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CLEP American Lit > Literary Terms > Flashcards

Literary Terms Flashcards

1
Q

Allegory

A

a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation

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2
Q

Alliteration

A

the repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words

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3
Q

Allusion

A

a statement that refers to something without mentioning it directly

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4
Q

Amplification

A

use of bare expressions, likely to be ignored or misunderstood by a hearer or reader because of the bluntness. Emphasis through restatement with additional details.

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5
Q

Anagram

A

a word or phrase made by transposing the letters.

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6
Q

Analogy

A

the comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship.

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7
Q

Anaphora

A

One of the devices of repetition, in which the same phrase is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines.

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8
Q

Animism

A

the belief that all plants, animals, and objects have spirits

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9
Q

Anthropomorphism

A

an interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics

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10
Q

Aphorism

A

a short phrase that expresses a true or wise idea ( life is short )

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11
Q

Archetype

A

the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies

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12
Q

Assonance

A

the repetition of vowel sounds but not consonant sounds as in consonance.

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13
Q

Asyndeton

A

Omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of polysyndeton). (“I came, I saw, I conquered.”)

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14
Q

Bibliomancy

A

prediction based on a Bible verse or literary passage chosen at random.

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15
Q

Cacophony

A

harsh, discordant sounds. (finger of birth-strangled babe)

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16
Q

Caesura

A

a natural pause or break

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17
Q

Characterization

A

method used by a writer to develop a character.

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18
Q

Chiasmus

A

type of rhetoric in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first. (“There’s a bridge to cross the great divide. . . .There’s a cross to bridge the great divide. . . .”)

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19
Q

Circumlocution

A

the use of many words to say something that could be said more clearly and directly by using fewer words

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20
Q

Conflict

A

the struggle found in fiction. Conflict/Plot may be internal or external and is best seen in (1) Man in conflict with another Man: (2) Man in conflict in Nature; (3) Man in conflict with self.

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21
Q

Connotation

A

is an implied meaning of a word. (Good night, sweet prince)

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22
Q

Consonance

A

is the repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowels, as in assonance. (lady lounges lazily , dark deep dread crept in)

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23
Q

Denotation

A

the literal meaning of a word, the dictionary meaning. Opposite of connotation. (Good night, sweet prince, )

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24
Q

Epilogue

A

a concluding part added to a literary work, as a novel.

2.a speech, usually in verse, delivered by one of the actors after the conclusion of a play.

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25
Q

Epithet

A

An epithet is a word which makes the reader see the object described in a clearer or sharper light. ( “frantic” wind, “whipped” clouds, and “panicky” trees)

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26
Q

Euphemism

A

the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt.

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27
Q

Euphony

A

Euphony is soothing pleasant sounds. Opposite of cacophony.

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28
Q

Fable

A

a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue:

29
Q

Foil

A

a character that contrasts second character that highlights certain qualities of that first character

30
Q

Foreshadowing

A

the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in literature

31
Q

Hyperbaton

A

the use, especially for emphasis, of a word order other than the expected or usual one, as in “Bird thou never wert.”

32
Q

Hyperbole

A

an exaggeration or overstatement.

I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.

33
Q

Image

A

language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching.

34
Q

Internal Rhyme

A

rhyming within a line. (I awoke to black flak.)

35
Q

Inversion

A

Grammar. any change from a basic word order or syntactic sequence, as in the placement of a subject after an auxiliary verb in a question or after the verb in an exclamation, as “When will you go?” and “How beautiful is the rose!”.

36
Q

Irony

A
  1. verbal irony is when an author says one thing and means something else.
  2. dramatic irony is when an audience perceives something that a character in the literature does not know.
  3. irony of situation is a discrepancy between the expected result and actual results.
37
Q

Juxtaposition

A

when one theme or idea or person or whatever is paralleled to another

38
Q

Kenning

A

a conventional poetic phrase used for or in addition to the usual name of a person or thing, especially in Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon verse, as “a wave traveler” for “a boat.”.

39
Q

Malapropism

A

an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, esp. by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

40
Q

Metaphor

A

the comparison of two UNLIKE things.

41
Q

Metonymy

A

substituting a word for another word closely associated with it.

42
Q

Motif

A
  • A recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work.
  • A dominant theme or central idea.
43
Q

Mood

A

the emotional attitude the author takes towards hir subject. Similar to Tone.

44
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

a word that imitates the sound it represents.

45
Q

Oxymoron

A

putting two contradictory words together.

46
Q

Parable

A
  1. a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.
  2. a statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like.
47
Q

Paradox

A

reveals a kind of truth which at first seems contradictory. Two opposing ideas.
(Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage.
Akin to Oxymoron.)

48
Q

Personification

A

giving human qualities to animals or objects.

a smiling moon, a jovial sun

49
Q

Polysyndeton

A

the use of several conjunctions in close succession, esp where some might be omitted (as in he ran and jumped and laughed for joy)

50
Q

Portmanteau

A

combination of two or more words to create a new word.

smog is the combination of smoke and fog

51
Q

Prologue

A
  1. a preliminary discourse; a preface or introductory part of a discourse, poem, or novel.
  2. an introductory speech,
52
Q

Pun

A

the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

53
Q

Rhyme Scheme

A 
rhymed words at the ends of lines.
Example:
Roses are red
Violents are blue
Sugar is sweet
And so are you.
54
Q

RHYTHM & RHYME

A

a pattern of words that contain similar sounds.
Example:
go/show/glow/know/though

55
Q

Satire

A

Satire arouses laughter or scorn as a means of ridicule and derision, with the avowed intention of correcting human faults. Common targets of satire include individuals (“personal satire”), types of people, social groups, institutions, and human nature

56
Q

Setting

A

is determining Time and Place in fiction.

57
Q

Simile

A

the comparison of two unlike things using like or as. Related to metaphor
Example:
He eats like a pig. Vines like golden prisons.

58
Q

Spoonerism

A

the shuffling of the first letters of words to make different words and therefore change the actual meaning of the sentence, or else produce a humorous, non-sensical sound. (Rather than “I have to blow my nose”, “I have to nose my blows”.)

59
Q

Stanza

A

a unified group of lines in poetry.

60
Q

Symbol

A

using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning.

61
Q

Synecdoche

A

when one uses a part to represent the whole (lend me your ears)

62
Q

Synesthesia

A

the conflation of the senses.

63
Q

Syntax

A

1 a : the way in which linguistic elements (as words) are put together to form constituents (as phrases or clauses) b : the part of grammar dealing with this
2 : a connected or orderly system : harmonious arrangement of parts or elements
3 : syntactics especially as dealing with the formal properties of languages or calculi

64
Q

Theme

A

the general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express.

65
Q

Tone

A

the attitude a writer takes towards a subject or character: serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical, tongue-in-cheek, solemn, objective. Similar to Mood

66
Q

Tragedy

A

the imitation of an action that is serious

and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself

67
Q

Verisimilitude

A
  1. Something that has the appearance of being true or real.
68
Q

Verse

A

a line of poetry

CLEP American Lit (1 decks)

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