Textbook Terms

Question 1

Abstract

Answer 1

A general term, referring to a broad concept, as opposed to a term that refers to a specific, particular thing; opposite of concrete

EX: personhood as opposed to Seamus Heaney

Question 2

Act

Answer 2

The major subunit into which the action of the play is divided.

The number of acts in a play typically ranges between one and five, and are usually further divided into scenes

Question 3

Allegory

Answer 3

A literary work the portrays abstract ideas concretely.

Characters in allegory are frequently personifications of abstract ideas that are given names that referred to these ideas.

Question 4

Alliteration

Answer 4

The repetition of the same initial consonant sound in a sequence of words or syllables.

Question 5

Allusion

Answer 5

A reference for another work of literature, or to art, history, or current events

Question 6

Analogy

Answer 6

In literature, a comparison between two things that helps explain or illustrate one or both of them.

Question 7

Anapest

Answer 7

What type of meter where two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable (~~’)

Question 8

Anaphora

Answer 8

Repetition of initial word or words to add emphasis

Question 9

Annotation

Answer 9

The act of noting observations directly on a text, especially anything striking are confusing, in order to record ideas and impressions for later analysis.

Question 10

Antagonist

Answer 10

Character in a story or play who opposes the protagonist; while not necessarily an enemy, the antagonist creates or intensifies a conflict for the protagonist.

An evil antagonist is a villain.

Question 11

Apostrophe

Answer 11

A direct address to an abstraction (such as Time), a thing (the Wind), an animal, or an imaginary or absent person.

Question 12

Archaic Language

Answer 12

Word that were once common but that are no longer used

Question 13

Ars Poetica

Answer 13

Literally, “the art of poetry”; a form of poetry written about poetry

Question 14

Assonance

Answer 14

The repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words

Question 15

Atmosphere

Answer 15

The feeling created for the reader by a work of literature.

Atmosphere can be generated by many things, but especially style, tone, and setting. Synonymous with mowed

Question 16

Ballad

Answer 16

First taking shape in the later Middle Ages the ballad was a sung poem that we counted a dramatic story. Ballads were passed down orally from generation to generation. Arising in the Romantic period, the literary ballad -poem intentionally imitative of the ballad’s style and structure - attempted to capture the sentiments of the common people and the way the traditional ballad had. See also stanza.

Question 17

Beat movement

Answer 17

Movement of American writers in the 1950s who saw American society as oppressively conformist. These writers rejected mainstream values, seeking ways to escape through drugs, various forms of spirituality, and sexual experimentation. The writers of the Beat generation, among them Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, celebrated freedom of expression and held generally antiestablishment views about politics. Their writing, likewise, rejected conventional norms of structure and diction, and their books prompted several notorious obscenity trials, which help reshape censorship laws in the United States.

Question 18

Bildungsroman

Answer 18

Novel that explores the maturation of the protagonist, with the narrative usually moving the main character from childhood into adulthood.

Also called a coming-of-age story.

Question 19

Blank verse

Answer 19

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, blank verse is the most commonly used verse form in English because it is the verse form that comes closest to natural patterns of speaking in English.

See also iambic pentameter.

Question 20

Cadence

Answer 20

Quality of spoken text formed from combining the text’s rhythm with the rise and fall in the inflection of the speaker’s voice

Question 21

Caesura

Answer 21

A pause within a line of poetry, sometimes punctuated, sometimes not, often mirroring natural speech.

Question 22

Caricature

Answer 22

A character with features or traits that are exaggerated so that the character seems ridiculous. The term is usually applied to graphic depictions but can also be applied to written depictions

Question 23

Carpe Diem

Answer 23

AS widespread literary theme meaning “seize the day” in Latin and found especially in lyric poetry, carpe diem encourages readers to enjoy the present and make the most of their short lives.

