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WGU Literature terms
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| The repetition of the same sounds in initial consonants or stressed syllables in a sequence of words. | Alliteration |
| The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in a sequence of words. | Assonance |
| Usually the repetition occurs in the stressed syllables and the vowel sound is followed by different consonant sounds. | Assonance |
| The effect of _________ is thought to be euphony. | Assonance |
| The impression that a word gives beyond its defined meaning. This may be universally understood or may be significant only to a certain group. | Connotation |
| An idea that is implied or suggested. It's created when you mean something else, something that might be initially hidden. | Connotation |
| When words appearing at the ends of two or more verses have similar final consonant sounds but have final vowel sounds that differ, as with "stuff" and "off." | Consonance |
| This is when you mean what you say, literally. | Denotation |
| A long, formal narrative poem with elevated style. | Epic |
| _______ narrate a story of national importance based on the life and actions of a hero. Frequently the fate of the nation depends upon the hero and his actions. Often the hero is either descended from or protected by the gods. | Epic's |
| A divine manifestation | Epiphany |
| This is the sudden realization or comprehension of the (larger) essence or meaning of something. | Epiphany |
| The term is used in either a philosophical or literal sense to signify that the claimant has an ah ha moment or has new information or experience, often insignificant by itself, that illuminates a deeper foundational frame of reference. | Epiphany |
| French for "type." | Genre |
| This is used to classify literature according to form, style, or content. Sonnet, novel, tragedy, and elegy are all examples of this. | Genre |
| In contemporary usage, This refers to a moderately short (usually 12-30 lines) poem expressing one speaker's emotions and thoughts. | Lyric |
| These poems are not limited to a specific meter or form but are almost always about emotion, frequently concerning themes of love and grief. | Lyric |
| This is a “dramatic sketch performed by one actor”. | Monologue |
| This is an extended, uninterrupted speech or poem by a single person. | Monologue |
| The reasons or explanations for why a character acts in the ways he or she does in response to events of the plot. | Motivation |
| This is part of characterization, or how an author uses description, action, dialogue, and emotion to convey the complexities of a character. | Motivation |
| A significant element that recurs either in a specific literary work, in a group of literary texts, or in literature as a whole. | Motif |
| This can be plots, imagery, symbols, themes, ideas, narrative details, or characters. In a specific literary work, This usually relate and contribute to the work's larger themes. | Motif |
| The telling of true or fictitious events by a narrator. | Narrative |
| This can be either verse or prose and focus on the depiction of events or happenings. | Narrative |
| Also called echoism | Onomatopoeia |
| Broadly, it refers to words or passages in which the sound echoes the sense, or the words or passages sound like the words they describe either in terms of movement or sound. | Onomatopoeia |
| more specifically, this is when the sound of a word closely resembles or echoes the sound it conveys, such as “buzz” or “hiss.” | Onomatopoeia |
| This refers to the first-person voice or character an author uses to convey the story in a narrative. | Persona |
| Originally referring to the masks worn by actors in ancient drama | Persona |
| Refers to the location, historical moment, social context, or circumstances in which a literary work or scene is set. | Setting |
| In drama, it also includes the scenery and props and is often referred to as décor or mise en scène. | Setting |
| One of several categories within a particular genre. | Subgenres |
| A division within the category of a genre; novel, novella, and short story are ______ of the genre fiction. | Subgenres |
| An extended piece of fictional prose that is distinguished from short stories and novellas by its length. | Novel |
| The reasons or explanations for why a character acts in the ways he or she does in response to events of the plot. | Motivation |
| This is part of characterization, or how an author uses description, action, dialogue, and emotion to convey the complexities of a character. | Motivation |
| A significant element that recurs either in a specific literary work, in a group of literary texts, or in literature as a whole. | Motif |
| This can be plots, imagery, symbols, themes, ideas, narrative details, or characters. In a specific literary work, This usually relate and contribute to the work's larger themes. | Motif |
| The telling of true or fictitious events by a narrator. | Narrative |
| This can be either verse or prose and focus on the depiction of events or happenings. | Narrative |
| Also called echoism | Onomatopoeia |
| Broadly, it refers to words or passages in which the sound echoes the sense, or the words or passages sound like the words they describe either in terms of movement or sound. | Onomatopoeia |
| more specifically, this is when the sound of a word closely resembles or echoes the sound it conveys, such as “buzz” or “hiss.” | Onomatopoeia |
| This refers to the first-person voice or character an author uses to convey the story in a narrative. | Persona |
| Originally referring to the masks worn by actors in ancient drama | Persona |
| Refers to the location, historical moment, social context, or circumstances in which a literary work or scene is set. | Setting |
| In drama, it also includes the scenery and props and is often referred to as décor or mise en scène. | Setting |
| One of several categories within a particular genre. | Subgenres |
