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Literature Terms
Vocabulary for literature and poetry
| word | definition |
|---|---|
| allusion | reference to an outside fact event or other source |
| contrast | a difference between two things being compared |
| hyperbole | gross exaggeration for effect: overstatement |
| imagery | the use of words to represent things, actions or ideas by sensory description |
| irony | a contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning |
| juxtaposition | a contrast in which positioning is important |
| metaphor | a figure of speech which makes a direct comparison of two unlike objects by identification or substitution |
| repetition | a sound, image or idea being repeated to emphasize or draw the readers attention |
| simile | a direct comparison of two unlike objects, using like or as or than |
| stanza | pattern of lines that makes up a unit of the poem |
| tone | the author's attitude toward his/her audience |
| novel | a fictitious narrative in prose of considerable length which professes to represent real life by means of story and character |
| direct characterization | the author tells us, straight out, what a character is like or has someone else in the novel tell us what he or she is like |
| indirect characterization | the author shows us the character in action; we infer what he is like from what he thinks or says or does |
| setting | the backdrop against which the action of the novel is seen |
| symbolism | an object which stands for or suggests else by reason of relationship, association or convention |
| conflict | the struggle or problem which moves the plot forward and motivates the protagonist |
| subject | topic of the literature, often stated in just a few words |
| theme | the central insight, idea, focus of a work |
| aside | a brief, often sarcastic comment made by an actor to the audience and not meant to be heard by the other stage characters |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| catharsis | an emotional purification or a release |
| chain of being | a metaphor used to express the order and unity of God's creation |
| cosmic justice | evil will be discovered and the consequences will be more evil than the original act |
| tragic flaw (hamartia) | a flaw which leads to a characters eventual downfall or destruction |
| motif | a recurring image or idea in an artistic work which serves to unify its diverse elements. Often a works motif is indicated by the authors deliberate repetition of a significant phrase |
| verbal irony | refers to a statement in which the opposite of what is said is meant |
| dramatic irony | based on the same principal of oppositon between appearance and reality, but here the speaker is unaware of the opposition and thus his ironic statements are not intentional |
| situational irony | is a discrepancy between expectation and realization |
| nemisis | the dealing out of justice at the end of a drama: the good are rewarded, the evil punished |
| paradox | is any statement which appears self-contradictory but has, in fact, real sense |
| soliloquy | a speech made by a character alone on the stage. It is used to reveal the private thoughts of a central character's mind and to fill in important background information. It can also provide motivation or foreshadow future events |
Created by:
nejwa
Popular English Vocabulary sets