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Analyzing Literature
terms for Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP test from the REA book
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Accentual Meter | Stressed rhythmic structure of poetic lines |
| Agon | In greek, meaning to "struggle"; found in protagonist and antagonist; in comedy, a formal debate |
| Alexandrine | A twelve-syllable line written in iambic hexameter |
| Allegorical | A narrative that is an extended metaphor; the elements of the narrative carry significance on a literal and figurative level |
| Alliteration | Repetition of initial consonants in consecutive words or in words close to each other |
| Allusion | In a literary work, a reference to a person, place, or thing from another literary work or from history |
| Anapest | Metrical foot used in poetry consisting of two short syllables followed by a long syllable |
| antagonist | The one who struggles against or contends with the protagonist; the antagonist may either be an individual or an obstacle or challenge, such as fear or death |
| apostrophe | direct address to someone or something that is not present, such as an imaginary person or an abstract quality; often introduced by the explanation, "O". |
| Argumentative | Describes writing-usually an essay-that establishes a position and supports it with evidence |
| Assonance | Repetition of vowel sound; more common in verse than prose |
| Aubade | A morning love song; opposite of a serenade; literally, a song to a sleeping woman; also refers to a song-evoking daybreak |
| Ballad | a narrative folk song or a narrative set to music |
| Ballad Stanza | Four-line stanza (quatrain) consisting of alternating four- and three- stress lines; usually second and fourth lines rhyme (abcb) |
| Bathos | abrupt change in style going from exalted to mundane, producing a ludicrous effect |
| Blank Verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| Caesura, Cesura | A complete pause in a line of poetry |
| Catastrophe | Final resolution in a poem or narrative that unravels the plot and concludes the work; misfortune experienced by tragic hero |
| Catharsis | From Greek, meaning "cleansing" or "purging"; in tragedy a moment for purging or relieving the emotions for the audience |
| Climax | Turning point in a story; the point where the main character experiences a change, and the action stops building and begins falling |
| Closed form | Poetry conformed to pre-specified requirements of rhyme, meter, line length, and number of lines; two examples are haiku and sonnet |
| Complication | Element introduced into the plot to alter its course |
| conceits | extended metaphor governing and entire passage or poem |
| conclusion | final division of a discourse or literary work that brings the work to a close' fifth part or plot structure |
| connotation | emotional association that accompanies a certain word or phrase; often described as positive or negative depending on the emotional connection |
| consonance | repetition of a consonant sound in short succession |
| conventional | following accepted standards; a well-understood interpretation; like stock |
| couplet | two consecutive lines in poetry, usually with the same meter and often rhyming |
| crisis | turning point in a story; culmination of the events of the plot |
| Dactyl | A foot in meter in poetry; in greek or latin verse, it is a long syllable followed by two short syllables; in english verse, it is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables |
| denotation | literal meaning, found in the dictionary |
| denouement | the conclusion of a story; includes the events between the falling action and the last scene of a narrative or drama |
| diction | word choice |
| dimeter | a line containing only two metrical feet |
| doggerel | derogatory term for verse with little literary value |
| Dramatic monologue | speech delivered by a single character who addresses the reader or an internal listener and reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings |
| Dynamic | A character whose personality changes over the course of a narrative or who has the ability of such change |
| elegy | a sorrowful, melancholic poem, such as a funeral song or a lament for the dead |
| enacted | performed by an actor or actors |
| end rhyme | repetition of similar sounds in two or more words, found in the final syllables of the lines of poetry |
| enjambment | a line having no end punctuation so that the meaning continues uninterrupted to the next line |
| epic | a long narrative poem written in elevated language and style about the exploits of a hero or heroine |
| Epigram | an inscription on a building or tomb or a short verse that appears at the beginning of a longer work (novel, chapter, or poem) to set the mood or reveal theme |
| exposition | the author's explanation of background information about characters and setting at the beginning of the plot; writing with ta primary purpose of informing, clarifying, or explaining |
| expository | writing or discourse with the primary purpose of informing, clarifying, or explaining; background information shared by the author |
| expressionism | subjective depiction of the real world through imagination, the abstract, and symbols |
| falling action | moment following the climax where the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist is resolved |
| farce | comedy that entertains the audience through absurdity, improbabilities, exaggeration, and verbal humor |
| feminine rhyme | two or more syllables match in the rhyming words; the final syllable or syllables are unstressed |
| fiction | imaginary narrative; the information or events are created by the author |
| figurative | deviation from usual meaning of a word or group of words resulting in a special effect or meaning |
