Literary and Rhetorical Terms

Flashcards of literary and rhetorical terms.

Allegory

An extended narrative in prose or verse where characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities, intending a deeper meaning beneath the surface story, which can be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric.

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another.

Allusion

A reference to another work or famous figure assumed to be well-known to the reader.

Anachronism

An event, object, custom, person, or thing that is out of order in time; can be unintentional or deliberately used for humorous or satiric effect.

Analogy

A comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or a relationship.

Anaphora

A specific type of repetition where a word, phrase, or clause is repeated at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row.

Anecdote

A short, simple narrative of an incident; often used for humorous effect or to make a point.

Aphorism

a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life 

apostrophe

usually in poetry but sometimes in prose; the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction 

burlesque

broad parody; whereas a parody will imitate and exaggerate a specific work, such as Romeo and Juliet, a burlesque will take an entire style or form, such as myths, and exaggerate it into ridiculousness

caricature

descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person's appearance or a facet of personality 

colloquialism

a word or phrase used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing 

conceit

 an elaborate figure of speech in which two seemingly dissimilar things or situations are compared

connotation

 implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind 

denotation

 literal meaning of a word as defined 

diction

word choice, an element of style; also called syntax 

epigram

a concise, witty saying in poetry or prose that either stands alone or is part of a larger work; it may also refer to a short poem of this type 

idyll

 a short descriptive narrative, usually a poem, about an idealized country life; also called a pastoral 

imagery

words or phrases that use a collection of images to appeal to one or more of the five senses in order to create a mental picture 

irony

 a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what 

was expected

Situational Irony

Expecting one situation and having the opposite outcome

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something the characters don’t

Verbal Irony

Saying one thing and meaning another

Loose Sentence

a sentence that is grammatically complete before its end, such as "Thalia played the violin with an intensity never before seen in a high school music class"; the sentence is grammatically complete after the word violin 

metaphor

 figure of speech in which one thing is referred to as another; for example, "my 

love is a fragile flower"

metonymy

a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using "the crown" to refer to a monarch

motif

main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea 

onomatopoeia

the use of words that sound like what they mean, such as hiss and boom 

oxymoron

a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool" 

parable

a short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory 

paradox

a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau: "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." 

parallelism

the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form 

periodic sentence

a sentence that is not grammatically complete until its last phrase, such as, "Despite Glenn's hatred of his sister's laziness and noisy eating habits, he still cared for her." 

persona

 a fictional voice that a writer adopts to tell a story, determined by subject matter and audience, e.g., Mark Twain

personification

the attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or an inanimate object 

realism

 a nineteenth-century literary movement in Europe and the United States that stressed accuracy in the portrayal of life, focusing on characters with whom middle-class readers could easily identify; it is in direct contrast with romanticism 

regionalism

an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot 

romanticism

a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement that began in the eighteenth century as a reaction to neoclassicism; the focal points of the movement are imagination, emotion, and freedom, stressing subjectivity, individuality, the love and worship of nature, and a fascination with the past 

simile

a figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities; for example, "the sky looked like an artist's canvas"

symbolism

the use of symbols or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as representative of a higher and more complex significance 

synecdoche

a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "boards" to mean a stage or "wheels" to mean a car 

syntax

word choice or diction

theme

the central idea or "message" of a literary work