Vocab Quiz- Literary Terms 2 Flashcards
Genre
Types or classes of literature, marked by distinctive style, form, content
Gothic novel
Type of prose fiction inaugurated by Horace Walpole’s “the castle of otranto “ which flourished in the early 19th century. Features include foreign or gloomy settings, a vulnerable heroine, w cruel villain, macabre or violent incidents and supernatural Elements
Imagery
Concrete, sensory details which contribute to themes/ideas of a work; types include visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, organic, kinesthetic
Irony
Situation or statement where truth is the opposite of appearance
Local color
Details of setting, dialect, customs, dress, and ways of thinking which are distinctive of a particular region
Magical realism
Prose that weaves together realism and fantastic, dreamlike elements as well as material from myth and fairytale
Metafiction
A literary device used to draw attention to a work’s status as an artifact which poses questions about the relationship of fiction and reality
Metaphor/simile
Figure of speech in which word or phrases that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison; a simile makes the comparison using “like” or “as”.
Motif
Conspicuous element, such as a type of event, device, reference or formula, which occurs frequently in a work
Narrative
Story involving events, characters, and what the characters say and do; includes short story and novel in prose fiction
Narrator
One who tells the story, not usually the same person as the author; participant- participates in the action of story, observer- indirectly involved, non participant- not involved at all, unreliable- one whose perceptions do not coincide with those implied by the author, which he/she expects the reader to share; naive- one who tells the story without knowing what will happen next
Novel
Extended works of prose fiction; types include epistolary, novel of manners, gothic historical, science fiction…
Paradox
Statement which seems on its face to be logically contradictory or absurd, yet turns out to be interpretable In a way that makes sense
Parallelism
Similar word order or structure
Parody
humorous imitation of a more serious work
Personification
Endowing non-human objects or creatures with human characteristics