Literary Terms Flashcards
Allusion
A reference in a artistic work to another artistic work.
Antagonist
The bad guy
Ballad
A story poem, often sung aloud
Beat movement
A group of American poets and artists whose expressions of alienation in the 1950’s became a calling card of the underground.
Artists: Ginsberg or Kerouac
Blank verse
Non rhyming verse consisting of 10 lines
Canto
A subdivision of an epic poem
Classicism
Artistic movement aesthetically based on the Greeks and Romans
Climax
The point of the story where the action peaks
Couplet
Two rhyming lines of poetry in succession, often of a similar meter.
Denouement
The conclusion or resolution following the climax
Elegy
A poem of remembrance
Existentialism
French philosophical idea where people live in an indifferent world and people must take responsibility for themselves.
Ex. Satre and Camus
Allegory
Written word where ideas or morals are represented by individuals or things
Genre
A category of work within art or letters, usually of a distinctive style.
Haiku
A Japanese poem containing three lines and 17 syllables. (5-7-5).
Irony
A literary style in which a situation is shown with the intent of representing its opposite.
Lost generation
A group of expatriate writers and artists in Paris in the 1920’s centered around Gertrude Stein.
Ex. Hemingway and FitzGerald
Metaphor
The comparison of two things in which one item represents another.
Modernism
High intellectual movement whose goal was the examination of pure art.
Ex. Pound, Stein, Woolf.
Motif
A recurring element or theme in an artistic work.
Ode
A lyric poem of rigidly structured stanzas.
Parable
A story depicting a message of moral or religious themes.
Pathos
Evoking pity in a literary work.
Realism
An artistic and literary style in which society and events are depicted as they appear in real life.
Romantic Movement
Predominantly English movement in the 19th century whose basic belief was that passion should supersede logic and whose main opposition was Classicism.
Ex. Keats, Wordsworth, Byron, and Coleridge
Restoration
The period of intensely active literary and artistic activity in England in 1660-1688 when Charles ll returned to the throne.
Satire
A literary work which, through the use of irony, sarcasm, and wit, the absurd in humanity is brought to light.
Ex. Swift
Sonnet
A verse of 14 lines and written in one of several rhyme schemes.
Ex. Shakespeare and Petrarch
Stanza
One division within a poem, usually of commonly metered verse.
Stream of Consciousness
A literary device in which a character’s thoughts emerge on the page as they occur.
Transcendentalism
An American movement in which insight and experience took precedence over logic and reason and that held the belief that all things coexist in nature.
Ex. Thoreau and Emerson
Victorian Age
19th century England, considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. Characterized by rigid social manners and conservatism.
Ex. Dickens and Hardy.
