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AcDec Lang/Lit guide

THS AcDec Lang and Lit study guide

Question	Answer
Accent-	When a syllable is given a greater amount of force in speaking than is given to another, also called a stress.
Alexandrine-	In English verse a line of iambic hexameter, usually having a caesura after the third foot.
Allegory-	A narrative in either verse or pros in which characters, events, and in some cases, setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of the story.
Alliteration-	A repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within them, especially in accented syllables.
Allusion-	An indirect reference to a person, place, or thing-fictitious, historical, or actual
Analogy-	A comparison made between two objects, situations, or ideas that share something in common but are otherwise totally different.
Anapest-	A metrical foot consisting of 3 syllables, 2 unaccented followed by 1 accented.
Anaphora-	The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of several successive clauses, verses, or paragraphs.
Antagonist-	A character in a story or play that opposes the protagonist.
Apostrophe-	A figure of speech in which a character or a narrator directly addresses an abstract concept, an inanimate object, or a person who is not present.
Assonance-	the repetition of similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables or words; like alliteration, assonance may occur either initially or internally.
Ballad-	A narrative song or poem passed on orally
Blank Verse-	Verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Caesura-	A light but definite pause within a line of poetry.
Catharsis-	the purification of emotions by vicarious experience, especially through drama.
Characterization-	The methods used by an author to develop the personality of a character in a literary work.
Chiasmus-	A rhetorical device in which words or phrases initially presented are restated in reverse order for example, "do not live to eat, but eat to live"
Chorus	An ancient Greek drama, a group of actors who sang an danced in unison and provided commentary on the actions of the main characters.
Cliche	A trite or hackneyed expression, idea, plot, character development, ECT.
Climax	A decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot; a point when the action changes course and begins to revolve itself in some manner.
Comedy	A play written primarily to amuse the audience, usually featuring a protagonist who's fortunes take a turn for the better.
Comic Relief	An amusing scene, incident, character, or speech introduced to a tragic work to relieve tension.
Conceit	An elaborate, extended, and often surprising comparison made between two very dissimilar things that exhibits the authors ingenuity and cleverness; (from the Italian concetto, meaning concept, bright idea).
Concrete Poem	A poem in which the visual arrangement of the letters and words suggests its meaning.
Conflict	A struggle between two opposing forces or characters in a short story, play, novel, or narrative poem; a conflict can be external or internal. 4 types: Person VS Person, Person VS Nature, Person VS Society, Person VS Self
Connotation	The emotional associations that surround a word, as opposed to its denotation.
Consonance	The repetition of consonant sounds that are preceded by a different vowel.
Couplet	Two successive lines of verse that have the same meter and in many cases rhyme.
Dactyl	A three syllable metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.
Declining Action	Falling Action
Denouement	The resolution of a plot of a literary work; the final unraveling of the complications of a plot; the word denouement is French unknotting or untying.
Denotation	The literal meaning of a word-its dictionary definition that doesn't take into account any other emotions or ideas the reader may associate with it.
Deus Ex Machina	a Latin term meaning the god from the machine, in ancient dramas, a god would rescue the protagonist from doom. At any power event person or thing that comes in the knick of time to come to solve a difficulty. Also can refer to providential interposition.
Dialect	Variety of language spoken by a social group or spoken in a certain locality that defers from the standard speech in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical form.
Dialogue	a conversation carried on between two or more people in a literary work; dialogue can serve many purposes, including characterization, advancement of the plot, development of the theme(s) and creation of mood.
Diction	The author's choice of words and phrases; diction involves both connotation and denotation.
Didactic Poetry	Poetry whose purpose is to teach the reader some kind of lesson.
Dramatic Irony	A situation in which the author and the audience share knowledge by which they can recognize that the character's actions are inappropriate or that the character's words have a signifigance but these things are unknown to the character.
Dramatic Monologue	A lyric poem in which the speaker addresses someone whose replies are not recorded; the poet adopts the voice of a fictive or historical voice or some other persona.
Dramatic Situation	A situation that drives the plot of a drama that involves the dynamic relation between a character and a goal or objective and the obstacles that intervene between the character and the objective.
Dynamic Character	A character that changes in some way- usually for the better- during the course of the story.
Elegy	A lament or a sadly meditative poem, sometimes written on the occasion of death; usually formal in the language and structure and solemn or melancholy in tone.
End Rhyme	Rhyming of words at the ends of lines of poetry.
End-Stopped Line	A line of poetry that contains a complete thought, usually end with a period, colon, or semi-colon, and therefore ends in a full pause; the opposite of a run-on line.
