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HJLA Midterm
Literary Terms
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Metaphor | Comparing without like or as |
| Simile | Comparing with the use of like or as |
| Allusion | Reference to a historical event or to a mythical or literary figure |
| Aphorism | a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation, as “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton) |
| Alliteration | Repetition of consonant sounds |
| Antagonist | Character in a story or poem who opposes the main character (protagonist). Sometimes the antagonist is an animal, an idea, or a thing. Examples of such antagonists might include illness, oppression, or the serpent in the biblical story of Adam and Eve |
| Apostrophe | Addressing an abstraction or a thing, present or absent; addressing an absent entity or person; addressing a deceased person |
| Static Character | Character in a literary work who does not change his or her outlook in response to events taking place |
| Dynamic Character | in literature or drama a character who undergoes a permanent change in outlook or character during the story |
| Diction | the choice and use of words in writing or speech |
| Deism | The belief that God has created the universe but remains apart from it and permits his creation to administer itself through natural laws |
| Meter | the rhythmic arrangement of syllables in verse, usually according to the number and kind of feet in a line |
| Paradox | a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement that is or may be true |
| Idyll | a poem or prose work describing an idealized rural life, pastoral scenes, etc; any simple narrative or descriptive piece in poetry or prose |
| Protagonist | the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work |
| Direct Characterization | in literature and drama, the method of character development in which the author simply tells what the character is like |
| Indirect Characterization | This is the revelation of characteristics, feelings, or viewpoints of a character using the actions of the character (or his interaction with other characters), rather than simply stating them |
| Inversion | any change from a basic word order or syntactic sequence, as in the placement of a subject after an auxiliary verb in a question or after the verb in an exclamation, as “When will you go?” and “How beautiful is the rose!” |
| Pathetic fallacy | poetic practice of attributing human emotion or responses to nature, inanimate objects, or animals. The practice is a form of personification that is as old as poetry |
| Foil | a person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast |
| Prose | the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse |
| Pseudonym | a fictitious name used by an author to conceal his or her identity; pen name |
| Plot | Also called storyline. the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story |
| Plain style | writing with simple diction, simple sentence structure, and clear images |
| Conceit | an elaborate image or far-fetched comparison, esp as used by the English Metaphysical poets |
| Connotation | he associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning |
| Denotation | the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression |
| Parallel structure | grammar usage to create balance in a sentence between two words, phrases, or clauses. This helps the overall readability of the sentence |
| Analogy | a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based |
| Irony | a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated |
| Satire | a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule |
| Poetry | literature in metrical form; verse |
| Rationalism | reliance on reason rather than intuition to justify one's beliefs or actions |
| Style | the mode of expressing thought in writing or speaking by selecting and arranging words, considered with respect to clearness, effectiveness, euphony, or the like, that is characteristic of a group, period, person, personality, etc |
| Rhyme Scheme | the pattern of rhymes used in a poem, usually marked by letters to symbolize correspondences, as rhyme royal, ababbcc |
Created by:
AliRutherford
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