Question 24

Catharsis

Answer 24

Refers to the emotional release felt by the audience at the end of a tragic drama. The term comes from Aristotle’s “Poetics”, in which he explains this frequently felt relief in terms of a purification of the emotions caused by watching the tragic events

Question 25

Character

Answer 25

A person depicted in a narrative. While this term generally refers to human beings, it can also include animals or inanimate objects that are given human characteristics. Several more specific terms are used to refer to types of characters frequently employed by authors, including flat, round, secondary, and stock characters

Question 26

Flat character

Answer 26

A character embodying only one or two traits and who lacks character development; for this reason, a flat character is also called a static character. Often such characters exist only to provide background or adequate motivation for a protagonist’s actions

Question 27

Round character

Answer 27

A character exhibiting a range of emotions and who evolves over the course of the story

Question 28

Secondary character

Answer 28

A supporting character; while not as prominent or central as a main character, he or she is still important to the events of a story or play

Question 29

Stock character

Answer 29

A type of flat character based on a stereotype; one who falls into an immediately recognizable category or type - such as the absentminded professor or the town drunk - and thus resists unique characterization. Stock characters can be artfully used for humor or satire

Question 30

Characterization

Answer 30

The method by which the author builds, or reveals, a character; it can be direct or indirect. Indirect characterization means that an author shows rather than tells us what a character is like through what the character says, does, or thinks, or what others say about the character. Direct characterization occurs when a narrator tells the reader who a character is by describing the background, motivation, temperament, or appearance of a character

Question 31

Chorus

Answer 31

In drama, especially classical Greek drama, the chorus refers to a group of participants in a play who deliver commentary on the play’s action. The role of the chorus is no longer a regular feature of modern drama, although it has been employed in a few prominent works, such as T.S. Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral”

Question 32

Climax

Answer 32

The point in a story when the conflict reaches its highest territory

Question 33

Colloquialism

Answer 33

An expression or language construction appropriate only for casual, informal speaking or writing

Question 34

Colonialism

Answer 34

The occupation of one country by another. In the early 1800s, European countries controlled 35% of the world, but by 1914, that number had risen to nearly 85% and included parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The legacy of colonialism has extended beyond the political independence that many countries gained in the 1960s and the 1970s

Question 35

Comedy

Answer 35

Usually used to refer to a dramatic work that, in contrast to a tragedy, has a light, amusing plot, features a happy ending, centers around ordinary people, and is written and performed in the vernacular

Question 36

Comedy of manners

Answer 36

A satiric dramatic form that lampoons social conventions

Question 37

Concrete

Answer 37

A concrete term is one that refers to a specific, particular thing, as opposed to a term that refers to a broad concept; opposite of abstract

Question 38

Conflict

Answer 38

The tension, opposition, or struggle that drives a plot. External conflict is the opposition or tension between two characters or forces. Internal conflict occurs within a character. Conflict usually arises between the protagonist and the antagonist in the story.

Question 39

Connotation

Answer 39

Meanings or associations readers have with a word or item beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation. Connotations may reveal another layer of meaning of a piece, affect the tone, or suggest symbolic resonance

Question 40

Consonance

Answer 40

An instance in which identical final consonant sounds in nearby words follow different vowel sounds.

Question 41

Denotation

Answer 41

The literal definition of a word, often referred to as the “dictionary definition”

Question 42

Denouement

Answer 42

Pronounced day-noo-moh, this literally means “untying the knot”; in this phase of a story’s plot, the conflict has been resolved and the balance is restored to the world of the story

Question 43

Dialect

Answer 43

Dialogue or narration written to stimulate regional or cultural speech patterns

Question 44

Dialogue

Answer 44

The written depiction of conversation between characters

Question 45

Diction

Answer 45

A writer’s choice of words. In addition to choosing words with precise denotations and connotations, an author must choose whether to use words that are abstract or concrete, formal or informal, or literal or figurative

Question 46

Dramatic monologue

Answer 46

A type of poem in which the speaker, who is clearly distinct from the poet, addresses an audience that is present in the poem

Question 47

Ekphrastic poetry

Answer 47

A form of poetry that comments on a work of art in another genre, such as a painting or a piece of music

Question 48

Elegy

Answer 48

A contemplative poem, on death and mortality, often written for someone who has died

Question 49

End-stopped line

Answer 49

An end-stopped line of poetry concludes with punctuation that marks a pause. The line is completely meaningful in itself, unlike run-on lines, which require the reader to move to the next line to grasp the poet’s complete thought

Question 50

Enjambment

Answer 50

A poetic technique in which one line ends without a pause and must continue on to the next line to complete its meaning; also referred to as a “run-on line”

Question 51

Epigram

Answer 51

A short, witty statement designed to surprise an audience or a reader

Question 52

Epigraph

Answer 52

A quotation preceding a work of literature that helps set the text’s mood or suggest its themes

Question 53

Epiphany

Answer 53

A character’s transformative moment of realization.

