Title: Literature Terms
Tags: your_tag

Q: Absurdism
A: Philosophical thesis linked to Albert Camus' literary works that life is 'absurd', as in meaningless and having no purpose often due to the existence of contradictions, often being that the confrontation of man's desire for significance, meaning and clarity in the face of the cold, vast universe and certainty of fate, integral to Postmodernism and theatre of the absurd.

Q: Account
A: Account for, state reasons for, report on, give an account of.

Q: Acrostic
A: Piece of writing where a particular set of letters spells out a word or phrase with special significance to the text (commonly in poetry).

Q: Advise
A: Recommend or inform.

Q: Aesthetic
A: Sense of beauty or an appreciation of artistic expression based on terms of literary aspects that focus on literary art and innovation (style, tone, linguistic features), thought to be in contrast to (though often acting in tandem with) intellect, where texts can be said to be aesthetically pleasing/unpleasing.

Q: Aesthetic features
A: Features that are utilised or manipulated to contribute to the aesthetic of a text.

Q: Allegory
A: A work that conveys a hidden moral, spiritual, or political meaning through the use of symbolic characters and/or events.

Q: Alliteration
A: Linguistic feature where the same sound repeats in a group of words.

Q: Allusion
A: An unexplained reference to a person or thing outside of the text, including literary works, people, events or ideas.

Q: Alternate (reading)
A: A reading of a text that does not precisely align with the reading made by a majority of readers (dominant reading), but does not aim to resist such a reading either (resistant reading), instead focusing on other features and dimensions of the text.

Q: Ambiguity
A: The existence of two or more meanings, or lack of sufficient evidence to form a meaning that can be derived from a word, sentence, text or any literary concept.

Q: American Realism
A: A 20th century literary and artistic movement that, similar to Realism, attempted to portray American life in truth, where the motive of many authors and artists was to undermine the advertised version of America through propaganda, or finding beauty in urban, mundane settings.

Q: Anachronism
A: Person or a thing placed in the wrong time period.

Q: Anadiplosis
A: Linguistic feature where a word/group of words at the end of a clause is repeated around the beginning of the following clause/sentence.

Q: Analogy
A: Comparison that aims to explain a thing or idea by likening it to something else.

Q: Analyse
A: Identify components and the relationship between them, draw out and relate implications.

Q: Analysis
A: The breaking apart of a text or concept to examine them closely, though a literary analysis is known as a close reading, engaging with not only the content of a text but its form.

Q: Analytical texts
A: Texts whose primary purpose is to identify, examine and draw conclusions about the elements or components that make up other texts, developing arguments or considering/advancing an interpretation.

Q: Anapest
A: A three-syllable metrical pattern in poetry where two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable.

Q: Anaphora
A: Linguistic feature where words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases or sentences.

Q: Antagonist
A: A character, a group or anything beyond which usually is contended by the protagonist/main character of a story.

Q: Antanaclasis
A: Linguistic feature where a word or phrase is repeated within a sentence, but the word or phrase means something different each time it appears.

Q: Anthropomorphism
A: Attribution of human characteristics, emotions and/or behaviours to animals or other non-human things.

Q: Antimetabole
A: Linguistic feature where a phrase is repeated, but with the order of words reversed.

Q: Antithesis
A: Linguistic feature where two contrasting or opposing ideas are juxtaposed, usually within parallel grammatical structures.

Q: Aphorism
A: A saying that concisely expresses a moral principle or an observation about the world, presenting it as a general or universal truth.

Q: Aphorismus
A: Linguistic feature where the way a word is used is questioned by testing whether its use is appropriate in various cases.

Q: Aporia
A: Rhetorical device where a speaker (often pretendedly) expresses uncertainty or doubt about something to prove a point or idea.

Q: Apostrophe
A: Linguistic feature where a speaker directly addresses someone (or something) that is not present or cannot respond back in reality.

Q: Apply
A: Use, utilise, employ in a particular situation.

Q: Appreciation
A: Act of discerning the quality and value of literary texts.

Q: Archetype
A: Literary device whereby a character is created and centralised around a set of qualities or traits that are specific and identifiable by readers, derived from the works of Carl Jung who believed they belong to humanity's unconscious or memory of universal experiences.

Q: Argue
A: Make a case, based on appropriate evidence, for and/or against some given point of view.

Q: Assess
A: Make a judgement of value, quality, outcomes, results of size.

Q: Assonance
A: Linguistic feature where the same vowel sound repeats within a group of words.

Q: Asyndeton
A: Linguistic features where coordination conjunction words are omitted.

Q: Attitude
A: A stance regarding a situation, idea, character, event or issue.

