HKDSE Lit Eng flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Open-book Paper 1

The Appreciation paper supplies unseen poems and prose extracts and allows the texts in the exam room. Marks come from close analysis of the given material, not from recalling set texts.

Closed-book Paper 2

The Essay paper requires answers on prescribed set texts from memory, including Shakespeare, with quotations cited accurately. No texts or notes are permitted in the examination room.

Assessment objective: personal response

A criterion rewarding an argued, individual interpretation supported by textual evidence. A fresh reading backed by quotation outscores an accurate but unargued plot summary.

Dramatic evidence beyond dialogue

Stage directions, props, lighting, entrances, disguise and off-stage reported action all count as textual evidence in drama answers, alongside what characters say to one another.

Thesis versus topic

A topic names the subject ('images of decay'); a thesis asserts an interpretation ('decay imagery aligns moral collapse with physical setting'). Essays need a thesis to be arguable.

Point–Evidence–Explanation

A paragraph structure: state one claim, quote a short phrase, then analyse how specific word choices create the stated effect. Prevents narrative retelling and unsupported assertion.

Embedded quotation

Integrating quoted words into your own sentence grammar rather than block-quoting. It keeps analysis fluent and forces you to explain the precise words chosen.

Tone versus mood

Tone is the speaker's or narrator's attitude towards the subject; mood is the feeling evoked in the reader. Both must be evidenced by diction, not merely asserted.

Feature-spotting weakness

Naming a device without explaining its effect earns little credit. Analysis must connect the technique to meaning, tone, character or structure in the specific passage.

Narrative perspective

The vantage point from which a story is told - first or third person, omniscient or limited. Shifts in perspective are structural signals worth analysing closely.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words, as in 'wild and windy'. It draws attention to phrasing and can create rhythm, emphasis or a harsh or soft texture.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words, as in 'slow, grey stone'. It produces internal rhyme-like resonance and often contributes to mood rather than to obvious rhythm.

Sibilance

A form of alliteration using hissing 's' or 'sh' sounds. It can suggest softness, secrecy, whispering or menace depending on the surrounding diction and context.

Metonymy

Naming something by an associated attribute rather than by itself, such as 'the crown' for monarchy. It compresses meaning and often carries ideological or institutional weight.

Synecdoche

A figure where a part stands for the whole, or the whole for a part, as in 'all hands on deck'. It can foreground a single aspect of a person or group.

Dramatic irony

A gap between what the audience knows and what a character understands. The effect ranges from comedy to dread, and it is strongest when the character's words mean more than intended.

Volta

The turn or shift in a poem's argument or mood. In Petrarchan sonnets it typically falls after line 8; in Shakespearean sonnets, often at the final couplet.

Enjambment

A line that runs on into the next without end punctuation. It can create momentum, suspense or a sense of overflow, and its effect depends on where the line breaks.

Caesura

A pause within a line of verse, marked by punctuation or syntax. It can slow rhythm, isolate a word for emphasis, or fragment speech to suggest hesitation or distress.

Petrarchan sonnet

A fourteen-line poem in an octave and sestet, rhyming abbaabba then cdecde or similar. The octave poses a problem; the sestet turns towards resolution or reflection.

Free indirect discourse

Third-person narration coloured by a character's idiom and attitudes without quotation marks. It blurs narrator and character, letting readers inhabit a mind while retaining distance.

Hamartia

A tragic protagonist's error or flaw of judgement that precipitates downfall. It is not simply a moral defect but a misjudgement within a character's circumstances and temperament.

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, the standard medium of Shakespearean drama. Shifts into prose often signal lower status, madness or emotional breakdown; rhyme can signal closure.

Soliloquy

A speech delivered alone on stage, revealing a character's inner thoughts to the audience. It exposes what the character conceals from others and drives audience sympathy or judgement.

Aside

A brief remark spoken to the audience, unheard by other characters on stage. It creates intimacy and can generate dramatic irony by revealing concealed intentions or reactions.

Anagnorisis

The moment of recognition in tragedy when a protagonist understands their true situation or identity. It typically precedes catastrophe and deepens the emotional impact of the ending.

Peripeteia

A reversal of fortune in a dramatic plot, where circumstances swing to the opposite of what was intended. It often coincides with recognition and accelerates the tragic movement.

Catharsis

The emotional purging or release said to follow tragic suffering, particularly pity and fear. It describes the audience's experience at the close of a tragedy rather than a character's.

Comparison connective

Words such as 'whereas', 'similarly' and 'in contrast' that signal the basis of comparison. They keep comparative essays organised by idea rather than by text-by-text summary.

Command word

The verb telling you what to do: 'discuss', 'compare', 'how far'. Ignoring it, or answering a related but different question, is a frequent cause of lost marks.

Topic sentence as claim

An opening sentence that asserts an arguable point rather than labelling a technique. 'Another technique is imagery' is a label; a claim states what the imagery achieves.

Author, narrator, character

Three distinct entities in prose fiction. Attributing a narrator's or character's views directly to the author is a common analytical error that weakens an otherwise sound argument.