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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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