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DiYanni Glossary
english lit vocab
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Allegory | A symbolic narrative. Allegory often takes the form of a short story in which the characters represent moral qualities |
| Alliteration | The repetition of consonant sounds |
| Anapest | Two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one. In a word or a line. |
| Antagonist | A character or force against which a character struggles |
| Aside | Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience which are not "heard" by the other characters on stage. |
| Assonance | The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence/line. "I rOse and tOld him of my wOe" |
| Aubade | A love lyric in which the speaker complains about dawn, when he has to leave his lover. |
| Ballad | Narrative poem in four-line stanzas. Has swift action and direct narration. |
| Blank verse | line of poetry/prose in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| Caesura | A strong pause in poetry |
| Catastrophe | The action at the end of a tragedy that starts the falling action |
| Catharsis | Purging of feelings of pity and fear that occurs in the audience, after the catastrophe in a tragedy- Aristotle |
| Character | imaginary person in a literary work |
| Characterization | The ways writers present and reveal character -- communicated through speech, dress, manner, actions |
| Chorus | group in a Greek tragedy (most commonly) who comment on the action without participating. The leader is the choragos. |
| Climax | The turning point, point of greatest tension. |
| Closed form | form/structure of poetry with consistency in elements like rhyme, line length, metrical pattern. |
| Comedy | drama in which characters reversals of fortune, usually for the better-- happy endings. Romantic (genial) or satiric (ridiculing) |
| Comic relief | when a comic scene interrupts a series of severely tragic scenes. Usually parallels tragic action. |
| Complication | Intensification or building of conflict. Develops into primary conflict |
| Conflict | struggle between opposing forces. may be inner or outer |
| connotation | word association. Examples especially in poetry. |
| Convention | customary feature of a certain type of literary work |
| couplet | pair of rhymed lines (Shakespeare's sonnets end in couplets) |
| Dactyl | stressed syllable followed by 2 unstressed ones (opposite of anapest) |
| Denotation | dictionary meaning of a word |
| Denouement | resolution of the plot |
| Deus ex machina | A god who resolves conflicts of a play by supernatural intervention (Midsummer Night's Dream) |
| Dialogue | conversation of characters |
| Diction | selection of words. May differentiate between characters or between authors |
| Dramatic monologue | type of poem in which speaker addresses silent listener. Readers "overhear" |
| Dramatis personae | Latin for the characters in a play |
| Elegy | Lyric poem that laments the dead. Can be obvious or like "Those Winter Sundays" by Hayden |
| Elision | Leaving out an unstressed vowel or syllable to preserve meter (e.g. "o'er") |
| Enjambment | run-on line of poetry in which logical & grammatical sense carries on through lines. (e.g. "Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now..."-Browning) |
| Epic | a long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero. Typically follows origins of civilization & contains its central values (The Odyssey) |
| Epigram | Brief, witty poem |
| Exposition | First stage of a plot where background info is provided. |
| Fable | Short story with a clear moral. Usually have animals as characters. |
| Falling action | Action following climax, leads to resolution. |
| Falling meter | meter that falls from a stressed to unstressed syllable (Higgledy Piggledy) |
| Fiction | Imagined story |
| Figurative language | When writers/speakers say something but don't mean it literally (e.g. hyperbole, understatement, simile & metaphor) |
| Foil | Character who serves as a parallel contrast for the main character. |
| Foot | meter unit made up of stressed and unstressed syllables. |
| Fourth Wall | Imaginary wall onstage, supposedly removed to let the audience see the action. |
| Free verse | poetry with no consistent rhyme or pattern |
| Gesture | physical movement of a character in a play. |
| Hyperbole | The best thing ever! |
| Iamb | an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. NOT the word "iamb" |
| Iambic pentameter | poetic line of five iambs (iambic feet) |
| Image | Result of imagery, concrete representation of sense impression, feeling, or idea. |
| Imagery | pattern of related aspects of language, esp. of images. |
| Irony | Contrast between what is said and what is meant or what happens and what is expected to happen. E.g. verbal, irony of situation, dramatic |
| lyric poem | brief, compressed poem with expression of feeling. |
| metaphor | comparison between apparently unlike things without explicitly using a comparison word. Not always a statement |
| Meter | pattern of rhythm/accents in poetry |
| Metonymy | When a closely related word is substituted for an object/idea. (e.g. "the crown" representing the king/monarchy) |
| Monologue | Speech by a single character without interruption |
| Narrative poem | poem that tells a story |
| Novella | short novel |
| Octave | 8-line unit, like a stanza or section of a poem |
| Ode | Long, serious poem, usually written about an admired subject |
| Onomatopoeia | "crack" "moo" OR "murmur of innumerable bees" which tries to create the sound of what it describes. |
| Open form | overall poetic structure, rhyme, and meter is not observed. (e.e. cummings) |
| Parable | short story that teaches an ethical or spiritual lesson |
| Parody | mocking imitation of a literary work (sarcastic or playful tone) |
| Pathos | Always in tragedy, sometimes in comedy, play action that makes the audience feel bad for a character. |
| Pyrrhic | metrical foot with two unstressed syllables ("of the") |
| Quatrain | In a poem: a four-line stanza In a Petrarchan sonnet: first and second 4 lines |
| Recognition | Point at which a character understands his or her situation as the reality. |
| Reversal | Point at which the plot turns in an unexpected direction (Oedipus) |
| Rising meter | meter that moves from unstressed to stressed |
| Satire | Work that criticizes/ridicules human flaws and foibles |
| Sestet | six-line unit of verse OR last six lines in Italian sonnets |
| Sestina | 39 lines of iambic pentameter, 6 six-line stanzas with 3 lines at the end which use the six repeating words of the poem (2 words per line) |
| Soliloquy | Speech meant to be heard by the audience and no other characters. If no other characters are on stage, it is the character thinking aloud. (Hamlet) |
| Sonnet | 14 lines of iambic pentameter Shakespearean: 3 quatrains & couplet Petrarchan: 1 octave, 1 sestet |
| Spondee | metrical foot of 2 stressed syllables (knick-knack) |
| Synechdoche | Figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole ("Lend me a hand") |
| Syntax | grammatical order of words |
| Tale | story that tells strange happenings in a direct way |
| Tercet | 3-line stanza |
| Terza rima | three-line stanza pattern with interlocking rhymes (aba bcb) |
| Theme | generalization of the main idea of a literary work |
| Tone | implied attitude of a writer towards his subjects |
| Tragedy | reversal of fortune for the worse for characters |
| Tragic Flaw | weakness or limitation of a character, resulting in their downfall. |
| Tragic hero | Priveleged or admired character who suffers a fall from glory. (Oedipus) |
| Trochee | Accented syllable followed by an unaccented one (football) |
| Unities | The idea that a play should be limited to a specific time, place, and story line. |
| Villanelle | 19-line lyric poem that relies heavily on repetition. 6 stanzas of 5 tercets and an ending quatrain |
Created by:
herbertta
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