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Essential Lit. Terms
Know by Thurs, Nov. 20th
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Exposition | The essential background information at the beginning of a literary work. |
| Rising Action | The development of conflict and complications in a literary work. |
| Climax | The turning point in a literary work. |
| Falling Action | Results or effects of the climax of a literary work. |
| Resolution/Denouement | End of a literary work when loose ends are tied up and questions are answered. |
| Allusion | A reference to something well-known that exists outside the literary work. |
| Aside | A dramatic device in which a character makes a short speech intended for the audience but not heard by the other characters on stage. |
| Assonance | Repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds: "Anna's apples" & "the pond is long gone" |
| Characterization | The manner in which an author develops characters and their personalities. |
| Conflict | Struggle between two or more opposing forces (person vs. person; nature; society; self; fate/God) |
| Dialogue | Direct speech between characters in a literary work |
| Diction | Word choice to create a specific effect. |
| Eptithet | Word or phrase (as Lion-Hearted in "Richard the Lion-Hearted") that expresses a quality held to be characteristic of a person or thing. |
| Figurative Language | Language that represents one thing in terms of something dissimilar (non-literal language). |
| Flashback | The method of returning to an earlier point in time for the purpose of making the present clearer. |
| Foreshadowing | Hint of what is to come in a literary work. |
| Genre | Type or category to which a literary work belongs. |
| Imagery | Language that appeals to the five senses |
| Dramatic Irony | When the reader or audience knows something a character does not. |
| Situational Irony | When there is a disparity between what is expected & what actually occurs |
| Verbal Irony | When the speaker says one thing but means the opposite |
| Metaphor | An implied comparison between dissimilar objects: "Her talents blossomed" |
| Motif | A recurring feature of a literary work that is related to the theme |
| Oxymoron | Phrase that consists of two words that are contradictory: "living dead" |
| Plot | The sequence of events in a literary work |
| Point of View | The vantage point or perspective from which a literary work is told: 1st, 2nd, or 3rd |
| Rhyme | Repetition of similar or identical sounds: "Look & crook" |
| Rhyme Scheme | Pattern of rhyme among lines of poetry |
| Soliloquy | A dramatic device in which a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud |
| Speaker | Voice in a poem; the person or thing that is speaking |
| Stanza | Group of lines forming a unit in a poem |
| Stereotype | Standardized, conventional ideas about characters, plots and settings |
| Suspense | Technique that keeps the reader guessing what will happen next |
| Symbol/symbolism | One thing used to represent something else |
| Theme | The underlying main idea of a literary work |
| Tone | The author's attitude toward the subject of a work. |
| Connotation | Suggested meaning of a word or set of ideas associated to a word in addition to its explicit meaning |
| Consonance | The repetition of final consonant sounds, as in: "First & last" & "odds & ends" |
| Denotation | Dictionary meaning of a word |
| Dialect | The vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation used by people in different regions |
| Dynamic Character | A character who grows emotionally, learns a lesson, or alters behavior during the course of the story |
| External Conflict | A problem or struggle between a character and another character, a force of nature, and/or set of circumstances |
| Flat Character | A character who is simple, and his main purpose is to reveal things about other characters or move the plot along |
| Imagery | Mental pictures created by the author for the reader to show rather than tell the events of the story |
| Inciting Incident | An event that catalyzes your hero to "go into motion" and take action |
| Indirect Characterization | This occurs when the reader learns something about a character from another character |
| Internal Conflict | A problem or struggle that occurs within a character's mind |
| Mood | The feeling or atmosphere the writer creates for the reader |
| Parallelism | Similar ideas are presented using the same grammatical structure |
| Pun | Play on the multiple meanings of words |
| Round Character | A character who is fully developed, meaning he has emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and the reader knows a lot about them |
| Static Character | A character who has not grown or changed by the end of the story |
| Satire | Ridicule, to expose faults of individuals, group institutions, or humanity at large |
| Understatement | Intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is. EX: "It rained a bit more than usual" while describing an area being flooded after a heavy rain fall. |
Created by:
7jsellers
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