Literary Terms
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Alliteration | Succession of similar sounds; occurs in the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of successive words (cool, cats)
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Assonance | Repeating the sound of a vowel; slows the reader down & focuses attention (all, awful)
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Connotation | An association or additional meaning that a word, image, or phrase may carry, apart from its literal dictionary definition
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Denotation | The literal, dictionary meaning of a word
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Epic | Long narratives tracing the adventures of popular heroes
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Epiphany | Moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character's life, or view of life is greatly altered
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Genre | Conventional combination of literary form & subject matter; implies a preexisting understanding between the artist and the reader about the purpose & rules of the work
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Lyric | Short poem expressing the thoughts & feelings of a single speaker (first person)
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Monologue | Extended speech made by a single character
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Motivation | What a character in a story or drama wants; the reasons an author provides for a character's actions
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Motif | Element that recurs significantly throughout a narrative; can be an image, idea, theme, situation, or action
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Narrative | Telling of true or fictitious events by a narrator;can be either verse or prose and focus on the depiction of events or happenings
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Onomatopoeia | Attempt to represent a thing or action by a word that imitates the sound associated with it (crash, bang, pitter-patter)
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Persona | Latin for mask; fictitious character created by author to always be the narrator
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Setting | Time & place of literary work; includes climate, social, psychological, or spiritual state of the participants
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Novel | An extended work of fictional prose narrative; more characters, more varied scenes, and broader coverage of time
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Fiction | Name for stories not entirely factual, but least partially shaped, made up, imagined
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Nonfiction | Author presents actual people and events in story form
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Apprenticeship Novel | Genre depicting a youth who struggles toward maturity, forming a worldview or philosophy of life
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Epistolary Novel | Contains letters by only one character; often they contained letters by several of the characters in the book
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Picaresque Novel | Presents the life of a likable scoundrel who is at odds with respectable society; rarely has a tight plot, loose chronological order
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Novella Short | novel; mainly describes the size of a narrative
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Subplot | Secondary arrangement of incidents, involving not the protagonist but someone less important
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Plot | Unique arrangement of events that the author has made
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Exposition | Opening portion of a narrative or drama; scene set, protagonist introduced, author discloses background information
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Foreshadowing | Suggestions of what is to come later; created through imagery, dialogue, diction, events or actions
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Conflict | Central struggle between two or more forces in a story;some person or thing that prevents the protagonist from reaching their goals
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Recognition | Occurs when ignorance gives way to knowledge; revelation of some fact not known before or a person's true identity
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Rising Action | Part of play or narrative, including the exposition, in which events start moving toward a climax
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Crisis | Point when crucial action, decision, or realization must be made marking the turning point or reversal of the protagonist's fortune
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Climax | Moment of greatest intensity in a story which occurs toward the end; often takes form of a decisive confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist
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Falling Action | Events in a narrative that follow the climax & bring the story to it's conclusion, or denouement
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Denouement | Resolution or conclusion of a literary work as plot complications are unraveled after climax
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Protagonist | Central character who is not especially brave or virtuous
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Antagonist | Most significant character or force that opposes the protagonist
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Hero | Central character in a narrative
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Antihero | Protagonist who is lacking in one or more of conventional qualities attributed to a hero
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Foil | Character whose qualities or actions are in stark contrast to those of another character, usually the protagonists; used to convey or develop protagonist's character
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Stock | Character Known by some outstanding trait or traits, require little detailed portraiture
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Flat Character | Character with only one outstanding trait; rarely central and based on stock character
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Round Character | Complex character who is presented in depth & detail in a narrative; change significantly during course of narrative
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Style | All the distinctive ways in which an author, genre, movement, or historical period uses language to create a literary work; depends on characteristic use of diction, imagery, tone, syntax, & figurative language
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