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Literary Terms > Literary Terms > Flashcards

Literary Terms Flashcards

1
Q

The Absurd

A

Where a characters actions do not make sense

ex. waking up a bug and being worried about how to get to work

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2
Q

Unstressed Stressed

A

Where every other syllable is stressed (used in iambic?)

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3
Q

Agitprop

A

Art where the intent was to agitate through propaganda, but today is used to say somethings political agenda was to obvious.

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4
Q

Allegory

A

A story with a second meaning beneath the obvious

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5
Q

Alliteration

A

The repetition of initial constants sounds

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6
Q

Consonance

A

The repetition of constants sounds

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7
Q

Assonance

A

The repetition of constants sounds

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8
Q

Allusion

A

A reference made in a work to something in another book

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9
Q

American Renaissance

A

A flourishing period in American literature before the civil war (American Romanticism) (Moby Dick)

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10
Q

Collective Unconscious

A

The ideas one is born with

Ex. Fear of the dark

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11
Q

Anachronism

A

When something is out of its time (1950’s movie with an iPhone)

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12
Q

Anaphora

A

A figure of speech where the same word or phrase is repeated in successive lines clauses or sentences

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13
Q

Angst

A

German for anxiety or dread, used by philosophers of existentialism to mean a state of anguish that we feel as we are confronted by the burden of our freedom and the accompanying responsibility to impose values and meaning on an absurd universe

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14
Q

Anti-hero

A

A central character of a work who lacks the nobility expected of a hero (flawed protagonist)

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15
Q

Apollonian

A

Creative energy with rules, order and symmetry

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16
Q

Dionysian

A

Creative energy is wild and frenzied

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17
Q

Oxymoron

A

A compressed paradox (Jumbo shrimp)

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18
Q

Apology

A

The justification or defense of a writers ideas

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19
Q

Soliloquy

A

When a character thinks that are or are alone on stage and tells their thoughts

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20
Q

Apostrophe

A

A figure of speech in which the speaker addresses a dead or absent person or inanimate object
ex wind

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21
Q

Archetype

A

A symbol, theme, setting, or character that occurs in so many different times and places it might embody some element of human existence
examples). servant and heroes journey

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22
Q

Asyndeton

A

A form of verbal compression which consists of the omission of connecting words between clauses
ex. I came I saw I conquered

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23
Q

Augustan Age

A

Time of Roman Emperor Augustus

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24
Q

Avant-Guard

A

Cutting edge artists who put themselves in danger by doing things ahead of their time

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25
Q

Avant-Guard

A

Cutting edge artists who put themselves in danger by doing things ahead of their time

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26
Q

Beat Writers

A

A little before the hippie movement (early 1960s) where people would recite their (usually subversive) poems to jazz music in suits

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27
Q

Bilduungsroman

A

German meaning a novel where a character is coming to age

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28
Q

Black or dark comedy

A

Joking that makes light of serious subjects

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29
Q

Blank verse

A

Something in iambic pentameter without rhyme (Elizabethan and Shakespearean plays)

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30
Q

Bowdlerize

A

Editing something so extremely there is nothing that could be offensive

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31
Q

Byronic

A

Comes from the poet lord Bryron who was very athletic, handsome, and one of the best poets. The term describes a character like him who was body defiant, bitterly self tormenting outcast, proudly rebellious, usually suffering from an unarmed sinl

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32
Q

Cacophony

A

Harsh sounding words also means loud noise

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33
Q

Euphony

A

Smooth sounding words

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34
Q

Canon

A

A body of work accepted by authority

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35
Q

Cantos

A

Like in Dantes inferno it is the replacements chapters

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36
Q

Caricature

A

Exaggerates the features of a character

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37
Q

Cataloging

A

A listing of things

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38
Q

Characterization

A

How the author describes a character

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39
Q

Chiasmus

A

Chris crossing of words (fair is fowl, fowl is fair)

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40
Q

Chivalry Romance

A

Modern is being a gentleman, but for us it means stories about knights

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41
Q

Chores

A

A group of people who appeared in plays and chants the plot of the play

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42
Q

Closed Couplet

A

Two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that forms a unit (easily quotable)