Question 54

Eulogy

Answer 54

A poem, speech, or other work written in great praise of something or someone, usually a person no longer living

Question 55

Exposition

Answer 55

In a literary work, contextual and background information told to readers (rather than shown through action) about the characters, plot, setting, and situation

Question 56

Falling action

Answer 56

In a plot diagram, this is the result (or fallout) of the climax or turning point. In this phase, the conflict is being resolved

Question 57

Farce

Answer 57

A dramatic form marked by wholly absurd situations, slapstick, raucous wordplay, and sometimes innuendo

Question 58

Feminist literature

Answer 58

Literary works that explore (either overtly or implicitly) women’s identity and role in society. Feminist criticism reexamines literary works and the role of women in literature

Question 59

Figurative language

Answer 59

Language that uses figures of speech; nonliteral language usually evoking strong images. Sometimes referred to as metaphorical language, most of its forms explain, clarify, or enhance an idea by comparing it to something else; the comparison can be explicit (simile) or implied (metaphor). Other forms of figurative language include personification, paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement, and irony

Question 60

Flashback

Answer 60

A scene in a narrative that is set in an earlier time that the main action

Question 61

Foil

Answer 61

A contrasting character who allows the protagonist to stand out more distinctly

Question 62

Foreshadowing

Answer 62

A plot device in which future events are hinted at

Question 63

Form

Answer 63

Refers to the defining structural characteristics of a work, especially a poem (ie. meter and rhyme scheme). Often poets work within set forms, such as the sonnet or sestina, which require adherence to fixed conventions

Question 64

Free verse

Answer 64

A form of poetry that does not have a regular rhythm or rhyme scheme

Question 65

Genre

Answer 65

This term can refer broadly to the general category that a literary work falls into (drama or poetry, fiction or nonfiction) or more specifically to a certain subset of literary works grouped together on the basis of similar characteristics (science fiction, local color, western)

Question 66

Harlem Renaissance

Answer 66

A movement in the 1920s and 19302 marked by a great flowering of black arts and culture centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City

Question 67

Hook

Answer 67

An opening to a piece of writing designed to catch the audience’s attention

Question 68

Hubris

Answer 68

An excessive level of pride that leads to the protagonist’s downfall

Question 69

Hyperbole

Answer 69

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point

Question 70

Iambic Pentameter

Answer 70

An iamb, the most common metrical foot in English poetry, is made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. Iambic pentameter, then, is a rhythmic meter containing five iambs. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse

Question 71

Iconography

Answer 71

The images or symbols used by an artist or present in a work of art

Question 72

Imagery

Answer 72

A description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds. The verbal expression of a sensory experience: sight, sound, scent, taste, touch, movement, or tension. Imagery may use literal or figurative language

Question 73

Impressionism

Answer 73

A movement of French painters that reached its apex in the 1870s and 1880s. The impressionists attempted to capture the subjective experience of seeing things rather than create accurate reproductions. Their attempt to capture subjective experience in art was very influential on symbolist poets and writers of stream-of-consciousness prose, such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf

Question 74

In medias res

Answer 74

Latin for “in the middle of things”, a technique in which a narrative begins in the middle of the action.

