English Literature (UK A-Level)
A comprehensive flashcard deck for UK A-Level English Literature (sixth form, ages 16-18). Covers transferable analytical knowledge and skills aligned with AQA, Edexcel, and OCR specifications: poetic, prose, and dramatic techniques; genre and form; literary periods and movements from medieval to postmodern; critical theory; the Assessment Objectives (AO1-AO5); close reading of unseen texts; and the periods, styles, and key works of canonical authors from Chaucer and Shakespeare to the Romantics, Victorians, and Modernists.
Ämne: Engelska · Nivå: Gymnasium (16–19) · 404 kort
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- A metaphor states that one thing IS another, asserting an identity between them (e.g. 'the world is a stage'). It works by transferring qualities from one image to another without using 'like' or 'as'.
- A simile compares two things explicitly using 'like' or 'as' (e.g. 'as bold as a lion'). The comparison is signalled rather than asserted, keeping the two terms distinct.
- Personification gives human qualities, emotions, or actions to non-human things or abstractions (e.g. 'the wind whispered'). It is a form of figurative language closely related to metaphor.
- An extended metaphor (or conceit) sustains a single metaphorical comparison across several lines, a stanza, or a whole poem, developing it through multiple related images.
- A metaphysical conceit is an elaborate, surprising, intellectually ingenious comparison between two very dissimilar things, characteristic of poets like John Donne (e.g. lovers compared to the legs of a compass).
- Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the start of nearby words (e.g. 'wild and woolly'). It binds words together and can create emphasis or musicality.
- Sibilance is the repetition of soft 's', 'sh', and 'z' sounds (a subtype of consonance). It can create a hushed, soothing, hissing, or sinister effect depending on context.
- Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words (e.g. 'the rain in Spain'). It creates internal echoes and can slow or smooth the movement of a line.
- Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in nearby words, not just at the start (e.g. 'pitter-patter'). Alliteration is technically a special case of consonance.
- Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate the sound they describe (e.g. 'buzz', 'crash', 'murmur'). It makes description vivid and appeals directly to the ear.
- Enjambment occurs when a sentence or phrase runs over the end of a line into the next without a pause. It can create momentum, mimic natural speech, or generate surprise as the sense unfolds.
- An end-stopped line concludes with a natural pause, usually marked by punctuation (comma, full stop, semicolon). It creates a sense of completeness or control, contrasting with enjambment.
- A caesura is a deliberate pause or break within a line of poetry, often created by punctuation. It can disrupt rhythm, create emphasis, or signal a shift in thought or tone.
- A volta is a 'turn' or shift in thought, argument, or emotion in a poem, especially a sonnet. In a Petrarchan sonnet it usually falls after the octave (line 8); in a Shakespearean sonnet, often at the final couplet.
- Imagery is descriptive language that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). Visual imagery is most common, but strong writing engages multiple senses.
- Symbolism is the use of an object, image, colour, or action to represent a larger abstract idea (e.g. a dove for peace, a rose for love). The symbol carries meaning beyond its literal sense.
- Metonymy substitutes the name of one thing for something closely associated with it (e.g. 'the Crown' for the monarchy, 'the press' for journalism). The substitution relies on contiguity, not resemblance.
- Synecdoche is a figure in which a part stands for the whole, or the whole for a part (e.g. 'all hands on deck' for sailors, 'wheels' for a car). It is a special case of metonymy.
- Hyperbole is deliberate, obvious exaggeration for effect, not meant to be taken literally (e.g. 'I've told you a thousand times'). It can create emphasis, humour, or intensity of feeling.
- Litotes is deliberate understatement, often by negating the opposite (e.g. 'not bad' meaning very good). It is the rhetorical counterpart of hyperbole and can convey irony or modesty.
- An oxymoron places two contradictory terms side by side (e.g. 'bitter sweet', 'living death'). It compresses paradox into a phrase and can express conflicting emotions.
- A paradox is a statement that appears self-contradictory or absurd but reveals a deeper truth on reflection (e.g. 'the child is father of the man'). Unlike an oxymoron, it usually spans a whole statement.
- Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or lines (e.g. 'We shall fight... We shall fight...'). It builds rhythm and rhetorical force.
- Apostrophe is a direct address to an absent person, an abstract idea, or an inanimate object (e.g. 'O Death, where is thy sting?'). It is common in odes and elegies.
- Juxtaposition is the placing of two contrasting ideas, images, or characters close together to highlight their differences and create meaning through contrast.
- Antithesis sets two opposing ideas in balanced grammatical structures within a sentence (e.g. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'). The parallel form sharpens the contrast.
- Pathetic fallacy is the attribution of human emotions to nature or weather to reflect mood (e.g. a storm during a scene of inner turmoil). The term was coined by John Ruskin in 1856.
- A rhetorical question is asked for effect rather than to elicit an answer. It can provoke thought, imply an obvious answer, or draw the reader into the speaker's argument.
- An allusion is an indirect reference to another text, person, event, or myth (often biblical or classical). It enriches meaning by drawing on the reader's prior knowledge.
- A motif is a recurring image, idea, word, or symbol throughout a text that supports its central themes (e.g. recurring references to blood, light and dark, or the sea).
- Iambic pentameter is a line of five iambs — ten syllables in an unstressed/stressed pattern (da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM). It is the dominant metre of Shakespeare and much English verse.
- An iamb is a metrical foot of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable (da-DUM), as in 'be-LOW'. It is the most common foot in English poetry.
- A trochee is a metrical foot of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable (DUM-da), as in 'GAR-den'. Trochaic metre can sound insistent, chanting, or unsettling.
- A spondee is a metrical foot of two stressed syllables (DUM-DUM), as in 'HEART-BREAK'. Spondees slow a line and add weight or emphasis.
- An anapaest is a metrical foot of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (da-da-DUM), as in 'in-ter-VENE'. Anapaestic metre often creates a galloping, energetic rhythm.
- A dactyl is a metrical foot of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (DUM-da-da), as in 'TEN-der-ly'. It is the reverse of the anapaest.
- Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is the form of most of Shakespeare's plays and Milton's 'Paradise Lost', allowing natural speech rhythms within a metrical frame.
- Free verse is poetry without a regular metre or rhyme scheme. It rose to prominence with Modernist poets and relies on rhythm, line breaks, and imagery rather than fixed form.
- A heroic couplet is a pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter. It was the dominant form of Augustan poetry, used by Dryden and Pope for wit, balance, and epigrammatic point.
- A quatrain is a four-line stanza, the most common stanza form in English poetry. It can use various rhyme schemes such as ABAB, AABB, or ABBA.
- A sonnet is a 14-line poem, usually in iambic pentameter. The two main types are the Petrarchan (Italian) and the Shakespearean (English), distinguished by their rhyme schemes and structure.
- A Shakespearean (English) sonnet has three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet, with the scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The couplet often delivers a twist or resolution.
- A Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet divides into an octave (8 lines, ABBAABBA) and a sestet (6 lines, variable). The volta typically falls between them, turning from problem to resolution.
- An ode is a formal, often elaborate lyric poem addressed to a particular subject, written in an elevated, serious tone (e.g. Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale'). It usually celebrates or meditates on its subject.
- An elegy is a poem of mourning and lament for the dead, often moving toward consolation (e.g. Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'). It reflects on loss and mortality.
- A ballad is a narrative poem, often in quatrains alternating four- and three-stress lines (ballad metre), originally meant to be sung. It typically tells a dramatic or tragic story.
- A dramatic monologue is a poem spoken by a single character (not the poet) to an implied listener, revealing the speaker's psychology, often unintentionally. Robert Browning popularised the form.
- A lyric is a short poem expressing the personal thoughts and feelings of a single speaker, usually musical in quality. Most modern short poems are lyrics, as opposed to narrative or dramatic verse.
- A first-person narrator tells the story using 'I', as a character within the events. This creates intimacy and immediacy but limits the reader to that character's knowledge and bias.
- A third-person omniscient narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters and can move freely across time and place. This 'godlike' perspective offers a panoramic view of the story.