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Literary Terms
Keystone Literary Vocabulary Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Affix | One or more letters occurring as a bound form attached to the beginning, end, or base of a word and serving to produce a derivative word or an inflectional form (e.g., a prefix or suffix). |
| Allegory | A form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning may have moral, social, religious, or political significance... |
| Alliteration | The repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words. |
| Allusion | An implied or indirect reference in literature to a familiar person, place, or event. |
| Analysis | The process or result of identifying the parts of a whole and their relationship to one another. |
| Antonym | A word that is the opposite in meaning to another word. |
| Argument/Position | The position or claim the author establishes. Should be supported with valid evidence and reasoning and balanced by the inclusion of counterarguments that illustrate opposing viewpoints. |
| Author's Purpose | The author's intent to either inform or teach someone about something, to entertain people or to persuade or convince his/her audience to do or not do something. |
| Bias | The subtle presence of a positive or negative approach toward a topic. |
| Biography | A written account of another person's life. |
| Character | A person, animal, or inanimate object portrayed in a literary work. |
| Characterization | The method an author uses to reveal characters and their various traits and personalities (e.g., direct, indirect). |
| Climax | The turning point in a narrative; the moment when the conflict is at its most intense. |
| Compare/Contrast | Place together characters, situations, or ideas to show common and/or differing features in literary selections. |
| Conflict/Problem | A struggle or clash between opposing characters, forces, or emotions. |
| Connotation | The range of association that a word or phrase suggests in addition to its dictionary meaning. |
| Context Clues | Words and phrases in a sentence, paragraph, and/or whole text, which help reason out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. |
| Cultural Significance | The generally accepted importance of a work representing a given culture. |
| Defense of a Claim | Support provided to mark an assertion as reasonable. |
| Dialect | A variety of a language distinct from the standard variety in pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary. |
| Dialogue | In its widest sense, it is simply conversation between characters or speakers in a literary work; in its most restricted sense, it refers to the speech of characters in a drama. |
| Diction | An author's choice of words, phrases, sentence structures and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning and tone. |
| Differentiate | Distinguish, tell apart, and recognize differences between two or more items. |
| Drama | The genre of literature represented by works intended for the stage; a work to be performed by actors on stage, radio, or television; play. |
| Dramatic Script | The written text of a play, which includes the dialogue between characters, stage directions and often other expository information. |
| Draw Conclusion | To make a judgment based on reasoning rather than direct or implicit statement. |
| Elements of Fiction | Traits that mark a work as imaginative or narrative discourse (e.g., plot, theme, symbol). |
| Elements of Nonfiction | Traits that mark a work as reportorial, analytical, informative, or argumentative (e.g., facts, data, charts, graphics, headings). |
| Evaluate | Examine and judge carefully. To judge or determine the significance, worth or quality of something; to assess. |
| Explain | To make understandable, plain, or clear. |
| Explicit | Clearly expressed or fully stated in the actual text. |
| Exposition | A narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances. |
| Fact | A piece of information provided objectively, presented as true. |
| Falling Action | The part of a literary plot that is characterized by diminishing tensions and the resolution of the plot's conflicts and complications. |
| Fiction | Any story that is the product of imagination rather than a documentation of fact. Characters and events in such narratives may be based in real life but their ultimate form and configuration is a creation of the author. |
| Figurative Language | Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling. |
| First Person | This point of view relates events as they are perceived by a single character. The narrating character may offer opinions about the action and characters that differ from those of the author. |
| Flashback | An organizational device used in literature to present action that occurred before current (present) time of the story. These are often introduced as the dreams or recollections of one or more characters. |
| Focus | The center of interest or attention. |
| Foreshadowing | An organizational device used in literature to create expectation or to set up an explanation of later developments. |
| Generalization | A conclusion drawn from specific information that is used to make a broad stateme3nt about a topic or person. |
| Genre | A category used to classify literary work, usually by form, technique or content (e.g., prose, poetry). |
| Headings, Graphics, and Charts | Any visual cues on a page of a text that offer additional information to guide the reader's comprehension. |
| Hyperbole | An exaggeration or overstatement (e.g., I had to wait forever.) |
| Imagery | Descriptive or figurative language in a literary work; the use of language to create sensory impressions. |
| Implicit | Though unexpressed in the actual text, meaning that may be understood by the reader. |
| Inference | A judgment based on reasoning rather than o a direct or explicit statement. A conclusion based on facts or circumstances; understanding gained by "reading between the lines." |
| Informational Text | Nonfiction written primarily to convey factual information. These comprise the majority of printed material adults read (e.g., textbooks, newspapers, reports, directions, brochures, technical manuals). |
| Interpret | To give reasons through and explanation to convey and represent the meaning or understanding of a text. |
| Irony | The use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or usual meaning; incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the expected result. |
| Key/Supporting Details | Points of information in a text that strongly support the meaning or tell the story. Statements that define, describe, or otherwise provide information about the topic, theme, or main idea. |
