

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27
Q

Litotes

A

An understatement made by denying the opposite of something, e.g. not averse to a drink.

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28
Q

Metaphor

A

An image created by referring to something as something else.

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29
Q

Meter

A

The formal arrangement of a poem’s rhythm (iambic pentameter).

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30
Q

Narrative

A

A story or an account of something.

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31
Q

Narrator

A

The person who tells the story.

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32
Q

First person narrator

A

A narrator who is present in the story, using the pronoun ‘I’.

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33
Q

Intrusive narrator

A

A narrator who occasionally interrupts a third person narrative to make comments.

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34
Q

Omniscient narrator

A

A narrator who knows everything and can tell us about the thoughts and feelings of all the characters.

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35
Q

Unreliable narrator

A

A narrator that may not be telling the truth.

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36
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

A word that sounds like what it describes.

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37
Q

Oxymoron

A

Two contradictory words placed next to each other.

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38
Q

Paradox

A

A statement that is contradictory or seems to be nonsensical, but it true, e.g. to gain peace, they went to war.

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39
Q

Pathetic fallacy

A

When the surroundings reflect the mood of a character.

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40
Q

Pathos

A

The emotional quality of a text or part of it, causing feelings of pity, sympathy, or sadness in the reader.

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41
Q

Persona

A

A ‘voice’ or character adopted by a writer writing in the first person.

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42
Q

Personification

A

Writing about an object or animal or idea as if it were a person, giving it human qualities.

43
Q

Polemic

A

A written attack on an opinion or policy.

44
Q

Protagonist

A

The main character.

45
Q

Quatrain

A

A set of four lines of poetry.

46
Q

Rhetorical question

A

A question that does not require an answer, used to make the listener think about an issue.

47
Q

Rhythm

A

The beat of the writing, especially in poetry - fast or slow, regular or irregular.

48
Q

Satire

A

Writing that makes fun of people or society in order to criticise them.

49
Q

Sibilance

A

Repetition of the ‘s’ sound.

50
Q

Simile

A

A direct comparison of one thing to another, using the words ‘as’, ‘like’, or ‘than’.

51
Q

Soliloquy

A

A speech addressed to the audience by a character in a play, telling the audience what they really think.

52
Q

Sonnet

A

A poem, usually a love poem, consisting of 14 lines.

53
Q

Stanza

A

A division in a poem; the equivalent of a paragraph in prose.

54
Q

Structure

A

How a text or story is organised and arranged.

55
Q

Symbol

A

An object that represents an idea or feeling.

56
Q

Tone

A

The overall feeling or attitude of the writing, e.g. formal, informal, sad, playful, angry, ironic.

57
Q

Verse

A

Poetry. The word is also used as an alternative to ‘stanza’.

58
Q

Anaphora

A

Repetition at the beginning of a line.

59
Q

Parallelism

A

Repeated phrasing structures - ‘pulse for pulse, breath for breath’

60
Q

Aristotelian drama

A

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
Q

Blank verse

A

Verse written usually in iambic pentameter that is unrhymed.

62
Q

Closure

A

How authors give the feeling of finality in their work - a requirement of Renaissance dramas.

63
Q

Denouement

A

How the plot finally resolves itself.

64
Q

Double entendre

A

An ambiguous remark, often a pun without sexual connotations.

65
Q

Malcontent

A

A character who is dissatisfied, often showing signs of melancholia.

66
Q

Parody

A

An imitation of a work of prose or poetry that is meant to ridicule.

67
Q

Rhetoric

A

Writing intended to persuade.

68
Q

Sophism

A

An argument intended to mislead.

69
Q

Asyndetic list

A

A list without the use of a conjunction between the last two items.

70
Q

Abstract noun

A

A concept or idea, e.g. love, joy.

71
Q

Clause

A

A sentence that contains a minimum of both a subject and verb.

72
Q

Concrete noun

A

A tangible object, e.g. book, sausage, door.

73
Q

Contractions

A

Abbreviated words joined using an apostrophe.

74
Q

Coordinating conjunction

A

Words such as ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘or’ used to link together independent clauses.

75
Q

Declarative

A

A sentence taking the form of a statement.

76
Q

Exclamative

A

A sentence taking the form of an exclamation, indicated by an exclamation mark.

77
Q

Antonym

A

A word or phrase that has an opposite meaning to another.

78
Q

Lexical field

A

Words associated with a particular topic or meaning (semantic field).

79
Q

Lexis

A

The words in a language.

80
Q

Adjacency pair

A

A pattern of speech in which one utterance is followed by a linked response.

81
Q

Hedge

A

A word of phrase such as ‘maybe’ or ‘perhaps’ used to soften the impact of what is said.

82
Q

Holding the floor

A

A speaker who dominates and speaks the most.

83
Q

Idiom

A

A phrase which has a particular meaning known through common usage rather than literal meaning.

84
Q

Subtext

A

The meaning beneath the surface of spoken or written dialogue.

85
Q

Parallelism

A

A form of repetition in which similar grammatical structures are used.

86
Q

Analepsis

A

A flashback

87
Q

Eponymous character

A

The character that gives their name to the title of a text (Hamlet)

88
Q

Allegory

A

A story that has a second, strongly intended meaning.

89
Q

Gothic

A

A genre that usually exploits a tone that is gloomy or horrifying.

90
Q

Intrusive narrator

A

A narrator that inserts their own opinion into the story.

91
Q

Soliloquy

A

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
Q

Anapest

A

Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (xx/).

93
Q

Blank verse

A

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

94
Q

Dactyl

A

A stressed syllable followed by an two unstressed syllable (/xx).

95
Q

Iamb

A

Unstressed followed by a stressed syllable (x/).

96
Q

Internal rhyme

A

Rhyming words placed within a line.

97
Q

Pentameter

A

A line consisting of five feet.

98
Q

Feminine ending

A

An unstressed syllable at the end of a line of poetry, usually by adding an extra syllable.

99
Q

Rhyming couplet

A

A pair of lines which rhyme.

100
Q

Spondee

A

Two stressed syllables (//).

101
Q

Trochee

A

A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (/x).

102
Q

Anaphora

A

Repetition of a word or phrase at the start of two or more successive lines.

103
Q

Hendiadys

A

The expression of a single idea by two words connected with ‘and’, e.g. nice and warm.

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