Literary Terms (Part Three) Quiz

Question: Which writer is regarded as the chief precursor of realism in the novel?

Answer: Honoré de Balzac is regarded by some as the chief precursor of realism in the novel, given his attempt to create a detailed, encyclopaedic portrait of the whole range of French society in his La Comédie humaine.

Question: What kind of word is composed of parts of two or more words?

Answer: A portmanteau word is composed of parts of two or more words, such as chortle from chuckle and snort and motel from motor and hotel. The term was first used by Lewis Carroll to describe many of the unusual words in his Through the Looking-Glass (1871).

Question: What term refers to a division of a poem consisting of two or more lines arranged together as a unit?

Answer: A stanza is usually a group of lines arranged together in a recurring pattern of metrical lengths and a sequence of rhymes. The structure of a stanza is determined by the number of lines, the dominant metre, and the rhyme scheme.

Question: What term refers to the figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object?

Answer: Personification is a figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object. An example is “The Moon doth with delight / Look round her when the heavens are bare” from William Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” (1807).

Question: What rhetorical mannerism did John Lyly introduce in English literature?

Answer: John Lyly’s Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578), with its sequel Euphues and His England (1580), set a fashion for an extreme rhetorical mannerism that came to be known as “euphuism.” The term euphuism describes a style that is marked by excessive use of balance, antithesis, and alliteration and by frequent use of similes drawn from mythology and nature. The word is also used to denote artificial elegance.

Question: What figure of speech involves a comparison between two unlike entities that is explicitly indicated by the word like or as?

Answer: Simile is a figure of speech involving a comparison between two unlike entities. In a simile, unlike the metaphor, the resemblance is explicitly indicated by the words like or as. Examples in English include “He eats like a bird,” “He is as smart as a whip,” or “He is as slow as molasses.”