Question 75

Inversion

Answer 75

Also called an inverted sentence, it is created by alteration of the standard English word order of a subject being followed by a verb and its object in a declarative sentence. Often used to call attention to something, perhaps to emphasize a point or an idea by placing it in the initial position, or to slow the pace by choosing an unusual order

Question 76

Dramatic irony

Answer 76

Tension created by the contrast between what a character says or thinks and what the audience or readers know to be true; as a result of this technique, some words and actions in a story or play take on a different meaning than they do for the characters

Question 77

Situational irony

Answer 77

A pointed discrepancy between what seems fitting or expected in a story and what actually happens

Question 78

Verbal irony

Answer 78

A figure of speech that occurs when a speaker of character says one thing but means something else, or when what is said is the opposite of what is expected, creating a noticeable incongruity

Question 79

Juxtaposition

Answer 79

Placing two things side by side for the sake of comparison or contrast. Authors sometimes use congruous juxtapositions to produce verbal irony

Question 80

Kafkaesque

Answer 80

Having the nightmarish, uncanny characteristics of Kafka’s stories

Question 81

Literary elements

Answer 81

The components that together create a literary work. This term encompasses elements of style, such as imagery, syntax, figurative language, and tone; as well as storytelling elements such as plot, character, setting, and point of view

Question 82

Lyric

Answer 82

A short poem expressing the personal feelings of a first-person speaker. The term comes from the Greek word lyre, and the form is descended from poems intended to be sung with a lyre.

Question 83

Masque

Answer 83

Now extremely rare, this genre of rush spectacle, song, dance, masks, and elaborate staging was popular among sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British nobles, who also made up ts amateur and occasionally royal cast

Question 84

Metaphor

Answer 84

A figure of speech that compares or equates two things without using like or as

Question 85

Extended metaphor

Answer 85

A metaphor that continues over several lines or throughout an entire literary work

Question 86

Metaphysical conceit

Answer 86

A literary device that sets up a striking analogy between two entities that would not usually invite comparison, often drawing connections between the physical and the spiritual. This literary device is famously used by metaphysical poets, including John Donne and George Herbert

Question 87

Meter

Answer 87

The formal, regular organization of stressed and unstressed syllables, measured in feet.

Question 88

Metonymy

Answer 88

A figure of speech in which something is represented by another thing that is related to it

Question 89

Minimalism

Answer 89

A style in prose or verse that emphasizes economy of words and unadorned sentences

Question 90

Modernism

Answer 90

In literature, Modernism refers to a movement of writers who reached their apex between the 1920s and the 1930s and expressed views of disillusionment with contemporary Western civilization, especially in the wake of World War I’s mindless slaughter. Rejecting the conventions of the Victorian era, these writers experimented with form and took insights from recent writings by Freud and Jung about the unconscious. They viewed art as restorative and frequently ordered their writing around symbols and allusions. Modernists included T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf

Question 91

Monologue

Answer 91

In a play, a speech given by one person.

Question 92

Mood

Answer 92

Synonymous with atmosphere, mood is feeling created for by the reader by a work of literature. Many things can generate mood - especially style, tone, and setting

Question 93

Motif

Answer 93

A recurring pattern of images, words, or symbols that reveals a theme in a work of literature

Question 94

Narrative

Answer 94

A story. Written wither in prose or in verse, as narrative poetry

Question 95

Narrative frame

Answer 95

Also known as a frame story, a narrative frame is a plot device in which the author places the main narrative of his or her work within another narrative - the narrative frame. This exterior narrative usually serves to explain the main narrative in some way

Question 96

Narrator

Answer 96

The character, or persona, that the author uses to tell a narrative, or story. Narrators may tell stories from several different points of view, including first person, second person (very rare), and third person.

Question 97

Objective narrator

Answer 97

A narrator who recounts only what characters say and do, offering no insight into their thinking or analysis of events. All interpretation is left to the reader

Question 98

Unreliable narrator

Answer 98

A narrator who is biased and doesn’t give a full or accurate picture of events in a narrative. Narrators may be unreliable because of youth, inexperience, madness, intentional or unintentional bias, or even a lack of morals. Authors often use this technique to distinguish the character’s point of view from their own. Sometimes an author will use an unreliable narrator to make an ironic point.

Question 99

Non sequitur

Answer 99

In literature, a reply or remark that does not have any relevance to what occasioned or preceded it. In rhetoric, a conclusion that does not logically follow the premises

Question 100

Novella

Answer 100

A short novel, from the Italian word meaning “story”

Question 101

Ode

Answer 101

A form of poetry used to meditate on or address a single object or condition. It originally followed strict rules or rhythm, meter, and rhyme, which by the Romantic period had become more flexible

Question 102

Onomatopoeia

Answer 102

Use of words that refer to sound and whose pronunciation mimic those sounds

Question 103

Oxymoron

Answer 103

A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words

Question 104

Parable

Answer 104

A tale told explicitly to illustrate a moral lesson or conclusion. Parables can take the form of drama, poetry, or fiction

Question 105

Paradox

Answer 105

A statement that seems contradictory but actually is not

Question 106

Parallel structure

Answer 106

Also known as parallelism, this term refers to the repeated use of similar grammatical structures for the purpose of emphasis.

