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IB English A Literary Terms > Literary Terms > Flashcards

Literary Terms Flashcards

To understand and memorise the meaning of different literary terms for Paper 1 and Paper 2

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1
Q

Allegory

A

A literary or visual form in which characters, events or images represent or symbolise ideas. Eg: Animal farm is about community, but reflects the Russian revolution and satirises communism

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2
Q

Alliteration

A

repetition of an identical constonant sound at the beginning of stressed words

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3
Q

Allusion

A

A direct or more typically, indirect reference to an event, person, place, another work of literature, etc.

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4
Q

Ambiguity

A

Where language, action, tone, character, etc. are unclear and may yield two or more interpretations or meanings.

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5
Q

Ambivalence

A

Simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings towards something or someone.

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6
Q

Anecdote

A

A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature.

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7
Q

Perspective

A

A characters view of the situation or events in the story

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8
Q

Aphorism

A

A concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief. Eg. “Early to bed and early to rise/Make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

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9
Q

Contradiction

A

A direct opposition between things compared; inconsistency.

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10
Q

Apostrophe

A

A figure of speech in which a person, thing, or abstract quality is addressed as if present

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11
Q

Oxymoron

A

A figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements, as in “jumbo shrimp”, or “deafening silence

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12
Q

Syllogism

A

A form of deduction. An extremely subtle, sophisticated, or deceptive argument.

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13
Q

Satire

A

A literary style used to make fun of or ridicule an idea or human vice or weakness.

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14
Q

Bildungsroman

A

A novel or story whose theme is the moral or psychological growth of the main character.

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15
Q

Foil

A

A person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast.

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16
Q

Epistolary

A

A piece of literature contained in or carried on by letters.

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17
Q

Epitaph

A

A piece of writing in praise of a deceased person

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18
Q

Parody

A

A satirical imitation of a work of art for purpose of ridiculing its style or subject.

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19
Q

Delayed Sentence

A

A sentence that withholds its main idea until the end. Eg. Just as he bent to tie his shoe, a car hit him.

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20
Q

Sarcasm

A

A sharp caustic remark. A form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually bitterly or harshly critical.

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21
Q

Expletive

A

A single word or short phrase intended to emphasise surrounding words. Eg. In fact, of course, after all, certainly.

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22
Q

Irony

A

A situation or statement characterised by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. Frequently humorous.

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23
Q

Eulogy

A

A speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially to honor a deceased person.

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24
Q

Paradox

A

A statement that seems contradictory, but is actually true.

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25
Q

Epiphany

A

A sudden or intuitive insight or perception into the reality or essential meaning of something.

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26
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

A word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes, such as buzz or hiss.

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27
Q

Diction

A

An authors choice of words to convey a tone or effect

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28
Q

Utopia

A

An imaginary place of ideal perfection. Opposite of dystopia.

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29
Q

Deus ex machina

A

Use of an artificial device or contrived solution to solve a difficult situation, usually introduced suddenly and unexpectedly.

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30
Q

Antagonist

A

Character or force in a literary work that opposes the main character, or protagonist.

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31
Q

Analogy

A

Comparison of two things that are alike in some respects. Metaphors and similes are both types of analogy.

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32
Q

Inductive

A

Conclusion or type of reasoning whereby observation or information about a part of a class is applied to the class as a whole. Contrast with deductive.

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33
Q

Nostalgia

A

Desire to return in thought or fact to a former time

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34
Q

Chiasmus

A

Figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of parallel clauses is reversed in the second. Eg. Has the church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the church?”

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35
Q

Thesis

A

Focus statement of an essay; premise statement upon which the point of view or discussion in the essay is based.

36
Q

Litote

A

For of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis and intensity. Eg. “She is not a bad cook”

37
Q

Doppelganger

A

Ghostly counterpart of a living person or an alter ego

38
Q

Zeugma

A

Grammatically correct linkage of one subject with two or more verbs or a verb with two or more direct objects. Used to link two ideas or thoughts. Eg. “She broke his car and his heart”

39
Q

Ethos

A

In dramatic literature, the moral element that determines a character’s actions, rather than thought or emotion.

40
Q

Propaganda

A

Information or rumor deliberately spread to help or harm a person, group, etc.

41
Q

Didactic

A

Intended for teaching or to teach a moral lesson

42
Q

Formal language

A

Language that is lofty, dignified, or impersonal

43
Q

Abstract

A

Not related to the concrete properties of an object; pertaining to ideas, concepts, or qualities, as opposed to physical attributes.

