Literary Terms

Question 1

allegory

Answer 1

a story which can be interpreted symbolically

Question 2

alliteration

Answer 2

a repetition of a letter and/or sounds (includes assonance and consonance)

Question 3

allusion

Answer 3

a reference to something

Question 4

anachronism

Answer 4

anything out of its proper historical time (movie in 1990’s has cell phones)

Question 5

antagonist

Answer 5

an adversary/opponent, someone in the way of the protagonist

Question 6

anthropomorphism

Answer 6

giving human traits to animals

Question 7

anti-climax

Answer 7

a disappointing descent from a preceding rise

Question 8

anti-hero

Answer 8

the protagonist of a novel who lacks the virtues of a traditional hero

Question 9

aphorism

Answer 9

a concise statement of a principle

Question 10

apostrophe

Answer 10

exclamation to an idea or person who is absent

Question 11

aside

Answer 11

a remark or passage in a play that is intended to only be heard by the audience

Question 12

assonance

Answer 12

repeating vowels

Question 13

ballad

Answer 13

a narrative song or poem, usually anonymous, with simple words, shorts stanzas, and a refrain

Question 14

beast-fable

Answer 14

a story featuring animal character

Question 15

bildungsroman

Answer 15

coming of age story

Question 16

caesura

Answer 16

a break or point in a line of verse, usually in the middle

Question 17

canto

Answer 17

any of the main divisions of long poems

Question 18

characterization

Answer 18

describing a person

Question 19

chivalric romance

Answer 19

a narrative written in prose or verse and concerned with adventures, chivalry, and courtly love

Question 20

classicism

Answer 20

knowledge of classical literature and art

Question 21

cliche

Answer 21

an expression used so often that it has lost its original impact

Question 22

climax

Answer 22

highest point of interest/excitement, final element, turning point

Question 23

conflict

Answer 23

to be antagonistic (a fight/war, disagreement, emotional disturbance)

Question 24

connotation

Answer 24

a feeling or idea connected to the meaning of the word

Question 25

consonance

Answer 25

repeated consonants

Question 26

couplet

Answer 26

2 successive lines of poetry that rhyme

Question 27

didacticism

Answer 27

for instruction

Question 28

denouement

Answer 28

the outcome or unraveling of a plot

Question 29

dialogue

Answer 29

the passages of talk in a story

Question 30

dramatic irony

Answer 30

irony that is inherent in speeches and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play

Question 31

elegy/elegiac

Answer 31

having a mournful tone/mood

Question 32

enjambment

Answer 32

no syntactical break between 2 lines of poetry

Question 33

epic

Answer 33

a long, formal narrative poem

Question 34

epic conventions

Answer 34

a practice or device which is accepted as a necessary, useful, or given feature of epic poetry

Question 35

epithet

Answer 35

an attributed phrase

Question 36

periphrastic epithet

Answer 36

a construction of more than one word

Question 37

exposition

Answer 37

a detailed writing for explanation

Question 38

extended metaphor

Answer 38

repeated use of the same metaphor

Question 39

falling action

Answer 39

point after climax when the tension dies

Question 40

figurative language

Answer 40

language that contains or uses figures of speech

Question 41

figure of speech

Answer 41

an expression of language such as simile, metaphor, or personification, by which the usual or literal meaning of a word is not employed

Question 42

flashback

Answer 42

a sudden, vivid recollection of a past event

Question 43

FOIL

Answer 43

a contrast between 2 characters

Question 44

foreshadowing

Answer 44

a hint of what’s going to happen

Question 45

free verse

Answer 45

verse with no meter

Question 46

genre

Answer 46

a kind or type, as of works of literature, art, or popular fiction (fiction, horror, fantasy, non-fiction, biography, historical fiction, and mystery)