Literary Analysis Practice Flashcards

A set of 60 vocabulary flashcards covering literary techniques and analysis for diverse English texts including The Danger of a Single Story, A Passage to Africa, and Chinese Cinderella.

Ethos (Adichie)

Establishes her personal identity as a storyteller to validate her authority before shifting to serious structural, geopolitical critique.

Pathos via Emotive Adjectives (Adichie)

Pairs impressionable and vulnerable to highlight the psychological fragility of young minds under cultural hegemony.

Structural Irony (Adichie)

Exposes her own classist blind spots regarding Fide, proving that even victims of stereotypes can perpetuate them.

Juxtaposition of Modifiers (Adichie)

Pairs patronizing with well-meaning to prove that institutional racism can stem from systemic ignorance rather than overt malice.

Definitional Syntax (Adichie)

Employs an authoritative, philosophical sentence structure (Power is…) to shift the text from memoir to structural socio-political commentary.

Antithetical Verb Pairs (Adichie)

Explicitly counterbalances violent actions (dispossess/malign) against restorative, humanistic actions (empower/humanize).

Asyndetic Listing (Alagiah)

Rapid accumulation of emotive adjectives (hungry, lean, scared, betrayed) builds overwhelming emotional tension or pathos.

Predatory Metaphor (Alagiah)

Depicts international media as parasitic scavengers feeding on tragedy for content using the vocabulary ghoulish and on the hunt.

Syntactic Parallelism (Alagiah)

Mirrors the phrases It was and she was, separated by a dramatic semicolon to connect a physical wound directly to a child.

One-Sentence Paragraph (Alagiah)

A striking, isolated structural technique used to disrupt the narrative flow and signal a profound psychological turning point.

Macro-Micro Juxtaposition (Alagiah)

Bridges an intimate, silent moment with an immense geopolitical divide via a three-part repetition of between…

Colloquialism & Power Inversion (Alagiah)

The casual idiom I owe you one humbles the affluent journalist, leaving him profoundly indebted to a dying subject.

Ethereal Metaphor (Herbert)

Compares the creature to a piece of flint, using romanticized, majestic natural imagery to instill absolute awe.

Anthropological Register (Herbert)

Shifts the style from romantic prose to objective data, reminding readers that hunting is a biological necessity for survival.

Collective Pathos (Herbert)

Uses the verb clustered and sensory nouns like sharp cry to highlight the community's profound vulnerability and shared terror.

Calculated Metaphor (Herbert)

Framing the hunt as a game of chess highlights the intense tactical calculation, skill, and existential danger required.

Syntactic Tricolon (Herbert)

The rising triad of verbs to dive, to leave, to survive represents the author's internal psychological fractures.

Definitive Declaration (Herbert)

The modifying adjective absolute in the phrase absolute necessity completely resolves the text's ethical conflict.

Pejorative Noun Placement (Morris)

Opening with the word farce instantly damages the men's credibility, framing their professional trek as a ridiculous comedy.

Diminutive Modifiers (Morris)

Labeling the operation a short-lived voyage mocks their ambitious goals, turning an epic adventure into an embarrassing failure.

Socio-Economic Labeling (Morris)

Identifying subjects by commercial titles (property developer, businessman) rather than explorers questions their true expertise.

Syndetic Accumulation (Morris)

Listing extensive government bodies (Royal Navy, the RAF and British coastguards) quantifies national strain caused by reckless choices.

Financial Metaphor (Morris)

The phrase adventure playground directly compares a dangerous trek to childish, immature self-indulgence at the public's expense.

Infantile Rhyming Motif (Morris)

The pairing of boys and toys completely emasculates grown adventurers, stripping away any claim to heroism.

Present Tense Immediacy (Ralston)

Writing in the immediate present tense pulls the reader directly into action, magnifying the physical tension of the descent.

Cinematic Metaphor (Ralston)

The phrase slow-motion movie captures the disorienting, psychological shock that often accompanies sudden trauma.

Active Dynamic Verbs (Ralston)

Nature is personified as the active, brutal aggressor through violent verbs such as crushes, ricochets, and pinning.

Single-Word Sentence (Ralston)

The word Nothing forms a stark structural wall, mirroring the narrator's sudden, terrifying realization of absolute isolation.

Visceral Kinesthetic Imagery (Ralston)

The verb yank paired with sensory adjectives like searing hot evokes an immediate, stomach-turning physical reaction.

Morbid Metaphor (Ralston)

Referring to a limb as a dead thing introduces a grim acceptance of necrosis, foreshadowing the choice to amputate.

