Rhetorical Devices 2

Cacophony/Euphony

Cacophony is an unpleasant combination of sounds. Euphony, the opposite, is a pleasant combination of sounds.

Caesura

a pause or break within a line of poetry, not at the end of the line.

Canon

that which has been accepted as authentic.

Canto

a subdivision of an epic poem.

Carpe Diem

a Latin phrase which translated means "Seize the day," meaning "Make the most of today."

Catastrophe

the scene in a tragedy which includes the death or moral destruction of the protagonist.

Catharsis

in tragedy, the release of emotions caused by the overwhelming feeling of relief despite the feelings of grief and depression caused by the tragedy.

Character

a person, or anything presented as a person

Characterization

the method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work. Methods may include (1) by what the character says about himself or herself; (2) by what others reveal about the character; and (3) by the character's own actions.

Claim

in argumentation, an assertion of something as fact.

Classicism

a movement or tendency in art, music, and literature to retain the characteristics found in work originating in classical Greece and Rome. It differs from Romanticism in that while Romanticism dwells on the emotional impact of a work, classicism concerns itself with form and discipline.

Climax

The decisive moment in a drama, the climax is the turning point of the play to which the rising action leads. This is the crucial part of the drama, the part which determines the outcome of the conflict.

Colloquial

a term identifying the diction of the common, ordinary folks, especially in a specific region or area.

Comedy

a literary work which is amusing and ends happily. Modern comedies tend to be funny, while Shakespearean comedies simply end well. Shakespearean comedy also contains items such as misunderstandings and mistaken identity to heighten the comic effect. Comedies may contain lovers, those who interfere with lovers, and entertaining scoundrels. In modern Situation

Comedies, characters are thrown into absurd situations and are forced to deal with those situations

Comparison and contrast

a mode of discourse in which two or more things are compared, contrasted, or both.

Conceit

a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out within a piece of literature, in particular an extended metaphor within a poem.

Conclusion

Also called the resolution, the conclusion is the point in a drama to which the entire play has been leading. It is the logical outcome of everything that has come before it. The conclusion stems from the nature of the characters.

Concrete Poetry

a poem that visually resembles something found in the physical world. A poem about a wormy apple written so that the words form the shape of an apple is an example.

Conflict

In the plot of a drama, conflict occurs when the protagonist is opposed by some person or force.

Connotation and Denotation

The denotation of a word is its dictionary definition. The word wall, therefore, denotes an upright structure which encloses something or serves as a boundary. The connotation of a word is its emotional content. In this sense, the word wall can also mean an attitude or actions which prevent becoming emotionally close to a person.

Consonance

the repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels.
* pitter

patter, splish

splash, and click

clack

Convention

an accepted manner, model, or tradition. For instance, Aristotle’s conventions of tragedy