Question 107

Parody

Answer 107

A comic or satiric imitation of a particular literary work or style. Parodies can run the gamet from lighthearted imitations intended merely to play with something well known, to exaggerations intended to criticize by making a work or literary style look ridiculous

Question 108

Passive voice

Answer 108

A sentence employs passive voice when the subject doesn’t act but is acted on

Question 109

Pastoral

Answer 109

Literature that employs a romanticized descrition of leisurely farm or rural life

Question 110

Persona

Answer 110

A voice and viewpoint that an author adopts in order to deliver a story or poem

Question 111

Personification

Answer 111

A figure of speech in which an animal or an inanimate object is imbued with human qualities

Question 112

Plot

Answer 112

The arrangement of events in a narrative. Almost always, a conflict is central to the plot, and traditionally, a plot develops in accordance with the following model: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement. There can be more than one sequence of events in a work, although typically there is one major sequence along with other minor sequences, called subplots.

Question 113

Point of view

Answer 113

The perspective from which a work is told

Question 114

First-person perspective

Answer 114

Told by a narrator who is a character in the story and who refers to him- or herself as “I”. First-person narrators are sometimes unreliable narrators.

Question 115

Second-person perspective

Answer 115

Though rare, some stories are told using second-person pronouns (you). This casts the reader as a character in the story

Question 116

Third-person limited omniscient perspective

Answer 116

Told by a narrative who relates the action using third-person pronouns (he, she, it). This narrator is usually privy to the thoughts and actions of only one character

Question 117

Third-person omniscient perspective

Answer 117

Told by a narrator using third-person pronouns (he, she, it). This narrator is privy to the thoughts and actions of all the characters in the story.

Question 118

Postmodernism

Answer 118

In literature, Postmodernism refers to a loose grouping of writers in the post-WWII era who carry on the agenda of Modernism, inasmuch as they reject traditional literary conventions, embrace experimentation, and see contemporary life as bleak and fragmented. Rely heavily upon symbolism

Question 119

Propaganda

Answer 119

Work that aims to influence an audience about a debatable position or affiliation, not through rational or supported appeals but through one or more of the following: emotional manipulation, the selective use (and omission) of facts, spin, or any number of fallacious techniques

Question 120

Prose poem

Answer 120

A blending of prose and poetry, usually resembling prose in its use of sentences without line breaks, and poetry in its quintessentially poetic devices such as figurative language

Question 121

Protagonist

Answer 121

The main character in a work; often a hero or heroine, but not always

Question 122

Pun

Answer 122

A play on words that derives its humor from the replacement of one word with another that has similar pronunciation or spelling but a different meaning. A pun can also derive humor from the use of a single word that has more than one than one meaning

Question 123

Realism

Answer 123

Describing a literary technique, the goal of which is to render work that feels true, immediate, natural, and realistic

Question 124

Refrain

Answer 124

A line, lines, or stanza in a poem that repeats at intervals

Question 125

Resolution

Answer 125

The working out of a plot’s conflicts, following the climax

Question 126

Reversal

Answer 126

When, in a narrative, the protagonist’s fortunes take an unforeseen turn

Question 127

Rhetorical question

Answer 127

A question asked for stylistic effect and emphasis to make a point rather than to solicit an answer

Question 128

Rhyme

Answer 128

The repetition of the same (or similar) vowel or consonant sounds or constructions. Rhyme often follows a pattern, called a rhyme scheme

Question 129

End rhyme

Answer 129

A rhyme at the end of two or more lines of poetry

Question 130

Internal rhyme

Answer 130

A rhyme that occurs within a line

Question 131

Near rhyme (slant rhyme)

Answer 131

A rhyme that pairs sounds that are similar but not exactly the same

Question 132

Eye rhyme (sight rhyme)

Answer 132

A rhyme that only works because the words look the same

Question 133

Rising action

Answer 133

The events, marked by increasing tension and conflict, that build up to a plot’s climax

Question 134

Romanticism

Answer 134

In literature, a late 18th- to early 19th century movement that emphasized beauty for beauty’s sake, the natural world, emotion, imagination, the value of a nation’s past and its folklore, and the heroic roles of the individual and the artist.

