Rhetorical Devices Flashcards
Catharsis
Purification/relieving of emotions especially pity or fear that brings spiritual renewal or release
Anagnorisis
Moment in play or work when a character makes a critical discovery (of true nature of situation or character)
Mimesis
Perfection and imitation of nature into literature and art; art imitating life
Techne
A skill for communicating effectively and coherent system for analyzing and classifying speeches; rhetoric in general is Techne b/c rhetorical devices such as syntax and selective diction are used by authors to emphasize or illustrate the point they are making in their writing
Hamartia
Tragic flaw: fatal flaw
Hubris
Excessive pride: overestimation of abilities; foolish boldness
Tragedy
Deals with affairs of state such as war (as opposed to comedy, which often deals with love); characterized by the ultimate goal being catharsis
Heteroglossia
Coexistence of distinct varieties within a single language; juxtaposition of one or more kinda of speech in order to bring about a contradiction and conflict in belief systems
Episteme
Knowledge(factual; as opposed to belief or opinion)
Parallelism
Similarity of structure in pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses
Isocolon
Succession of clauses or sentences of approximately equal length and corresponding structure
“I came, I saw, I conquered”
Antithesis
Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas often parallel in structure
Anastrophe
Inversion of natural or usual word order
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”
Parenthesis
Insertion of some verbal unit that interrupts the normal syntactical flood sentence
“Her favorite flowers-roses, calla lilies and gardenias-covered her room”
Apposition
Placing side by side two coordinate elements, the second which serves as an explanation or modification of the first
“All there was to eat at the dinner table was pepperoni, her favorite”
Ellipsis
Deliberate omission of word or words which are readily implied by the context
Asyndeton
Deliberate omission of conjugations
“I saw, I came, I conquered”
Polysyndeton
Deliberate use of many conjunctions
Use of fanboys
Alliteration
Repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words
“Peter piped picked…”
Assonance
Repetition of similar vowel sounds
“Refresh your zest..”
Anaphora
Repetition of same group of words or word at beginnings of successive clauses
Epistrophe
Repetition of same group of words or word at end of successive clauses
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us.” —Emerson
Epanalepsis
Repetition of the word that occurred at the beginning of clause; “Blood hath bought blood and blows have answer’d blows
Anadiplosis
Repetition of last word of one clause at beginning of following clause
“The crime was common, common be the pain”
Climax
Arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in order of increasing importance
Antimetabole
Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order; uses an anastrophe
“One should eat to live, not eat to live”
Chiasmus
Reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses
“Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys”
Polyptoton
Repetition of words drives from the same root
“We would like to contain and uncontainable future in a glass”
Metaphor
Implied comparison between two things of unlike nature
“She barked out orders”
Simile
Explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature
“The night is bleeding like a cut”
Synecdoche
Figure of speech in which part stands for the whole
Colts=all students
Metonymy
Substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant
Antanaclasis
Type of pun; use of words alike in sound but different in meaning
“Your argument is sound… All sound” 1st reasonable 2nd empty
Paronmasia
Type of pun; use of words alike in sound but different in meaning
“Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends”
Syllepsis
Type of pun; use of word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies
“The ink, like our pig, keeps running out of the pen”
Anthimeria
Substation of one part of speech for another
“Backpacking”
Periphrasis
Autonomasia
Substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name
Jim Crow = black codes
Personification
Giving human qualities to an animal or inanimate objects
Hyperbole
Use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis
Litotes
Negation as means of deliberate understatement
Irony
Use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word
Onomatopoeia
Use of words whose sound echoes the sense
Snap crackle pop
Oxymoron
Contradictory
“Awfully beautiful”
Paradox
Contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth
Apostrophe
Addressing an inanimate object someone that is absent or someone that’s dead as if they were present
Volta
Shift or point of dramatic change
Stichomythia
Dialogue in which tow characters speak alternate lines of verse
Foil
Character presented as a contrast to a second character
Pleonasm
Use of more words than or necessary to convey meaning; redundancy- no longer needed
Parataxis
Juxtaposition of words, phrases, or clauses for that create an effect of irony or paradox
Montage
Juxtaposition of heterogeneous elements
Verisimilitude
Appearance of being true or real
Avant-garde
People or works that are experimental or innovative
Roman a clef
Novel in which actual person and events are disguised as fictional characters
Epigraph
Quotation at the beginning of a piece of literature
Formalist essay
Tone Attitude Diction Language Detail Imagery Syntax Organization Point of view Perspective
