Random Literary and Rhetorical Terms Flashcards
ad hominem
Attacking the person instead of the argument proposed by that individual.
Example: “Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot,” writes left-wing comedian Al Franken.
adverbial phrases
A group of words that modifies, as a single unit, a verb, verb form, adjective or another adverb.
Example: He lost the first game due to
carelessness.
allegory
Characters and other elements may be symbolic of the ideas referred to in the allegory.
Example: The Pilgrim‘s Progress by John Bunyan or A Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
allusion
A reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage.
Example: “In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings.”
analogy
A comparison to a directly parallel case, arguing that a claim reasonable for one case is reasonable for the analogous case.
anaphora
Repetition of a word, phrase or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row.
anecdote
A brief recounting of a relevant episode. Used in fiction and nonfiction.
anticlimax
In writing, denotes a writer‘s intentional drop from the serious and elevated to the trivial and lowly, in order to achieve a comic or satiric effect.
antithesis
A balancing of two opposite or contrasting words, phrases or clauses.
Example: “. . .one seeing more where the other sees less, one seeing black where the other sees white, one seeing big where the other sees small….”
oxymoron
Rhetorical antithesis, juxtaposing two contradictory terms like “wise fool” or “eloquent silent.”
aphorism
Pithy statement of a maxim, an opinion, or a general truth. Sometimes an epigram or an epigraph.
apostrophe
The addressing of a usually absent person or a usually personified thing.
Example: In “On Doing Good to Our Neighbours,” John Winthrop writes, “Neighbours!”
appositive
Nonessential word groups (phrases and clauses) that follow nouns and identify or explain them.
archetype
Meaning: model, example, standard, original, classic. In literature, applies to narrative designs, character types, or images.
assonance
Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words, usually with different consonant sounds either before or after the same vowel sounds.
Example: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,” Edgar Allan Poe‘s “The Raven.”
Example: “Thou foster child of silence and slow time,” John Keat‘s “Ode on a Grecian Urn.‖
asyndeton
Sentence where commas are used with no conjunctions to separate a series of words.
bathos
Noun. An anticlimax.
bombast
Adopted to signify verbose and inflated diction that is disproportionate to the matter it expresses.
bowdlerize
Named after Thomas Bowdler, who tidied up his Family Shakespeare in 1815 by omitting whatever is unfit to be read by a gentleman in the presence of a lady.
chiasmus
Arrangement of repeated thoughts in the pattern of X Y Y X.
common knowledge
Shared beliefs or assumptions between the reader and the audience.
consonance
Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity.
Example: “And all the air a solemn stillness holds.” from Thomas Gray‘s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.”
conventional
Following certain conventions, or traditional techniques of writing.
deconstruction
A critical approach that debunks single definitions of meaning based upon the instability of language.
diacope
Repetition of a word with one or more in between, usually to express deep feeling.
diatribe
A bitter and abusive speech or writing. Ironical or satirical criticism.
diction
Means “word choice.”
didactic
Fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.
double entendre
The term is used to indicate a word or phrase that is deliberately ambiguous, especially when one of the meanings is risque or improper.
either-or reasoning
Reducing an argument or issue to two polar opposites and ignoring any alternatives.
emotional appeal
Appealing to the emotions of the reader in order to excite and involve them in the argument.
epic simile
Formal and sustained similes that are developed far beyond its specific points of parallel to the primary subject. Primary subject is called "tenor." Secondary subject (the simile) is called "vehicle."
epigraph
A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme of the fiction or nonfiction text.
epigram
Extended to encompass a very short poem whether amorous (sexual love), elegiac (longing for the past), meditative (contemplative), anecdotal (description, story, episode), or satiric (witty, sarcasm).
epiphany
Literally means “a manifestation.”
epistrophe
Repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses.
epithet
Denotes an adjective or adjectival phrase used to define the special quality of a person or thing. Sometimes, the phrase stands in place of a noun.
equivoque
Special type of pun that makes use of a single word or phrase which has two disparate meanings, in a context which makes both meanings equally relevant.
