Vocab 7-9

Academic (style)

dry and theoretical writing. When a piece of writing seems to be sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis

Accent

in poetry, refers to the stressed portion of a word

Alliteration

repetition of initial consonant sounds

Allusion

a reference to another work of literature, person, or event

Anecdote

a short narrative

Antecendent

the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers

Anthropomorphism

the attribution of human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects

Anticlimax

a disappointing end to an exciting or impressive series of events

Aphorism

a brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life

Apostrophe

address to an absent or imaginary person

Assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds

Ballad

any popular narrative poem, often with epic subject and usually in lyric form

Black Humor

the use of disturbing themes in comedy

Bombast

speech or writing that sounds grand or important but has little meaning

Cacophony

harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonance

Cadence

rhythmic flow of a sequence of sounds or words

Canto

a major division of a long poem

Catharsis

an emotional or psychological cleansing that brings relief or renewal

Colloquialism

informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing

Conceit

a fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects

Connotation

the implied or associative meaning of a word

Decorum

conformity to accepted standards of conduct; proper behavior

Dissonance

harsh or grating sounds that do not go together

Dramatic Irony

(theater) irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play 

Enjambment

the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line of verse into the next line without a pause 

Farce

a comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purpose

Foil

a character whose personality and attitude contrast sharply with those of another

Foot

the basic unit of rhythmic measurement in a line of poetry

Free Verse

unrhymed verse without a consistent metrical pattern

Hubris

excessive pride or arrogance that results in the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy 

Irony

a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens

Lampoon

ridicule with satire

Lyric

of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses emotion (often in a songlike way)

Melodrama

a form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure

Metaphor

a figure of speech comparing to unlike things without using like or as

Metonym

a word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with

Interior Monologue

a narrative technique that records a character's internal flow of thoughts, memories, and ideas; a longish passage of uninterrupted thought

Oxymoron

a figure of speech consisting of two apparently contradictory terms

Parellelism

the use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical form

Parody

a work which imitates another in a ridiculous manner

Plaint

a poem or speech expressing sorrow

Protagonist

the main character in a literary work

Refrain

the repetition of one or more phrases or lines at definite intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza

Requiem

a song of prayer for the dead

Rhapsody

an intensely passionate verse or section of verse, usually of love or praise

Satire

a literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision

Simile

a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like' or 'as')

Soliloquy

in drama, a character speaks alone on stage to allow his/her thoughts and ideas to be conveyed to the audience

Stanza

a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem

Stock Character

standard or clichéd character types: the drunk, the miser, the foolish girl, etc

Summary

a brief statement that presents the main points in a concise form

Theme

the main idea of the story

Utopia

an imaginary place considered to be perfect or ideal

Zeugma

when a word is used with two adjacent words in the same construction, but only makes literal sense with one of them

Dramatic Monologue

when a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience