Literary Terms and Concepts Glossary
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Literary Terms and Concepts
Poetry
TB page 256
- Meter: Systematic arrangement of stressed/unstressed syllables.
- Foot: One stressed and one or more unstressed syllables.
TB page 407
- Exact Rhyme: Two or more words with identical sounds.
- Slant Rhyme: Two or more words with similar sounds.
- Paradox: A statement that seems contradictory but actually presents the truth.
Literary Devices
TB page 270
- Parable: A story that teaches a moral lesson.
- Ambiguity: Uncertain meaning in a story created by using a symbol with different interpretations.
TB page 364
- Figures of Speech: Language used imaginatively, but not literally.
- Synecdoche: The use of a part of something to stand for the whole.
Literary Movements and Schools
Gothic Literature (TB page 291)
Five Elements of Gothic Literature:
- Bleak/remote settings
- Macabre/violent incidents
- Characters in psychological/physical torment
- Supernatural elements
- Strong language/dangerous meanings
American Romanticism
Five Features of American Romanticism:
- Individualism
- Imagination
- Emotion
- Nature
- Distant settings
Four Characteristics of American Romanticism:
- People were naturally benevolent.
- The mind was a tabula rasa at birth.
- Individuals are corrupted by institutions that seek to dehumanize them.
- People worth highlighting are those closest to nature.
Noble Savage: A man born in an "uncivilized" context, yet pure at heart and faithful to the true and honest cause of his people.
Realism
Realism: "The faithful representation of reality" or "verisimilitude." Realism is a literary technique practiced by many schools of writing.
Naturalism
Naturalism: Constituted a variation of the realism themes, although authors aligned their creativity with scientific and rational views of the world.
Modernism
Modernism: The artistic movement in which the artist's self-consciousness about questions of form and structure is prominent.
Four Aspects of Modernism:
- Dramatization of the plight of women
- Creation of a literature of the urban experience
- Continuation of the pastoral or rural spirit
- Continuation of regionalism and local color
Vocabulary
TB page 256
- Efface: If I could efface all of my sad memories, I would be a very happy person.
- Eloquence: His sermons were not remarkable for eloquence, but a certain solidity and balance of judgment.
- Pensive: We were pensive as we tried to figure out what was occurring.
TB page 270
- Pathos: His fervor and dramatic action held them spellbound, and his homely pathos soon broke down all barriers of resistance.
- Obstinacy: The heroic obstinacy of the defense was equal to the perseverance of the attack.
TB page 291
- Munificent: Akbar was a munificent patron of literature. (TB page 376: Dilapidated: Preserved)
- Specious: This argument is rather specious than logical. (TB page 376: Expedient: Reluctant)
- Sentience: Without one, she had existed in a state of sentience without feeling, a world of permanent grey. (TB page 376: Magnanimity: Cruelty)
TB page 334
- Inarticulate: Speechless (TB page 407: Surmised: Always knew)
- Inscrutable: Incomprehensible (TB page 407: Interposed: Removed)
- Prescient: Visionary
TB page 364
- Dictum: Informal rule
- Aversion: Preference (TB page 407: Apprised: Misinformed)
- Absolve: Condemn
TB page 478
- Maledictions: Damnation (TB page 506: Deference: Disrespect)
TB page 506
- Decorum: Shame (TB page 506: Aggregation: Separation)
- Disdainfully: Respectfully