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43
Q

Collective Unconscious

A

The inborn memory which he believed to be th eprimitive source of the archetypes or universal symbols found in legends poetry and dreams

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44
Q

Colloquial

A

Conversational English (not formal)

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45
Q

Commedia del-arte

A

Immprov comedic acting companies that performed throughout Europe around Shakespeare time

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46
Q

Conceit

A

An unusually far fetched or elaborate metaphor/simile that requires thought to understand

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47
Q

Coup de Theatre

A

An overthrow of the plot (a surprise)

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48
Q

Denouement

A

A basic plot element where loose ends are tied up (at the end)

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49
Q

Dialectic

A

The art of formal reasoning (argument)

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50
Q

Didactic

A

Literature that is meant to instruct or teach

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51
Q

Diphthong

A

A shift in a vowel sound (beer vs bee r)

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52
Q

Discourse

A

???

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53
Q

Double entendre

A

A double meaning (usually sexual)

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54
Q

Free Verse

A

No set meter or rhyme

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55
Q

Dramatic Monologue

A

A poem in which a single historical or fictional character other than the poet speaks to the audience (When the character saying the poem is a fictional character)

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56
Q

Dream sequence

A

A dream sequence in a film or book is when the character is dreaming

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57
Q

Dystopia

A

An alarming view of the future or society where it is about as bad as it gets

58
Q

Elegy

A

A eulogy in the form of a poem

59
Q

Eulogy

A

Words of praise for someone who has passed away

60
Q

Encomium

A

A speech of praise common in Greek or roman culture (War hero or athlete)

61
Q

Panegyric

A

Praie written or as a speech (Roman greek?)

62
Q

Elision

A

Removing a sylabol by removing a vowel (The –> Th’)

63
Q

Enjambment

A

The continuing of a sentence without interruption from one line couplet or stanza to the next

64
Q

Exemplum

A

Any story with a clear moral message

65
Q

Objective Correlation

A

Changing the setting to affect the mood

66
Q

Existentialism

A

A philosophy that focuses on lived human existence. Mostly freedom, responsibility and living in an absurd universe

67
Q

Expressionism

A

A movement in the late 1800s to the early 1900s in painting, theater, literature (the arts) that presents the world violently distorted with intense moods and ideas

68
Q

Romaniticism

A

Comes after the enlightenment and is was a huge movement from the 1790s to 1850s where art took a turn towards nature, feelings, self-expression, (emotion)

69
Q

Fabliau

A

A coarsely humorous short story in poetry (dirty joke)

70
Q

Farce

A

A slapstick comedy with unlikely plot

71
Q

Femininending

A

11 syllable in iambic pentameter

72
Q

Feet

A

A unit of stressed unstressed

73
Q

Framed Narrative

A

A story within a story

74
Q

Futurism

A

A art movement in the earliest 20th century that focused on the sense of speed

75
Q

Genres

A

Types of things

76
Q

Gothic

A

A story of terror and suspense normally set in a far away land (Can also apply to architecture)

77
Q

Grotesque

A

Abnormal conditions of the mind or body that you would see in a horror story

78
Q

Halfrhyme

A

similar consonant ending but differt vowel

79
Q

Hamartia

A

A series of mistakes caused by the hubris

80
Q

Harlem renaissance

A

A movement in Harlem in early 1900s where art flourished

81
Q

Couplet

A

Two lines that go together

82
Q

Satire

A

Something that ridicules something

83
Q

Hyperbole

A

An exagerattion

84
Q

Idiom

A

Expressions that make no sense when translated

85
Q

Imagery

A

The mental picture that an author tries to create

86
Q

In mendias res

A

When the story opens in the middle of an action

87
Q

Stream of Consciousness

A

When an author tries to capture the true thoughts of the character and follows how thoughts actually flow

88
Q

Irony

A

Verbal irony is saying one thing but meaning something else, tragic irony is when the main character think one thing is going to happen but you know something else will situational I when you thing something is going to happen but something else does instead

89
Q

Jacobin

A

relating to the time period of king James

90
Q

Lampoon

A

Satire that attacks someone personally

91
Q

Latinate

A

Song words that have Latin roots (trying to make English as much like latin as possible)

92
Q

Leitmotif??

