Literature & Understanding Text (#3) Flashcards
1
Q
A story in which people/things/actions represent an idea or generalization about life; usually a strong lesson or moral
A
Allegory
2
Q
Repetition of initial consonant sounds in words
A
Alliteration
3
Q
Reference to a familiar person/place/thing (ex: utopia)
A
Allusion
4
Q
Comparison of different objects or ideas that are alike in some way
A
Analogy
5
Q
Meter that is composed of short-short-long or unaccented-unaccented-accented (light or whimsical, ex: limerick)
A
Anapestic Meter
6
Q
Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several clauses
A
Anaphora
7
Q
Brief story to illustrate/make a point
A
Anecdote
8
Q
Contrast or opposition between two things
A
Antithesis
9
Q
Harold Bloom: poets, filled with anxiety & no new ideas, struggle against the earlier generations of poets
A
Anxiety of Influence
10
Q
Wise saying, short & witty
A
Aphorism
11
Q
Turn from general audience to speak directly to a group of persons or a personified abstraction who is present or absent
A
Apostrophe
12
Q
Character, plot, image, theme, setting that appears in literature across cultures and is repeated over time
A
Archetype
13
Q
Repetition of the same sound in words close to one another
A
Assonance
14
Q
Unrhymed verse (often in iambic pentameter)
A
Blank verse
15
Q
Break in the rhythm of language, esp. natural pause in a line of verse
A
Caseura
16
Q
Method an author uses to let readers know more about the characters and their personal traits
A
Characterization
17
Q
Expression used so much it loses its expressive power
A
Cliche
18
Q
Metaphor or figure of speech, often elaborate, that compares two different things
A
Conceit
19
Q
Repetition of the final consonant sound in words containing different vowels (ex: stroke of luck)
A
Consonance
20
Q
Stanza made up of two rhyming lines
A
Couplet
21
Q
Metrical foot of three syllables (stressed-unstressed-unstressed)
A
Dactyl
22
Q
Literary criticism: writing and creator are unrelated
A
Death of the Author
23
Q
Resolution or conclusion of a story
A
Denouement
24
Q
Idea that works of literature carry on a dialogue with other works of literature and authors
A
Dialogic
25
Author's choice of words based on clarity, conciseness, effectiveness, authenticity
Diction
26
Language that intentionally distorts or disguises meaning such as a euphemism or in an intentional effort to deceive
Doublespeak
27
Rhyming the ends of lines of verse
End rhyme
28
run-on line in poetry, one line ends and continues onto the next line to complete the meaning
Enjambment
29
Descriptive phrase or word frequently used to characterize a person or thing
Epithet
30
Philosophy that values human freedom and personal responsibility (Sartre, Kierkegaard, Camus, Nietzshe, Kafka, Simone de Beauvoir)
Existentialism
31
Literary device: jump back in time in the narrative's chronology
Flashback
32
Character who contrasts another
Foil
33
One stressed syllable and a number of unstressed syllables (0 - 4)
Foot (metrical)
34
Unstressed, stressed
Iambic
35
Stressed, unstressed
Trochaic
36
Unstressed, unstressed, stressed
Anapestic
37
Stressed, unstressed, unstressed
Dactylic
38
Author gives hints about what is to come
Foreshadowing
39
Literary device: a story is enclosed in another story
Frame story
40
Verse that contains an irregular metrical pattern and line length
Free verse/vers libre
41
Category of literature defined by its style, form, content
Genre
42
Pair of lines of poetic verse written in iambic pentameter
Heroic couplet
43
Art and science of text interpretation
Hermeneutics
44
Flaw that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero
Hubris
45
Exaggeration for emphasis or rhetorical effect
Hyperbole
46
Expression specific to a certain language that means something different from the literal meaning
Idiom
47
Use of words to create pictures in the reader's mind
Imagery
48
Intentional joining of opposites
Incongruity
49
Narrative technique that reveals a character's internal thoughts and memories
Interior Monologue
50
Rhyme that occurs within the line of a verse
Internal rhyme
51
Relationships between texts
Intertextuality
52
Use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or expected meaning (Dramatic, Verbal, Situation)
Irony
53
Type of pun or play on words when two words get mixed up in the speaker's mind
Malapropism
54
Figure of speech in which a subtle or implicit comparison is made between two unlike things
Metaphor
55
Rhythmical pattern in verse that is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables
Meter
56
Figure of speech: one word is substituted for another with which it is closely associated
Metonymy
57
Literary theory: literature viewed as transmitting an author's message
Monologic
58
Use of words to suggest sounds
Onomatopoeia
59
Phrase that consists of two contradictory terms
Oxymoron
60
Contradictory statement that makes sense
Paradox
61
Attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals
Pathetic fallacy
62
Animals/ideas/things represented as having human traits
Personification
63
Narrator records the action from his or her point of view, unaware of any of the other characters' thoughts or feelings
Camera View/Objective View
64
Play on words based on multiple meaning or on words that sound alike but have different meanings
Pun
