Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes. May lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples.
What is an Antihero
100
A short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject.
What is an essay
100
The reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase.
What is inversion
100
A word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem.
What is refrain
100
Writing style of Americas early English speaking colonist emphasizes obedience to God and consists mainly of journals, sermons, and poems.
What is puritanism
200
Reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something.
What is allusion
200
A scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time.
What is flashback
200
The reasons for a characters behavior.
What is motivation
200
A rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language.
What is rhythm
200
Literature that emphasizes a specific geographical setting and that reproduces the speech, behavior, and attitudes of the people who live in that region.
What is regionalism
300
Deliberately suggesting two or more different meanings in a work. An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. Done on purpose by the author.
What is ambiguity
300
Poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme.
What is free verse
300
The use of words who's sounds echo their sense. (Pop or zap)
What is onomatopoeia
300
Unified parts of the writing are related to one central idea or organizing principle.
What is unity
300
A movement that began in Europe in the 17th century which held that we can arrive at truth by using our reason rather than relying on the authority of the past or on the authority of the church or an institution. Also called Neoclassicism and age of reason.
What is rationalism
400
An elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor.
What is conceit
400
A character who acts as a contrast to another character. Often a funny sidekick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero.
What is foil
400
The repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures.
What is parallel structure
400
Sentence of three parts of equal importance, and length usually three independent clauses.
What is tricolon
400
In movement in art and literature that started in Europe during the 1920s. They wanted to replace conventional realism with the full expression of the unconscious mind.
What is surrealism
500
Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy work for inversion.
What is anastrophe
500
An adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality.
What is an epithet
500
A form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form.
What is litotes
500
Sentence which uses a conjunction with no commas to separate the items in a series.
What is polysyndeton
500
The term for the bold new experimental styles and forms that swept the arts during the first third of the twentieth century.