44
Q

In medias res

A

Opening a story in the middle of the action, requiring filling in past details by exposition or flashback.

45
Q

Colloquial

A

Ordinary language; the vernacular. Eg. Depending on where in the US you live, a sandwich is called a sub, a grinder, or a hero

46
Q

Isocolon

A

Parallel structure in which the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure, but also in length. Eg. “An envious heart makes a treacherous ear”

47
Q

Aesthetic

A

Pertaining to the value of art for its own sake or for form

48
Q

Juxtaposition

A

Placing of two items side by side to create a certain effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish some other purpose

49
Q

Elegy

A

Poem or prose lamenting the death of a particular person

50
Q

Antihero

A

Protagonist of a literacy work who does not embody the traditional qualities of a hero (eg. honor, bravery, kindness, etc.)

51
Q

Catharsis

A

Purification or cleansing of the spirit through the emotions of pity and terror as a witness to a tragedy.

52
Q

Epigraph

A

Quote set at the beginning of a literary work or at its divisions to set the tone or suggest a theme.

53
Q

Motif

A

Recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event

54
Q

Parallelism

A

Recurrent syntactical similarity where several parts of a sentence or several sentences are
expressed alike to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences equal in importance. Eg. “I have always
searched for, but never found the perfect painting for that wall.”

55
Q

Anaphora

A

regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or
clauses. Eg. “We shall fight in the trenches. We shall fight on the oceans. We
shall fight in the sky.”

56
Q

Anadiplosis

A

Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause. For example,

“The crime was common, common be the pain.” (Alexander Pope)

57
Q

Imagery

A

Sensory details in a work; the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling, call to mind
an idea, or describe an object. Imagery involves any or all of the five senses

58
Q

Euphemism

A

Substitution of a milder or less direct expression for one that is harsh or blunt. For example, using “passed away” for “dead.”

59
Q

Genre

A

Term used to describe literary forms, such as tragedy, comedy, novel, or essay

60
Q

Voice

A

The acknowledged or unacknowledged source of words of the story; the speaker, a “person” telling the story or poem.

61
Q

Tone

A

The attitude a literary work takes towards its subject and theme. It reflects the narrator’s attitude.

62
Q

Theme

A

The central or dominant idea or concern of a work; the main idea or meaning

63
Q

Protagonist

A

The chief character in a work of literature

64
Q

Denotation

A

The dictionary definition of a word; the direct and specific meaning

65
Q

Mood

A

The feeling or ambience resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writer/narrator’s
attitude and point of view.

66
Q

Realism

A

The literary practice of attempting to describe life and nature without idealization and with attention to detail

67
Q

Prose

A

The ordinary of form of written language without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse

68
Q

Audience

A

The person(s) reached by a piece of writing.

69
Q

Asyndeton

A

The practice of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list, it gives a more extemporaneous effect and suggests the list may be incomplete. For
example, “He was brave, fearless, afraid of nothing.”

70
Q

Deductive

A

The reasoning process by which a conclusion is drawn from set of premises and contains no more facts than these premises

71
Q

Assonance

A

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words.

72
Q

Alliteration

A

The repetition of initial consonant sounds or any vowel sounds within a formal grouping,

73
Q

Consonance

A

The repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels, such as pitter-patter, splish-splash, and click-clack.

74
Q

Invective

A

The use of angry and insulting language in satirical writing

75
Q

Point of view

A

The view the reader gets of the action and characters in a story

76
Q

Persona

A

The voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share of the values of the actual author.

77
Q

Syntax

A

The way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. It is sentence structure and how it influences the way a reader perceives a piece of writing.

78
Q

Canon (canonical)

A

The works of an author that have been accepted as authentic.

79
Q

Foreshadow

A

To hint at or present things to come in a story or play

80
Q

Begging the question

A

To sidestep or evade the real problem.

81
Q

Anachronism

A

Use of historically inaccurate details in a text; for example, depicting a 19th-century
character using a computer.

82
Q

Personification

A

Treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by giving it human qualities.

83
Q

Ambiguity

A

Use of language in which multiple meanings are possible.

84
Q

Connotation

A

What is implied by a word. For example, the words sweet, gay, and awesome have connotations that are quite different from their actual definitions.

85
Q

Transition words

A

Words and devices that bring unity and coherence to a piece of writing. Examples: however, in addition, and on the other hand.

IB English A Literary Terms (1 decks)

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