Question 135

Satire

Answer 135

A literary work that uses irony to critique society or an individual

Question 136

Scene

Answer 136

A subdivision of an act in a play. Scenes usually break up the action into logical chunks. Many contemporary plays, however, contain only sequences of scenes, without an overarching act structure.

Question 137

Complex sentence

Answer 137

A sentence containing an independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses (beginning with words such as after, before, although, because, until, when, while, if)

Question 138

Compound sentence

Answer 138

Two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so) or a semicolon

Question 139

Compound-complex sentence

Answer 139

A combination of a compound sentence and a complex sentence; it is often very long

Question 140

Cumulative sentence

Answer 140

A sentence in which an independent clause is followed by details, qualifications, or modifications in subordinate clauses or phrases

Question 141

Imperative sentence

Answer 141

A sentence that issues a command. The subject of an imperative sentence is often implied rather than explicit

Question 142

Interrupted sentence

Answer 142

A sentence of any pattern modified by interruptions that add descriptive details, state conditions, suggest uncertainty, voice possible alternative views, or present qualifications

Question 143

Periodic sentences

Answer 143

A sentence that begins with details, qualifications, or modifications, building toward the main clause

Question 144

Simple sentence

Answer 144

A sentence composed of one main clause without any subordinate clauses

Question 145

Setting

Answer 145

Where and when a story takes place

Question 146

Setting, social

Answer 146

The manners, mores, customs, rituals, and codes of conduct in a work; an author may suggest approval or disapproval of any of these through a description of place

Question 147

Simile

Answer 147

A figure of speech used to explain or clarify an idea by comparing it explicitly to something else, using the words “like”, “as”, or “as though” to do so

Question 148

Soliloquy

Answer 148

In a play, a monologue in which a character, alone on the stage, reveals his or her thoughts or emotions

Question 149

Sonnet

Answer 149

A poetic form composed of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter that adheres to a particular rhyme scheme. The two most common types are Shakespearean sonnet and Petrarchan sonnet

Question 150

Petrarchan sonnet

Answer 150

Also known as the Italian sonnet, its fourteen lines are divided into an octave and sestet. The octave rhymes abba abba; the sestet that follows can have a variety of different rhyme schemes: cdcdcd, cdecde, cddcdd

Question 151

Shakespearean sonnet

Answer 151

Also known as the English sonnet, its fourteen lines are composed of three quatrains and a couplet, and its rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg

Question 152

Sound

Answer 152

The musical quality of poetry, as created through techniques such as rhyme, enjambment, caesura, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, rhythm, and cadence

Question 153

Speaker

Answer 153

This term is most frequently used in the context of drama and poetry. In drama, the speaker is the character who is currently delivering lines. In poetry, the speaker is the person who is expressing a point of view in the poem, either the author or a persona created by the author

Question 154

Sprung rhyme

Answer 154

A meter developed out of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s attempt to mirror natural speech patterns in his poetry. In sprung rhyme, the number of stressed syllables in each line is the same, while the number of unstressed syllables can vary. This means the types of feet employed in each line can vary.

Question 155

Stage directions

Answer 155

Any notes is the script of a play written by the author that set guidelines for the performance, explaining, for example, what the setting should look like, how actors should move and deliver lines, and so on. They are generally set in italics.

Question 156

Stanza

Answer 156

Lines in a poem that the poet has chosen to group together, usually separated from other lines by a space. Stanzas within a poem usually ave repetitive forms, often sharing rhyme schemes or rhythmic structures.