Q: Attitudes
A: How people or groups of people may react or feel towards certain concepts, values or other attitudes.

Q: Audience
A: Group of readers, listeners or viewers that the writer/speaker attempts to address.

Q: Author
A: Composer or originator of a work.

Q: Ballad
A: A type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music, which is traditionally written in a common meter.

Q: Ballade
A: Form of lyric poetry that originated in medieval France, following a strict rhyme scheme ABABBCBC with three eight-line stanzas followed by an enovi, which is ended with a refrain.

Q: Baroque
A: Literary movement between the 16th and 18th century, between the Renaissance and Enlightenment movements, where texts were characterised to be full of literary devices and linguistic features compared to all prior movements, often metaphors and symbols to highlight Christianity and religious themes.

Q: Bildungsroman
A: Genre of novels that shows a young protagonist's journey from childhood to adulthood, with a focus on the trials and misfortunes that effect the character's growth.

Q: Binary opposition
A: Special form of a dichotomy to make two groups, concepts or other literary aspects to seem opposite in meaning, often strictly defining and setting off theoretical opposites against one another, though this occurs with certain groups of people as well.

Q: Blank Verse
A: A name given to poetry that lacks rhymes but does follow a specific meter, which is almost always imabic pentameter.

Q: Byronic hero
A: A fictional character that exhibits characteristics that are similar to those in the protagonists of texts by Lord George Gordon Byron, such as incredible perception, mystery, arrogance, sexual liberation, charisma, lack of control over impulses, brooding and being forced to experience trauma.

Q: Cacophony
A: Combination of words that sound harsh or unpleasant together, usually due to percussive, 'hard' consonants being concentrated into a small space.

Q: Caesura
A: Pause that occurs within a line of poetry, usually marked by some form of punctuation like a period, comma, ellipsis or dash anywhere after the first word and before the last word of a line.

Q: Catharsis
A: Process of releasing strong or pent-up emotions through art.

Q: Characterisation
A: Representation of the traits, motives and psychology of a character in a narrative.

Q: Chiasmus
A: Linguistic feature in which the grammar of one phrase is inverted in the following phrase so that two key concepts from the phrase reappear in the next in inverted order.

Q: Cinquain
A: Any stanza of five lines, regardless of the type of verse (modern versions have precisely defined features).

Q: Clarify
A: Make a clear or plain.

Q: Classify
A: Arrange or include in classes/categories.

Q: Cliché
A: Phrase that, due to overuse, appears to lack substance or originality.

Q: Climax (Figure of Speech)
A: Linguistic feature where successive words, phrases, clauses or sentences are arranged in ascending order of importance.

Q: Climax (Plot)
A: A story's central turning point, where there is peak tension of conflict, which all plot develpments have led to.

Q: Colloquialism
A: Use of informal words or phrases in writing or speech.

Q: Colonialism
A: In reference to texts made primarily by colonisers and settlers during the period of the colonisation of various countries, including Australia, from the 18th century to the 19th century, focusing on the primitive nature of native people, the view that the land had no previous owner (terra nullius) and the reformation of the land.

Q: Comment (on)
A: Make reference to and expand upon.

Q: Common Meter
A: Specific meter type that alternates between lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter and constantly has unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables (often in lyric poetry).

Q: Compare
A: Show how things are similar and different.

Q: Conceit
A: Fanciful metaphor that is especially elaborate and extended, where unlikely, far-fetched and/or strained comparison is made between two things.

Q: Connotation
A: Array of emotions and ideas suggested by a word (in light of its denotation) in addition to its dictionary definition.

Q: Consider
A: Reflect on and make a judgement/evaluation.

Q: Consonance
A: Linguistic feature where the same consonant sound repeats within a group of words.

Q: Construct
A: Make, build, put together items or arguments.

Q: Content
A: What is written in a text, essentially the message it gives.

Q: Context
A: The environment in which a text is produced or received. Context can include the general social, historical and cultural conditions in which a text is produced or received or the specific features of its immediate environment. The term is also used to refer to the wording surrounding an unfamiliar word that a reader or listener uses to understand its meaning.

Q: Context (aspect)
A: Environment in which a text is produced or received, which can involve social, historical or cultural conditions of the author, in which a text is produced/received or specific features of the immediate environment.

Q: Context (language feature)
A: Wording that surrounds an unfamiliar word reader/listener uses to understand its meaning.

Q: Contrast
A: Show how things are different or opposite.

Q: Convention
A: Accepted practice that has developed over time, generally used and understood and often associated with particular genres.

Q: Correlate
A: Demonstrate a mutual or complementary relationship.

Q: Couplet
A: Unit of two lines or poetry with lines that use the same/a similar meter, form a rhyme, or are separated from other lines by a double line break.

Q: Create
A: Make, invent something.

Q: Critical perspectives
A: Perspective formed from making meaning of a text through engagement with its aspects (aesthetic, language, intertextuality, author, reader, audience and context) with reading practices/strategies.

Q: Critical theory
A: Any approach to the study of society and culture that acts as a form of social criticism and aims to expose, critique and combat oppressive power structures by comprehending how a subject matter is seen in the perspective of society, institutions and cultures, then interpreting the nature of the subject practically.

Q: Critically analyse/evaluate
A: Add a degree or level of accuracy, depth, knowledge and understanding, logic, questioning, reflection and quality to analysis/evaluation.

Q: Cultural materialism
A: Literary critical theory that considers culture and cultural produce in Marx's theory of base and superstructure, being means of production and everything that is not directly linked to production, arguing that it must be considered to why cultures differ between places and groups of people and why certain goods like literary works are created in a specific place and context, being especially applied to Shakespeare's works.

Q: Dactyl
A: Three-syllable metrical pattern in poetry where a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables.

Q: Debate
A: Develop a logical (sometimes persuasive) argument, giving differing views in response to a topic.

Q: Deduce
A: Draw conclusions.

Q: Define
A: State meaning and identify essential qualities.

Q: Demonstrate
A: Show by example.

Q: Denotation
A: Literal meaning or "dictionary definition" of a word.

Q: Derive
A: Deduce or obtain by reasoning.

Q: Describe
A: Provide characteristics and features.

Q: Determine
A: Decide, find out.

Q: Deus Ex Machina
A: Plot device whereby an unsolvable conflict or point of tension is suddenly resolved by the unexpected appearance of an implausible entity or event.

Q: Develop
A: Generate, elaborate or expand to a more advanced state, add detail to.

Q: Diacope
A: Linguistic feature where a word or phrase is repeated with a small number of intervening words.

Q: Dialogue
A: Exchange of spoken words between two or more characters in a book, play or other written work, within quotation marks and dialogue tags in prose writing, or the process in which readers engage with texts.

Q: Dichotomy
A: Division between two groups, concepts or other literary aspects to distinguish them from each other, or to make them appear completely different.

Q: Diction
A: A writer's unique style of expression, especially his or her choice and arrangement of words.

Q: Discourse
A: Language/terminology used in and belong to the discussion of a certain subject, often being the backbone of meaning of texts due to any idea belonging to at least one discourse.

Q: Discursive texts
A: Texts whose primary purpose is to engage the reader in a non-fictional/expository manner, which can digress from one subject to another, but are not as formal/methodical as analytical texts.

Q: Discuss
A: Identify issues and provide points for and/or against.

Q: Distinguish
A: Recognise or note/indicate as being distinct or different from, note differences between.

Q: Dominant
A: A dominant reading is the interpretation or understanding of a text that aligns with the intended or widely accepted meaning conveyed by the author.

Q: Drama
A: Portrayal of fictional or non-fictional events through the performance of written dialogue on a stage, often with stage directions, props and proxemics.

Q: Dramatic Irony
A: Plot device often used to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the audience in theatre, literature, film or television.

Q: Dramatic Voice
A: Voice of characters in a work of drama, characterised by a distinctive dialogue style and tone that conveys a character's unique manner of expression and emotional perspective.

Q: Draw
A: Derive, as in draw a conclusion.

Q: Dynamic Character
A: A character that undergoes substantial internal changes as a result of one or more plot developments.

Q: Dénouement
A: Final section of a story or drama's plot, where loose ends are tied, lingering questions are answered and a sense of resolution is achieved.

Q: Elegy
A: Poem of serious reflection, especially one mourning the loss of someone who died.

Q: End Rhyme
A: Rhymes that occur in the final words of lines of poetry.

Q: End-Stopped Line
A: Line of poetry where a sentence or phrase comes to a conclusion at the end of the line.

Q: Enjambment
A: Continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break.

Q: Enlightenment
A: Late 17th century to 18th century movement known as 'The Age of Reason' following the Renaissance movement seeing to progression in society and the rise of the scientific method, resulting in skepticism in religion, emphasising and valuing the development of the human mind and science, and education of far better quality.

Q: Envoi
A: Brief concluding stanza at the end of a poem that can either summarise the preceding poem or serve as its dedication.

Q: Epanalepsis
A: Linguistic feature where the beginning of a clause or sentence is repeated at the end of that same clause or sentence, with words intervening.

