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Lit Terms Collection 1
Vocab for midterm
70
English
12th Grade
01/22/2013

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Term
Abstract
Definition
An ____ style is typically complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, and seldom uses examples to support its points.
Term
Academic
Definition
When describing style, means dry and theoretical writing (when a piece of writing seems to be sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis).
Term
Accent
Definition
In poetry, _____ refers to the stressed portion of a word.
Term
Aesthetic, Aesthetics
Definition
can be used as an adjective meaning "appealing to the senses." _____ judgment = artistic judgment. As a noun, an ______ is a coherent sense of taste. The plural noun, _______s, is the study of beauty.
Term
Allegory
Definition
a story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself.
Term
Alliteration
Definition
The repetition of initial consonant sounds. ("In other words, consonant clusters coming closely cramped and compressed--no coincidence.")
Term
Allusion
Definition
A reference to another work or famous figure. A classical ______ is a reference to Greek or Roman mythology or literature such as The Iliad. A topical allusion refers to a current event. A popular allusion refers to something from popular culture.
Term
Anachronism
Definition
Derived from Greek; means "misplaced in time." Such as if an actor playing Brutus in a production of Julius Caesar forgets to take off his wrist-watch.
Term
Analogy
Definition
a comparison. Usually involves two or more symbolic parts, and are employed to clarify an action or a relationship.
Term
Antecedent
Definition
The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to.
Term
Anecdote
Definition
A short narrative.
Term
Anthropomorphism
Definition
In literature, when inanimate objects are given human characteristics. Often confused with personification, but personification requires that the non-human quality or thing take on human shape.
Term
Anticlimax
Definition
Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. Frequently comic. Sir, you snide manner a despicable arrogance have long been a source of disgust to me, but I've overlooked it until now. However, it has come to my attention that you have fallen so disgracefully deep into the mire of filth which is your mind as to attempt to besmirch my wife's honor and my good name. Sir, I challenge you to a game of badminton!
Term
Anthropomorphism
Definition
In literature, when inanimate objects are given human characteristics, this term is at work. For example, In the forest, the darkness waited fro me, I could hear its pateient breathing . . . It is often confused with personification. But personification requires that the non-human quality or thing take on human shape.
Term
Antihero
Definition
A protagonist (main character) who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavory qualities.
Term
Aphorism
Definition

A short and usually witty saying, such as: "A classic? That's a book that people praise and don't read." --Mark Twain.

