A+B+C
Repetition of initial consonant sounds in words, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."
What is Alliteration?
An author's specific choice of words based on their çlarity, conciseness, effectiveness, and authenticity.
What is Diction?
The law that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero; this term comes from the Greek word hyhris, which means "excessive pride."
What is Hubris?
A figure of speech in which a subtle or implicit comparison is made between two unlike things. Often these make abstract ideas more concrete.
What is Metaphor?
Another word for persuasive writing. Sometimes also called the art of persuasion.
What is Rhetoric?
A reference to a familiar person, place, thing, or event-for example, Don Juan, brave new world, Everyman, Machiavellian, utopia.
What it an Allusion?
A word or phrase that substitutes for an offensive or suggestive one. Examples: "in a family way" means pregnant; "lost their lives" means killed; "I misspoke" means "I lied."
What is Euphemism?
The use of words to create tap into the five senses of the reader.
What is Imagery?
A literary device in which animals, ideas, and things are represented as having human traits.
What is Personification?
A comparison of two unlike things using a transition word, usually the word like or as.
What is a Simile?
A rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or a phrase at the beginning of several clauses.
What is Anaphora?
A literary device in which the author jumps back in time in the chronology of a narrative.
What is Flashback?
The relationship between texts, especially works of literature
What is Intertextuality?
A contradictory statement that makes sense. For example, from Hegel, "Man learns from history that man learns nothing from history."
What is a Paradox?
A person, place, thing, or event used to represent something else, such as the white flag that represents surrender.
What is a Symbol?
A group of literary works considered by some to be central or authoritative to the literary tradition. For example, many critics agree that the Western one includes the literary works of Homer, Shakespeare, Hemingway, Faulkner, Frost, Dickinson, and so on.
What is The Canon?
A category of literature defined by its style, form, and content. Common examples include short stories, novels, plays, poetry, biography, and so forth.
What is Genre?
The use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or expected meaning. There are three types: situational, dramatic, and verbal.
What is Irony?
A literary term for themes or ideas that are often repeated in a literary work. For example, an example of this in Arthur Miller's The Crucible is accusation and confessions.
What is a Motif?
Language spoken by people who live in a particular region.
What is Vernacular?
A specific type of metaphor or figure of speech, often elaborate, that compares two things that are very different. When reading a metaphor, the reader is aware of the dissimilarities between the two things being compared: but this broadens the reader's awareness of the complexity of the things in question and often provides a clever juxtaposition. Extended metaphor is a synonym for this term.
What is a Conceit?
One stressed syllable and a number of unstressed syllables. Examples include Iambic, Trochaic, Dactylic, and Spondaic.
What is a Foot? (acceptable answer: what is meter?)
An expression specific to a certain language that means something different from the literal meaning. For example, "sick as a dog" means one is very ill.
What is an Idiom?
A term that means a character gets what he or she "deserves" in the end. The purest form of this occurs when one character plots against another but ends up caught or harmed in his or her own trap. For example, Lady Macbeth's vices are punished by her madness as well as the loss of everything she possesses in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
What is Poetic Justice?
How the author uses words, phrases, and sentences to form ideas. Very specific to the author themselves, just like clothing and fashion.
What is Style?