| figurative image | picture painted by the writer, usually a poet |
| fixed form | any one of three fourteenth- and fifteenth-century french poetic forms: the ballad, the virelai, and rondeau |
| Foil | A character who highlights through contrast opposite characteristics in another character |
| Foot | basic unit of meter consisting of set number of stressed and unstressed syllables |
| form | Pattern or design of a poem;two kinds = open form and closed form |
| Free verse | poetry using natural rhythms of words and phrases instead of required metrical feet |
| hamartia | a tragic flaw within a character; in greek, means to "miss the mark" |
| heptameter | line with seven metrical feet |
| heroic couplet | two successive lines of iambic pentameter with the second lines usually ending with a stop |
| hexameter | line with six metrical feet |
| high comedy | comedy carried out by characters that are true to life, realistic |
| the How | authors style incorporating choices in diction, syntax, point of view, description, narration, and dialoge |
| hubris | excessive pride adversely affecting the protagonist's judgement; most common tragic flaw |
| hyperbole | exaggeration or overstatement |
| iambic foot | an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable |
| Iambic pentameter | line of five feet, each with an unstressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable |
| iambic rhythm | rising and falling rhythm in poetry from alternating stressed and unstressed syllables |
| image | word pictures painted by the author |
| imagine | to visualize the pictures evoked by the writer through the senses |
| imagism | term coined by Ezra Pound for free imagery, open to many interpretations |
| impressionism | subjective or personal literary style that relies on associations; style adapted to writing from nineteenth century school of painters, including Monet and Renoir |
| Internal rhyme | a word rhyming at the end of the line with a word in the middle of the line |
| introduction | first stage in plot in which the author establishes the situation and shares background information |
| invective | writing that attacks a person or idea through emotional language |
| inversion | doing or saying the opposite or unexpected; used in irony |
| irony | discrepancy between what is said or done and what is meant |
| Limerick | a five-line humorous or non-sensical poem in which the first two lines are anapestic trimeter, the next two are anapestic dimete, and the last line is trimeter; rhyme sceme is aabba |
| literal | the meaning of a word or phrase according to the dictionary; denotative |
| literacy ballad | four rhyming lines, abcb, with lines 1 and 3 having eight syllables and lines 2 and 4 having six |
| low comedy | humor with absurdities, horseplay, and exaggerations, depicting an unrefined life. |
| Lyric | a poem sharing personal emotions; in classical poetry, accompanied by a lyre |
| Masculine Rhyme | a rhyme that matches just on syllable, often a stressed syllable at the end of the lines |
| metaphor | comparison of to unlike items |
| meter | basic rhythmic structure for lines in poetic verse |
| metonym | a figure of speech in which an idea or thing is referenced by a name closely associated with it; literally means "a change of name" |
| mimesis | in greek, "imitation"; mimetic theory from Aristotle held that successful imitation in art portrayed reality as closely as possible |
| Mock-Heroic | Satire or parody that mocks the classical stereotype of a hero or heroic literature, usually through exaggeration or absurdity |
| mode | a broad literary method not tied to one specific form or genre, such as satire or irony |
| monometer | a line of verse with one foot |
| motif | an object, concept, or structure repeated in a literary work, thereby giving symbolic significance in the story |
| Narrative | the events that tell the story |
| narrator | an individual who tells or speaks the story |
| naturalism | literary movement that depicts life as accurately as possible, illustrating transformation in society through environment and heredity |
| neo-classical | a style of prose and poetry from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, reviving a classical style from Greek and Roman cultures |
| Non-fiction | writing that delivers factual events and observations |
| novel | an extended fictional narrative written in prose that includes character, plot, and setting |
| Octameter | a line in poetry of eight metrical feet |
| octave | poetic verse of eight lines of iambic pentameter, usually with a rhyme scheme of abba abba |
| ode | lyrical verse or poem with a serious topic and tone |
| onomatopoeia | Use of a word that suggests or mimics its meaning through sound, such as roar or whistle |
| open form | poetry that does not follow a predetermined form; freedom in the form of a poem |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech where two words opposite in meaning are placed next to each other, such as "bittersweet" |
| Paradox | a statement that seems absurd or contradictory but is true |
| parody | a work that mocks an original work, character, or style through humorous imitation |
| personification | figure of speech that attributes human characteristics to inanimate objects or animals |
| phonic | pertaining to sound from speech |
| plot | the series of events that make up the story |
| point of view | the perspective or vantage point from which the author chooses to tell the story |
| prose | the most common form of written language following natural speech patterns and grammatical structure |
| protagonist | main character in a literary work; literally, one who struggles toward or for something |
| pun | a play on the meaning of a word or of similar sounding words for and intended effect; usually humorous |
Created by:
MissMAK
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