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Core Lit Terms
Review of Core Literary Elements
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| allegory | a story in which the characters, objects, or actions have a meaning beyond the surface of the story |
| alliteration | a repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words |
| allusion | a reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person, place or thing |
| archetype | a character, action, or situation, that is a prototype or pattern of human life; a situation that occurs over and over again in literature, such as a quest, initiation, or attempt to overcome evil |
| character | a person, animal, or imaginary creature in a literary work |
| cliche | an overused expression or idea |
| connotation | the feelings or attitudes associated with a word |
| denotation | the dictionary definition of a word |
| dialogue | conversation between characters |
| diction | a word choice intended to convey a certain effect |
| epic | a long narrative poem about the adventures of a hero whose actions reflect the ideals and values of a nation or a group |
| euphemism | the use ofa word or phrase that is less expressive or direct, but considered less distasteful or offensive than another |
| exposition | the introduction to the characters, background, and setting of a short story or novel |
| external conflict | opposition to a character which comes from environment, surroundings, or other characters; a character struggles against some outside force; man vs. man or man vs. nature |
| falling action | the actions or events taking place after the high-point/ climax |
| figurative language | expressions or imaginative language that is not literally true |
| first person point of view | from the point of view of one character |
| flashback | a break in a time sequence to an earlier event or time |
| foreshadowing | a hint or suggestion of an upcoming event |
| free verse | poetry without regular patterns of rhyme and rhythm |
| genre | a form of literature; ex. fiction, nonfiction, science fiction, etc. |
| high point/climax | the most exciting part of the story |
| hyberbole | a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration |
| idiom | an accepted phrase or expression having a meaning different from the literal meaning |
| imagery | the words or phrases a writer uses to represent persons, objects, actions, feelings, and ideas descriptively by appealing to the senses |
| internal conflict | the struggle within a character dealing with emotions and feelings; takes place within the mind of a character; man vs. self |
| metaphor | a comparison of two different things without using "like" or "as" |
| mood | the emotional response of teh reader to the text |
| omnisciencet point of view | an all-knowing, all-seeing narrator; can see the thoughts and actions of all characters |
| onomatopoeia | use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning, such as hiss and bang |
| oxymoron | a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression; ex. "jumbo shrimp" |
| personification | giving human qualities to non-human things/objects |
| plot | the sequence of events in a story |
| point of view (p.o.v.) | a position from which a story is told |
| repetition | a sound, word, phrase or line that is repeated for effect or emphasis |
| resolution | the end of the story where the conflict is worked out |
| rhyme scheme | the pattern of end rhyme in a poem; the pattern is identified by assigning a letter of the alphabet, beginning with "A" to each line; lines that rhyme are given the same letter |
| rhythm | the pattern or flow of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables |
| setting | the time and place a story takes place |
| simile | a comparison of two different things or ideas using "like" or "as" |
| speaker | the voice in a poem that talks to the reader; the speaker is not necessarily the poet |
| stanza | a grouping of two or more lines in a poem |
| symbolism | the use of any object, person, place or action that has meaning in itself while standing for something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief or value |
| theme | the central message of a literary work; it is not the same as a subject, which can be expressed in a word or two; it is the idea the author wishes to convey |
| third person point of view | told from the point of view of one observer or narrator; records only what is seen or heard |
| tone | the writer's or speaker's attitude toward a subject, character, or audience; conveyed through the author's choice of diction, imagery, figurative language, and/or details |
| voice | an author's or narrator's distinctive style or manner of expression |
Created by:
mharlan
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