Q: Epigram
A: Short and witty statement, usually written in verses that end with punchlines or satirical twists, that conveys a single thought or observation.

Q: Epigraph
A: Short quotation, phrase or poem that is placed a the beginning of another piece of writing to encapsulate that work's main themes and set the tone.

Q: Epistrophe
A: Linguistic feature where one or more words repeat at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.

Q: Epizeuxis
A: Linguistic feature where a word or phrase is repeated in immediate succession, with no intervening words.

Q: Ethos
A: One of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric, which appeals to the audience by emphasising a writers's/speaker's credibility/authority.

Q: Euphony
A: Combination of words that sound pleasant together or are easy to pronounce, usually because they contain lots of vowels, as well as consonants with 'soft' or muffled sounds.

Q: Evaluate
A: To ascertain the value or amount of, appraise carefully.

Q: Examine
A: Inquire into.

Q: Explain
A: Relate cause and effect, make the relationships between things evident, provide why and/or how.

Q: Explore
A: Investigate, search for or evaluate.

Q: Exposition
A: Description or explanation of background information within a work of literature.

Q: Extended Metaphor
A: Metaphor that unfolds across multiple lines or even paragraphs of a text, making used of multiple interrelated metaphors within an overarching one.

Q: External Conflict
A: A problem, antagonism, or struggle that takes place between a character and an outside force, driving the action of the plot forward.

Q: Extract
A: Choose relevant and/or appropriate details.

Q: Extrapolate
A: Infer from what is known.

Q: Falling Action
A: Section of the plot following the climax, where the tension stemming from the story's central conflict decreases and the story moves towards its conclusion.

Q: Feminism
A: Literary movement that explores and advocates for the rights, perspectives, and experiences of women, challenging traditional gender roles and seeking to address issues related to gender inequality and discrimination within literary works.

Q: Figurative Language
A: Language that contains or uses linguistic features, but commonly thought to be language that uses words in ways that deviate from their literal interpretation to achieve a more powerful effect.

Q: Figurative language
A: Word groups or phrases used in a way that differs from the expected or everyday usage. They are used in a non-literal way for particular effect (for example, simile – ‘white as a sheet’; metaphor – ‘all the world’s a stage’; personification – ‘the wind grabbed at my clothes’).

Q: Figure of Speech
A: Literary device in which language is used in an unusual—or "figured"—way in order to produce a stylistic effect.

Q: Flat Character
A: A one-dimensional character or a character lacking in complexity that can be easily and accurately described with a short phrase.

Q: Foot
A: Meters grouped into two or three syllables

Q: Foreshadowing
A: Literary device where authors hint at plot developments that don't occur until later in the story.

Q: Form (text)
A: How content is written in a text, that is, the language used to send the message written in a text.

Q: Formal Verse
A: Rhymed poetry that uses a strict meter (a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables).

Q: Forms of texts
A: Shape and structure of texts, in terms of poetry, novels, plays and others.

Q: Free Verse
A: Poetry that doesn’t use any strict meter or rhyme scheme, having lines of varying length.

Q: Genre
A: Categories in which texts are grouped based on their form and structure, which are always prose fiction, poetry or drama in Literature, then further broken into sub-genres based on subject matter.

Q: Gothicism
A: Literary movement that originated in the 18th century, lasting until late 20th century that produced writing which employs dark and picturesque scenery, startling and melodramatic narrative devices, and an overall atmosphere of exoticism, mystery, fear, and dread.

Q: Harmatia
A: Literary term that refers to a tragic flaw or error that leads to a character's downfall.

Q: Hubris
A: Excessive pride or overconfidence, which drives a person to overstep limits in a way that leads to their downfall.

Q: Humanism
A: Philosophical stance that emphasises the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.

Q: Hyperbole
A: Linguistic feature where a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis, which are usually obvious exaggerations to emphasise a point.

Q: Iamb
A: Two-syllable metrical pattern in poetry where one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.

Q: Identify
A: Recognise and name.

Q: Identity
A: The collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which an individual is definitively recognizable or known.

Q: Ideology
A: System of attitudes, values, beliefs and assumptions.

Q: Idiom
A: Phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the words in the phrase.

Q: Illustrate
A: Similar to explain, but requires the quoting of specific examples or statistics.

Q: Imagery
A: Descriptive language that engages the human senses, being visual (sight), auditory (hearing), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), tactile (touch), or kinaesthetic (motion).

Q: Imaginative texts
A: Texts whose primary purpose is to entertain or provoke thought through their imaginative use of literary elements, recognised for their form, style and artistic/aesthetic value.

Q: Internal Rhyme
A: Rhyme that occurs in the middle of lines of poetry, instead of at the ends of lines.

