Lit Vocab #4 Flashcards
(20 cards)
Parable
A story that operates on more than one level and usually teaches a moral lesson
Paradox
A set of seemingly contradictory elements which nevertheless reflects an underlying truth
Parallel Plot
A secondary story line that mimics and reinforces the main plot
Parody
A comic imitation of a work that ridicules the original
Pathos
The aspects of a literary work that elicit pity from the audience
Personification
The assigning of human qualities to inanimate objects or concepts
Plot
A sequence of events in a literary work
Point of view
The method of narration in a work
Protagonist
The hero or main character of a literary work, the character the audience sympathizes with
Quatrain
A four-line stanza
Resolution
The denouement of a literary work
Rhetorical question
A question that does not expect an explicit answer. It is used to pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience
Rhyme
The duplication of final syllable sounds in two or more lines
Rhyme scheme
The annotation of the pattern of the rhyme
Rhythm
The repetitive pattern of beats in poetry.
Romanticism
A style or movement of literature that has as its foundation an interest in freedom, adventure, idealism, and escape
Satire
A mode of writing based on ridicule, which criticizes the foibles and follies of society without necessarily offering a solution
Scansion
Analysis of a poem’s rhyme and meter
Sestet
A six-line stanza, usually paired with an octave to form a Petrarchan sonnet
Sestina
A highly structured poetic form of 39 lines, written in iambic pentameter. It depends open the repetition of six words from the first stanza in a history of six stanzas
