Literary Term Flashcards Part 1

Allegory

A story illustrating an idea or a moral principle in which objects take on symbolic meanings.

Alliteration

the repetition of identical or similar sounds, normally at the beginning of words

Allusion

a reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work

Anaphora

a repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines

Anecdote

a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person

Antithesis

a figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas; a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic differences

Apostrophe

a figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always absent), some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present.

Assonance

the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds

Cacophony

a harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones. it may be an unconsious flaw in the poets music, resulting in harshness of sound of difficulty of articulation, or it may be used consiously for effect

Connotation

the connotation of a word is its emotional content; the implied, assosiate meaning of a word

consonance

the repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words. The term usually refers to words in which the ending consonants are the same but the vowels that precede them are different.

Diction

the use of words in a literary work; may be described as formal (the level of usage common in serious books and formal discourse), informal (the level of usage found in the relaxed but polite conversation of cultivated people), colloquial (the everyday usage of a group, possibly including terms and constructions accepted in that group but not universally acceptable), or slang (a group of newly coined words which are not acceptable for formal usage as yet).

Double entendre

A statement that is deliberately ambiguous, one of whose possible meanings is risqué or suggestive of some impropriety.

Epic similie

a figurative device that was first popularized by Homer in his epics. typically used in epic poetry to intensify the heroic stature of the subject and to serve as decoration.

Epithet

in literature, a word or phrase preceding or following a name which serves to describe the character

Euphemism

a mild word or phrase used to replace another that is thought to be too harsh

Extended Metaphor

an implied analogy, or comparison, which is carried throughout a stanza or entire poem

Figurative Language

writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual or specifically denoted) such as metaphor, irony, and simile. Figurative language uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning.

Hyperbole

a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrages exaggeration. may be used for either serious or comic effect.

Imagery

the images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work; the visual auditory or tactical images evoked by the words of a literary work or the images that figurative language evokes.

Irony

the contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning. usually lighter, less harsher than sarcasm

Juxtaposition

poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, create an empathic effect

Malapropism

the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context

Metaphore

a figurative use of language in which comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term like "as", "like", or "than".

Mixed Metaphore

the mingling of one metaphore with another immediately following with which the first is incognuos.

Mood

the atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work, partly by a description of the objects or by the style of the descriptions

Onomotopeia

the use of words whose sound suggests their meaning

Metonymy

a figure of speech which is characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself

Paradox

a situation or action or feeling that appears to be contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true or at least to make sense

Parody

A literary work that imitates the style of another literary work; can be simply amusing or it can be mocking intone

Persona

speaker created by a writer to tell a story or to speak in a poem; a separate self, created by and distinct from the author, through which he or she speaks

Personification

a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics

Pun

a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings

Sarcasm

a type of irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it; to injure or to hurt

Satire

writing that seeks to arouse a reader's disapproval of an object by ridicule; usually comedy that exposes errors with an eye to correct vice and folly

Simile

a directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with "like," "as," or "than."

Synecdoche

a form of metaphor which in mentioning a part signifies the whole

Syntax

the ordering of words into patterns or sentences. If a poet shifts words from the usual word order, you know you are dealing with an older style of poetry or a poet who wants to shift emphasis onto a particular word.

Theme

the main thought expressed by a work. In poetry, it is the abstract concept which is made concrete through its representation in person, action, and image in the work.

Tone

the manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude; the intonation of the voice that expresses meaning; described by adjectives, and the possilbilities are nearly endless; the result of allusion, diction, figurative language, imagery, irony, symbol, syntax, or style

Understatement

the opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is.

Oxymoron

A form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single expression. This combination usually serves the purpose of shocking the reader into awareness.

Symbol

something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else

Structure

the arrangement of materials within a work; the relationship of the parts of a work to the whole; the logical divisions of a work

Style

the mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of an author