Literary Terms Modern Texts Flashcards
Archetype
A character, action, situation or pattern that seems to represent a universal aspect or quality of human life
Dialogue
Fictional conversation, words being spoken
Foreshadow
To give an anticipatory indication, or to hint at what will follow later in the narrative
Irony
The quality of an utterance or event which appeared to signify one thing but in fact convays a meaning other than the obvious
Metaphor
Describing one thing as being another
Mythic
Belonging to the myth, that is to stories that lay claim to truth behind the influence of historical circumstances
Narrative
An account of events and actions or events and action that tell a story
Narrator
Voice within a written account or story that communicated the account or story to its readers
Oxymoron
A figure of speech which combines two apparently contradictory terms for example a wise fool
Pastoral
Literally genre in which a simple way of life is compared favourably with a more complex way
Realism
Set of conventions which enables representation of knowable communities and characters
Romance
A narrative that departs from the dictates of reality as is known to common sense in order to evoke a magical world
Tragedy
A play or other literary work depicting the downfall of its main character, due to an error of judgement, moral flaw or adverse circumstances
Anecdote
Secret or unpublished narratives
Archetype
A standard character Thor showing typical traits
Byronic hero
Characteristically both glamorous and dangerous, haunted by guilt of mysterious crimes
Destabilising
To make uncertain, to unsettle meaning
Eponymous
Relating to or being the person or thing after which something is named
Ideology
A set of beliefs about the world which seems both natural and inevitable
Metaphysical
Visionary writing, generally associated with the seventeenth century, incorporeal, abstract
Palimpsest
A text that is overwritten with other narratives and messages
Parable
A story which explains something that cannot easily be deceived otherwise
Pathetic fallacy
The attribution of human feelings to objects in nature and, commonly, weather systems, so that thew mood of the narrator or character can be discerned form the behaviour of he surrounding environment
Pseudonym
An adopted name under which to write
Semiotics
Study of signs and sign systems
Symbolism
Invests material objects with abstract powers and meanings greater than their own. Allowing a complex idea to be represented by a single object
Transcendent
Often synonymous with metaphysical - that which is beyond the limits of human knowledge; exceeding or surpassing the ordinary
Ambivalence
The coexistence in one person of two different attitudes to the same object or wish
