D's And E's Literary Terms Flashcards
(25 cards)
Dialogue
a conversation carried on between two or more people in a literary work; dialogue can serve many purposes, including characterization, advancement of the plot, development, of the theme(s), and creation of mood
Epiphany
a moment of enlightenment in which underlying truth or essential nature of something is suddenly revealed or made clear to a character
Exposition
in fiction, the narrative passages that establish the basic details or the story, including setting, time, and characters (the background information)
Ellipsis
deliberate omission of a word or words readily implied
Epanalepsis
opening and closing a sentence with the same word or phrase for surprise emphasis
Diction
word choice
Euphemism
the substitution of a mild or less negative word or phrase for a harsh or blunt one
Epithet
characterizing and sometimes abusive word or phrase
Dialect
variety of language spoken by a social group or spoken in a certain locality that differs from the standard speech in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical from
Denotation
dictionary meaning
Eye rhyme
rhyme in which two or more words look the same and are spelled similarly but have different pronunciation
Euphony
smooth, pleasant sounding choice and arrangement of sounds
Dactyl
a three-syllable metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
End-stopped line
a line of poetry that contains a complete thought, usually ending with a period, colon, or semicolon, and therefore ends in a full pause; the opposite of a run-on line
Enjambment
the employment of run-on lines of poetry, whereby the meaning of the statement is carried from one line to the next without a pause
Elegy
a lament or a sadly meditative poem, sometimes written on the occasion of death; usually formal in language and structure and solemn or melancholy in tone
Dirge
a funeral hymn; a slow, sad song, or musical composition expressing grief or mourning
Epigram
a short poem that ends in a witty or ingenious turn of thought, to which the rest of the composition is intended to lead up
Didactic
poetry whose purpose is to teach the reader some kind of lesson
Epistle
a literary letter; formal composition written in the form of a letter addressed to a distant person or group of people. Unlike common personal letters, which tend to be conversational and private compositions, epistles are carefully-crafted works of literature, intended for a general audience
Epigraph
a motto or quotation at the beginning of a book, poem, or chapter that usually indicates its theme
Exposition
scenes that introduce the main characters and introduce the dramatic situation
Declining action/return
the falling action of a drama; after the climax, before the denouement
Denouement
the resolution of the plot of a literary work; the final unraveling of the complications of a plot; the word “denouement” is French for “unknotting” or “untying”
