Literature Terms

Question 1

A story or tale with 2 or more levels of meaning. One or more symbolic levels. The characters or events in the story are symbols for ideas or qualities.

Answer 1

Allegory

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

A reference to a well known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.

Question 3

Anecdote

Answer 3

A brief story about an interesting, amusing, or strange event. It is told to entertain or make a point.

Question 4

Aphorism

Answer 4

A general truth or observation about life. Usually stated pointedly.

Question 5

Apostrophe

Answer 5

A figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an absent person or personified quality, object, or idea.

Question 6

Aside

Answer 6

A speech delivered by an actor in such a way that other characters on the stage are presumed not to hear it.

Question 7

Assonance

Answer 7

The repetition of vowel sounds in conjunction with dissimilar consonant sounds

Question 8

Blank Verse

Answer 8

A poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Question 9

Caesura

Answer 9

A pause or break in the middle of poetry

Question 10

Catalog

Answer 10

A list of people, places, or things in a literary work

Question 11

Classicism

Answer 11

An approach to literature and other arts that stresses reason, balance, clarity, ideal beauty, and orderly form in imitation of the arts of Ancient Greece and Rome.

Question 12

Conceit

Answer 12

An unusual or surprising comparison between 2 very different things

Question 13

Concrete Poem

Answer 13

One with a shape that suggests it’s subject

Question 14

Crisis

Answer 14

Turning point for the protagonist

Question 15

Dialect

Answer 15

Form of language spoken by people in a particular region or group.

Question 16

Diction

Answer 16

A writers or speakers word of choice

Question 17

Dramatic Monologue

Answer 17

A poem that makes use of the conventions of drama.

Question 18

Elegy

Answer 18

A solemn and formal lyric poem about death, often that mourns the passing of a particular person.

Question 19

End-Stopped Line

Answer 19

The end of the line coincides with a pause or thought

Question 20

Epigram

Answer 20

A brief, statement, in prose or in verse, often characterized by use of rhetorical devise or figure of speech

Question 21

Expressionism

Answer 21

An artistic movement of the early 20th century

Question 22

Fable

Answer 22

A brief story, usually with animals, that teaches a lesson or moral.

Question 23

Figurative language

Answer 23

Writing or speech not meant to be taken literally

Question 24

Folklore

Answer 24

A body of stories, legends, myths, ballads, riddles, sayings, that’s about people from around the globe

Question 25

Free Verse

Answer 25

Poetry that lacks a regular rhythmical pattern

Question 26

Gothic

Answer 26

Refers to the use of primitive, medieval, wild, or mysterious elements in literature.

Question 27

Harlem Renessaince

Answer 27

A time of African American artistic creativity centered in Harlem New York City

Question 28

Idyll

Answer 28

A poem or part of a poem that describes and idealizes country life

Question 29

Imagism

Answer 29

A literary movement that flourished between 1912 and 1927

Short poems that used ordinary language and free verse

Question 30

Incongruity

Answer 30

A combination of incompatible or opposite elements

Question 31

Inversion

Answer 31

A reversal or change in the regular word order of a sentence

Question 32

Legend

Answer 32

A traditional story. Deals with a particular person. Reflect cultural values

Question 33

Local color

Answer 33

The use in a literary work or characters and details unique to a particular geographic area

Question 34

Motivation

Answer 34

A reason that explains a characters thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech.

Question 35

Narrative poem

Answer 35

Tells a story in verse

Question 36

Naturalism

Answer 36

Was a literary movement among novelists at the end of the nineteenth century and during the early decades of the twentieth century

Question 37

Ode

Answer 37

A long, formal lyric poem with a serious theme that may have a traditional stanza structure

Question 38

Oral Tradition

Answer 38

The passing of songs, stories, and poems from generation to generation by word of mouth

Question 39

Oratory

Answer 39

Public speaking that is formal, persuasive and emotionally speaking.

Question 40

Ornate

Answer 40

A way of writing that uses long, complicated sentences with elaborate figures of speech, parallel structures, uncommon allusions, and unfamiliar word choices

Question 41

Plain Style

Answer 41

A type of writing in which uncomplicated sentences and ordinary words are used to make simple, direct statements

Question 42

Pun

Answer 42

A play on words

Question 43

Realism

Answer 43

The presentation in art of the details of actual life

Question 44

Regionalism

Answer 44

The tendency among certain authors to write about specific geographical areas

Question 45

Romanticism

Answer 45

A literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth century that arose. Placed a premium on fancy imagination emotion nature

Question 46

Satire

Answer 46

Writing that ridicules or criticizes individuals, ideals, institutions, social convention

Question 47

Spiritual

Answer 47

A type of spiritual is a type of American folk song dating from the period of slavery and reconstruction

Question 48

Stream of Consciousness

Answer 48

A narrative technique that presents thoughts as if they were coming directly from a characters mind

Question 49

Synecode

Answer 49

Part of something is used to stand for the whole thing

Question 50

Vernacular

Answer 50

The ordinary language of people in an area