English Terminology Flashcards

modernism

Artistic, philosophical, and literary movements. Challenges and rebels against traditional forms.

Emjambement

a poetry tool where a sentence or idea keeps going past a line break without stopping or using punctuation

Sonnet

14 lines, has themes of desire, love, and yearning. Considered to be ‘high poetry’ for true poets (back then)

Elegiac

Writing that mourns the dead

Personification

Give inanimate objects or abstract concepts human/life-life qualities

Pathetic Fallacy

a literary device that gives human emotions and traits to nature, weather, or inanimate objects

Alliteration

a literary device where two or more nearby words start with the same sound

EX) Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Epigraphs

a short phrase, quotation, or poem placed at the very beginning of a book, a chapter, or a section

Imagery

Use of descriptive or figurative language to create images in a reader’s mind

Paratext

Everything that surrounds your writing that is not the writing itself, such as the cover design or title.

Intertext

How texts are made up of each other, like a patch work quilt. Could be a direct or subtle reference, quote, or summoning.

Cubism

Moving around, breaking up an object, idea, or figure to represent it

Whimsy

playful, quaint, or fanciful behavior, humor, or ideas

Narrative

How the story is told, the structure

POV

Point of view. First person or third person

Stanza

a group of lines in a poem

Story

Chronological sequence of events