Literary Devices and Terms Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key literary devices and techniques from the lecture notes.

Foil

A character that is used as a contrast to a second, usually more prominent character, in order to highlight certain qualities of the more prominent character.

Anthropomorphism

Attributing human characteristics to animals or non-human objects.

Hamartia

A tragic flaw in a character that leads to their downfall.

Personification

Giving human qualities to non-human things. The comparison is rather superficial.

Asyndeton

The omission of conjunctions in a series of words.

Polysyndeton

The use of multiple conjunctions in a series.

Pastiche

An artistic work that imitates the style of another work, often in a playful or satirical manner.

Allegory

A story with a hidden meaning, often moral or political. This is more extensive in the text than a metaphor.

Red Herring

A misleading clue or distraction that leads readers away from the real issue.

Parallelism

The use of similar grammatical structures in phrases or sentences.

Archetypes

Universally recognized symbols, characters, or situations that recur across cultures and time periods, such as the mage, the thinker, the evil stepmother, the damsel in distress, the ungrateful son,…

Imagery

Descriptive language that appeals to the senses. It can be visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile…

Pathetic Fallacy

Attributing human emotions to nature or inanimate objects. Distinct from personification, in which any human qualities, not just emotions, can be attributed to objects.

Zeugma

Using one word to modify two or more other words at the same time, often in different ways.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

Hypodiegesis

A story within a story.

In Medias Res

Starting a story in the middle of action.

Semantic field

A technique often used to keep a certain image persistent in readers' mind. It’s a collection of words related to one another through their similar meanings or topic.

Allusion

A hint to a famous person, place, event, or work of literature either directly or through implication. It shouldn’t be further explained, otherwise it owuld become a direct reference.

Oxymoron

A combination of contradictory or opposing words.

Diction

Choice of words to create a specific tone or style.

Euphemism

A mild or less direct way of saying something harsh or unpleasant.

Juxtaposition

Placing two things side by side to highlight their differences.

Aphorism

A concise statement of truth or principle.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds within words.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds anywhere within words or a sentence (beginning, middle or end).

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in consecutive words.

Pun

A play on words with multiple meanings or similar sounds.

Metonymy

Substituting the name of one thing with something closely associated with it. (synecdoche is a type of metonymy)

Antithesis

Contrasting two very opposite ideas within the same sentence.

Anecdote

A short personal story that illustrates a point.

Euphony

Pleasant, harmonious sounds in language.

Cacophony

A blend of harsh, discordant, unharmonious sounds. It's used usually to emphasize unpleasantness, discord, disorder or violence.

Analogy

Saying something is like something else to make some sort of explanatory point. Distinct from simile or metaphor which both add a literary layer of meaning to enrich the text.