English or Shakespearean Sonnet	A 14 line poem in iambic pentameter having a rhyme scheme of abab/cdcd/efef/gg; is usually presented in a 4 part structure in which a theme or idea is developed in the 1st three quatrains and then is brought to a conclusion in a couplet.
Enjambment	The employment of run-on lines of poetry, whereby the meaning of the statement is carried on from one line to the next without a pause.
EPIC!!!!!!!	A long narrative poem describing the deeds of a great hero, great adventures, and matters of national or global significance and sometimes featuring supernatural forces.
Epigram	A short poem that ends in a witty or ingenious turn of thought, to which the rest of the composition is intended to lead up.
Epigraph	a motto or quotation at the beginning of a book, poem, or chapter that usually indicates its name.
Epiphany	A moment of enlightenment in which the underlying truth or essential nature of something is suddenly revealed something or made clear to a character.
Epistolary	Associated with letters or the writing of letters; for example, an epistolary poem is a letter written in verse.
Eye rhyme	rhyme in which two or more words look the same and are spelled similarly but have different pronunciations, for example, "have" and "grave"; also called sight rhyme.
Exposition	In fiction, the narrative passages that establish the basic details of the story, including setting, time, and characters; in drama, scenes that introduce the main characters and introduce the dramatic situation.
Exposition;	In some cases, the exposition will provide the audience with info on events that occurred prior to the point in time at which the work begins.
Falling Action	In a narrative, action that occurs after the climax and directly before the denouement or the resolution of the plot.
Farce	A highly comic, lighthearted drama, usually involving stack situations and characters and based on a far-fetched humorous situation.
Feminine Ending	An unaccented syllable at the end of line of poetry.
Feminine Rhyme	A rhyme in which the similarity of sound is in both of the last two syllables; for example,"weary" and "dreary".
Figurative Language	Language used in a non-literal way; figurative language uses figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, synecdoche, etc.
Figure Of Speech	An expression in which words are used in a non-literal way to achieve an effect beyond the range of ordinary language.
Flashback	An interruption in the continuity of a story by the betrayal of some earlier episode.
Flat Character	A character that a single distinguishing trait and has not developed into a whole personality.
Foil	a person or thing that highlights the traits of a character by contrast.
Foot	A division of verse consisting of a number of syllables, one of which that has the principal stress; the basic unit of meter in poetry.
Foreshadowing	The use of hints or clues that suggest what will happen later in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem
Framed Story	A narrative device whereby a story or group of stories is presented (often told by one of the characters) within the framework of a larger narrative; Chaucer's the Canterbury Tales is an example of a framed story.
Free Verse	Poetry that does not have a fixed meter of rhyme scheme.
Haiku	A Japanese poetic form that is comprised of three unrhymed of five, seven, and five syllables respectively.
Half-Rhyme	Slant Rhyme.
Hero/Heroine	The central character in a work of fiction.
Heroic Couplet	Two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter.
High
Framed Story	A narrative device whereby a story or group of stories is presented (often told by one of the characters) within the framework of a larger narrative; Chaucer's the Canterbury Tales is an example of a framed story.
Free Verse	Poetry that does not have a fixed meter of rhyme scheme.
Haiku	A Japanese poetic form that is comprised of three unrhymed of five, seven, and five syllables respectively.
Half-Rhyme	Slant Rhyme.
Hero/Heroine	The central character in a work of fiction.
Heroic Couplet	Two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter.
High Comedy	A comedy that appeals to the intellect using verbal wit, a clever plot, and visual elegance, usually having upper class characters.
Hyperbole	A figure of speech in which exaggeration or overstatement is used for special effect.
Iamb	A metrical foot consisting of two syllables, the first unaccented, the second accented.
Iambic Pentameter	Poetry consisting of a line of five iambs;the most common verse line in English poetry;a meter especially familiar because it occurs in all blank verse, heroic couplets, and sonnets.
Imagery	The details in a work of literature that appeal to the senses of the reader, lend the work vividness, and tend to arouse an emotional response in the reader.
In Medias Res	A Latin phrase meaning "in the middle of things", used in reference to narratives that begin in the middle of the action.
Internal Rhyme	Rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry.
Irony	The contrast between what appears to be and reality; see dramatic irony, situational irony, and verbal irony.
Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet	A 14 line poem in two parts, an initial octet(eight lines) followed by a sestet( six lines), usually having a rhyme scheme of abbaabba/cdecde; the octet and sestet are usually played off of one another in some way.
Limerick	A five line comic verse form with a rhyme scheme of aabba, with the first, second, and fifth lines in tri-meter and the third and fourth in dimeter.
Litotes	A type of understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negation of its opposite; for example," this is no small problem".
Low Comedy

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