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Samen Literary Terms
Literary Terminology for English
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| abstract | not attched to anything specific or concrete |
| active voice | verythat is an action(as opposed to passive voice). Example: Jane swees the floor. |
| ad hominem | relating to beauty or to a branch of philosophy concerned with art, beauty and taste. |
| aesthetic | relating to beauty or to a branch of philosophy concerned with art, beauty and taste |
| allegory | a narrative in which literary meaning corresponds directly with symbolic meaning Example:Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian Revolution (Napoleon = Staling, Animal Farm = Russia, etc. |
| alliteration | repetition of similar consonant sounds in the beginning of words |
| allusion | a reference within a literary work to a historical or literary person,place or event |
| anachronism | the misplacement of a person, occurrence, custom or idea in time. Example: in Julius Caesar, a character mentions a watch. Watches did not exist in ancient Rome (they existed in the time of the author, Shakespeare). |
| anadiplosis | repetition of a word at the end of a phrase, sentence, etc. which then begins the next phrase, clause, sentence, etc. Example: I ran to the store. The store had plenty of oranges for me. |
| analogy | a comparison between two things that are otherwise unlike. Often analogies draw a comparison between something abstract and something more concrete or easier to visualize. Example:trying to geta confession out of the suspect was like pulling teeth |
| anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases and sentences |
| antagonist | the person or obstacle that gets in the way of the protagonist's accomplishment of his/her goal. |
| anecdote | a brief narration of an event or person. Example: Aunt Joan loves to tell anecdotes of her childhood. |
| antecedent | what noun the pronoun is replacing. Example: "i love reading. It makes me happy." The antexendent of "it" is "reading" |
| antihero/antiheroine | a protagonist who is not a good person |
| antimetablore | reversing the order of repeated words or phreases (example- all work and no play is as harmful to mental health as all play and no work) |
| antithesis | parallelism with contradictory ideas. Example- It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. |
| aporia | expression of doubt(often feigned) by which a speaker appears uncertain as to what he should think, say, do. |
| aposiopesis | a sudden breaking off of speech, usually due to excitement (either positive or negative) |
| apostrope | directly addressing either a dead person or an inanimate object. |
| appeals | methods authors use to gain favor in rhetoric, or to establish tone. |
| pathos/emotional appeals | appeals to audience's feeling and sympathies |
| logos/logical appeals | appeals to audience's brain/logical side |
| ethos/eithcal appeals | attempts to sway readers by creating a positive impression of his/her character |
| archetype | a theme, motif, symbol or stock character that holds a familiar place in culture's consciousness (example- knight in shining armor, villaion, the sidekick, the Garden of Eden) |
| assonance | repetition of similar vowel sounds in nearby words |
| asyndeton | the omission or conjunctions in a series. Example: on my desk are pens, books, papers, exams. The omission of the conjunction emphaizes quality. |
| bathos | a sudden cahnge form extreme lighheartned to extreme sentiment |
| bildungsroman | a novel aboutthe education or psycoological growth of the protagnoist |
| caricature | the author's exaggeration or distrotion of crtain traits or characteristics of a n individual. Charles Dicken's characters are often caricatures. |
| cacophony | an arrangement of harsh sounding words. Example: kill, crack, create, danger, cupcake |
| catharsis | a cleansing or purification of one's emotions through art |
| chiasmus | two phrases in which the syntax is the same, but the placement of words is reversed. Example:"LIfe imitates art far movre than art imitates life." |
| climax | the moment of greatest intensity in a text, or the major turning point in the plot |
| cliche | expressions that are used so frequently that they're not as powerful. Example:she decided to turn over a new leaf. |
| colloquialism | an informal expression or slang, usually limited to a certain geoggraphical area/ culture. Example: Y'all vs. you guys, soda vs. pop, sneakers vs. tennis shoes vs. trainers. |
| comic relief | a character whose actions are comedic and break up tention |
| conceit | a far fetched metaphor/simile |
| conflict | the problem a character faces |
| internal conflict | porblem within oneself |
| exteranl conflict | outside problem- another person or perhaps a thing |
| connotation | the emotional side of a word (implied meaning that it had). For example, trash and garbage have the same defination, but trash sounds more negative.Other examples: lie vs. fib, essay vs. paper, novel vs. book, unattractive vs. ugly. |
| consonance | the repetition of consonants in a a sequence of nearby words, especially at the end of stressed syllables or words when there is no similar repetition of vowel sounds. Example: moth breath |
| denotation | the dictionary defination of a word |
| dues es machina | literally "god in the machine." It's when a character is saved by a miraculously or improbably event. Stems from Greek idea that gods woould come in and rescue |
| diction | specific word choice used in a piece of writing. often chosen for effect but also for correctness and clarity |
| didactic | intended to instruct or to educate |
| ellipses | figrue of speech in which word or short phrase is omitted,easily understood from the context Ex Our national motto is E pluribus unum, which translates to "out of many one" what is left out is a verb, but we understand it to mean "out of many there is one |
| epanaliepsis | repetition at the end of a clause of the word that appears at the beginning of the clause. Example: possessing waht we were still unpossessed by/ possessed by what we now no more possessed |
| epigraph | a quotation placed at the beginning of a piece of literature or at the beginning or one of its chapters or sceanes to provide the reader with some ideas about the content or mean to follow |
| epithet | an adjective or phrases hat describes a prominent or distinguishing feature of a person or thing |
| epiphany | a sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life-changing realiztion that a chaaracter reaches in an otherwise ordinary or everyday moment |
| epistolary | a type of narration through letters (as in "Dear John" kind of letter, not "abc" kind of letters). |
