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40 Literary Terms
Term | Definition |
---|---|
alliteration | the practice of beginning several consecutive or neighboring words with the same sound |
allusion | a reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing |
antagonist | the character who stands directly opposed to the protagonist |
atmosphere/mood | predominant emotion in a literary work |
characterization | the act of creating and developing a character |
climax | the high point of interest or suspense |
diction | word choice intended to convey a certain effect |
dynamic character | a fictional character that undergoes an important change (within) in the course of the story |
exposition | writing or speech that explains a process or presents information |
figures of speech | metaphors, similes and personification: words or phrases that describe one thing in terms of something else and are not to be taken literally. They always involve some sort of imaginative comparison between seemingly unlike things. |
flashback | a scene that interrupts the action of a work to show a previous event |
foreshadowing | the use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest future action |
hyperbole | a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration |
imagery | consists of the words or phrases a writer uses to represent persons, objects, actions, feelings, and ideas descriptively by appealing to the senses |
irony | occurs when a situation turns out differently from what one would normally expect |
metaphor | a comparison of two unlike things NOT using like or as |
myth | a fictional tale that explains the actions of gods or the causes of natural phenomena |
narration | the telling of a story in writing or speaking |
onomatopoeia | the use of words that mimic the sounds they describe |
oxymoron | a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression |
parable | a simple brief narrative that teaches a lesson by using characters and events to stand for abstract ideas |
paradox | occurs when the elements of a statement contradict each other Although the statement may appear illogical, impossible, or absurd, it turns out to have a coherent meaning that reveals a hidden truth. |
parody | a comical piece of writing that mocks the characteristics of a specific literary form |
personification | a kind of metaphor that gives a nonhuman subject human characteristics |
plot | the sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem |
point of view | the perspective from which a narrative is told |
protagonist | the central character of a drama, novel, short story, or narrative poem |
pun | a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings |
rhyme | the repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem |
sarcasm | the use of verbal irony in which a person appears to be praising something, but is actually insulting it |
setting | the time, date, place, and atmosphere of a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem |
shift | refers to a change or movement in a piece resulting from an epiphany, realization, or insight gained by the speaker, a character, or the reader |
simile | a comparison of 2 different things or ideas using like or as |
static character | minor characters in a work of fiction who do not undergo substantial change or growth in the course of a story |
suspense | the quality of a literary work that makes the reader or audience uncertain or tense about the outcome of events |
symbol | any object, person, place, or action, that has both meaning in itself, and that stands for something larger than itself |
syntax | the arrangement of words and the order of grammatical elements in a sentence |
theme | the central message of a literary work that usually reveals something about life or human nature |
tone | the writer's or speaker's attitude toward a subject, character, or audience, and it is conveyed through the author's choice of words and detail |
understatement | the opposite of hyperbole it deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is |