British Literature Final Exam

**Characterization**:

is the representation of persons in narrative and dramatic works. The term character development is sometimes used as a synonym

**Personification**:

is the representation of a thing, abstraction, or inanimate object as a person. In the arts, many things are commonly personified

**Verbal irony**:

a statement in which the speaker's words are incongruous with the speaker's intent

**Dramatic irony:**

the reader or audience knows more than the characters they are following

**Paradox**:

a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.

**Tone**:  

expresses the writer's attitude toward or feelings about the subject matter and audience.

**Situational** **irony**:

the irony of something happening that is very different to what was expected.

**Kennings:**

 is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun

**Caesura:** 

also written cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase begins

**Appositives:**

is a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side so one element identifies the other in a different way

**Alliteration:**

is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device.

**Allusion:** 

is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from an unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. 

**Villanelle:**

A French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain

**Iambic Pentameter**:

a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama.

**Symbolism:**

a mark, sign, or a word that indicates, signifies, or it is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship

**Imagery:**

visual symbolism, or figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions, especially in a literary work, but also in other activities such as psychotherapy

**Hyperbole:**

the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis

**Litotes:**

also known classically as antenantiosis or moderatour, is a figure of speech and form of verbal irony in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, often incorporating double negatives for effect

**Foreshadowing:**

a narrative device in which a storyteller gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.

**Simile:**

is a figure of speech that directly compares two things. Using like or as

**Metaphor:**

s a figure of speech that directly compares two things.

**Exemplum:**

an example or model, especially a moralizing or illustrative story.

**Direct Characterization:**  

consists of the author telling the audience what a character is like.

**Indirect** **Characterization**:

a type of literary device that reveals details about a character without stating them explicitly.

**Protagonist:**

are generally the good guys (even it means that sometimes they are antiheroes) 

**Antagonist:**

while antagonists are generally the bad guys

**Thorpes**-

a village or hamlet.

**Matins**-

a service of morning prayer in various churches, especially the Anglican Church

**Incubus**-

a male demon believed to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women

**Forlorn**-

pitifully sad and abandoned or lonely

**Maidenhead**-

virginity

**Sedge**-

a grasslike plant with triangular stems and inconspicuous flowers, growing typically in wet ground. Sedges are widely distributed throughout temperate and cold regions.

**Sovereignty-**

supreme power or authority**.**

**Behest-**

a person's orders or command.

**Misalliance-**

an unsuitable, unhappy, or unworkable alliance or marriage.

**Temporal-**

relating to worldly as opposed to spiritual affairs; secular.

**Lineage**-

lineal descent from an ancestor; ancestry or pedigree

**Churl**-

an impolite and mean-spirited person.

**Sot-**  

habitual drunkard.

**Caluminate-**

to utter maliciously false statements, charges, or imputations about

**Fen**-

an important and unique wetland type

**Scop**-

an Old English bard or poet

**Wergild-**

the amount of compensation paid by a person committing an offense to the injured party or, in case of death, to his family

**Comitatus-**

an elite company of one of the army commanders

**Maraud-**

roam in search of things to steal or people to attack.

**Hoary-**

grayish white