OCR GCSE English Literature key terms

A narrative told after the events it describes, allowing the narrator to interpret earlier choices with knowledge of their consequences.

A narrator who looks back on earlier events, sometimes interpreting them with knowledge gained afterwards.

A major change in a character's situation or fortunes. In the trial, Shylock changes from demanding punishment to facing punishment himself.

A new production of a play that has been performed before.

A fundamental change in the organisation of power or society, often involving the overthrow of existing rulers.

Language designed to persuade an audience, using choices such as questions, repetition and appeals to emotion.

A question asked to make a point or provoke thought rather than obtain an answer.

The pattern of end rhymes in a poem, represented by letters. Each stanza of Envy follows AABCCB.

Two successive verse lines whose final words rhyme, often used to give a thought, speech or scene a sense of closure.

Venice’s commercial district and meeting place for merchants and moneylenders, repeatedly mentioned in The Merchant of Venice.

A change in which characters hold authority or perform particular roles, such as children becoming the moral teachers of their parents.

A dramatic form in which difficulties and misunderstandings are resolved towards a broadly happy ending, often involving marriage and reconciliation.

A literary and artistic movement that valued imagination, emotion and individual experience, often exploring nature’s power to shape human life.

A group that controls a society’s decisions and resources, often maintaining privileges denied to those it governs.

Poverty in the countryside, involving a lack of money and basic necessities such as sufficient food, electricity or running water.

The violation or disrespect of something regarded as sacred.

Enjoyment of another person’s pain or humiliation.

An event at Hailsham where students obtain items brought from outside the school, rather than work made by fellow students.

Language that appears to praise or approve but conveys criticism or mockery.

Writing that exposes faults or abuses through ridicule, exaggeration or irony.

A person made to take blame so that others can avoid responsibility.

Blaming a person or group for problems they have not caused.

A literary tradition centred on school life, often involving friendships, rivalries, teachers and the experience of growing up.

Fiction that explores imagined possibilities involving science or technology and their consequences.

A small room used for washing dishes and other kitchen work.

A person who grows up in a country to which at least one parent migrated. Del grows up in Britain with a Jamaican-born mother.

Addressing someone as ‘you’, which can draw the reader into another person’s experience.

Avoiding or reshaping an uncomfortable truth in order to preserve a preferred understanding of oneself or one’s situation.