| A division within the category of a genre; novel, novella, and short story are ______ of the genre fiction. | Subgenres |
| An extended piece of fictional prose that is distinguished from short stories and novellas by its length. | Novel |
| A literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact. Fabrication: a deliberately false or improbable account. | Fiction |
| Is an account or representation of a subject which is presented as fact. | Nonfiction |
| This presentation may be accurate or not; that is, it can give either a true or a false account of the subject in question. However, it is generally assumed that the authors of such accounts believe them to be truthful at the time of their composition. | Nonfiction |
| Biographical novel that concentrates on an individual’s youth and his social and moral initiation into adulthood. | Apprenticeship Novel |
| Narrate a story of national importance based on the life and actions of a hero. Frequently the fate of the nation depends upon the hero and his actions. Often the hero is either descended from or protected by the gods. | Epic Novel |
| A novel, or extended piece of fictional prose, told through the characters’ writing and exchange of letters. The reliance on subjective points of view makes it the forerunner of the modern psychological novel. | Epistolary Novel |
| A novel, or extended piece of fictional prose, that features the realistic and episodic adventures of a likeable yet flawed roguish hero. Usually a first-person narrative. | Picaresque Novel |
| A prose fiction work of about 50-100 pages. Shorter than a novel and longer than a short story, this possesses formal and stylistic elements of those two prose genres. Unlike a short story, this is long enough to be published as an individual volume. | Novella |
| This is a secondary plot strand that is auxiliary to the main plot. This may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance. This often involve supporting characters. | Subplot |
| This is the primary sequence of events. | Plot |
| This is to inform, the readers about the plot, character, setting, and theme of the essay/story. | Exposition |
| Suggestions of what is to come later on in a narrative. | Foreshadowing |
| This is to create narrative cohesion, build suspense, and develop plot. | Foreshadowing |
| Because this hints at what is to come, it helps an author prepare readers for an ending, thus helping to create resolutions that do not seem contrived. | Foreshadowing |
| The struggle between two forces in a literary work that constitutes the foundation of plot, or the arrangement of events, actions, and situations in a narrative work. | Conflict |
| ______ conflict between a character and the natural or physical world. | Physical |
| ______ conflict between a character and another character, or characters and society or a segment of society. | Social |
| ______ conflict between a character and his or her thoughts, ideas, actions, or beliefs. | Psychological |
| ______ conflict between a character and fate or a deity. | Metaphysical |
| Conflict that pits one person against another. | Man vs. man |
| A run-in with the forces of nature. On the one hand, it expresses the insignificance of a single human life in the cosmic scheme of things. On the other hand, it tests the limits of a person’s strength and will to live. | Man vs. nature |
| The values and customs by which everyone else lives are being challenged. The character may come to an untimely end as a result of his or her own convictions. | Man vs. society |
| Internal conflict. Not all conflict involves other people. Sometimes people are their own worst enemies. | Man vs. self |
| The point at which a character understands his or her situation as it really is. | Recognition |
| A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's or story's plot leading up to the climax. | Rising Action |
| The conflict reaches a turning point. At this point the opposing forces in the story meet and the conflict becomes most intense. | Crisis |
| This occurs before or at the same time as the climax. | Crisis |
| This is the result of the crisis. | Climax |
| It is the high point of the story for the reader. Frequently, it is the moment of the highest interest and greatest emotion. The point at which the outcome of the conflict can be predicted. | Climax |
| The events after the climax which close the story. | Falling Action |
| Also referred to as resolution | Denouement |
| This is what follows the climax of a narrative and is usually the final scene in a play or the final chapter or section in a narrative or novel. | Denouement |
| French for "unknotting" | Denouement |
| This is the final untying or clearing up a plot where its mysteries, confusions, or uncertainties are resolved. | Denouement |
| This can be applied to tragedy and comedy but catastrophe is usually used to describe the final resolution in tragedy. | Denouement |
| This dénouement refers to endings where the author leaves several unresolved issues or loose threads for the reader to consider | Open dénouement |
| This dénouement refers to endings where all or almost all of the uncertainties are resolved, leaving very few loose threads. Rounds out and concludes the action. | Closed dénouement |
| This is the process of conveying information about characters in fiction or conversation. Characters are usually presented by description and through their actions, speech, and thoughts. | Characterization |
| The main character in a play or narrative, often in conflict with the antagonist. Usually the plot revolves around, or is set into action by, this. | Protagonist |
| The most significant character or force that opposes the protagonist in a narrative. | Antagonist |
| A central character in a work of literature who lacks traditional heroic qualities such as courage, physical prowess, and fortitude. | Antihero |
| This typically distrust conventional values and are unable to commit themselves to any ideals. They generally feel helpless in a world over which they have no control. | Antihero |