Question 157

Couplet

Answer 157

A two-lines, rhyming stanza

Question 158

Tercet

Answer 158

A three-line stanza

Question 159

Quatrain

Answer 159

A four-line stanza

Question 160

Sestet

Answer 160

A six-line stanza

Question 161

Octet

Answer 161

An eight-line stanza

Question 162

Stream of consciousness

Answer 162

A technique in which prose follows the logic and flow of a character’s (or multiple characters’) thought processes - associations, tangents, seemingly strange transitions - rather that a more ordered narrative

Question 163

Structure

Answer 163

The organization of a work

Question 164

Style

Answer 164

The way a literary work is written. Style is produced by an author’s choices in diction, syntax, imagery, figurative language, and other literary elements

Question 165

Suspense

Answer 165

A literary device that uses tension to make the plot more exciting; the effect created by artful delays and selective dissemination of information

Question 166

Symbol

Answer 166

A setting, object, or event in a story that carries more than literal meaning and therefore represents something significant to understanding the meaning of a work of literature

Question 167

Synecdoche

Answer 167

A figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole

Question 168

Syntax

Answer 168

The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences in a prose passage. This includes word order, the length and structure of sentences, phrases, and clauses; the chronology of passages; the preference of various parts of speech over others; the use of connectors between and within sentences; and more

Question 169

Syntax, poetic

Answer 169

Similar to syntax in prose, poetic syntax also includes the arrangement of words into lines - where they break or do not break, the use of enjambment or caesura, and line length/patterns

Question 170

Theatrical property

Answer 170

Known more commonly as a prop, this is a term for any object used onstage by an actor in a play

Question 171

Theme

Answer 171

Underlying issues or ideas of a work

Question 172

Thesis statement

Answer 172

The chief claim that a writer makes in any argumentative piece of writing, usually stated in one sentence

Question 173

Tone

Answer 173

A speaker’s attitude as exposed through stylistic choices. Along with mood, tone provides the emotional coloring of a work and is created by some combination of the other elements of style

Question 174

Tragedy

Answer 174

A serious dramatic work in which the protagonist experiences a series of unfortunate reversals due to some character trait, referred to as a tragic flaw. The most common tragic flaw is hubris, Greek for pride. Modern tragedies tend to depart from some of the genre’s classical conventions, portraying average rather than noble characters and attributing the protagonist’s downfall to something other than a flaw in character - for example, social cirmcumstances

Question 175

Tragic hero

Answer 175

A character who possesses a flaw or commits an error in judgement that leads to his or her downfall and a reversal of fortune

Question 176

Transcendental Movement

Answer 176

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 immanence of God in nature. Beginning in Europe and drawing inspiration from European thinkers, among them Immanuel Kant and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the transcendental movement flourished in the 19th century United States, where it is linked with Christian Unitarianism. Key thinkers include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau

Question 177

Understatement

Answer 177

The presentation or framing of something as less important, urgent, awful, good, powerful, and so on, than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect; the opposite of hyperbole, it is often used along with this technique, and for similar effect

Question 178

Verse

Answer 178

A broad term, verse refers to a piece of writing that is metered and rhythmic. (Free verse is an exception to this, being a piece of writing grouped with verse rather than poetry, even though it lacks a meter.) The term verse can also be used to refer to poetry in general.

Question 179

Vignette

Answer 179

A short narrative or description, often one in a series. If a story or novel is composed of a series of vignettes, it often relies on a thematic, rather than a plot-driven structure

Question 180

Villanelle

Answer 180

A form of poetry in which five tercets (rhyme scheme aba) are followed by a quatrain (rhyme scheme abaa). At the end of tercets two and four, the first line of tercet one is repeated. At the end of tercets three and five, the last line of tercet one is repeated. These two repeated lines, called refrain lines, are again repeated to conclude the quatrain. Much of the power of this form lies in its repeated lines and their subtly shifting sense or meaning over the course of the poem.

Question 181

Wordplay

Answer 181

Techniques by which writers manipulate language for effect; examples include puns or double entendres

Question 182

Pun

Answer 182

The deliberate misuse of words that sound alike

Question 183

Double entendres

Answer 183

Expressions with two meanings

Question 184

Zeugma

Answer 184

A technique in which one verb is used with multiple (and often, incongruous) objects, so that the definition of the verb is changed, complicated, or made both literal and figurative