Literary Terms Flashcards

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1
Q

Adage

A

A proverb or saying made familiar by long use.

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2
Q

Affective fallacy

A

The judging of a work of art in terms of its results and emotional effect.

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3
Q

Allegory

A

Extended metaphor

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4
Q

Ambivalence

A

The existence of mutually conflicting feelings.

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5
Q

Amplification.

A

Literary practice where the writer embellishes the sentence by adding more information.

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6
Q

Analogy

A

Establishing relationships based in similarities between two concepts.

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7
Q

Anagram

A

Jumbling of letters to create new meaning.

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8
Q

Anaphora

A

A device if repetition; the same word or expression is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines.

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9
Q

Anastrophe

A

Wherein the order of the noun and adjective are exchanged.

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10
Q

Antiphrasis

A

Irony

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11
Q

Anthropomorphism

A

Giving human characteristics to nonhuman objects

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12
Q

Antimetabole

A

Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order.

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13
Q

Apostrophe

A

A figure of speech in which someone, some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present.

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14
Q

Cacophony

A

The use of words and phrases to create harsh sounds.

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15
Q

Catechism

A

An exercise arrange in questions and answers. Especially in use of religious instruction

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16
Q

Chiasmus

A

Second part is balanced against the first, but reversed.

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17
Q

Connotation

A

Emotional implications that words carry.

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18
Q

Consonance

A

Repetition of consonant sounds

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19
Q

Denotation

A

Expressing a meaning or significant part of the story in a clear-cut manner

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20
Q

Deus ex machina

A

God from the machine. Plot device where some greater being solves the problems.

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21
Q

Dialectic

A

Debate

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22
Q

Diction

A

Vocab and syntax

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23
Q

Electra complex

A

A psychoanalytic metaphor for daughter-mother psychosexual conflict

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24
Q

Epitaph

A

Inscription to mark burial place

25
Q

Epithet

A

Adjective used to point out a characteristic of a person or thing. I.e. Alexander the Great

26
Q

Euphony

A

Words that create pleasantries. Words or phrases that simply sound nice.

27
Q

Existentialism

A

Inadequacy of human reason to explain the enigma of the universe.

28
Q

Fatalism

A

Events must occur in the future regardless of what our present actions or choices may be.

29
Q

Foil

A

A character who creates a sharp contrast in comparison to another character.

30
Q

Hubris

A

Overly arrogant

31
Q

Idiom

A

Cannot be translated literally

32
Q

Indirect satire

A

Characters who speak and act are themselves the object of satire in which they appear.

33
Q

Intertextuality

A

The shaping of texts meanings by other texts.

34
Q

Internal rhyme

A

Rhyme in the middle of a sentence.

35
Q

Invocation

A

An address to a deity for aid

36
Q

Kennings

A

Two word poetic renaming of someone or something

37
Q

Logocentrism

A

Often associated with structuralists and deconstructionists. The idea that a science and philosophy of logos exists within the mind.

38
Q

Malapropism

A

Misuse of words

39
Q

Metonymy

A

The substitution of the name of an object closely associated with the word itself

40
Q

Mimesis

A

Greek for interpretation

41
Q

Motif

A

Any element of the word that is present throughout

42
Q

Oxymoron

A

Figure of speech that combines contradiction

43
Q

Paradox

A

Statement that leads to contradiction

44
Q

Phallogocentrism

A

Privileging of the male order

45
Q

Pathetic fallacy

A

Treatment if inanimate objects (usually associated with nature) and applying human thoughts and emotions.

46
Q

Reification

A

Treatment of abstractions as concrete objects.

47
Q

Reliterilization

A

Returning a metaphorical expression to its literal meaning.

48
Q

Repartee

A

Comeback

49
Q

Semantics

A

The study of linguistic meaning

50
Q

Sibilance

A

Consonance using the hissing sound

51
Q

Suspension of disbelief

A

Willingness to withhold questions about truth, accuracy or probability

52
Q

Synesthesia

A

Stimulation of senses often confused

53
Q

Synecdoche

A

A trope in which a part signifies the whole. “Weary feet in the walk of life.”

54
Q

Syntax

A

The order of words

55
Q

Tautology

A

Redundancy

56
Q

Tenor and vehicle

A

Two elements of a metaphor

57
Q

Trope

A

Words are used in a different way from their meanings.

58
Q

Verisimilitude

A

The semblance of truth.