| Key Words | Specific word choices in a text that strongly support the tone, mood, or meaning of the text. |
| Literary Device | Tool used by the author to enliven and provide voice to the text (e.g., dialogue, alliteration). |
| Literary Element | An essential technique used in literature (e.g., characterization, setting, plot, theme). |
| Literary Form | The overall structure or shape of a work that frequently follows an established design. These may refer to a literary type (narrative, short story) or to patterns of mater, lines and rhymes (stanza, verse). |
| Literary Movement | A trend or pattern of shared beliefs or practices that mark an approach to literature (e.g., Realism, Naturalism, Romanticism). |
| Literary Nonfiction | Text that includes elements and devices usually associated with fiction to report on actual persons, places, or events. Examples include nature and travel text, biography, memoir, and the essay. |
| Main Idea | The author's central thought; the chief topic of a text expressed or implied in a word or phrase; the topic sentence of a paragraph. |
| Metaphor | The comparison of two unlike things in which NO words of comparison (like or as) are used. (e.g., The speech gave me food for thought.) |
| Monologue | An extended speech spoken by one speaker, either to others or as if alone. |
| Mood | The prevailing emotions or atmosphere of a work derived from literary devices such as dialogue and literary elements such as setting. It is not always what might be expected based on its subject matter. |
| Motif | A recurring subject, theme, or idea in a literary work. |
| Multiple-Meaning Words | Words that have several meanings depending upon how they are used in a sentence. |
| Narrative | A story, actual or fictional, expressed orally or in a text. |
| Narrator | A person, animal, or thing telling the story or giving an account of something. |
| Nonfiction | Text that is not fictional; designed primarily to explain, argue, instruct, or describe rather than entertain. For the most part, its emphasis is factual. |
| Opinion | A personal view, attitude, or appraisal. |
| Personification | An object or abstract idea given human qualities or human form (e.g., Flowers danced about the lawn.) |
| Plot | The structure of a story. The sequence in which the author arranges events in a story. The structure often includes the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. It may have a protagonist who is opposed by an antagonist. |
| Poetry | In its broadest sense, text that aims to present ideas and evoke an emotional experience in the reader through the use of meter, imagery, and connotative and concrete words. |
| Point of View | The position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted. The perspective from which a speaker or author recounts a narrative or presents information. |
| Prefix | Groups of letters placed before a word to alter its meaning. |
| Propaganda | Information aimed at positively or negatively influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. |
| Propaganda Techniques | Used to influence people to believe, but or do something (e.g., name-calling, bandwagon, red herring, emotional appeal, testimonial, repetition, sweeping generalization/stereotyping, circular argument, appeal to numbers/facts/statistics). |
| Resolution | The portion of the story following the climax in which the conflict is resolved. |
| Rising Action | The part of a story where the plot becomes increasingly complicated. This part of the story leads up to the climax, or turning point. |
| Satire | A literary approach that ridicules or examines human vice or weakness. |
| Sentence Variety | Various sentence structures, styles, and lengths that can enhance the rhythm of or add emphasis to a piece of text. |
| Sequence of Steps | A literary organizational form that presents the order in which tasks are to be performed. |
| Setting | The time and place in which a story unfolds. |
| Simile | A comparison of two unlike things in which a word of comparison (like or as) IS used (e.g., The ant scurried as fast as a cheetah.) |
| Soliloquy | A dramatic speech, revealing inner thoughts and feelings, spoken aloud by one character while alone on the stage. |
| Sound Devices | Elements of literature that emphasize sound (e.g, assonance, consonance, alliteration, rhyme, onomatopoeia). |
| Speaker | The voice used by an author to tell/narrative a story or poem. |
| Stage Direction | A playwright's written instructions provided in a the text of a play about the setting or how the actors are to move and behave in a play. |
| Structure of a Poem | Th rhyming pattern, meter, grammar, and imagery used by a poet to convey meaning. |
| Style | The author's choices regarding language, sentence structure, voice, and tone in order to communicate with the reader. |
| Suffix | Groups of letters places after a word to alter its meaning or change it into a different kind of word, from an adjective to an adverb, etc. |
| Summarize | To capture all of the most important parts of the original text (paragraph, story, poem), but express them in a much shorter space, and as much as possible in the reader's own words. |
| Symbolism | A device in literature where an object represents an idea. |
| Synonym | A words that is similar in meaning to another word (e.g., sorry, grief, sadness). |
| Syntax | The ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. |
| Text Organization/Structure | The author's method of structuring a text; the way a text is structured form beginning to end. (Literary works-flashback & foreshadowing... Nonfiction-sequence, question-answer, cause-effect). |
| Theme | A topic of discussion or work; a major idea broad enough to cover the entire scope of a literary work. It could be stated or implied. |
| Third Person | A perspective in literature, it presents the events of the story from outside of any single character's perception. |
| Tone | The attitude of the author toward the audience, characters, subject or the work itself (e.g., serious, humorous). |
| Universal Character | A character that symbolically embodies well-known meaning and basic human experiences, regardless or when or where he/she lives (e.g., hero, villain, intellectual, dreamer). |
| Universal Significance | The generally accepted importance or value of a work to represent human experience regardless or culture or time period. |
| Voice | The fluency, rhythm, and liveliness in a text that make it unique to the author. |
Created by:
jms742
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