Q: Interpret
A: Draw meaning from.

Q: Intertextuality
A: Process where readers make connections between texts based on various aspects of the text, such as form, style and ideologies, or through simply with one text alluding to the other.

Q: Investigate
A: Plan, search or inquire into, examine in order to obtain the true facts.

Q: Irony
A: Literary device or event in which how things seem to be are very different from how they actually are.

Q: Judge
A: Form an opinion, estimate or conclusion, make a determination.

Q: Justify
A: Support an argument or conclusion, give reasons for your statements or comments.

Q: Juxtaposition
A: Occurs when an author places two things side by side as a way of highlighting their differences.

Q: Kenning
A: Linguistic feature where two words are combined to form a poetic expression that refers to a person or thing.

Q: Language features
A: Features of language that support meaning, including sentence structure, noun group/phrase and figurative language, which may define and shape the meaning of a text, varying according to its purpose, subject matter, audience and mode/medium of production.

Q: Language patterns
A: Arrangement of identifiable repeated or corresponding elements in a text, including patterns of repetition or similarity which may alternate or contrast, contributing to the distinct nature of its organisation and shape its meaning.

Q: Lens
A: A perspective or approach to a particular work of literature used to analyse and interpret it by focusing on style choices, plot devices, and character interactions and how they show a certain theme.

Q: Lighting
A: Use of light and its' symbolic or thematic implications, enhancing the atmosphere, mood, and meaning within a narrative by employing descriptions of illumination, shadows, or brightness.

Q: Line Break
A: Termination (ending) of one line of poetry, and the beginning of a new line.

Q: Linguistic
A: A theoretical and descriptive study of language.

Q: Linguistic feature
A: Literary device where language is used in a specific or "figured" way to produce a stylistic effect.

Q: List
A: Provide a series of related words, names, numbers or items that are arranged in order, one after the other.

Q: Literary theory
A: School of thought or style of literary analysis that aligns with a specific aspect of literature or society by considering and examining cross-section of literary works from a specific era, location or from authors of a specific cultural, social, historical or personal context, allowing readers to critique ideas and principles of literary works by drawing conclusions as to the similarities and differences between such each literary work.

Q: Litotes
A: Linguistic feature and a form of understatement where a sentiment is expressed ironically by negating its contrary.

Q: Logos
A: One of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric that appeals to the audience's sense of logic and reason.

Q: Magical realism
A: A style of literature that constructs a realistic view of the world while also adding magical and/or supernatural aspects.

Q: Marginalise
A: Alienate the views of, or underplay the significance of groups or individuals.

Q: Medium
A: Resources used in the production of a text, including the tools and materials used.

Q: Metaphor
A: Linguistic feature that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other.

Q: Meter
A: Regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that defines the rhythm of some poetry.

Q: Metonymy
A: Linguistic feature where an object or concept is referred to with the name of something closely associated with it instead of its own name.

Q: Mode
A: Various processes of communication that are used to connect semiotic (meaning-making) resources with these communication processes.

Q: Modernism
A: A literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries characterised by a self-conscious separation from traditional ways of writing in both poetry and prose fiction writing, intended to reassess the precognitions of society through engagement with technological changes and modernisation and serving as a catalyst for Postmodernism.

Q: Modify
A: Alter, change the form or quality.

Q: Monologue
A: An extended speech given by a single character in a text.

Q: Mood
A: General atmosphere of emotional complexion of a piece of writing; array of feelings the work evokes in the reader.

Q: Motif
A: Element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Often collections of related symbols, which help develop the central themes of a text.

Q: Multimodal text
A: Text that combines two or more communication modes, though literary texts use literary conventions to connect to these other modes, instead of objects outside of literature.

Q: Multiple readings
A: A literary text is open to interpretation, can be read in a number of ways, depending on the reading strategies that readers are employing. In that sense, because different reading strategies are being used by different readers, then multiple readings of the text are possible.

Q: Narrative
A: An account of connected events.

Q: Narrative conventions
A: The established techniques, structures, and stylistic elements commonly used to construct a story or convey information within a narrative.

Q: Narrative point of view
A: Position, vantage-point or point of view from which the events of a story seem to be observed and narrated to the reader in a narrative.

Q: Naturalise
A: Frequently representing ideas or groups of people in stereotypical manners to make readers assume such things are 'natural', in contrast to 'cultural'.

Q: Naturalism
A: Literary movement from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that analysed human nature through a scientific, objective, and detached perspective.

Q: Neo-classicism
A: 19th century Western cultural literary movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity.

