English Literature Flashcards

Flashcards for English Literature exam review.

Autobiography

The story of a person’s life, written by that person, usually told from the first-person point of view.

Iamb

A unit of meter made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.

Iambic Pentameter

A poetic meter where the lines of poetry are made up of five iambs, thus having ten syllables each.

Blank Verse

Lines of poetry that have no rhyme scheme but are written in iambic pentameter.

Enjambment

When one line of poetry ends without a pause and continues to the next line.

Meter

The repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a poem.

Foot

A unit of meter made up of one stressed syllable and one or two unstressed syllables.

Trochee

A type of foot made up of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable; the opposite of an iamb.

Mood

The feeling or atmosphere that the writer creates for the reader.

Figurative Language

Words and phrases not meant to be taken literally.

Imagery

Descriptive words and phrases which appeal to the senses of a reader.

Rhyme

The repetition of the final vowel sound of two or more words, plus any following consonant sounds.

Essay

A nonfiction work that shares the author’s views on a particular topic.

Tone

The attitude of the author towards his subject matter and / or readers.

Anecdote

A short account of a personal incident.

Debate

An exchange of opinions on a specific issue.

Author’s Perspective

The distinct combination of opinions, values, and beliefs that influence the way a writer looks at a topic.

Rhetorical Techniques

The methods an author employs to influence readers and convey ideas.

Unity of Effect

A work in which all the elements of the story help create a single effect.

Sound Devices

Patterns of word sounds used to create musical effects.

Internal Rhyme

When the word at the end of a line of poetry rhymes with a word in the middle of the line.

Repetition

When the same sound, word, or phrase is used more than once close together to draw attention to it.

Alliteration

The repetition of the initial sounds (usually consonant sounds) of two or more words close together.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words that sound like what they mean.

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds at the ends of two or more words close together, when the preceding vowel sounds are not the same.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds in two or more words close together, when the final consonant sounds are not the same.

Transcendentalism

An intellectual and literary movement in New England in the mid-1800s that stressed self-reliance and the close relationship between mankind, nature, and God.

Parody

A comic imitation of another work or type of literature.

Allegory

A literary work in which the characters, setting, and / or objects stand for abstract ideas such as good or evil.

Suspense

The combination of excitement and anxiety that a reader feels about the upcoming events in a plot.

Conflict

The struggle between opposing forces in a story; can be internal or external.

Internal Conflict

A struggle within a person between opposing desires or needs.

External Conflict

A struggle between man and man, man and nature, or man and an outside force, such as God.

Speech

A talk or public address.

Proclamation

A legal document that announces official state business, generally created by a person with authority.

Primary Source

A document or other source giving information about an event that is created either by people who participated in an event or who witnessed that event.

Realism

A literary movement that emerged in the U.S. in the second half of the 1800s as a reaction against Romanticism, focusing on an accurate portrayal of actual life.

Point of View

The vantage point from which a story is told – whether the narrator is a character inside the story or someone outside the story.

Objective Narrator

One that shares only what can be seen and does not share any of the thoughts and feelings of the characters.

Third-Person Omniscient Narrator

One that knows and can reveal the thoughts and feelings of multiple, and maybe all, characters in a story.

Third-Person Limited Narrator

A narrator outside the story who knows and reveals the thoughts and feelings of only one of the characters.

Voice

The unique use of language by a writer, established through his diction and tone.

Diction

The word choice – whether formal or informal, abstract or concrete – and the word order of a work.

Tall Tale

A story that has outlandish characters and events and is usually humorous and aims to trick or impress the listener / reader.

Hyperbole

A type of figure of speech that involves exaggeration or overstatement of a claim or point.

Understatement

The downplaying of the significance of the outlandish, often to create an ironic or humorous effect.

Local Color

A genre of writing that brings a region alive by portraying that region’s dress, mannerisms, customs, character types, and speech.

Colloquial Language

Words and phrases which are non-standard and used generally when speaking, but not in regular writing.

Regionalism

A literary movement of the Nineteenth Century that focused on the speech, habits, history, and beliefs of people in a specific geographic area.

Character Types

Characters that have a specific set of traits and who show up in many literary works.

Setting

The time and place of the events of the story.

Symbol

A person, place, or thing that represents both itself and something beyond itself.

Naturalism

A subsection of Realism which portrays people as being at the mercy of their environment and their own instincts.

Theme

The message about life that a literary work conveys.