RBSE SS English Literature flashcards
RBSE SS English Literature · Build recall with a focused review session.
33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Climax
- The turning point of a narrative where the central conflict reaches its peak and the outcome begins to be decided; it need not be the loudest scene.
- Third-person limited point of view
- A narrator outside the story who reports events but enters the thoughts of only one character, keeping other minds closed to the reader.
- Foil character
- A character whose contrasting traits are set beside another, usually the protagonist, so that the protagonist's qualities stand out more sharply.
- Theme versus subject
- Subject is the topic a work is about, such as ambition; theme is a full statement about that topic, such as unchecked ambition destroys the ambitious.
- Foreshadowing
- Early hints or details that prepare the reader for a later event, creating expectation without revealing the outcome outright.
- Iambic pentameter
- A line of five metrical feet, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, giving ten syllables with a rising rhythm.
- Enjambment
- The continuation of a sentence beyond the end of a verse line without punctuation, which speeds the reading and links lines together.
- Blank verse
- Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter, common in dramatic and reflective verse where natural speech rhythm matters more than rhyme.
- Caesura
- A pause or break within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation, that controls pace and can emphasize the words on either side.
- Sonnet rhyme scheme
- Shakespearean sonnets rhyme abab cdcd efef gg across three quatrains and a couplet; Petrarchan sonnets rhyme abbaabba then cdecde or similar.
- Assonance
- The repetition of vowel sounds inside nearby words, as in 'deep green sea', which creates resonance without the obviousness of rhyme.
- Soliloquy
- A speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing private thoughts to the audience rather than to any other character.
- Dramatic irony
- A situation where the audience understands more than a character does, so the character's words carry a meaning they do not intend.
- Hamartia
- The error, flaw, or misjudgement in a tragic hero that sets off the chain of events leading to their downfall.
- Aside
- A short remark spoken by an actor that the audience hears but the other characters on stage supposedly do not.
- Stage directions
- Bracketed instructions in a play script describing setting, entrances, exits, gestures, and tone, which guide performance and can be quoted as evidence.
- Situational irony
- A gap between what is expected to happen and what actually happens, such as a fire station burning down.
- Symbol
- A concrete object, person, or place that carries an abstract meaning within a specific work, supported by repeated textual emphasis.
- Motif
- A recurring image, phrase, or idea that accumulates meaning across a work and helps build its themes.
- Litotes
- Understatement produced by denying the opposite, as in 'not unattractive' for 'attractive', often used for irony or modesty.
- Allusion
- An indirect reference to a well-known text, figure, or event that the reader is expected to recognize without explanation.
- Oxymoron
- A compressed phrase joining two contradictory terms, such as 'living death', which startles the reader into noticing a paradox.
- Metonymy
- Naming something by an object closely associated with it, as 'the pen' stands for written authority or 'the crown' for the monarch.
- Synecdoche
- A figure where a part stands for the whole or the whole for a part, as 'all hands on deck' means all sailors.
- Apostrophe
- A direct address to someone absent, dead, or to an abstraction such as death or freedom, as though it could respond.
- Volta
- The turn in a sonnet where the argument or feeling shifts, typically after the eighth line in Petrarchan and the twelfth in Shakespearean form.
- Conceit
- An elaborate, often surprising metaphor sustained across several lines, linking two apparently very unlike things through ingenuity.
- Précis
- A formal, compressed restatement of a passage's main ideas in the writer's own words, usually about one-third of the original length.
- Paraphrase
- A restatement of a passage that keeps all its ideas but changes both vocabulary and sentence structure, staying close to the original length.
- Topic sentence
- The sentence, usually first in a paragraph, that states the paragraph's controlling idea and is then supported by evidence and explanation.
- Rebuttal
- The part of an argument that answers an opposing view by showing why it is weak, incomplete, or outweighed by stronger evidence.
- Yours faithfully versus sincerely
- Use 'Yours faithfully' when the salutation is 'Dear Sir/Madam' with no name; use 'Yours sincerely' when the recipient is named.
- Notice format
- A centred heading NOTICE, the date, a subject line, a short body answering who, what, when, and where, and the issuer's name and designation.