S

Question 1

a form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually harshly or bitterly critical.

Answer 1

sarcasm

Question 2

a literary work that holds up human failings to ridicule and censure.

Answer 2

satire

Question 3

Scansion is the process of scanning a poem, analyzing the verse to show its meter, line by line.

Answer 3

scanning/scansion

Question 4

a character, “you,” who tells the story and necessarily has a limited point of view; may be seen as an extension of the reader, an external figure acting out a story, or an auditor; may also be an unreliable narrator.

Answer 4

second-person narrator

Question 5

the last six lines of the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet. See also octave.

Answer 5

sestet

Question 6

an elaborate verse structure written in blank verse that consists of six stanzas of six lines each followed by a three-line stanza. The final words of each line in the first stanza appear in variable order in the next five stanzas, and are repeated in the middle and at the end of the three lines in the final stanza, as in Elizabeth Bishop’s “Sestina.”

Answer 6

sestina

Question 7

the design, decoration, and scenery of the stage during a play.

Answer 7

set

Question 8

the time and place of the action in a story, poem, or play.

Answer 8

setting

Question 9

also called an English sonnet; a sonnet form that divides the poem into three units of four lines each and a final unit of two lines (4+4+4+2 structure). Its classic rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg, but there are variations.

Answer 9

skakespearen sonnet

Question 10

another name for concrete poetry; poetry that is shaped to look like an object.

Answer 10

shaped verse

Question 11

a direct, explicit comparison of one thing to another, usually using the words like or as to draw the connection. See metaphor.

Answer 11

simile

Question 12

the context of the literary work’s action, what is happening when the story, poem, or play begins.

Answer 12

situation

Question 13

in a narrative, the incongruity between what the reader and/or character expects to happen and what actually does happen.

Answer 13

situational irony

Question 14

a low building in the back of the stage area in classical Greek theaters. It represented the palace or temple in front of which the action took place.

Answer 14

skene

Question 15

a monologue in which the character in a play is alone and speaking only to him-or herself.

Answer 15

soliloquy

Question 16

a fixed verse form consisting of fourteen lines usually in iambic pentameter. See Italian sonnet and Shakespearean sonnet.

Answer 16

sonnet

Question 17

the place of a poem, story, or play.

Answer 17

spacial setting

Question 18

the person, not necessarily the author, who is the voice of a poem.

Answer 18

speaker

Question 19

a stanza that consists of eight lines of iambic pentameter (five feet) followed by a ninth line of iambic hexameter (six feet). The rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc.

Answer 19

Spenserian stanza

Question 20

a metrical foot consisting of a pair of stressed syllables (“Dead set”).

Answer 20

spondee

Question 21

The words in the printed text of a play that inform the director, crew, actors, and readers how to stage, perform, or imagine the play. Stage directions are not spoken aloud and may appear at the beginning of a play, before any scene, or attached to a line of dialogue. The place and time of the action, the design of the set itself, and at times the characters’ actions or tone of voice are dictated through stage directions and interpreted by the group of people that put on a performance.

Answer 21

stage directions

Question 22

a section of a poem demarcated by extra line spacing. Some distinguish between a stanza, a division marked by a single pattern of meter or rhyme, and a verse paragraph, a division governed by thought rather than sound pattern.

Answer 22

stanza

Question 23

a characterization based on conscious or unconscious assumptions that some one aspect—such as gender, age, ethnic or national identity, religion, occupation, marital status, and so on—is predictably accompanied by certain character traits, actions, even values.

Answer 23

stereotype

Question 24

a character that appears in a number of stories or plays, such as the cruel stepmother, the braggart, and so forth

Answer 24

stock character

Question 25

the organization or arrangement of the various elements in a work.

Answer 25

structure

Question 26

a distinctive manner of expression; each author’s style is expressed through his/her diction, rhythm, imagery, and so on.

Answer 26

style

Question 27

a division within the category of a genre; novel, novella, and short story are subgenres of the genre fiction.

Answer 27

subgenre

Question 28

(1) the concrete and literal description of what a story is about; (2) the general or specific area of concern of a poem—also called topic; (3) also used in fiction commentary to denote a character whose inner thoughts and feelings are recounted.

Answer 28

subject

Question 29

another name for an underplot; a subordinate plot in fiction or drama.

Answer 29

subplot

Question 30

the expectation of and doubt about what is going to happen next.

Answer 30

suspense

Question 31

a form in which the poet establishes a precise number of syllables to a line and repeats it in subsequent stanzas.

Answer 31

syllabic verse

Question 32

a person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary work that designates itself and at the same time figuratively represents or “stands for” something else. Often the thing or idea represented is more abstract, general, non-or superrational; the symbol, more concrete and particular.

Answer 32

symbol

Question 33

a poem in which the use of symbols is so pervasive and internally consistent that the larger referential world is distanced, if not forgotten.

Answer 33

symbolic poem

Question 34

the way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Answer 34

syntax