A

Something that appears throughout literature

93
Q

Lítotes

A

When you understate something with a negative (Climbing mount everest is no easy feat)

94
Q

Meiosis

A

An understatement

95
Q

Malaprop

A

Funny mispronunciation

96
Q

Metaphor

A

Comparing to things without using like or as

97
Q

Metaphysical Poets

A

Poets around the time of Renaissance that deal heavily with philosophical stuff

98
Q

Metonymy

A

substituting one word fro another closely relating to it (the pen is mightier than the sword)

99
Q

mimesis

A

The art of imitation

100
Q

Minimalist

A

When less is more

101
Q

Mise en scene

A

Everything in front of a viewers eyes in a production

102
Q

Mockepic

A

An satire or parody that mocks classical stereotypes of heroes (King who is worried who will carry on his tradition of bad writing)

103
Q

Modernism

A

Sweeping term applied to vacant-guard movements (1800s onwards)

104
Q

Monologue

A

When there is one person speaking thinking etc

105
Q

Soliloquy

A

When the character us aline and expressing deep thoughts, (emotions)

106
Q

Myth criticism

A

A way of studying literature that views thoughts and story lines as having a mythic origin

107
Q

Occupatio

A

To emphasize somethingby pretending to pass over it

108
Q

ODe

A

A lyric poem(strong emotion) directed at someone or something

109
Q

Oeuvre

A

A body of work (such as all song by an artist)

110
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

ex. boom

111
Q

Oratory

A

Speaking

112
Q

Oxymoron

A

A very short paradow

113
Q

Paradox

A

Self contradicting statement

114
Q

Parody

A

satire that imitates

115
Q

Pathos

A

In a tragedy where the main character is pitied by the reader

116
Q

Peripeteia

A

A sudden reversal of a characters circumstances

117
Q

Persona

A

The mask assumed by the author (Holden is not Salinger)

118
Q

Personification

A

Giving human qualities to non-human things

119
Q

Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet

A

14 lines written in the pattern abba abba cde cde

120
Q

Picaresque

A

A story where the main character is a rascal

121
Q

Poetic Justice

A

Literature wahrer the bad person is eventually punished and the good rewarded

122
Q

Poetic license

A

where the poet breaks grammar and style rules because poetry

123
Q

Point of View

A

First and third person

124
Q

Polemic

A

A strong verbal or Witten attack on someone or something

125
Q

Postmodernism

A

The term applied to the era after modernism from the 1950s to today

126
Q

Realism

A

An accurate depiction of reality

127
Q

Renaissance

A

A vibrant time of art from 1450 to 1650 then the “painting masters” lived and art changed from 1d to real life

128
Q

Roman a clef

A

where the characters in a story are obviously people on real life

129
Q

Roman a these

A

A book which puts forth a very clear philosophical or political poet of view

130
Q

Roman-Flueve

A

A series of novels with the same characters

131
Q

Scansion

A

Determining the beats in a line of poetry

132
Q

Stanza

A

A section of a poem

133
Q

Sublime

A

A deep intellectual mysterious beauty of something (Pacific Northwest backpack)

134
Q

Syntax

A

How the words are arranged in a sentence

135
Q

Terza Rima

A

Poem with rhyme pattern abs bob cdc so it links the stanzas

136
Q

tragedy

A

Needs hubris, hamartia and ???

137
Q

Transcendentalism

A

The closer you get to nature the closer you get to the divine

138
Q

The unities

A

A concept (greek) that tragedies should have unity of time, place and action

139
Q

Utopia

A

A perfect society

140
Q

Wit

A

To be a wit means you were a quick thinker, clever and can express things most can’t put into words. During the enlightenment it was considered a culture and people would even have wits at their party to keep the conversation alive

141
Q

Zitgist

A

The spirit of a particular age

Literary Terms (1 decks)

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