Literary Terms Flashcards
The central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the action
Protagonist
The opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero in a story
Antagonist
A scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time
Flashback
Reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture
Allusion
Occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else
Verbal Irony
Occurs when a character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better
Dramatic irony
Occurs when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen
Situational irony
A figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect
Hyperbole
Uses 5 senses//The use of language y evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, a thing, or a place, or an experience
Imagery
A speaker or writer’s choice of words
Diction
The strict dictionary definition of a word
Denotation
The associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition
Connotation
A figure of speech that uses to comparisons between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, then, or, resembles
Metaphor
A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things with the use of specific words of comparison as like, as, then, or resembles
Simile
An atmosphere or feeling created within the reader when analyzing the authors diction in the details within a passage
Mood
A person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself
Symbol/Symbolism
Figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is giving human characteristics
Personification
Using words that imitate the sounds they devote
Onomatopoeia
Repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close together
Alliteration
The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in the words that are together
Assonance
Occurs when the rhyming words come at the ends of lines
End rhyme
Occurs when rhyming words appear in the same line
Internal rhyme
And in perfect form of rhyme created by forcing pronunciation of words or linking multiple words together usually has the same consonant sound but not the same vowel sound
Slant rhyme
The use of an element the sound, a word, a phrase, a clause, or sentence more than once
Repetition
A word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated for effect, several times in a poem (or song)
Refrain
