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Term | Definition |
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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. |
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. |
CHARACTERIZATION | the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. |
INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION | letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character |
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. |
FLAT CHARACTER | has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase. |
ROUND CHARACTER | has more dimensions to their personalities-- -they are complex, just as real people are. |
CLICHE | is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. Avoid clichés like the plague. (That cliché is intended.) |
COMEDY | in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters. |
CONFLICT | the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story. |
EXTERNAL CONFLICT | conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society. |
INTERNAL CONFLICT | a conflict can be internal, involving opposing forces within a person’s mind. |
CONNOTATION | the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition. |
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. “the great Emancipator” are examples. A Homeric epithet is a compound adjective used with a person or thing |
ESSAY |