-
ambiguity
- multiple
- meaning; lack of clarity in a work consciously used as a phase of the author’s
- view of his/her world or characters and reflecting the vagueness of life
-
anachronism
- the
- incorporation of an event, scene, or person who does not correspond with the
- time period portrayed in the work
-
antithesis
- the
- rhetorical opposition or contrast of words, clauses, or sentences
-
archetype
- a
- plot that repeats basic historical or primitive life patterns; from the
- psychology of Carl Jung
-
bombast
- inflated
- language; the use of high-sounding language for a trivial subject
-
catharsis
- a
- cleansing of the spirit of the spectator at a tragedy through experiencing the
- emotions of pity an terror, as expressed in Aristotle’s Poetics
-
empathy
- a
- feeling of association or identification with an object; experiencing its
- sensations and responding with similar feelings
-
flashback
- returning
- to an earlier time in a story or play for the purpose of clarifying present
- actions or circumstances
-
foil
- a character
- in a work of literature
- whose physical or psychological qualities contrast strongly with, and therefore
- highlight, the corresponding qualities of another character
-
foreshadowing
- providing
- hints of things to come in a story or play
-
litotes
- a
- form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve
- emphasis and intensity
-
sentiment
- refined
- and tender emotion in literature; sometimes used derisively to represent
- insincerity or mawkishness
-
mode
- an attribute or quality of a thing; a work of
- literature may be written in a particular mode
-
motif
- a device that serves as a unifying agent in
- conveying a theme; a recurrent image, phrase, or idea
-
verisimilitude
- similar to truth; the quality of realism in a work
- that persuades the reader that he/she is getting a vision of life as it is
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