World Literature Test Test Questions – Flashcards
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
Allegory:
answer
A story in which ideas are represented or personified as actions, people, or things.
question
Alliteration:
answer
The repetition of beginning consonant sounds through a sequence of words.
question
Allude / Allusion:
answer
To make a reference, either implied or stated, to the Bible, mythology, literature, art, music, or history that relies on the reader's familiarity with the alluded-to work to make or reinforce a point in the current work.
question
Analogy:
answer
A comparison based upon similarities and relationships of things that are somewhat alike but mostly different. Often makes a point-by-point comparison from a familiar object to an unfamiliar.
question
Antagonist:
answer
The character who opposes the main character (the protagonist).
question
Antithesis:
answer
A counter-proposition that denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition, balancing an argument for parallel structure.
question
Archetype:
answer
A plot pattern, such as the quest or the redeemer/scapegoat, or character element, such as the cruel stepmother, that recurs across cultures.
question
Assonance:
answer
The repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words.
question
Ballad:
answer
A narrative poem or song with a repeating refrain. Often tells the story of a historical event or retells a folk legend.
question
Beast Fable:
answer
Also known as a "beast epic," this is an often satirical, allegorical style in which the main characters are animals. It is often written as a mock epic.
question
Blank Verse:
answer
Unrhymed poetry, usually iambic pentameter.
question
Burlesque:
answer
Refers to ridiculous exaggeration in language, usually one that makes the discrepancy between the words and the situation or the character silly. The characters in it speak or behave in ridiculously inappropriate ways. creating a large gap between the situation or the characters and the style with which they speak or act out the event.
question
Caricature:
answer
The technique of exaggerating for comic and satiric effect one particular feature of a subject, in order to achieve a grotesque or ridiculous effect.
question
Characterization:
answer
The artistic presentation of a fictional character.
question
Citation:
answer
A standardized reference to a source of information in a written work.
question
Climax:
answer
The turning point in fiction; the transition from rising to falling action.
question
Comedy:
answer
A story, often centered on love, that has a positive ending. It may or may not be humorous.
question
Conflict:
answer
A struggle between two opposing forces. Usually forms the central drama in a fictional narrative, and can be man vs. man, man vs. God, man vs. nature, man vs. society, or even man vs. himself.
question
Consonance:
answer
An "almost rhyme" in which consonants agree but the vowels that precede them differ.
question
Couplet:
answer
In poetry, a pair of rhyming lines often appearing at the end of a sonnet.
question
Denouement:
answer
Resolution or conclusion.
question
Diction:
answer
An author's word choices.
question
Didactic:
answer
Literature with a moralistic or instructive purpose.
question
Elegy:
answer
A poem, usually written as a formal lament on the death of a person. In classical time an elegy was any poem written in elegiac meter.
question
End Rhyme:
answer
The repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words found at the end of poetic lines.
question
Epic:
answer
A long narrative poem that tells a story, usually about the deeds of a hero.
question
Epigram:
answer
A brief saying or poem, often ironic or satirical.
question
Epigraph:
answer
A phrase, quotation, or poem that suggests something about the theme and is set at the beginning of a chapter or book.
question
Epistolary Style:
answer
A novel composed of a series of letters.
question
Essay:
answer
A paper that takes a position on a topic.
question
Euphemism:
answer
The substitution of a socially acceptable word or expression in place of harsh or unacceptable language.
question
Exposition:
answer
The part of the narrative structure in which the scene is set, characters introduced, and the situation established.
question
Fable:
answer
A short story, usually featuring animals or other non-human characters, that illustrates a moral lesson.
question
Falling Action:
answer
The portion of plot structure, usually following the climax, in which the problems encountered during the rising action are solved.
question
Figure of Speech:
answer
A comparison in which something is pictured or figured in other more familiar terms.
question
Flashback:
answer
A plot device in which a scene from the fictional past is brought into the fictional present, often to explain or illustrate a character's next action.
