Literary Terms #2

Question 1

Aesthete

Answer 1

beautiful writing; usually about sex

Question 2

Anecdote

Answer 2

a short and interesting story or an amusing event often proposed to support or demonstrate some point and make readers and listeners laugh

Question 3

Assonance

Answer 3

the repetition of a vowel sound or diphthong in non-rhyming words. To qualify as assonance, the words must be close enough for the repetition of the sound to be noticeable. EX: The early bird catches the worm.

Question 4

Catharsis

Answer 4

an emotional discharge through which one can achieve a state of moral or spiritual renewal or achieve a state of liberation from anxiety and stress; In literature it is used for the cleansing of emotions of the characters.

Question 5

Comedy

Answer 5

a literary genre and a type of dramatic work that is amusing and satirical in its tone, mostly having cheerful ending. The motif of this dramatic work is triumph over unpleasant circumstance by which to create comic effects, resulting in happy or successful conclusion.

Question 6

Denoument

Answer 6

the resolution of the issue of a complicated plot in fiction. Majority of the examples of denouement show the resolution in the final part or chapter that is often an epilogue.

Question 7

Enjambment

Answer 7

In poetry it means moving over from one line to another without a terminating punctuation mark.

Question 8

Exaggeration

Answer 8

Exaggeration is a statement that makes something worse, or better than it really is. In literature writers and speakers use it as a literary technique for extra stress and drama in a piece of work or speech.

Question 9

Foreshadow

Answer 9

a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.

Question 10

Imagery

Answer 10

the literary term used for language and description that appeals to our five senses

Question 11

Lyric

Answer 11

Lyric is a collection of verses and choruses, making up a complete song, or a short and non-narrative poem. A lyric uses a single speaker, who expresses personal emotions or thoughts.

Question 12

Omniscient

Answer 12

a literary technique of writing narrative in third person in which a narrator knows the feelings and thoughts of every character in the story. Omniscient narrative tells the story of every character by demonstrating that only the narrator possesses information.

Question 13

Pathos

Answer 13

appeals to emotions

Question 14

Proverb

Answer 14

a brief, simple and popular saying, or a phrase that gives advice and effectively embodies a commonplace truth based on practical experience or common sense

Question 15

Romanticism

Answer 15

the Romantic style or movement in literature and art, or adherence to its principles

Question 16

Simile

Answer 16

draws resemblance with the help of the words “like” or “as”. Therefore, it is a direct comparison.

Question 17

Stress

Answer 17

the emphasis that falls on certain syllables and not others; the arrangement of stresses within a poem is the foundation of poetic rhythm.

Question 18

Theme

Answer 18

the central topic of a text

Question 19

Vernacular

Answer 19

a literary genre that uses daily used language in writing and speaking. It is different from written works, as they normally follow the formal variety of language

Question 20

Apposition

Answer 20

When a noun or word is followed by another noun or phrase that renames or identifies it. ALWAYS USED WITH COMMAS

Question 21

Diction

Answer 21

Diction can be defined as style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words by a speaker or a writer.

Question 22

Epithet

Answer 22

a descriptive literary device that describes a place, a thing or a person in such a way that it helps in making the characteristics of a person, thing or place more prominent than they actually are. OFTEN IN SHAKESPEARE

Question 23

Juxtaposition

Answer 23

Juxtaposition is a literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts.

Question 24

Parallelism

Answer 24

Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter. EX: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness”

Question 25

Trochee

Answer 25

a metrical foot of two syllables, one long (or stressed) and one short (or unstressed)