| A character whose qualities or actions are in stark contrast with those of another character, usually the protagonist. These are often used to convey or develop the protagonist's character. | Foil |
| - Specific types of characters, or fictional or imagined people in a narrative or literary text, so commonly seen in literature that they are seen as stereotypical types. | Stock Character |
| Fairy tales have perhaps the most recognizable ______, including fairy godmothers, cruel stepmothers, and prince charmings. | Stock Character |
| _______ doesn’t change in the text, distinguishing it from a round character. | Flat Character |
| This is typically a minor character with a single outstanding trait and is often based on a stock character, or a common, stereotypical character. | Flat Character/static character |
| This is usually one of the main characters, is presented in a complex and detailed manner, and usually undergoes a significant change in response to the events or circumstances described in the plot. | Round (also called dynamic) character |
| In contrast to static characters who do not change, this changes during the course of a literary work. | Dynamic/ Round character |
| A mental position from which things are viewed. | Point of View |
| The narrator of a story told from the perspective of a persona who uses "I" or "me" to recount the story’s events. | First Person |
| Usually this person is involved in the plot, but not always. | First Person |
| The narrator is a character in the story who can reveal only personal thoughts and feelings and what he or she sees and is told by other characters. He can’t tell us thoughts of other characters. | First Person |
| The narrator is an outsider who can report only what he or she sees and hears. This narrator can tell us what is happening, but he can’t tell us the thoughts of the characters. | Third Person Objective |
| The narrator is an outsider who sees into the mind of one of the characters. | Third Person Limited |
| The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of more than one of the characters. | Third Person Omniscient |
| A figure of speech wherein a thing, place, abstract idea, dead or absent person is addressed directly as if present and capable of understanding and responding. | Apostrophe |
| A clever and fanciful metaphor, usually expressed through elaborate and extended comparison that presents a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things— for example, elaborately comparing a beautiful woman to an object like a garden. | Conceit |
| This was a popular device throughout the Elizabethan Age and Baroque Age and was the principal technique of the seventeenth-century English metaphysical poets. | Conceit |
| An exaggerated statement used to heighten effect. It is not used to mislead the reader, but to emphasize a point. Example: She’s said "so on" several million occasions. | Hyperbole (Overstatement) |
| A figure of speech which uses exaggeration for comic, ironic, or serious effect. | Hyperbole |
| Its opposite is understatement or meiosis. | Hyperbole |
| A figure of speech which involves an implied comparison between two relatively unlike things using a form of be. The comparison is not announced by like or as. Example: The road was a ribbon of moonlight. | Metaphor |
| A figure of speech that replaces the name of one thing with the name of another closely related thing. For example, "the crown" is used to signify the monarchy. | Metonymy |
| A statement that, on the surface, appears to be self-contradictory but, upon analysis, reveals an underlying truth, significance, or meaning. | Paradox |
| An oxymoron, or two opposite or contradictory words juxtaposed for effect or emphasis, is a kind of this. | Paradox |
| A figure of speech through which inanimate objects, ideas, concepts, or animals is given human characteristics, or is referred to as if human. This is broader and distinct from the pathetic fallacy. | Personification |
| A figure of speech that is a comparison of two different things or ideas using "like" or "as." | Simile |
| These are used to illustrate or enhance an idea or an image. | Simile |
| A figure of speech where a part of something is used to represent the whole (for example, "hands" to refer to manual labor) or where the whole is used to represent the part (for example, "Montréal" is used to refer to the Montréal Canadiens). | Synecdoche |
| A kind of metonymy. | Synecdoche |
| a device of emphasis in which a characteristic (as opposed to a name or label [metonymy] or a part [synecdoche]) of one thing is attributed to another closely associated to it. | Transferred Epithet |
| A word or phrase that often is disparaging or abusive, and that expresses a character trait of someone or something. | Epithet |
| "The Napoleon of crime" is an ____ applied to Professor Moriarty, arch-rival of Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle's series of detective stories. | Epithet |
| Also known by its Greek term “meiosis”. | Understatement |
| This is describing something in terms less grand or important than it deserves or merits, typically to minimize its importance. | Understatement |
| Its opposite is hyperbole, a figure of speech which uses exaggeration for comic, ironic, or serious effect. | Understatement |
| The author's choice of words or vocabulary in a literary work | Diction |
| A performer's manner or style of speaking, including phrasing and punctuation. Poetic diction refers specifically to the choice and phrasing of words suitable to verse. | Diction |
| The author's attitude toward the audience or reader in a literary text (i.e., familiar, formal) (or toward the subject itself) (i.e., satiric, celebratory, ironic) | Tone |
| The feeling or emotion created specifically through elements of the setting. | Mood |
| also called atmosphere | Mood |
| This is more specific than tone, which is established by a variety of elements, including symbolism, imagery, diction, meter, rhyme, alliteration, and assonance. | Mood |