question
Foot:
answer
A group of syllables that form a basic unit of poetic rhythm.
question
Foreshadow:
answer
Hints or clues about future events in a narrative.
question
Framed Narrative:
answer
A story or stories told within a narrative frame.
question
Free Verse:
answer
Poetry that does not rhyme, has no set line length, and is not set to traditional meter.
question
Full Stop:
answer
A period or other punctuation mark that indicates the end of a sentence.
question
Genre:
answer
A category of classification for literature such as fiction, non-fiction, and so forth.
question
Gothic Novel:
answer
A genre that evokes an aura of mystery and may include ghosts, dark and stormy nights, isolated castles, and supernatural happenings.
question
Heroic Couplet:
answer
Two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter, forming a complete thought.
question
Homonym / Homophone:
answer
Words that sound much the same but have different meanings, origins, or spelling.
question
Hubris:
answer
A term derived from the Greek language that means excessive pride. Often leads to the hero's downfall.
question
Hyperbole:
answer
Overstatement through exaggerated language.
question
Iambic Pentameter:
answer
In poetry, a metrical pattern in a ten-syllable line of verse in which five unaccented syllables alternate with five accented syllables, with the accent usually falling on the second of each pair of syllables.
question
Imagery:
answer
Words, phrases, and sensory details used to create a mood or mental picture in a reader's mind.
question
Irony:
answer
A stylistic device or figure of speech in which the real meaning of the words is different from (and opposite to) the literal meaning. Unlike sarcasm, tends to be ambiguous, bringing two contrasting meanings into play.
question
Manners:
answer
A novel of manners focuses on and describes in detail the social customs and habits of a particular social group.
question
Metaphor:
answer
A comparison between two objects, not using the terms "like" or "as."
question
Meter:
answer
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
question
Mock Heroic:
answer
A satiric style which sets up a deliberately disproportionate and witty distance between the elevated language used to describe an action or event and the triviality or foolishness of the action (using, for example, the language of epics to describe a tea party).
question
Motif:
answer
A recurrent device, formula, or situation, often connecting a fresh idea with common patterns of existing thought.
question
Myth:
answer
A type of story that is usually symbolic and extensive, including stories shared across a culture to explain its history and traditions.
question
Narrator:
answer
The character who tells the story. This may or may not be the hero, and may be reliable or unreliable.
question
Nature:
answer
As it refers to a person, this is used to identify something inborn or inherent, such as the "old nature" of Scripture, that often leads to predictable actions.
question
Octave:
answer
In poetry, the first eight lines of the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet.
question
Ode:
answer
A lyric poem with a serious topic and formal tone but without formal pattern.
question
Omniscient Point of View:
answer
In literature, a narrative perspective from multiple points of view that gives the reader access to the thoughts of all the characters.
question
Onomatopoeia:
answer
The formation or use of a word that sounds like what it means.
question
Oxymoron:
answer
A figure of speech that combines two seemingly contradictory elements.
question
Parable:
answer
A short story with an explicit moral lesson.
question
Paradox:
answer
A statement that may appear contradictory but is actually true.
question
Parody:
answer
A style of writing that deliberately seeks to ridicule another style, primarily through exaggeration.
question
Pastoral:
answer
Poem or play that describes an idealized, simple life that country folk, usually shepherds, are imagined to live in a world full of beauty, music, and love.
question
Personification:
answer
To endow a non-human object with human qualities.
question
Picaresque:
answer
A style of novel that features a loosely connected series of events, rather than a tightly constructed plot, often with a non-traditional hero.
question
Plagiarism:
answer
Is to copy or borrow the work or ideas of another author without acknowledgement.
question
Plot:
answer
The sequence of narrated events that form a story.
question
Poetic Justice:
answer
A literary device in which virtue is ultimately rewarded or vice punished.
question
Point of View:
answer
The perspective from which people, events, and other details in a story are viewed.
