Literary Terms Flashcards
21) Denouement
“The death of Othello.”
The final outcome of the main dramatic complication in a literary work.
22) Diction
“Speech can be taken many different ways; it’s just how you say or write it.”
Choice of words especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.
23) Dramatic Irony
“The plot that Brutus created to take down Caesar.”
When the words and actions of the characters of a work of literature have a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters.
24) Dramatic Monologue
“Not a soliloquy; and interacts with one or more characters.”
A single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment.
25) Dynamic Character
“Ebeneezer Scrooge is a dynamic character.”
A literary or dramatic character who undergoes an important inner change, as a change in personality or attitude.
26) Dystopia
“Brave New World; 1984”
An imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives; anti-utopia.
27) Elegy
Sadness. Mourning. Death. Blah.
A mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.
28) Enjambment
Poetry tends to do this when explaining something; “From sunlight I peak, don’t be afraid; (next stanza) for the sun is only here to protect you, as am I.”
The running on of the thought from one line, couplet, or stanza to the next without a syntactical break.
29) Epic
“The Iliad and the Odyssey”
A lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.
30) Epiphany
Winston Smith’s conclusion to what Big Brother does.
An experience of sudden and striking realization.
31) Epistolary
“Dracula”
A poem in the form of an epistle or letter; a novel with a series of letters or documentations.
32) Epitaph
THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.
A short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively.
33) Ethos
“Things Fall Apart; used with Logos and Pathos; the society”
A Greek word meaning “character” that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology.
34) Euphemism
“Racist terms, sexist terms, demeaning terms, nicknames.”
A generally innocuous word, name, or phrase that replaces an offensive or suggestive one.
35) Existentialism
“Study; Crime and Punishment; study of the human…”
A term applied to the work of a number of late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.
36) Expletive
“Silly, silly, porter pants.”
A word that performs a syntactic role but contributes nothing to meaning.
