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Abstract
Not applied or practical
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Absurd as in the Theater of the Absurd
an absurd thought
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Acrostic
A series of lines in which particular letters, when taken out in order, spell a word
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Aestheticism
An exagerated devotion to the arts
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Affective fallacy/intentional fallacy
A proposition that a poem be analyzed in terms of its internal structure
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Agrarian
rural agriculture
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Allegory
A symbolic narrative
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Alliteration
When two or more words that are close begin with the same letter or sound
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Allusion/illusion
A passing or casual reference
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Ambiguity
Uncertainty of meaning
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Amplification (rhetorical)
Expansion of a statement
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Anachronism/anachrony
A discrepancy between the order of events in a story and the way they're presented in plot
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Analepsis/prolepsis/ellipsis
Recovery of strength after sickness/the use of descriptive word in anticipation of it's becoming applicable
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Anagnorisis
The critical moment of discovery
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Anaphora
Repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two or more successive verses
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Anecdote
a short account of a particular incident of an interesting nature
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Antagonist
The villain or nemesis of the protagonist
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Antihero
A protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a herioc figure
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Antimasque
A comic performance, as a dance, before or between acts of a masque
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Antinovel
A literary work in which the author rejects the use of traditional elements of novel structure
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Antistrophe
The second of two metrically corresponding systems in a poem/ alternating meter in a poem
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Antithesis
The direct opposite
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Antithetical criticism
Looking at the author's story in opposition to their intent
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Antonomasia
The identification of a person by an appellative that is not the person's name
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Aphorism
Short statement telling truth about life
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Apocalypse
Any revelation or prophecy
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Appollonian
Serene, calm or well-balanced/ defined or classic beauty
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Aporia
The expression of a simulated or real doubt in writing
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Aposiopesis
A sudden breaking off in the midst of a sentence using "-"
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Archetypical criticism/archetype
Looking at the work through archetype
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Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds in a word
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Asyndeton
The omission of usual conjunctions
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Aubade
Lyrical song about two lovers who must separate at dawn
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Avante-garde
Unorthodox or daring
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Baroque
Extravagently ornate, florid, and convoluted in style
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Bathos/pathos/ethos
- Bathos - being humorous unintentionally through irony
- Pathos - emotional response to a passage
- Ethos - writing technique where personality of speaker comes out to convince you of something
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Bildungsroman
Type of novel concerned with the education development and maturing of a young protagonist
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Black humor
Humor that considers human existence as ironic but comic
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Bombast
Speech too pompous for an occasion
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