question
Protagonist:
answer
The main character in a work, either male or female.
question
Pseudonym:
answer
A false name used to disguise a writer's identity.
question
Pun:
answer
A wordplay that exploits the double meaning or ambiguity in a word to create an amusing effect.
question
Realism:
answer
A type of literature that tries to present life as it really is.
question
Reductio ad absurdum:
answer
A popular satiric technique in which the author agrees enthusiastically with the basic attitudes or assumptions he wishes to satirize and, by pushing them to a logically ridiculous extreme, exposes the foolishness of the original attitudes and assumptions.
question
Refrain:
answer
A phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza.
question
Resolution:
answer
The point of closure to the conflict in the plot.
question
Rhetoric:
answer
The art of using language to persuade or influence others. Sometimes includes the idea of eloquence (an older meaning) or of insincerity or artificiality in language (more modern interpretation).
question
Rhyme Scheme:
answer
The pattern of end rhymes in a poem, noted by small letters, e.g., abab or abcba, etc.
question
Rising Action:
answer
The part of the plot structure in which events complicate or intensify the conflict, or introduce additional conflict.
question
Romance:
answer
A type of novel that presents an idealized picture of life.
question
Rubric:
answer
A checklist for scoring that includes guidelines for expectations.
question
Sarcasm:
answer
A form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually criticism.
question
Satire:
answer
A composition in verse or prose that uses humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to point out vice or folly in order to expose, discourage, and change morally offensive attitudes or behaviors.
question
Scansion:
answer
The process of analytically scanning a poem line by line to determine its meter.
question
Setting:
answer
The time and place in which the action of a story, poem, or play takes place.
question
Simile:
answer
A comparison of two things, using the words "like" or "as."
question
Soliloquy:
answer
A monologue in which a character talks to himself.
question
Sonnet:
answer
A fixed verse form consisting of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter. Variations include Italian (Petrarchan), Shakespearean, and Spenserian.
question
Stanza:
answer
A section of a poem, preceded and followed by an extra line space.
question
Stereotype:
answer
A characterization based on the assumption that a personal trait such as gender, age, ethnic or national identity, religion, occupation, or marital status is predictably accompanied by certain characteristics, actions, even values.
question
Stock Character:
answer
A flat character sketch that fills a classic, easily understood role without much detail.
question
Stream of Consciousness:
answer
A modern writing style that replicates and records the random flow of thoughts, emotions, memories, and associations as they rush through a character's mind.
question
Structure:
answer
The arrangement of the various elements in a work.
question
Style:
answer
A distinctive manner of expression distinguished by the writer's diction, rhythm, imagery, and so on.
question
Syllabus:
answer
An outline of course requirements.
question
Symbol:
answer
A person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary work that is not only itself but also stands for something else, often something more abstract.
question
Textual Support:
answer
Brief quotes from a text that is being analyzed. These quotes should usually be smoothly integrated into an original, analytical sentence.
question
Theme:
answer
The main idea or dominant concern of a novel, play, or poem stated in a generalized, abstract way.
question
Tone:
answer
The attitude a novel or poem takes toward its subject.
question
Tragedy:
answer
A story in which the character begins at a high point but ends badly, often because of a fatal flaw in his character that causes him to make poor choices.
question
Tragic Hero:
answer
A character, often a noble person of high rank, who comes to a disastrous end in his or her confrontation with a superior force (fortune, the gods, social forces, universal values), but also comes to understand the meaning of his or her deeds and to accept an appropriate punishment.
question
Unreliable Narrator:
answer
A speaker or voice whose narration is consciously or unconsciously deceiving. Is often subtly undermined by details in the story or through inconsistencies with general knowledge.
question
Voice:
answer
The style, personality, and tone of a narrative; also the speaker or narrator. Captures the correct level of formality, social distance, and personality for the purpose of the writing and the audience.