Q: Neo-romanticism
A: Literary movement that emerged in the 20th century as a revival or reinterpretation of the Romantic ideals that emphasised individualism, emotion, and a connection to nature, often incorporating modern elements while maintaining a focus on subjective experience and the exploration of imaginative realms.

Q: New Criticism
A: Formalist literary movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century that emphasised close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.

Q: New Formalism
A: Late 20th and early 21st century literary movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical, rhymed verse and narrative poetry on the grounds that all three are necessary if American poetry is to compete with novels and regain its former popularity among the American people.

Q: New Historicism
A: Form of literary theory which aims to understand intellectual history through literature and literature through its cultural context.

Q: New Wave
A: Science fiction style of the 1960s and 1970s, characterised by a great degree of experimentation with the form and content of stories, greater imitation of the styles of non-science fiction literature, and an emphasis on the psychological and social sciences as opposed to the physical sciences.

Q: Nuance
A: Subtle differences in word meaning and usage that result in different shades of meaning.

Q: Onomatopoeia
A: Linguistic feature where words evoke the actual sound of the thing they refer to or describe.

Q: Orientation
A: Initial exposition or introduction within a narrative, providing essential background information, setting details, or character introductions to orient readers and establish context for the unfolding story, which serves to ground the audience in the fictional world and create a foundation for understanding the subsequent events in the narrative.

Q: Outline
A: Indicate the main features of.

Q: Oxymoron
A: Linguistic feature where two contradictory terms or ideas are intentionally paired to make a point, revealing a deeper or hidden truth.

Q: Paradox
A: Linguistic feature that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains some kernel of truth or reason.

Q: Parallelism
A: Linguistic feature where two or more elements of a sentence/sentences have the same grammatical structure, to intensify rhythm of language or to compare, emphasise or elaborate an idea.

Q: Parataxis
A: Linguistic feature where words, phrases, clauses or sentences are set next to each other so that each element is equally important.

Q: Parody
A: A work that mimics the style of another work, artist or genre in an exaggerated way, usually for comedic effect.

Q: Pastiche
A: A creative work that imitates another author or genre.

Q: Pathetic Fallacy
A: Occurs when a writer attributes human emotions or responses to things that aren't human, such as objects, weather or animals.

Q: Pathos
A: One of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric that appeals to an audience's emotions.

Q: Personification
A: Type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes.

Q: Perspective
A: The way a reader/viewer is positioned by the author through the text, how a particular ideology is embedded in a text, the reader's ideological perspective and the values/attitudes that the reader brings, or a reading practice or lens used to read a text.

Q: Persuasive texts
A: Texts whose primary purpose is to put forward a point of view and convince a reader, viewer or listener of the text that it is true to a degree, being prominent in print and digital environments.

Q: Plot
A: Sequence of interconnected events within the story of a play, novel, film, epic, or other narrative literary work.

Q: Poem
A: Literary art form that uses rhythm, rhyme, meter, and figurative language to express human experiences with emotional depth and artistic elegance.

Q: Point of View
A: Perspective that the narrator holds in relation to the events of the story, being first (I, me), second (you) and third (he, she, they) person point of view.

Q: Point of view
A: An opinion or viewpoint.

Q: Polyptoton
A: Linguistic feature that involves the repetition of words derived from the same root (e.g. blood, bleed).

Q: Polysyndeton
A: Linguistic feature where coordinating conjunction words are used many times in a small space, where they usually never would be present.

Q: Postcolonialism
A: Studied engagement with the experience of colonialism and its past and present effects, both at the local level of ex-colonial societies and at the level of more general global developments thought to be the after-effects of empire, often also involving the discussion of experiences such as slavery, migration, suppression and resistance, difference, race, gender and place as well as responses to the discourses of imperial Europe such as history, philosophy, anthropology and linguistics, being as much about conditions under imperialism and colonialism proper, as about conditions coming after the historical end of colonialism.

Q: Postmodernism
A: Late 20th century movement that borrowed concepts from prior movements, though considered in its entirety and cannot be separated from directly opposing (formerly) the glory and progression from Modernism, as well as the sublime and the absoluteness of science from Romanticism and Enlightenment, characterised as diverting from common literary theory and ideology and instead embracing disorder in the structure of texts, having paranoia and distrust towards higher powers such as governments, metafiction, dark humour and minimalism, and having links to existentialism, Absurdism and Stream of Consciousness, deemed to be a result of World War II and the incessant Cold War, truly questioning the limits of literature, and in turn, life.

Q: Pre-Raphaelites
A: Countercultural literary movement that aimed to reform Victorian art and writing. Principles followed included rejecting academicism, representing nature faithfully, and stressing the interconnections between literature and painting.

