Vocabs Flashcards
Characterization
Method used by a writer to develop a character. The method includes:
1- showing the characters appearance
2- display the character’s actions
3- revealing the characters thoughts
4- letting the character speak
5- getting the reaction of others
Verisimilitude
The appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true
Theme
The general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express
Faulty parallelism
When the elements (e.g. nouns, verbs, clauses) put into pairs and series “go in different directions” because they do not have the same form.
Ex:
(Wrong) Annie likes to rap, nap, and eating snacks.
(Right) Annie likes to rap, nap, and snack.
Paradox
Reveals a kind of truth which at first seems contradictory. “This statement is false” = what you don’t know yet.
Foreshadowing
The use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in literature.
Irony
An implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. Basically sarcasm but with no ill intentions.
Metaphor
Comparison of two unlike things using the verb “to be” and not using “like” or “as”.
Personnification
Giving human qualities to animals or objects.
Allegory
A story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.
Point of view
Who tells the story.
Symbol
An object or action that means more than its literal meaning (material to abstract).
Plot
The story in the novel, play or movie, often involving conflict.
Connotation
An implied meaning of a word (e.g. being called fat usually has a negative connotation), the “reputation” of the word.
Satire
LITERARY TONE used to ridicule or make fun (using humour or exaggeration) of a human vice (bad character trait) or weakness, often with the intent of correcting, or changing, the subject of attack.
Motif
A recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work. Words that are repeated in the text.
Simile
The comparison of two unlike things using like or as.
Onomatopoeia
A word that imitates the sound of what it represents (e.g. AHHHHHHH, BOOOOM).
Syntax
The way in which linguistic elements (as words) are put together to form constituents (as phrases or clauses).
Tone
The attitude the writer takes towards a subject or character (e.g. serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical, objective).
Tragedy
Drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity.
Contrary of Comedy=More loss than gains.
Setting
Determining Time and Place in fiction.
Protagonist
The principal character in a work of fiction.
Stream of conciousness
A special mode of narration that undertakes to capture the full spectrum and continuous flow of a character’s mental process.
Metastory
A story in a story.
Panopticon
Circular prison with a large number of prisoners and small number of guards.
