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Literary Terms
Literary terms
Question Parallelism | Answer |
---|---|
Parallelism | Using similar grammatical structures to state things of equal importance. |
Dramatic Irony | Occurs when the audience knows something that the characters in the play do not know |
Rhetorical Questions | A question that does not require an answer |
Epistrophe | Using the same ending on several phrases or clauses. |
Allusion | A reference that most people will recognize to something from history, literature, the Bible, or mythology |
Personification | Giving human characteristics to something that is not human. |
Logos | An appeal to reason or logic |
Flashback | Recalling something that happened in the past before the story started. |
Symbolism | Something that is literal in the story but also has meaning beyond the story. |
Ethos | An appeal to the credibility of the author--his ethics. |
Characterization | The way an author creates characters by giving them certain qualities |
Metaphor | A figure of speech that directly compares two things by saying one is the other...Her eyes were sapphires. |
Imagery | All of the concrete detail or pictures that the author puts in a pieces of writing. Anything that causes the reader to see a picture in his/her head is imagery. |
Protagonist | The hero or main character in a story |
Pathos | An appeal to emotion in rhetoric |
Point of view | The eyes through which the story is told. |
Repetition | A word or phrase that is mentioned over and over for emphasis |
Anaphora | Repeating the first few words in successive phrases or clauses. |
First Person point of view | The story is told using "I" and "Me" |
Alliteration | Repetition of beginning consonant sound...Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck |
Foreshadowing | Hints of what is to come later in the story |
Simile | A comparison using "like" or "as" |
Conflict | The struggle between opposing forces |
Third Person point of view | The story is told using "he," "she," or "they. |
Diction | Word Choice |
Epilogue | A summing up after the story |
Pun | A play on words |
Paradox | A seemingly contradictory statement that is true |
Climax | The turning point of the play |
Setting | The time and place of the story |
Prologue | The part before the play starts setting up the play. |
Rising Action | Takes place in Act II when the conflict or complications begin |
Theme | The universal or underlying meaning that the author wants you to understand |