Flashcards on Key Concepts in Literary Studies
Key Concepts in Literary Studies: Your Comprehensive Guide
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Literary terms
124 cards
Card 1
Question: What is a catalectic line (catalexis)?
Answer: A metrical line missing a syllable at the end.
Card 2
Question: What does 'headlessness' or a headless line mean in meter?
Answer: A line missing a syllable at the beginning.
Card 3
Question: What is a 'foot' in poetic meter?
Answer: A unit of meter (one stressed plus some unstressed syllables).
Card 4
Question: Define an iamb and give its stress pattern.
Answer: An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (˘ ´) as in "be-LIEVE."
Card 5
Question: Define a trochee and give its stress pattern.
Answer: A trochee is a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (´ ˘) as in "GAR-den."
Card 6
Question: What do the terms monometer, dimeter, trimeter ... octameter refer to?
Answer: They indicate the number of feet in a line, from 1 (monometer) up to 8 (octameter).
Card 7
Question: What is a couplet and how does it relate to an octave?
Answer: A couplet is a group of 2 lines; terms continue similarly up to an octave (8 lines).
Card 8
Question: What is blank verse?
Answer: Unrhymed iambic pentameter; commonly used by Shakespeare.
Card 9
Question: What is free verse?
Answer: Poetry without regular meter or rhyme.
Card 10
Question: What is meant by 'literariness'?
Answer: The qualities that make a text literary, especially its use of language, form, and style.