65
Repetition of a line or phrase of a poem at regular intervals, particularly at the end of each stanza
Refrain
66
Question that is posed but does not require an answer
Rhetorical question
67
Repetition of vowel sounds in accented syllables and all succeeding syllables
Rhyme
68
Regular or random occurrence of sounds in poetry
Rhythm
69
Rhyme that is not exact (Emily Dickinson)
Slant rhyme
70
Comparison of two unlike things ("like," "as")
Simile
71
Metrical foot of two syllables, both of which are stressed
Spondee
72
Style of writing that portrays the inner thoughts of a character, sometimes without regard for language/grammar standards
Stream-of-consciousness
73
How the author uses words, phrases, and sentences to form ideas
Style
74
Person, place, or thing used to represent something else
Symbol
75
Figure of speech in which a part represents the whole
Synecdoche
76
Juxtaposition of one sensory image with another that appeals to an unrelated sense
Synesthesia
77
mid-19th c. in New England; focused on protesting Puritan ethic & materialism; valued individualism, freedom, experimentation, spirituality (Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes)
Transcendentalism
78
Metrical foot: accented-unaccented
Trochee
79
Metric line of poetry, named after kind and number of feet composing it
Verse
80
Short poem, often by anonymous author, comprising short verses intended to be sung or recited
Ballad
81
Main section of a long poem
Canto
82
poem in which a character speaks to listeners whose response is not known
Dramatic monologue
83
Mournful lament for the dead
Elegy
84
Long narrative poem detailing a hero's deeds
Epic
85
Japanese poem written in English with 17 syllables; 5-7-5; single thought
Haiku
86
Humorous; five anapestic lines; rhyme: aabba
Limerick
87
Short poem about personal feelings and emotions
Lyric
88
Poem that tells a story
Narrative poem
89
Eight-line poem, or the first eight lines of a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet
Octave
90
Lyric poem on a serious subject, written in dignified language
Ode
91
Poem that depicts life in an idyllic, idealized way
Pastoral
92
Poem with six stanzas of six lines and a final triplet, all stanzas having the same six words and the line ends in six different sequences that follow a fixed pattern
Sestina
93
14-line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with a varied rhyme scheme
Sonnet
94
Sonnet that opens with an octave (states a proposition) and ends with a sestet (states the solution)
Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet
95
Sonnet that includes three quatrains and a couplet
Shakespearean/English Sonnet
96
19-line poem consisting of five tercets with the rhyme scheme aba and a final quatrain of abaa
Villanelle
97
Genre that focuses on characters in a situation where they cannot find any inherent purpose in life, rep'd by ultimately meaningless actions and events
Absurdist
98
Voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject is performing the action
Active voice
99
Short story or folktale that contains a moral, sometimes expressed explicitly at the end
Fable
100
Narrative made up of fantastic characters and creatures, such as witches, goblins, and fairies
Fairy tale
101
Genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary elemetn
Fantasy
102
Type of comedy in which silly, often stereotyped characters are involved in far-fetched situations
Farce
103
Narrative form that has been retold within a culture for generations
Folktale
104
Main story is composed primarily for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories, each is a story within a story
Frame tale
105
Narrative fiction set in some earlier time and often contains historically authentic people, places, events
Historical Fiction
106
Fiction intended to frighten, unsettle, scare
Horror
107
Narrative about human actions that is perceived by both the teller and the listeners to have taken place within human history and possesses certain qualities that give the tail the appearance of truth or reality
Legend
108
Genre developed in Latin America that blends everyday life with the magical or mystical
Magical Realism
109
Suspenseful story that deals with a puzzling crime
Mystery
110
Narrative fiction that involves gods and heroes or has a theme that expresses a culture's ideology
Myth
111
Short narrative, usually between 50 and 100 pages
Novella
112
Short story that teaches a lesson about how to lead a good life
Parable
113
Text or performance that imitates and mocks an author or work
Parody
114
Novel composed of idealized events far removed from everyday life
Romance
115
Literature that makes fun of social conventions or conditions, usually to evoke change
Satire
116
Very exaggerated, funny story that is obviously unbelievable
Tall tale
117
Literature ending in a catastrophic event for the protagonist
Tragedy
118
Novel west in the western US featuring cowboys, frontier
Western
119
Person's account of his or her own life
Autobiography
120
Account of a person's life written by another person
Biography
121
Phrase or statement written in memory of a person (tombstone)
Epitaph
122
Document organized in paragraph form; can be in the form of a letter, dialogue, or discussion
Essay
123
Historical account written from personal knowledge
Memoir
