Sunday, January 27, 2013

LIT TERMS 31-56

Dialect: the language of a particular district, class, or group of persons; the sounds , grammar, and diction employed by people distinguished from others.

Dialectics: formal debates usually over the nature of truth.


Dichotomy: split or break between two opposing things.

Diction: the style of speaking or writing as reflected in the choice and use of words.

Didactic: having to do with the transmission of information; education.

Dogmatic: rigid beliefs and principles.

Elegy: a mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead, sometimes contains general reflections on death, often with a rural or pastoral setting.

Epic: a long narrative poem unified be a hero who reflects the customs, morals, and aspirations of his nation of race as he makes his way through legendary and historic exploits, usually over a long period of time (definition bordering on circumlocution).

Epigram: witty aphorism.

Epitaph: any brief inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone; a short formal poem of commemoration often a credo written by the person who wishes it to be on his tombstone.

Epithet: a short, descriptive name or phrase that may insult someone's character, characteristics.

Euphemism: the use of indirect, mild or vague word or expression for one though to be coarse, offensive, or blunt.

Evocative (evocation): a calling forth of memories and sensation; the suggestion or production through artistry and imagination of a sense of reality.

Exposition: the beginning of a story that sets forth facts, ideas and/or characters, in a detailed explanation.

Expressionism: movement in art, literature, and music consisting of unrealistic representation of an inner idea or feeling.

Fable: a short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth.

Fallacy: a false or misleading notion, belief, or argument; any kind of erroneous reasoning that makes arguments unsound.

Falling Action: part of the narrative or drama after the climax.

Farce: a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue.

Figurative Language: apt and imaginative language characterized by figures of speech.

Flashback: a narrative device that flashes back to prior events.
 
Foil: a person that, by contrast, makes another seem better or more prominent.

Folk Tale: a story passed on by word of mouth

Foreshadowing: in fiction and drama, a device to prepare the reader for the outcome of the action; "planning" to make the outcome convincing, though not to give it away.

Free Verse: verse without conventional metrical pattern, with irregular pattern or no rhyme.

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