Literary Terms and Techniques Flashcards
Imagery
Descriptive languages that re-creates sensory experience
Visual, Auditory, Olfactory, Gustatory, Tactile
Mixed Metaphor
Inconsistent mixture of two or more metaphors
“Lets set sail and get this show on the road”
Dead Metaphor
Overused metaphor
“the eye of the storm”
Extended Metaphor
Metaphor developed over several lines or through entirety of poem
Synecdoche
Figure of speech which a part of something is used to represent the whole.
Antithesis
figure of speech in which contrasting or opposite ideas are presented in parallel form
“I long and dread to close”
Hyperbole
Deliberate over exaggeration or over statement
Personification
figure of speech where non-human objects are given human characteristics
Irony
contrast between expectation and reality. Dramatic, verbal or situational Irony
Rhetorical Question
Questions asked for a purpose outside of information
Oxymoron
Figure of speech that fuses contradictory ideas
“freezing fire”
Allusion
a reference to a specific person, place or event that is easily recognised
Symbol
object or concept which represents larger ideas
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds or similar sounding words
“The birds fire-fangled feathers dangle down”
Assonance
Repetition of identical or similar sounding vowels
Consonance
Repetition of consonant sounds in stressed syllables
Anaphora
Repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive line or sentence
Ellipses
…
Parallelism
Phrases with grammatically similar structures or repetitions to accentuate ideas
Onomatopeia
Sound effects
“Thump-thump-thump”
Allegory
a story or poem with a hidden or underlying meaning
Ambiguity
Deliberately suggesting conflicting and different meanings in a work
Analogy
Comparison of two things to show how they are alike
Anecdote
Brief story told to illustrate a point or reveals characteristic of individual character
Anastrophe
Inversion of logical sentence structure to an order which creates more emphasis
Antimetabole
Figure of speech where clause from first half is flipped and repeated in second half of sentence
“fair is foul and foul is fair”
Antihero
Main character who lacks typical main character energy
Tyler Durden???
Anthropomorphism
Human characteristics attributed to an animal
The tortoise and The hare
Asyndeton
commas with no conjunctions, basically listing but creates more emphasis
Cacophony
Dissonant sounds in a line or passage
k, t, b, g, d and p
Caesura
a pause
-
for effect
Catharsis
Aristotle’s word to describe fear and pity of audience for downfall of hero
The entirety of Romeo and Juliet ig
Characterisation
process by which writer reveals personality of character
Chiasmus
Grammar is reversed like antimetabole but not
“I ran away quickly” - “speedily, I fled”
Colloquialism
casual, informal language that some may call SLANG
External Conflict
conflict that occurs between two or more people
Internal Conflict
conflict between me and thyself
fight club????
Connotation
blue
gives kinda sad vibes
Crux
The most crucial line in poem, prose or text
Diction
Speakers choice of words
Enjambment
A line or a sentence that uses carries on and on without any pauses of any kind often leading to some sort of climax or not but its there for a reason
Elegy
a eulogy but instead of praising and commending the person who is dead we mourn them
Epiphany
lightbulb moment
Epistrophe
Anaphora but it happens at the end of the sentence
Euphemism
A word or phrase that sounds less offensive or more neutral
died - passed away
Euphony
Opposite of Cacophony, nice to hear
Foil
A character who acts as contrast to another character
Scar and Mufasa
Capitalism and communism
Hypophora
speaker answers his own question immediately after asking it
Idiom
Saying that has a different figurative meaning to its literal meaning
tiny violin
Juxtaposition
opposing words, ideas or phrases placed next to each other
Metonymy
figure of speech where a place, person or thing is closely associated with something else
“the pen is mightier than the sword”
Microcosm
A small world that stands for the larger one
Parasite and Lord of the flies
Motif
reoccurring idea, image, word or phrase which appears in the text which unify the work
Polysyndeton
Repetition of a number of conjunctions, one after the other without use of a comma
“we have men and arms and and planes and tanks”
Stream of consciousness
writer allows audience to hear characters inner though to reveal deeper understanding
Synesthesia
Writer presents an idea which appeals to more than one sense
“From what I’ve tasted of desire”
Invective
A tone of speech or writing which is denunciatory, abusive or vituperative
Jargon
Set of words of phrases used by specific profession or trade
