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English
Lit terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Alliteration | The repetition of sounds in nearby words involving the first consonant. |
| Allusion | A reference to a literary or historical person, place, event, or to another literary work or passage. |
| Antagonist | A force or person opposing the protagonist. An antagonist may also be a rival. |
| Aside | A remark, usually in a play, that is intended to be heard by the audience but is supposed to be unheard by the other characters. |
| Atmosphere | The mood or feeling of a literary work. Atmosphere is often developed through setting. |
| Audience | The spectators, listeners or readers of an event, work of literature, or program. |
| Ballad | A story told in verse, often meant to be sung. |
| Bias | An inclination or prejudice against a person, group or idea; a concentration on or interest in one particular area or subject. |
| Blank Verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter (a light beat followed by a heavy beat, five times per line). |
| Character | The qualities distinctive to an individual; the distinctive nature of something. |
| Chronological Order | The order of a literary work based on time, on what happened first, second etc. |
| Cliché | A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought. |
| Climax | The point of greatest intensity or suspense in a narrative. It is the point when the protagonist is about to win or lose all. |
| Colloquialism | A word or phrase that is not formal and that is used in ordinary or familiar conversation. |
| Colloquial Language | The use of familiar or conversational language. |
| Comedy | In general, a literary work that ends happily. It is distinct from tragedy, which is generally concerned with unhappy or disastrous endings. |
| Compare and Contrast | To find similarities and differences. |
| Conflict | A struggle between two opposing forces or characters in a work of literature. Conflict 1. a person against another person 2. a person against society 3. a person against nature 4. two elements within a person struggling for control and mastery. |
| Connotation | The feelings suggested by a word or phrase. It is the opposite of denotation which is the literal meaning of a word or phrase. In connotation the maple leaf may be symbolic of Canada; in denotation it literally is a leaf from the maple tree. |
| Denotation | The literal or dictionary meaning of a word. |
| Descriptive Essay | An essay that portrays people, places, things, moments and theories with enough vivid detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being written about. |
| Direct presentation | In direct presentation the reader is told exactly what a character is like, for example, “He is such a caring person.” |
| Drama | A play for theatre, radio, or television. |
| Dynamic character | A character that undergoes a change during the course of the narrative be it from good to bad, bad to good, bad to worse etc. |
| Exposition | A comprehensive explanation of an idea or theory in a piece of writing. |
| Expository essay | The function of the expository essay is to explain a body of knowledge. |
| Falling action | The action in a narrative which occurs after the climax. |
| Figurative language | Language that is not intended to be interpreted in a literal sense. Figurative language includes such figures of speech as hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, personification and simile. |
| First Person point of view | In the first person point of view the story is told by one of the characters in his or her own words using “I.” |
| Flashback | A scene in a narrative that interrupts the action to show an event that happened earlier. |
| Flat character | A flat character is presented only in outline without much individualizing detail, and so can readily be described in a single phrase or sentence. |
| Foil | A person or thing that contrasts strongly with another and therefore makes the other's qualities more obvious. |
| Foreshadowing | In a narrative, the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later. |
| Free verse | Verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern. |
| Genre | A style or category such as poetry, drama, short story or essay. |
| Hyperbole | A figure of speech using exaggeration, or overstatement, for special effect. |
| Image | A word or sequence of words that refers to a sensory experience. |
| Imagery | Words or phrases that create pictures or images in the reader’s mind as in D.H. Lawrence’s poem Snake |
| Indirect presentation | In direct presentation the author tells us - in indirect presentation the author shows us a character or event from which the reader must interpret meaning. |
| Irony | A contrast between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected and what actually happens; an interesting twist in meaning. |
| Jargon | Special words or expressions used by a particular profession or group. |
| Limited omniscient point of view | The third-person narrator tells the story from only one character’s point of view. In omniscient the narrator can comment on any or all of the characters. |
| Lyric | A poem, usually a short one, which expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts or feelings. Originally the lyric was a poem to be sung; many contemporary lyrics have retained this melodic quality. The elegy, ode, and sonnet are all forms of the lyric. |
| Metaphor | A figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two things that are basically dissimilar. The simile “George is like a mad dog when angry” is a comparison using |
| like; the same idea in a metaphor is “George is a mad dog when angry.” | |
| Mood | The atmosphere or pervading tone of a piece of literature, be it sullen, mysterious, or angry. |
| Narrative | A piece of literature that tells a story. |
| Narration | The act of giving a spoken or written account of a story. |
| Narrator | One who narrates, or tells, a story. |
| Objective point of view | The author tells the story, in the third person, but avoids including any thoughts or feelings and focuses only on what the characters say or do. |
| Omniscient point of view | The narrative is written in the third person point of view and the thoughts and feelings of more than one character are given. |
| Onomatopoeia | The use of words whose sounds seem to resemble the sounds they describe, such as “buzz,” “bang,” “hiss.” |
| Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory ideas or terms, such as “sweet sorrow,” or “wise fool.” |
| Paradox | A situation or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, may not. |
| Personification | A figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human qualities. |
| Persuasive essay | The purpose of persuasive essay is to convince a reader. A good writer may present emotional as well as rational appeal. |
| Plot | The sequence of events in a narrative. |
| Point of view | The vantage point from which a narrative is told. There are two basic points of view |
| first person and third person (omniscient). | |
| Propaganda | Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view |
| Protagonist | The central character of a drama, short story, or narrative poem. |
| Refrain | A word, phrase, line, or group of lines repeated regularly in a poem, usually at the end of each stanza. |
| Resolution | The last element of a plot is the resolution or the conclusion. It is the end of a story and ends with either a happy or a sad ending. |
| Rhyme | The repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other |
| Rhyme scheme | A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhymes in a poem. |
| Rhythm | The arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables into a pattern. Rhythm is most poetry |
| Rising Action | The events of a dramatic or narrative plot which go before the climax. |
| Round Character | A round character is a complex and fully realized individual, and therefore is difficult to describe in one or two sentences. |
| Sarcasm | The use of irony to mock or convey contempt. |
| Satire | The literary art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, or scorn. |
| Setting | The time and place in which the events in a short story, novel, play or narrative poem occur. |
| Simile | A comparison of two things through the use of a specific word of comparison, such as like or as. |
| Slang | Words or phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than in |
| Sonnet | A fourteen line lyric poem. |
| Speaker | As opposed to the author, it is the person reciting the poem. |
| Stanza | A stanza is a division in the formal pattern of a poem. |
| Static character | A static character does not change. A static character is the opposite of a dynamic character, who does change. |
| Stereotype | A commonplace type or character that appears so often in literature that his or her nature is immediately familiar to the reader. |
| Style | An author’s characteristic way of writing, determined by the choice of words, the |
| arrangement of words in sentences, and the relationship of the sentences to one another. | |
| Suspense | The quality of a story or drama that makes the reader uncertain or tense about the outcome of event. Suspense makes the readers ask, “What will happen next?” |
| Symbol | An object, person, place, or action that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, an attitude, a belief, or a value. |
| Theme | The general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express in a literary work. |
| Tone | The attitude a writer takes toward his or her subject, characters, or audience. |
| Tragedy | In general, a literary work in which the protagonist meets an unhappy or disastrous end. |
| Understatement | The presentation of something as being smaller or less good or important than it really is. |
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