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Literary Terms 2
21-40
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Dramatic Irony | a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience knows to be true |
Epiphany | a sudden understanding or realization which prior to this was not thought of or understood |
Euphemism | a device where being indirect replaces directness to avoid unpleasantness ex. “at liberty” instead of “out of work,” “senior citizen” instead of “old person,” “pass away” instead of “die” |
Extended Metaphor | It differs from a regular in that several comparisons are made and are extended throughout the passage. |
First-Person Narrator | A character in a story who is telling the story; readers see only what this character sees, hears, etc. |
Figurative Language | writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally ex. simile, metaphor, personification) |
Flashback | a section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an event from an earlier time |
Foreshadowing | the use in a literary work of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur |
Hubris | derived from the Greek word hybris, means “excessive pride.” In Greek tragedy, hubris is often viewed as the flaw that leads to the downfall of the tragic hero. |
Hyperbole | a deliberate exaggeration or overstatement ex. “That story is as old as time.” |
Imagery | the descriptive of figurative language used in literature to appeal to one or more of the five senses “The sky was dark and gloomy, the air was damp and raw, the streets were wet and sloppy.” –Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers |
Inversion | a change in the normal word order. Instead of “I have never seen such a mess,” one might write: “Never have I seen such a mess.” This is a device in which typical sentence patterns are reversed to create an emphatic or rhythmic effect |
Irony | the general name given to literary techniques that involve differences between: a. appearances and reality b. expectation and result c. meaning and intention |
Literal Language | uses words in their ordinary senses (the opposite of figurative language) |
Metaphor | a comparison between two unlike things not using “as,” “like,” “than,” or “resembles.” Ex.: “Every word was once a poem . . . Language is fossil poetry.” -Emerson |
Monologue | a speech by one character in a play, story, or poem in which he/she has listeners who do not speak |
Mood | the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage |
Motif | a simple device that serves as a basis for an expanded narrative . . . The motif is a recurring feature in the work. Ex. In Sandra Cisneros’s House on Mango Street, the house is a motif. Ghosts are a motif in To Kill a Mockingbird |
Narrator | a speaker or character who tells a story . . . He/She may be either a character in the story or an outside observer. |
Omniscient Narrator | an all-knowing 3rd person narrator . . . This type of narrator can reveal to readers what the characters think and feel. |