Term
Apostrophe
Definition
A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman.
Term
Archaism
Definition
The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. Authors sometimes use them to create a feeling of antiquity. Tourist traps use them with a vengeance, as in "Ye Olde Candle Shoppe"--Yeech!
Term
Aside
Definition
A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage.
Term
Aspect
Definition
A trait or characteristic, as in "an ____ of the dew drop."
Term
Assonance
Definition
The repeated use of vowel sounds, as in, "Old king Cole was a merry old soul."
Term
Atmosphere
Definition
The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene.
Term
Ballad
Definition
A long, narrative poem, usually in very regular meter and rhyme. It typically has a naive folksy quality, a characteristic that distinguishes it from epic poetry.
Term
Pathos, Bathos
Definition
When the writing of a scene evokes feelings of dignified pity and sympathy, ____ is at work. When writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries to jerk tears from every little hiccup, that's ____.
Term
Black humor
Definition
The use of disturbing themes in comedy. In Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot, the two tramps, Didi and Gogo, comically debate over which should commit suicide first, and whether the branches of the tree will support their weight.
Term
Bombast
Definition
Pretensious, exaggeratedly learned language. When one tries to be eloquent by using the largest, most uncommon words, one falls into ____.
Term
Cacophony
Definition
In poetry, ____ is deliberately harsh, awkward sounds.
Term
Burlesque
Definition
A ____ is a broad parody, one that takes a style or a form, such as tragic drama, and exaggerates it into ridiculousness. A parody usually takes on a specific work, such as Hamlet. Interchangeable with parody.
Term
Cadence
Definition
The beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense. For example, iambic pentameter is the technical name for a rhythm. One sample of predominantly iambic pentameter verse could have a gentle, pulsing ________, whereas another might have a conversational _______, and still another might have a vigorous, marching ______.
Term
Canto
Definition
The name for a section division in a long work of poetry. A ____ divides a long poem into parts the way chapters divide a novel.
Term
Caricature
Definition
A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality.
Term
Catharsis
Definition
A term drawn from Aristotle's writings on tragedy. ____ refers to the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences, having lived (vicariously) through he experiences presented on stage.
Term
Chorus
Definition
In Greek drama, this is the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it.a
Term
Classic
Definition
Can mean typical, as in oh, that was a ____ blunder. It can also mean an accepted masterpiece, for example, Death of a Salesman. NOT referring to the arts of ancient Greece and Rome.
Term
Coinage (neologism)
Definition
A new word, usually one invented on the spot.
Term
Colloquialism
Definition
A word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "school-book" English. For example, I'm toasted. I'm a crispy-critter man, and now I've got this wicked headache.
Term
Complex / Dense
Definition
Two terms carry the similar meaning of suggesting that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words. There are subtleties and variations; there are multiple layers of interpretation the meaning both explicit and implicit.
Term
Conceit, Controlling Image
Definition
Refers to a startling or unusual metaphor, or to a metaphor developed and expanded upon over several lines. When the image dominates and shapes the entire work, it's calling a ______.
Term
Denotation, Connotation
Definition
______ is its literal meaning. ___ are everything else that the word suggest or implies.
Term
Consonance
Definition
The repetition of consonant sounds within words. ([A flo(c)k of si(ck), bla(ck)-che(ck)ered duc(k)s]
Term
Couplet
Definition
A pair of lines that end in rhyme:
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged Chariot hurrying near.
Term
Decorum
Definition
To observe ____, a character's speech must be styled according her social station, and in accordance with the occasion.... To observe social norms.
Term
Diction, syntax
Definition
The author's choice of words. Whether to use wept or cried is a question of ______. ___ refers to the ordering and structuring of the words. Whether to say, The pizza was smothered in cheese and perpperoni. I devoured it greedily, or Greedily, I devoured the cheese-and-pepperoni-smothered pizza, is a question of ____.
Term
Dirge
Definition
A song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, and melancholy.
Term
Dissonance
Definition
This refers to the grating of incompatible sounds.
Term
Doggerel
Definition
Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme. (Ex: limericks)
Term
Dramatic irony
Definition
When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not.
Term
Dramatic monologue
Definition
When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience.
Term
Elegy
Definition
A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner. Elegies often use the recent death of a noted person or loved one as a starting point. They also memorialize specific dead people.
Term
Elements
Definition
The basic techniques of each genre of literature. (Chart in handout)
Term
Enjambment
Definition
The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause.
Term
Epic
Definition
A very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style. Deals with glorious or profound subject matter.
Term
Epitaph
Definition
Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. An _____ is usually a line or handful of lines often serious or religious, but sometimes witty and even irreverent.
Term
Euphemism
Definition
A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality. The use of passed away for died, and let go for fired are two example.
Term
Euphony
Definition
When sounds blend harmoniously, the opposite of cacophony.
Term
Explicit
Definition
To say or write something directly and clearly (rare because literature's whole game is to be implicit)
Term
Farce
Definition
Today we use this word to refer to extremely broad humor. Writers of earlier times used it as a more neutral term, meaning simple a funny play; a comedy.
Term
Feminine rhyme
Definition
Lines rhymed by their final two syllables. A pair of lines ending with running and gunning should be an example of feminine rhyme. Properly, in a _____ rhyme (not simply a double rhymes) the penultimate syllables are stressed and the final syllables are unstressed.
Term
First person narrator
Definition
Me, myself, and I, a personal narrator telling a tale from his/her perspective
Term
Foil
Definition
A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. For example, an author will often give a cynical, quick-witted character a docile, naive, sweet-tempered friend to serve as a ___.
Term
Foot
Definition
The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry. Formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed.
Term
Foreshadowing
Definition
An event or statement in a narrative that in miniature suggests a larger event that comes later.
Term
Free verse
Definition
Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern.
Term
Genre
Definition
A sub-category of literature. Science-fiction and detective stories are _____s of fiction.
Term
Gothic, Gothic novel
Definition
Gothic is the sensibility derived from gothic novels. Dark, foreboding themes.
Term
Hubris
Definition
The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall.
Term
Hyperbole
Definition
Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement
Term
Implicit
Definition
To say or write something that suggest and implies, but never says it directly or clearly.
Term
In medias res
Definition
"In the midst of things"
Term
Interior monologue
Definition
This is a term for novels and poetry, not dramatic literature. It refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head. Relayed but not identical to stream of consciousness. Coherent as if actually talking.
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