Literary Terms Flashcards
abridgement
a shortened version of a literary work
abstract
a brief statement or summary of the essential thoughts of a book, article, etc
and adjective which denotes qualities that exist only as attributes of particular persons or things
allegory
a symbolic narrative created to parallel and illuminate a separate set of moral, philosophical, political, religious, or social situations
alliteration
the repetition of consonant sounds in a sequence of nearby words
allusion
a reference, explicit or indirect, to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art
ambiguity
the use of a single word or expression to signify two or more distinct references, or to express two or more diverse attitudes or feelings (poetic term); ordinarily, the term is applied to a fault in style
analogy
a point by point comparison made between two things for the purpose of clarifying the less familiar of the two subjects
anachronism
action, scene, object or character placed where it does not belong in time
anapest
in poetry, a foot with two weak stresses followed by one strong stress, as in the word “disembArk”
anecdote
a very brief account of an incident, usually personal or biographical
antagonist
a character or force in conflict with the main character, or protagonist, in a literary work
antecedent
the word a pronoun stands for, usually used before or in close proximity to that pronoun
(Using she to stand for Miss Lottie)
anti-hero
a protagonist who is petty, ineffectual, passive or dishonest; displaying few or none of the characteristics of the traditional hero
aphorism
the pithy(concise and forcefully expressed) and pointed statement of a serious maxim, opinion, or general truth "Art is long; life is short"
apostrophe
a direct and explicit address to an absent person or non-human entity
“Up sword!”
archetype
recurrent narrative designs, patterns of action, character types, or images identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature; archetypes are often to reflect a set of universal, primitive, and elemental mental forms or patterns in the human psyche; if used effectively, archetypes evoke a profound response from the reader
aside
a statement delivered by an actor to an audience in such a way that other characters on stage are presumed not to hear what is said
assonance
the repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables containing dissimilar consonant sounds
attitude
a mental position or feeling with regard to a fact or statement; attitude is usually discussed in terms of author, character, objects, ideas, etc
audience
the person or persons who are intended to read a piece of writing. The intended audience determines the form, tone, style, and details included in a piece
autobiography
a narrative of one’s own life
ballad
a poem or song that tells a story, a narrative species of folk songs which originate, and are communicated orally, among illiterate or only partly literate people; a literary ballad is composed in imitation of an old folk ballad
bildungsroman
novel dealing with the development of the protagonist’s mind and character, in the passage from childhood to adulthood, the character’s identity formation
biography
a narrative of the life of an historical figure
blank verse
poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines
cacophony
(dissonance) language which seems harsh, rough, and unmusical; the discordance is the combined effect of meaning and difficulty of pronunciation, as well as sound
