Literary Terms Flashcards

1
Q

allegory

A

written piece in which ideas or morals are represented by individual characters or things

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2
Q

allusion

A

a reference within an artistic work to another artistic work

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3
Q

antagonist

A

In a literary work, the character whose actions oppose those of the hero

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4
Q

ballad

A

a story - poem, often sung aloud

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5
Q

Beat movement

A

a group of American poets and artists whose expressions of alienation in the 1950s became a calling card of the underground (Ginsberg Kerouac)

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6
Q

Blank verse

A

Non - rhyming verse consisting of 10 - syllable lines

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7
Q

canto

A

a subdivion of an epic poem

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8
Q

Classicism

A

Artistic of literary movement that is aesthetically based on the Ancient Greeks or Romans

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9
Q

Climax

A

The point in any story at which the action reaches its zenith

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10
Q

couplet

A

two rhyming lines of poetry in succession, most often of a similar or like meter

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11
Q

denouement

A

The conclusion or resolution following the climax of the story

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12
Q

elegy

A

a poem of remembrance

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13
Q

Existentialism

A

French philosophical idea that the individual lives in an indifferent world and must take responsibility for his or her own choices (Sartre, Camus)

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14
Q

fable

A

an allegorical story often employing animals as characters

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15
Q

genre

A

a category of work within art or letters, usually of a distinctive style

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16
Q

haiku

A

a Japanese poem containing 3 lines and 17 syllables in a structured order (5- 7- 5)

17
Q

irony

A

a literary style in which a situation is shown with the intent of representing its opposite

18
Q

lost generation

A

a group expatriate writers and artists in Paris in the 1920s centered around Gertrude Stein (Hemingway, Fitzgerald)

19
Q

metaphor

A

the comparison of two things in which one item represents another

20
Q

Modernism

A

High intellectual movement whose goal was the examination of pure art (Pound, Stein, Woolf)

21
Q

motif

A

a recurring element or theme in an artistic work

22
Q

ode

A

a lyric poem of rigidly structured stanzas

23
Q

parable

A

a story depicting a message of a moral or religious nature

24
Q

Pathos

A

Evoking pity in a literary work

25
Q

Realism

A

An artistic and literary style in which the society and events are depicted as they appear in real life

26
Q

restoration

A

the period of intensively active literary and artistic activity in England 1660 - 1688 when Charles II returned to the Throne (Dryden)

27
Q

Romantic movement

A

Predominately English movement in the 19th century whose basic belief was that passion should supercede logic and whose main opposition was classicalism (Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron)

28
Q

Satire

A

A literary work in which, through the use of irony, sarcasm and wit, the absurd humanity is brought to light. (Swift’s a modest proposal)

29
Q

Sonnet

A

A verse of 14 lines and written in one of several rhyme schemes (Shakespeare and Petrarch)

30
Q

Stanza

A

One division within a poem, usually of commonly metered verse

31
Q

Stream of consciousness

A

a literary device in which a character’s thoughts emerge on the page as they occur (Joyce and Woolf)

32
Q

Transcendentalism

A

American Movement in which insight and experience took precedence over logic and reason and that held the belief that all things coexist in nature (Thoreau, Emerson)

33
Q

Victorian Age

A

19th century England, considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. Characterized by rigid social manners and conservativism (Dickens, Hardy)