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Literary Terms
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Allusion | A reference to historical or fictional characters, places, or events, or to other works. Pulls meaning into text from external sources. |
Characterization | The way which a character is described. |
Flat Character | One outstanding trait or feature. Recognized immediately |
Round Character | Much more complex and is shown with more detail. Capable of surprising reader. |
Protagonist | Main character in story |
Antagonist | Character who blocks or opposes protagonist |
Direct Characterization | Is overt; described directly |
Indirect Chracterization | Is revealed by characters thoughts, words or actions. |
Foil | A character used to contrast another character |
Diction | A writer's or speaker's choices of words |
Denotation | The literal, dictionary defintion |
Connotation | The associations and emotions a word suggests |
Flashback | A scene that interrupts the present action of the plot to "flash backward" and tell what happened at an earlier time |
Foreshadowing | Clues that will hint at what will happen later in the story. |
Hyperbole | A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration to express emotion or create a comic effect. |
Imagery | Language that appeals to the senses. Sight, smell, touch, taste or sound |
Irony | A contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality |
Verbal Irony | Occurs when words say one thing and mean another |
Situational Irony | Opposite of what you expect or were led to believe |
Dramatic Irony | Occurs when the reader knows something important that a character doesn't know |
Metaphor | A figure of speech in which things were spoken or written as if they were another |
Motif | Anything repeated over and over throughout a story, lending unity and suggesting thematic meaning |
Oxymoron | A figure of speech combining contradictory ideas |
Personification | A figure of speech in which non-human objects or abstract ideas are given human qualities or action |
Point of View | Viewpoint from which the story is seen or told |
First Person | The story is told by one of the characters in story |
Third Person Omniscent | All- knowing. Reveals the thoughts and feelings of several major characters |
Third Person Limited | Reveals thoughts and feelings of just one character |
Third Person Objective/ Camera | Doesn't enter the mind of any character. Describes events from the outside i.e. appearances, language |
Rhyme | The repetition of similar or duplicate sounds at regular intervals |
Alliteration | The repetition of beginning consonant sounds in words close to each other. |
Assonance | Repetition of similar vowels followed by different consonant sounds in words close to each other |
Consonance | Occurs when rhymed words or phrases have the same consonant sounds but a different vowel |
Setting | The time and place in which an action of a story or play takes place. |
Simile | A figure of speech that compares two things indicated by some connective, usually "like, as, then, resembles" |
Subject | The abstract topic the writer addresses in a piece of fiction |
Symbol | A person, place, thing, or event that stands for both itself and for something beyond itself. |
Theme | What the author is saying about his/her subject generally a statement about life or human nature that the reader learns along with the protagonist. |
Tone | The attitude a writer or speaker takes towards his/her subject, audience or both |
Understatement | Opposite of hyperbole; a figure of speech that says much less than is really meant, a form of irony |