Q: Present
A: Offer or convey something such as an argument or statement to somebody formally, a discussion that offers different points of view on an issue or topic, debate.

Q: Propose
A: Put forward (for example, a point of view, argument, suggestion) for consideration or action.

Q: Prose
A: Style used that does not follow a structure of rhyming or meter, but instead follows the natural flow of speech; quite literally 'not poem'.

Q: Prosody
A: Study of meter, intonation, and rhythm of a poetic work.

Q: Protagonist
A: Main character who has the sympathy and support of the audience, who tends to be involved in or affected by most choices or conflicts that arise in the narrative.

Q: Proxemics
A: Perception, use, and structuring of space as communication.

Q: Psychoanalysis
A: Form of literary criticism which uses some of the techniques of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of literature.

Q: Pun
A: Linguistic feature that plays with words that have multiple meanings, or plays with words that sound similar but mean different things.

Q: Quatrain
A: Four-line stanza of poetry that be by itself or part of a longer poem.

Q: Queer theory
A: Literary theory that feminist theory and gay/lesbian studies in rejecting the idea that sexuality is an essentialist category, something determined by biology or judged by eternal standards of morality and truth, insisting that all sexual behaviours, all concepts linking sexual behaviours to sexual identities, and all categories of normative and deviant sexualities, are social constructs, sets of signifiers which create certain types of social meaning.

Q: Reading
A: An interactive process in which the reader engages in an exchange of ideas with an author via the text.

Q: Reading strategies/reading practices
A: Ways that readers make meaning of texts, noting the context of the writer, language used, generic conventions and authorial context, as well of representations of various aspects of society.

Q: Realism
A: A literary genre, part of the broader realism in arts, that attempts to represent subject-matter, especially having an interest into aspects of life of people in the working class during its rising in the 19th century, truthfully such as poverty and mundanity, avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements.

Q: Recall
A: Present remembered ideas or facts of experiences (not essays ariz).

Q: Recommend
A: Provide reasons in favour.

Q: Red Herring
A: Piece of information in a story that distracts readers from an important truth, or leads them to mistakenly expect a particular outcome; a "false clue".

Q: Reflective texts
A: Texts whose primary purpose is to reflect on texts and ideas, but in less formal way than an analytical essay, which can be a group of texts or a single piece.

Q: Refrain
A: Line or group of lines that regularly repeat, usually, at the end of a stanza in a poem or at the end of a verse in a song.

Q: Renaissance
A: Literature which is characterised by the adoption of a humanist philosophy and the recovery of the classical Antiquity, focused on the nature and importance of humanity and reflecting on the Classical era, the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the interwoven civilisations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

Q: Repetition
A: Umbrella term for the literary devices where a word or phrase is repeated two or more times.

Q: Representation
A: Words, phrases or sentence that re-present reality in a certain light.

Q: Resistant
A: Literature which resists oppression or oppressive systems in an expressive manner. Alternatively, a resistant reading is a reading of a text which moves beyond the dominant cultural beliefs to challenge prevailing views.

Q: Resonances
A: Aspects of texts that resound or echo for readers.

Q: Respond (to)
A: Provide an answer, reply.

Q: Rhetorical devices
A: Linguistic features used in arguments to persuade audiences (rhetorical questions, repetition, propositions).

Q: Rhetorical question
A: Linguistic feature where a question is asked for a reason other than to get an answer, most commonly asked to make a persuasive point.

Q: Rhyme
A: Repetition of similar sounds in two or more words, commonly in poetry.

Q: Rhyme Scheme
A: Pattern according to which end rhymes (rhymes located at the end of lines) are repeated in works poetry.

Q: Rising Action
A: Section of the plot leading up to the climax, where the tension stemming from the story's central conflict grows through successive plot developments.

Q: Romanticism
A: A literary movement characterised by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of the past and nature, preferring the medieval to the classical.

Q: Round Character
A: Lifelike or complex characters, typically having fully fleshed-out and multi-faceted personalities, backgrounds, desires or motivations.

Q: Satire
A: Use of humour, irony, sarcasm or ridicule to criticise something or someone, usually against public figures.

Q: Sestet
A: Six-line stanza of poetry which can be by itself or in a larger poem, usually in reference to the last six lines of sonnets.

Q: Setting
A: Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place, which can be real or fictional.

Q: Sibilance
A: Linguistic feature where a hissing sound is created within a group of words through the repetition of 's' or 'f' sounds.

Q: Simile
A: Linguistic feature that directly compares two unlike things. Most often used with "like" or "as".