| The use of symbols or a set of related symbols or a sustained use of symbols. | Symbolism |
| was also a literary movement in late-nineteenth-century France as a reaction to realist impulses in literature; Symbolists often developed their own independent and subjective systems of this. | Symbolism |
| A significant abstract idea emerging from a literary work or the statement the work appears to make about its subject. | Theme |
| Usually these are indirectly suggested and are generally conveyed through figurative language, imagery, symbols, or motifs. | Theme |
| Themes that are overt or explicitly stated are called ________. | Didactic |
| Collective form of image. | Imagery |
| Depictions of objects or qualities perceived by the five senses | Imagery |
| The figurative language used to convey abstract ideas concretely | Imagery |
| The depiction of visual objects or scenes. | Imagery |
| This is what makes language and literature concrete and not abstract. | Imagery |
| A narrative in which abstract concepts are represented as something concrete, typically major elements in the story, such as characters, objects, actions, or events. | Allegory |
| It possesses two parallel levels of meaning and understanding: a literal level, where a surface level story is recounted, and a symbolic level, which addresses abstract ideas. | Allegory |
| These are often considered extended metaphors: the surface level story helps to convey moral, religious, political, or philosophical ideas. | Allegory |
| An indirect reference in a literary text to a well-known person or place, or to an historical, political, or cultural event. The reference can also be to a literary, religious, or mythological text. | Allusion |
| The reference can also be to a literary, religious, or mythological text. These are not usually identified, as it is assumed the reader will make the connection. | Allusion |
| A short remark or speech spoken by a character to the audience or to another character. According to convention, it is assumed that this is not heard by the other characters. | Aside |
| This tends to reveal insight into plot, character, or emotion. | Aside |
| A character, plot, device, image, theme, or motif used frequently in literature. | Convention |
| An unrealistic device, such as an aside, that an audience or reading public has agreed to tolerate. | Convention |
| The representation of spoken exchanges between or among characters. | Dialogue |
| A literary work where characters discuss or debate a particular subject. | Dialogue |
| Latin for "god out of a machine." | Deus ex machina |
| The practice in Greek drama of a god descending into the play from a crane-like machine in order to solve a problem in the plot and thus enable the play to end. | Deus ex machina |
| An unexpected, contrived, or improbable ending or solution in a literary text. | Deus ex machina |
| A scene used to show events that occur before the opening scene. | Flashback |
| These are used to provide insight into or background about events, settings, characters, or context and can take the form of a character's dreams, remembrances, or reflections or a narrator's comments. | Flashback |
| Also called analepsis | Flashback |
| Suggestions of what is to come later on in a narrative. | Foreshadowing |
| This can be created through imagery, dialogue, diction, events, or actions. | Foreshadowing |
| Authors use this to create narrative cohesion, build suspense, and develop plot. Because this hints at what is to come, it helps an author prepare readers for an ending, thus helping to create resolutions that do not seem contrived. | Foreshadowing |
| Latin for "into the midst of affairs. | In media res |
| Refers to a literary and artistic technique where the narrative starts in the middle of the story instead of from its beginning. | In media res |
| The characters, setting, and conflict are often introduced through a series of flashbacks or through characters relating past events to each other. | In media res |
| Prose, verse, or dramatic works which seek to expose the failings of individuals, institutions, ideas, communities, or society in general. | Satire |
| The tone of this can range from mildly humorous to a bitter indictment; there are frequently elements of scorn, indignation, or contempt. Often there is a corrective element since these often function as social critique or as a spark for social change. | Satire |
| Ridicules human weakness and folly; criticizes people's manners or morals. | Satire |
| A monologue in a play spoken by one character who is alone or believes himself or herself to be alone on the stage. | Soliloquy |
| In this, the character describes thoughts, emotions, or ideas to himself or herself or reveals important information to the audience. | Soliloquy |
| This is a form of monologue, but a monologue is not necessarily this. If other characters are present, a monologue is not a this. | Soliloquy |
| A one-stanza lyric poem of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter with a specific rhyme scheme. | Sonnet |
| This kind of Sonnet has two main parts: an octave (eight lines) with a rhyme scheme of abba abba followed by a sestet (six lines) with a rhyme scheme of cde cde (or sometimes cdc cdc). | Italian (or Petrarchan) |
| This sonnet usually uses the octave to state or describe a problem and the sestet to resolve it. | Italian |
| This sonnet has three quatrains (4 lines) and a concluding couplet (two lines) with an abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme. | English |
| This sonnet offers a variant rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee. | Spenserian |
| In this sonnet, the sestets describe a problem or situation that is repeated in each sestet with some variation; the remaining couplet offers a summary, usually with a turn of thought. | Shakespearean |
| An elaborate and, sometimes, far-fetched image, which extends a metaphor into as many layers of meaning as it will bear. | Conceit |
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