Literary Analysis Flashcards
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Read the first 7 Literary Analysis flashcards as text
What is the 'falling action' in a narrative's plot structure?
Answer: The events that occur after the climax and lead toward the resolution
Falling action consists of the events that follow the climax and show the consequences of the turning point, moving the story toward its resolution.
Which literary device involves a reference to a well-known person, place, event, or work from history, culture, or literature?
Answer: Allusion
An allusion is an indirect reference to something outside the text — a historical event, a myth, a famous work — that enriches meaning without fully explaining the reference.
What is 'imagery' in literary analysis?
Answer: Language that appeals to the senses to create vivid mental pictures
Imagery is descriptive language that appeals to sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell, allowing readers to experience the text more vividly.
What does analyzing an author's 'syntax' reveal in a literary text?
Answer: How sentence structure and arrangement of words affects meaning and rhythm
Syntax refers to the arrangement of words and phrases in sentences; variations in sentence length, structure, and order shape pacing, emphasis, and tone.
What is a 'frame narrative'?
Answer: A structure in which one story is presented as the context for another embedded story
A frame narrative is a storytelling technique where an outer story 'frames' or contains one or more inner stories, as seen in works like The Canterbury Tales.
Which term best describes an author's use of a recurring object, color, or image to represent an abstract idea in a text?
Answer: Motif
A motif is a recurring element — image, phrase, or situation — that reinforces the central theme and carries symbolic weight throughout a literary work.
When a reader analyzes the 'mood' of a literary passage, they are examining:
Answer: The emotional atmosphere or feeling the text evokes in the reader
Mood is the overall emotional atmosphere of a text — such as eerie, joyful, or melancholic — created through setting, diction, imagery, and events.
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