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Literary Terms
English I
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| allegory | story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities. |
| alliteration | repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together |
| allusion | reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something (usually from literature, etc.). |
| ambiguity | deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way- this is done on purpose by the author, when it is not done on purpose, it is vagueness, and |
| analogy | Comparison made between two things to show how they are alike |
| anaphora | Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s point more coherent |
| anecdote | Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often shows character of an individual |
| antagonist | Opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist in the story |
| antihero | Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes. He or she may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples |
| archetype | In literature, an archetype is a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature. |
| assonance | the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together |
| indirect characterization | the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters eff |
| direct characterization | the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. Romantic style literature relied more heavily on this form. |
| static character | is one who does not change much in the course of a story. |
| dynamic character | is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story’s action. |
| cliche | is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. |
| comedy | in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters. |
| connotation | the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition. |
| denotation | the actual dictionary meaning |
| couplet | two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry |
| dialect | a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area. |
| diction | a speaker or writer’s choice of words |
| epic | a long narrative poem, written in heightened language , which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society |
| epithet | an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality |
| essay | a short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject |
| fable | a very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in life. |
| farce | a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations |
| figurative language | Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe |
| flashback | a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time |
| foil | A character who acts as contrast to another character |
| foreshadowing | the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot. |
| free verse | poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme |
| hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. “If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times….” |
| imagery | the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person , a thing, a place, or an experience. |
| verbal irony | occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else. |
| situational irony | takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen |
| dramatic irony | A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better |
| juxtaposition | rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit |
| lyric poem | a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker. |
| metaphor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles |
| mood | An atmosphere created by a writer’s diction and the details selected. |
| motif | recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme |
| motivation | the reasons for a character’s behavior |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words whose sounds echo their sense. “Pop.” “Zap.” |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. “Jumbo shrimp.” “Pretty ugly.” “Bitter-sweet” |
| parable | a relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a good life |
| paradox | a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth |
| parallel structure | the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures. |
| parody | a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer’s style |
| personification | a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes. |
| first person point of view | one of the characters tells the story |
| omniscient point of view | an omniscient or all knowing narrator tells the story, also using the third person pronouns. This narrator, instead of focusing on one character only, often tells us everything about many characters. |
| objective point of view | a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events. |
| protagonist | the central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the action |
| pun | a “play on words” based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things. |
| quatrain | a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit |
| refrain | a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem. |
| rhythm | a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language. |
| rhetoric | Art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse |
| rhetorical question | a question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer |
| satire | a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change. |
| simile | a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as , than, or resembles. |
| soliloquy | a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage |
| style | the distinctive way in which a writer uses language: a writer’s distinctive use of diction, tone, and syntax. |
| suspense | a feeling of uncertainty and curiosity about what will happen next in a story |
| symbol | a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself. |
| theme | the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work |
| tone | the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization |
| tragedy | in general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end. |
| understatement | a statement that says less than what is meant. |
| wit | refers to elements in a literary work designed to make the audience laugh or feel amused, i.e., the term is used synonymously with humor |
Created by:
cbrokaw
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