Q: Situational Irony
A: The irony of something happening that is very different(opposite) to what was expected.

Q: Slant/Half Rhyme
A: Type of rhyme where traditionally two words located at the end of a line of poetry themselves end in similar, but not identical, consonant sounds.

Q: Soliloquy
A: Literary device, most often found in dramas, where a character speaks to him or herself, relating his or her innermost thoughts and feelings as if thinking aloud.

Q: Sonnet
A: Type of fourteen-line poem, where traditionally the fourteen lines of a sonnet consist of an octave (stanza of 8 lines) and a sestet, with an iambic pentameter and set rhyme scheme.

Q: Spondee
A: Two-syllable metrical pattern in poetry where both syllables are stressed.

Q: Stage Directions
A: An instruction written into the script of a play, indicating stage actions, movements of performers, or production requirements.

Q: Standard Australian English
A: Variety of spoken and written English language in Australia used in formal settings that, though considered dynamic and evolving, is recognised as Australia's 'common language'.

Q: Stanza
A: Group of lines form a smaller unit within a poem, where a single stanza is usually set apart from other lines or stanzas.

Q: State
A: Express the particulars of an idea or topic.

Q: Static Character
A: A character that does not undergo any substantial internal changes as as a result of the story's major plot developments.

Q: Stream of Consciousness
A: A style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax and rough grammar, commonly linked to Postmodernism.

Q: Stylistic
A: The distinctive and unique choices made by an author in terms of language, sentence structure, and other elements of expression, which constructs a literary work.

Q: Stylistic choices
A: The selection of stylistic features to achieve a particular effect.

Q: Stylistic features
A: Ways in which aspects of texts are arranged to affect meaning, which distinguishes between individual authors, works of particular periods, particular genres or types of texts, which include literary and structural conventions.

Q: Suggest
A: Propose a possible action, solution or hypothesis.

Q: Summarise
A: Express, concisely, the relevant details.

Q: Syllogism
A: Three-part logical argument, based on deductive reasoning, where two premises are combined to arrive at a conclusion.

Q: Symbolism
A: Literary device where a writer uses one thing (a physical object or phenomenon) to represent something more abstract.

Q: Synecdoche
A: Linguistic feature where, most often, a part of something is used to refer to its whole.

Q: Synthesise
A: Put together various elements to make a whole, gather all ideas and combine them into a complex whole, combine all parts.

Q: Text structure
A: Ways in which information is organised in different types of texts that define a text type and shape its meaning.

Q: Theme
A: Universal idea, lesson, or message explored throughout a work of literature, where a key characteristic of literary themes is their universality, that they express broader truths about human experience that readers can apply to their own lives.

Q: Tone
A: General character or attitude of a piece of writing, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful and so on.

Q: Tragic Hero
A: Type of character in a tragedy, and is usually the protagonist, who typically have heroic traits that have the sympathy of the audience by having a 'fatal' flaw that leads them to their downfall.

Q: Transcendentalism
A: Cultural literary movement that arose during the first half of the 19th century that centers around the idea that humans have knowledge from nature that goes beyond what can be understood with the senses.

Q: Transformation
A: Changing the form or shape of a text, for example, by appropriation, adaptation, subversion or parody.

Q: Trochee
A: Two-syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable.

Q: Trope
A: Use of figurative language, via word, phrase or an image, for artistic effect such as using a figure of speech.

Q: Types of texts
A: Classifications of texts according to the particular purposes they are designed to achieve.

Q: Typography
A: Art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed.

Q: Understatement
A: Linguistic feature where something is expressed less strongly than would be expected, or where something is presented as being smaller, worse, or lesser than it really is.

Q: Values
A: Something one considers very important to one, or terminal or life-defining beliefs as in religion, ethics, and morals.

Q: Verbal Irony
A: The literal meaning of a writing or speech of any kind being different if not opposite to the intention of the writer/speaker.

Q: Vernacular
A: Informal spoken language of a particular region, culture, or group.

Q: Victorian
A: English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), which directed its attention towards social issues, reflecting on the industrial revolution, characterised by social realism, moral exploration, gothic elements, serialised publication, engagement with industrialisation, and a focus on women's roles.

Q: Villanelle
A: Poem of nineteen lines, following a strict form that consists of five tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a quatrain, using ABA rhyme scheme for tercets and ABAA for quatrain.

Q: Voice
A: Nature of a voice projected in a text, which may be 'authorial voice' (in prose fiction), voice of a persona (in a poem) or voice of a character (in a monologue).

Q: Zeugma
A: Linguistic feature where one "governing" word or phrase modifies two distinct parts of a sentence, which will often mean something different when applied to each part.