FIDDS

Metaphor

Metaphor

Direct comparison.

Simile

Comparison using like or as.

Metonymy

Indirect Association (i.e. “Nice ride,” where “ride” refers to the car).

Synecdoche

Associating a part with a whole OR whole with a part (i.e. “Nice wheels,” where “wheels” refers to the car).

Personification

Giving an inanimate object human characteristics.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration. (i.e. “My backpack weighs a ton!”)

Litotes

Under-exaggeration. (i.e “‘Tis but a scratch.”)

Allusion

an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.

Dramatic Irony

Audience knows what the character(s) do not.

Situational Irony

Occurs when incongruity appears between expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead.

Verbal Irony

When words express something contrary to truth or someone says the opposite of what they really feel or mean.

Ambiguity

When the author is vague on purpose.

Juxtaposition

Two or more ideas, places, characters, and/or their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem, that contrast.

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for a harsher or unpleasant word (i.e. “downsizing” the company instead of “firing.”)

Symbolism

When a meaning, emotion, or idea is attributed to a physical object.

Pathetic Fallacy

The use of weather to reflect character mood.

Idiom

The use of a particular figurative expression that means something to a specific culture (i.e. “Every cloud has a silver lining”).

Oxymoron

When two opposite ideas are joined together (usually in adjective-noun format; i.e. “living death”).

Chremamorphism

Assigning object qualities to a human being (opposite of personification)

Allegory

Both literal and metaphorical meaning

Reification

Giving an intangible thing tangible qualities

Repetition

Repeating words, phrases, sentences, etc.

Punctuation

Unusual use of periods, commas, dashes, semi-colons, colons, etc.

Word Order

The effect of placing certain words before/after/near each other

Sentence Order

The effect of placing certain sentences before/after/near each other

Parts of speech

Unusual use of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.

Neologism

A newly coined word

Assonance

(poetry only)

the repetition of the sound of a vowel in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible

Consonance

(poetry only)

the recurrence of similar sounds, especially consonants, in close proximity

Dissonance

(poetry only)

the use of harsh-sounding, unusual, or impolite words in poetry to create a disturbing effect .

Euphony

(poetry only)

the use of words and phrases that are distinguished as having a wide range of noteworthy melody or loveliness in the sounds they create.

Alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

Elision

(poetry only)

The omission of a sound or syllable

End Stop

(poetry only)

when a line of poetry ends with a period or definite punctuation mark, such as a colon. When lines are end-stopped, each line is its own phrase or unit of syntax. So when you read an end-stopped line, you'll naturally pause.

Enjambment

(poetry only)

when a line of poetry continues without a pause (punctuation) beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

End Rhyme

(poetry only)

When the last word in a line rhymes with the last word in subsequent lines

Slant Rhyme

(poetry only)

When words don’t quite rhyme, but mimic rhyming

Rhyme scheme

(poetry only)

The pattern of rhyming words

Marxism

differences in socioeconomic class divide people in ways that are much more significant that differences in religion, race, ethnicity, or gender

Bourgeoisie

those who control the world’s natural, economic, and human resources

Proletariat

the majority of the global population who live in substandard conditions and who have always performed the manual labor that fills the coffers of the rich

Ideology

a belief system-- all belief systems are products of cultural conditioning according to Marxists

Classism

an ideology that equates one’s value as a human being with the social class to which one belongs.

Feminism

Critiques sexism and traditional gender roles

Patriarchy is by definition sexist, since it promotes the belief that women are innately inferior to men.

Social Constructionism

the view of gender as females as feminine and males as masculine.

Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Theory

Criticizes homophobia, transphobia, heterosexism, and heterocentrism.

Homophobia

an individual’s pathological dread of same-sex love AND institutionalized discrimination against gay people

Transphobia

an individual’s pathological dread of transgenderism AND institutionalized discrimination against transgender people

Heterosexism

institutionalized discrimination against homosexuality and the privileging of heterosexuality

Heterocentrism

the often unconscious assumption that heterosexuality is the universal norm by which everyone’s experience can be understood.

African American Literary Theory

Criticizes racism: interpersonal, institutionalized, and systemic.

Racism

the unequal power relations that grow from the sociopolitical domination of one race by another and that result in systematic discriminatory practices

Institutionalized Racism

the incorporation of racist policies and practices in the institutions by which a society operates

Internalized racism

results from the psychological programming by which a racist society indoctrinates people of color to believe in white superiority

Intra-racial racism

discrimination within the black community against those with darker skin and more African features

White Privilege

the absence of barriers present for marginalized racial groups along with the myriad of social advantages, benefits, and courtesies that come with being a member of the dominant race

Psychoanalysis

Analyzes human behavior and its motivations

Repression

the expunging from consciousness of these unhappy psychological events

Defenses

the processes by which the contents of our unconscious are kept in the unconscious

Core issues

deeply rooted, psychological problems that are the source of our self-destructive behavior.

Postcolonialism

Examines oppression broadly, focusing on cultural domination.

Colonized people

any population that has been subjected to the political and economic domination of another population

Eurocentrism

the use of European culture as the standard to which all other cultures are negatively contrasted