List 101-120 Flashcards
(20 cards)
Sarcasm
An ironic or satirical remark that seems to be praising someone or something but is really taunting or cutting
Satire
A technique employed by writers to expose and criticize the foolishness and corruption of an individual or society by using humor, irony exaggeration, or ridicule
Ex. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Scan
The process of analyzing a poem’s meter
Scapegoat
A person or group that is made to bear blame for others
Ex. Jesus
Scene
A dramatic sequence taking place within a single locale (or setting) on stage
Setting
The time and place in which the story takes place
Ex. Hell in Dante’s Inferno
Solecism
A grammatical mistake or intentional use of incorrect grammar in written language and speech
Soliloquy
A popular literary device often used in drama to reveal the innermost thoughts of a character
Ex. Hamlet
Sonnet
A small or little song or lyric; a poem that is 14 lines and is written in iambic pentameter
Ex. Shakespears’ Sonnet 18
Speaker
The voice behind the poem - the person we imagine to be saying them out loud
Ex. Is the speaker Shakespeare himself or the imagined lover?
Stage Direction
Part of the script of the play that tells the actors how they are to move or to speak their lines
Stream-of-consciousness
A narrative mode of device that depicts the multitudinous thoughts and feelings that pass through the mind
Stock Character
A stereotypical person whom audiences readily recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition
Ex. Mad scientist
Structure
The way the writer arranges the plot of a story
Style
The literary element that describes the ways that the author uses words - the author’s word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, and sentence arrangement all work together to establish mood, images, and meaning in the text
Surrealism
A style aimed at expressing imaginative dreams and visions free from conscious rational control
Syllepsis
A rhetorical term for a kind of ellipsis in which one word (usually a verb) is understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs
Syllogism
A deductive scheme of a formal argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion
Ex. all cats are furry (Major), all furry things are nice (Minor), therefore all cats are nice (Conclusion)
Synesthesia
A technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters, or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one sense, like hearing, sight, smell, and tough at a given time
Ex. the silence was as thick as a forest
Syntax
The choices about how words are used to form a sentence
Ex. The boy ran hurriedly vs hurriedly, the boy ran.