| eepistrophe | the repetition of the word or group of words at the end of successive phrases, clauses, verses or sentences |
| epizeuxis | reptition of the same word without an other words between them. Example: "He! He stole my book!" |
| euphemism | a nice way of saying something unpleasant. Example: passes away instead of died. |
| euphony | a pleasing arrangements of sounds. Swish, smooth, mushrooms. |
| eulogy | a formal statement of praise (usually said at funerals) |
| foil | character whose traits sharply contrast those of another. Their qualities stand out because of that sharp contrast |
| foreshadow | deliberately presenting hints as to what will happen later in the story |
| hamartia | the tragic/fatal flaq of a tragic hero |
| hyperbole | an exaggeration, also known as an overstatement |
| idiom | an phrase that is worded oddly, yet everyone understands. Example: it's raining cats and dogs. It's not really raining furry creatures, but we know that the phrase means that it's raining very hard. Idioms don't usually traslate well into other languages. |
| imagery | language that appeals to the five senses, great descriptions of sight, sounds, taste, smell and touch |
| in media res | latin for "in the middle of things", its when a piece of literature starts in the middle of the action, not the beginning |
| irony | a contrast between what should be and what seems to be, a difference between expectation and fulfifllment. The most important types of irony |
| dramatic irony | when thw audience knows something about the plot that the characters don't know |
| cosmic irony | the depiction or fate or the universe as malicious or indiffernt to human suffering, creating a painful contrast between our purposeful activity and its ultimate meaningless |
| situational irony | a technique in which the logical outcome doesnt happen- an illogical, unforeseen outcome(usually the opposite of what SHOULD happen |
| verbal irony | saying one thing, but meaning another |
| juxapossition | placing unexpected comnination of words or ideas side by side |
| legend | a widely told story of the past that might or might not be true |
| litotes | deliberate understatement in which an idea or opinion if often affirmed by negating its opposte. (Queen Victoria saying, "We are not amused). |
| metaphor | comparing two unlike things doesn't use "like" or "as" |
| metonymy | a figure of speech in which something referred to by one of its attributes. Ex: Romans, countrymen lend me your ears." or when one is substituted for something that closely resembles it. "the white house released a statement today White house = government |
| mood | the feeling that the audience has while reading a work of literature. Mainly created by the setting. |
| motif | a recurring idea, structure, contrast, or device that develops or informs the major themes of a work of literature |
| myth | a story about the origins of one's beliefs and practices of culture |
| onoatopoeia | words that sound like what they do. Example: snap, crackle, pop! |
| oxymoron | the association or two contradictory terms. Example: jumbo shirmp |
| paradox | a phrase that seems to be contradictory, yet there's some truth behind it. Example-Things will get worse before they get better |
| paralipsis | drawing attention to something by claiming not to mention it. "i will not tell you that the major did a terrible job this year.." |
| parallelism | the use of similar grammatical structres or word order in two or more sentences, clauses, or phrases to sugges comparison or contrast between them. Example: "before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream." |
| passive voice | using "to be" verbs- am, are, be, been, is was, were, etc. Verbs that don't show an action |
| personification | the use of human characteristics to describe animals, objects, or ideas |
| point of view | the perspective the story is told in |
| first person | when the narrator is a character in the story. The story is only known from what that character sees, hears, knows, etc. uses first person pronouns- I, we, us, my mine |
| second person | when the narrator is not a character, but talks to the udience. Addresses the audiences as "you", etc. |
| third person limited | when the narrator is not a character, but the story is focusing on one character and what he/she knows, sees, etc. |
| third person omniscient | when the narraor is not a character, and the story is told from many perspectives- we sees what many chracters are thinking, seeing, feeling, doing, etc. |
| third person omniscient objective- | the narrator reports neutrally on the outward behavior of the characters, but offers not interpretation of their actions or inner states |
| polysyndeton | the use of conjunctions in between each item of a seies. Example- on my desk are books and pens and paper and pencils. Polysyndenton emphasizes |
| propaganda | ideas, facts, or allegations spread to persuade other to support one's cause or to go against the opposing cause |
| protagonist | the main character in a piece of literature |
| pun | a play on words that exploits either the double defination of the words or similarity in ways words are pronounced. Example- writing with a broken pencil is pointless |
| rhetoric | the art of persuasion |
| rhetoricl question | a question that doesnt warrant a reponse, but calls attention to the subject of the question |
| satire | a work that ridicules elements of society- it pokes fun to prove a point |
| simile | comparing two unlike thigns using "like" or "as" |
| syllepsis | when one word modifies two or more words in other ways. Example: "Mr. Pickwich took his hat and his leave." |
| syllogism | a type of argument in which a conclusion is inferred from a general statement. Example: If all dogs bark, and Fluggy bards, the fluffy is a dog. a=b and b=c then a=c. |
| synaesthesia | the use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another.Example: she has a hunger to swim in the icy pond. |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part of entity is used to refer to the whole when a genus is referred to by a species. Ex: want to take a ride in my new wheels |
| syntax | the sentence structure choice an author makes |
| tautology | obvious needlessnd redundant repetition. Example: free gift, widow woman, Duh. Gifts are free. Widows are women |
| tone | the author's attiture of what he/she is writing about |
| understatement | deliberately representing/describing something with less importance than it really is. For example, if your parents are angry, an understatement would be to describe them as bit unhappy. |
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