Lit Terms, Part II

Question 0

Behavioral Traits

Answer 0

Description of a character’s conduct and mannerisms

Question 1

Physical Traits

Answer 1

Description of character’s appearance and features

Question 2

Foil

Answer 2

A minor character whose situation or actions parallel those of a major character, and thus, by contrast, sets off or illuminates the major character

Question 3

Epiphany

Answer 3

A moment of spiritual insight into life or into the character’s own circumstances

Question 4

Motivation

Answer 4

The presentation of the reasons and explanations for the action of a character in any work of fiction

Question 5

Stereotype

Answer 5

Commonly held and oversimplified mental pictures or judgements of a person, a race, an issue, a kind of art, etc…

Question 6

Dialogue

Answer 6

Conversation of two or more people as reproduced in writing

Question 7

Static

Answer 7

Character that remains essentially the same person from the beginning of the story to the end

Question 8

Dynamic

Answer 8

The developing character that undergoes some distinct change of character, personality, or outlook

Question 9

Flat or round

Answer 9

Flat characters have only one or two predominant traits; they can be summed up in a sentence or two, whereas round characters are complex and many-sided

Question 10

Indirect presentation

Answer 10

The author shows the character through their actions; the reader determines what they are like by what they say or do

Question 11

Direct presentation

Answer 11

The author tells the reader straight out, by exposition or analysis, what they characters are like, or they have another character in the story describe them

Question 12

Catharsis

Answer 12

A term used by Aristotle to describe some sort of emotional release experienced by the audience at the end of a successful tragedy

Question 13

Moral lesson

Answer 13

Using literature to teach or guide the reader towards good over evil

Question 14

Motif(motive)

Answer 14

Recurrent images, words, objects, phrases, or actions that tend to unify the work

Question 15

Archetypal pattern

Answer 15

An image, a descriptive detail, a plot pattern, or a character type that occurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary experience as a whole

Question 16

Parable

Answer 16

An illustrative story answering a question or pointing a moral or lesson; a parable is, in a sense, an allegory

Question 17

Allegory

Answer 17

A story that has a second meaning beneath the surface, endowing a cluster of characters, objects, or events with added significance

Question 18

Paradox

Answer 18

An apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true

Question 19

Propaganda

Answer 19

Literature dealing with a special social, political, economic, or moral issue or problem and strongly advocating a doctrinaire solution

Question 20

Romanticism

Answer 20

A movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries marked by an increase in human sensibility, love of nature, mysticism, individualism, and imagination

Question 21

Realism

Answer 21

Nineteenth century movement that centered its attention to a remarkable degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence; an attempt to treat material with truth and reason

Question 22

Tragedy

Answer 22

Treats human beings in terms of their godlike potential, of their transcendent ideals, of the part of themselves in rebellion against the implacable universe and the frailty of their own flesh and will

Question 23

Naturalism

Answer 23

A movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that emphasized the application of scientific or biological determinism in literature; also term applied to writing that demonstrates a deep interest in nature

Question 24

Humanism

Answer 24

An attitude which tends to exalt the human element or stress the importance of human interest, as opposed to the supernatural, divine, or animal elements

Question 25

Existentialism

Answer 25

A term applied to a group of attitudes current in philosophical, religious, and artistic thought during and after WWII, which emphasizes existence rather than essence and sees the inadequacy of the human reason to explain the enigma of the universe as the basic philosophical question

Question 26

Figurative Language

Answer 26

Language using figures of speech that cannot be taken literally

Question 27

Synecdoche

Answer 27

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole

Question 28

Imagery: Concrete

Answer 28

Represents sensory experiences and the tangible

Question 29

Imagery: Abstract

Answer 29

Represents ideas, concepts, or qualities