Anaphora & Tricolon (Zephaniah)

The three-part repetition of no… (no compassion, no understanding, no humanity) emphasizes how institutional education stripped the author of care.

Direct Injected Dialogue (Zephaniah)

Interjecting harsh verbal abuse directly into the text (Shut up, stupid boy) exposes the casual cruelty of old school systems.

Paradoxical Irony (Zephaniah)

Framing prison as a savior over school offers a sharp critique of an education system that pushes vulnerable children toward crime.

Hypophora (Zephaniah)

Asking and answering his own questions (Do I need to be a professor? No) serves to challenge traditional, academic measures of intelligence.

Collective Pronoun Shift (Zephaniah)

Shifting to the pronoun We unites neurodivergent readers, turning a personal struggle into a shared, empowering movement.

Prestigious Noun Triad (Zephaniah)

Labeling dyslexics as architects, designers, visionaries redefines a perceived disability as a unique intellectual advantage.

Anachronistic Pop-Culture Allusion (Levine)

Referencing Wacky Races frames the cultural sports event as chaotic, cartoonish, and bizarre to Western eyes.

Mechanical Metaphors (Levine)

Applying motorsports terminology (revving up, Formula One) to working donkeys creates a humorous, fast-paced incongruity.

Chiasmus-like Paradox (Levine)

Reversing the natural end and beginning of a race (The race was over. And then the real race began) creates a sharp structural hook.

Asyndetic Auditory Onomatopoeia (Levine)

The accumulation of chaotic sounds (screaming, blaring, swerving) evokes a frantic, overwhelming sensory experience.

Active Kinesthetic Syntax (Levine)

Fast-paced, active verbs emphasize the reckless, erratic movements of the driver, amplifying immediate physical danger.

Understatement / Litotes (Levine)

Calling a terrifying event a close shave ends the piece on a light note, highlighting the writer's privilege to walk away.

Mythological Personification (Zeppa)

Describing mountains rising to meet the moon frames the Bhutanese terrain as a living, magical character.

Privative Comparative Description (Zeppa)

Highlighting the total absence of Western tech (no traffic lights) reveals a Eurocentric focus on development.

The Sublime (Zeppa)

Evokes the classic literary state where western metrics are totally useless and the individual feels humbled by nature's grandeur.

Idealizing Descriptive Adjectives (Zeppa)

Using words like quiet, steady, and clear marks a transition from judging infrastructure to admiring the population.

Objective Historical Register (Zeppa)

Shifts from personal sensory descriptions to an objective history lesson on Bhutan's resistance to colonialism.

Fairytale Metaphor (Zeppa)

The phrase kingdom in the clouds shows the author has fully embraced the magical, otherworldly aura of her new home.

Visceral Onomatopoeia (Macdonald)

Guttural words like thumped, scratching, and rattle build an immediate sensory dread around a wild predator.

Chiaroscuro / Divine Imagery (Macdonald)

Shifting instantly from a dark box to a flood of golden brilliance elevates the bird to a divine entity.

Visual Metaphor (Macdonald)

The word kaleidoscope captures the chaotic mixture of colors, feathers, and intense movement of the hawk.

Structural Anti-Climax (Macdonald)

The calm, casual dialogue of a handler (Oh. Wrong bird) instantly breaks a grand, spiritual moment.

Gothic Demonizing Metaphors (Macdonald)

Labeling the second hawk a monster, alien, or thing of shadow reflects the author's immediate psychological rejection of it.

Visceral Somatic Adjective (Macdonald)

The phrase white-hot panic demonstrates how mental grief can manifest as an intense, physical survival crisis.

Ominous Institutional Register (Yen Mah)

Nouns like summons and boarding school establish a cold childhood controlled by bureaucracy rather than family warmth.

Patriarchal Critique (Yen Mah)

The phrase unwanted daughter highlights a strict social framework where young females are treated as burdens.

Spatial Alienation (Yen Mah)

Describing her father's study as a room I rarely entered maps the physical and emotional distance from her father.

Hypophora & Question Barrage (Yen Mah)

A rapid string of internal questions (Is it possible? Am I dreaming?) exposes deeply rooted low self-esteem.

Imperative Modal Verbs (Yen Mah)

Repeating you will acts as an absolute command, crushing personal dreams in favor of family prestige.

Tragic Literary Allusion (Yen Mah)

Quoting WordsWorth (Bliss was it in that dawn…) creates irony, as the child surrenders autonomy for a brief moment of parental approval.