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English Final > Literary Terms > Flashcards

Literary Terms Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

A story with a literal and an implied level of meaning the implied level of meaning may suggest actual persons placed events and situations or a set of ideas.

A

Allegory

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2
Q

The repetition of similar consonant sounds within a group of neighboring words or lines. Often initial consonant sounds are repeated. The poetic device often increases the musical effect of the language.

A

Alliteration

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3
Q

A reference within a work of literature to something outside it.

A

Allusion

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4
Q

A person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative.

A

Antagonist

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5
Q

A brief statement, often witty, that expresses a principle, truth, or observation about life.

A

Aphorism

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6
Q

The addressing of some non-personal (or absent) object as if it were able to reply.

A

Apostrophe

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7
Q

A short narrative song.

A

Ballad

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8
Q

A detailed account of a person’s life and accomplishments, written by another person.

A

Biography

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9
Q

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

A

Blank verse

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10
Q

A break or pause introduced in the midst of a line or verse, language, or by content.

A

Caesura

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11
Q

Representations of person in literature.

A

Character

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12
Q

Drama that ends happily.

A

Comedy

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13
Q

An imaginative and metaphorical figure of speech that uses innovative ideas to develop a far-fetched connection between two seemingly dissimilar things.

A

Conceit

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14
Q

The struggle between opposing characters, forces, or emotions.

A

Conflict

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15
Q

A pair of rhymed lines.

A

Couplet

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16
Q

Regional variations within the same language, as spoken in different areas of a country.

A

Dialect

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17
Q

One’s choice of words in writing or speaking.

A

Diction

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18
Q

A story consisting of action and dialogue designed for stage performance.

A

Drama

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19
Q

A poem consisting of a speech by a character (who is not the author) addressing an audience at a critical moment in his life.

A

Dramatic monologue

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20
Q

A mournfully contemplative poem that mourns the death of someone, or the loss of something.

A

Elegiac poetry

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21
Q

Originally any poem of solemn mediation. Now it is a formal poem lamenting the death of a particular person or meditating on the subject of death itself.

A

Elegy

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22
Q

A line of verse that runs into the next line or lines without pause.

A

Enjambment

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23
Q

A long, stylized narrative poem celebrating the deeds of a national or ethnic hero.

A

Epic

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24
Q

A metaphor that extends throughout a stanza or an entire poem.

A

Extended metaphor

25
Q

A literary form typically set in non-existent realms and often featuring supernatural beings.

A

Fantasy

26
Q

A technique in which words and phrases that have literary meanings are enhanced and given freshness of expression by means of figures of speech.

A

Figurative language

27
Q

A ballad that is anonymously composed and passed down orally through the generations before it is committed to print.

A

Folk ballad

28
Q

A story originating in oral tradition.

A

Folktale

29
Q

A literary device that supplies clues that hint at later plot developments.

A

Foreshadowing

30
Q

A story within a story.

A

Frame story

31
Q

A figure of thought that contrasts appearance and reality.

A

Irony

32
Q

A metaphorical phrase or compound word that is used to indirectly name a person, place, or thing.

A

Kenning

33
Q

A ballad that is written by known poets for literary effect.

A

Literary ballad

34
Q

Short, melodious poems that focus on expressing emotions.

A

Lyrical poetry

35
Q

Especially striking and complex.

A

Metaphysical conceit

36
Q

The regular recurrence of accented syllables in a line of poetry.

A

Meter

37
Q

Broadly, the expression of one thing in terms of another.

A

Metaphor

38
Q

A poem in which the author tells a story.

A

Narrative poetry

39
Q

A long highly stylized lyric poem written in a complex stanza on a serious theme and often for a specific occasion.

A

Ode

40
Q

The giving of personal characteristics to something that is not a person.

A

Personification

41
Q

An outcome in a literary work (not necessarily a poem) in which good is rewarded and evil is punished, especially in ways that particularly fit the virtue or the crime.

A

Poetic justice

42
Q

The main character in fiction, drama, or narrative poetry.

A

Protagonist

43
Q

A four-line stanza, one of the most common stanza forms.

A

Quatrains

44
Q

The attempt in fiction to create an illusion of actuality by the use of seemingly random detail or by the inclusion of the ordinarily or unpleasant in life.

A

Realism

45
Q

A phrase or sentence repeated at intervals throughout a poem, often at the end of a stanza.

A

Refrain

46
Q

Identical sound in corresponding words or phrases.

A

Rhyme

47
Q

A more or less regular recurrence of stressed syllables in written or spoken utterance.

A

Rhythm

48
Q

A reaction against the cultural climate and values of neoclassicism. It insisted on the greater importance of 1) individualism 2) imagination 3) nature 4) the distant.

A

Romanticism

49
Q

Corrective ridicule in literature, or a work that is designed to correct an evil by means of ridicule. Not to be confused with verbal irony or sarcasm, purpose is to upbraid and to warn.

A

Satire

50
Q

An Old English poet or bard.

A

Scop

51
Q

A stated comparison of two things using a linking word or phrase.

A

Simile

52
Q

A lyric poem of fourteen iambic-pentameter lines conventionally rhyming according to one of two patterns.

A

Sonnet

53
Q

A narrative method designed to reproduce the mental process of a character, mingling conscious with half-conscious thoughts and sensations, past with present experience, and rational and irrational associations, in an unbroken flaw.

A

Stream of consciousness

54
Q

The use of one object as a symbol to represent or suggest another.

A

Symbolism

55
Q

The way in which grammatical structure is employed to combine words, phrases, and clauses into sentences.

A

Syntax

56
Q

A recurring or emerging idea in a work of literature.

A

Theme

57
Q

The attitude of a work towards its subject.

A

Tone

58
Q

A drama that ends unhappily.

A

Tragedy

English Final (2 decks)

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