Key term | definition |
Alliteration | Repetition of two or more consonant sounds in successive words. |
Assonance | Repetition of two or more vowel sounds in successive words. |
Connotation | An association that a word, image, or phrase may carry. |
Denotation | The literal dictionary meaning of a word. |
Epic | A long narrative poem....tracing the adventures of mythic hero. example=Odyssey |
Epiphany | A moment of insight, discovery, or revelation. |
Genre | Combination of literry form and suject matter. example=science fiction, gothic, horror, detective, etc. |
Lyric | Short poem expressing thoughts and feelings of a single speaker, Often written in the first person. |
Monologue | An extended speach by a single character. |
Motivation | What the character in the story wants. |
Motif | An element that recurs significantly throughout a narrative. |
Narrative | A poem that tells a story. |
Onomatopoeia | Literary device that attempts to represent a thing or action that imitates a sound that associated with it. (e.g. crash, bang, etc.) |
Persona | Latin for "Mask". A fictitious character created by the author to be the speaker, always the narrator. |
Setting | The time and place of a literary work. |
Subgenres | A subcategory within a particular genre: The academic mystery is a subgenre of the mystery novel. |
Novel | An extended work of fictional prose narrative. |
Fiction | From the Latin "Ficio" Any literary work that made up by the authors imagination. |
Nonfiction | A genre in which actual events are presented. |
Apprenticeship Novel "Bildungsroman" | German for novel growth or development. Depicts a youth who struggles toward maturity. (Dicken's David Copperfield) |
Epistolary Novel | A novel in which the story is told by ways of letters. |
Picaresque Novel | Narrative that presents the life of a likable scoundral who is at odds with respectable society. |
Novella | A prose narrative longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. |
Prose | The ordinary form of spoken or written language. |
Subplot - Double Plot | A second story or plotline that is complete and interesting. |