T List Literary Devices

Question 1

a story that narrates strange happenings in a direct manner, without detailed descriptions of character

Answer 1

tale

Question 2

a 3-line stanza, as exemplified by Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind;” the 3-line stanzas or sections that together constitute the sestet of the Petrarchan sonnet

Answer 2

tercet

Question 3

a 3-line stanzaic pattern with interlocking tercet rhymes; aba bcb and so on

Answer 3

terza rima

Question 4

a metrical line containing four feet

Answer 4

tetrameter

Question 5

the idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, character, and action, and cast in the form of a generalization

Answer 5

theme

Question 6

a speaker’s attitude as exposed through stylistic choices; often confused with the style element of mood (which describes the feeling created by the work); along with mood, this provides the emotional coloring of a work and is created by some combination of the other elements of style

Answer 6

tone

Question 7

a type of drama which depicts the causally related events that lead to the downfall and suffering of the protagonist, a personal of unusual moral or intellectual stature or outstanding abilities

Answer 7

tragedy

Question 8

a weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero

Answer 8

tragic flaw

Question 9

a privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory to suffering

Answer 9

tragic hero

Question 10

works of drama that include and blend tragic and comic elements in fairly equal measure

Answer 10

tragicomedy

Question 11

a reaction against both rationalism and empiricism in philosophy, as well as austere Calvinist doctrines about human nature, transcendentalism emphasized knowledge via mystical insight, the divine spark in each human being, and the imminence of God in nature; beginning in Europe and drawing inspiration from European thinkers, among them Immanuel Kent and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, it flourished in the 19th century US, where it was linked with Christian Unitarianism; key thinkers include Emerson and Thoreau

Answer 11

Transendentalism

Question 12

needless repetition through different terms that mean the same; “novice rookie”

Answer 12

tautology

Question 13

a metrical line containing three feet

Answer 13

trimeter

Question 14

a meter in which a majority of the feet contain three syllables; anapestic and dactylic are both examples

Answer 14

triple meter

Question 15

a meter in which the majority of feet are trochees

Answer 15

trochaic meter

Question 16

a metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable

Answer 16

trochee