Literary Terms: Syntax, Structure, and Style

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering literary terms related to syntax, structure, rhetorical devices, and stylistic techniques.

Anachronism

Something that isn't placed in its proper historical time period.

Anaphora

Repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines.

Anecdote

A brief narrative that focuses on a particular incident or event; frequently reveals a character trait.

Antecedent

The word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers.

Antithesis

Rhetorical figure in which two ideas are directly opposed; must be presented in a grammatically parallel way.

Asyndeton

A rhetorical figure involving the deliberate omission of conjunctions to create a concise, terse, and often memorable statement.

Caesura

A speech pause occurring within a line.

Chiasmus

A rhetorical figure consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed (e.g., "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.").

Climax

The point of greatest tension or emotional intensity in a plot; the "turning point".

Conflict

A confrontation or struggle between opposing characters or forces from which the action emanates and around which it evolves.

Physical Conflict

A type of conflict categorized as man vs. man or man vs. nature.

Social Conflict

A type of conflict categorized as man vs. society.

Internal Conflict

A type of conflict categorized as man vs. self.

Denouement

Refers to events following the climax of a plot and implies some ingenious resolution of the dramatic conflict and explanation of the mysteries/misunderstandings of the plot.

Deus Ex Machina

"God from the machine"; refers to the intervention of a nonhuman force to resolve a seemingly unresolvable conflict in a literary work, resulting in an improbable or artificial resolution of conflict.

Enjambment

A poetic expression that spans more than one line; does not end with grammatical breaks and carries a sense of incompleteness.

Epigraph

A saying or statement on the title page of a work, or used as a heading for a chapter or other section of work.

Flashback

The insertion of an earlier event into the normal chronological order of a narrative.

Foreshadowing

The technique of introducing into a narrative material that prepares the reader or audience for future events, actions, or revelations.

In Medias Res

The technique of beginning a narrative in the middle of the action.

Juxtaposition

Placing two elements side by side to present a comparison or contrast.

Parallelism

A rhetorical figure to accentuate or emphasize ideas/images by using grammatically similar constructions.

Polysyndeton

The use, for rhetorical effect, of more conjunctions than is necessary or natural.

Style

An author's choices and use of figurative language, diction, sound effects, syntax, etc.; the combination of distinctive features of a literary work.

Syntax

The arrangement—the ordering, grouping, and placement—of words within a sentence.

Adage

A familiar proverb or saying.

Ambiguity

The result of something being stated in such a way that its meaning cannot be definitely determined.

Colloquialism

Informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing.

Comedic Relief

A humorous scene or passage inserted into an otherwise serious work intended to provide an emotional outlet and change of pace; creates a contrast that further emphasizes the seriousness of the work.

Euphemism

An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech that uses deliberate exaggeration to achieve an effect; sometimes called overstatement.

Idiom

An expression in a given language that cannot be understood from the literal meaning of the words in the expression; or, a regional speech or dialect.

Interior Monologue

A mode of narrative intended to reveal to the reader the subjective thoughts, emotions, and fleeting sensations experienced by a character.

Irony

A contradiction or incongruity between appearance or expectation and reality.

Verbal Irony

A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant.

Situational Irony

A discrepancy between expectation and reality.

Dramatic Irony

An incongruity between what a character says/thinks and what the reader knows to be true.

Romantic Irony

Works whose authors/speakers at some point reveal their narration to be the fabrication of an idiosyncratic and highly self-conscious creator; wreaks havoc with reader/audience suspension of disbelief, debunking as illusion the normal operating assumption that the narration is a believable representation of reality.

Jargon

The specialized language or vocabulary of a particular group or profession.

Point of View

The vantage point from which a narrative is told.

First Person Point of View

A narrative vantage point where the narrator is a character in the story.

Third Person Limited

A narrator who presents the story as it is seen and understood by a single character and restricts information to what is seen, heard, thought, or felt by that one character.

Third Person Omniscient

A narrator who is able to know, see, and tell all, including the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters.

Pun

A play on words that capitalizes on a similarity of spelling and/or pronunciation between words that have different meanings; may also employ one word that has multiple meanings.

Rhetorical Question

A question asked merely for rhetorical effect and not requiring an answer.

Sarcasm

Bitter or cutting speech; intended to insult the person addressed.

Stream of Consciousness

A particular type of interior monologue that attempts to represent the inner workings of a character's mind and recreate the continuous, chaotic flow of half-formed and discontinuous thoughts, memories, sense impressions, random associations, images, feelings, and reflections.

Tone

The writer or speaker's attitude towards the subject; the emotional coloring or meaning of a work.

Understatement

A figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than what the occasion warrants; often used for humorous, ironic, or even satiric effect.