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Literary Terms_Eng 1
Literary terms for 9th grade PREAP English I
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Not attached to anything specific or concrete Ex: Theory |
| Active Voice | Verb that is an action (as opposed to passive voice). Example: Jane *sweeps* the floor. |
| Ad hominem | An argument attacking an individual's character rather than the issue. Ex: Bill: "I believe that abortion is morally wrong." Dave: "Of course you would say that, you're a priest." |
| Aesthetic | Relating to beauty or to a branch of philosophy concerned with art, beauty, and taste. |
| Allegory | A narrative in which literal meaning corresponds directly with symbolic meaning. Example: Animal Farm and Russian Revoluation (Napoleon=Stalin, 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. Ex: 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. Ex: 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. Ex: Trying to get a 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. Ex: Aunt Joan loves to tell anecdotes or her childhood. |
| antecedent | what noun the pronoun is replacing. Ex: "I love reading. It makes me happy." the antecedent of "it" is "reading" |
| antihero/antiheroine | a protagonist who is not a good person |
| antimetabole | reversing the order of repeated words or phrases (ex: all work and no play is as harmful to mental health as all play and no work. ) |
| antithesis | parallelism with contradictory ideas. ex: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. |
| aproia | 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) |
| apostrophe | directly addressing either a dead person or an inanimate object. |
| appeals | methods authors use to gain favor in rhetoric, or establish tone |
| pathos/emotional appeals | appeals to audiences's feelings and sympathies |
| logos/logical appeals | appeals to audience's brain/logical side |
| ethos/ethical 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 (ex: knight in shinning armor, villain, the sidekick, the Graden of Eden) |
| assonance | repetition of similar vovwel sounds in nearby words |
| asyndeton | the omission or conjunctions in a series. ex: on my desk are pens, books, papers, exams. the omision of the conjunction emphasizes quality. |
| bathos | a sudden change from extreme lighthearted to extreme sentiment. |
| bildungsroman | a novel about the education or psychological growth of the protagonist |
| caricature | the author's exaggeration or distortion of certain traits or characteristics of an individual. Chalres Dickens's characters are often carictures. |
| cacophony | an arrangement of harsh-sounding words. 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. ex: "life imittates art far more 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 thery're not as powerful. ex: she decided to turn over a new leaf. |
| colloquialism | an informal expression or slang, usually limited to a certain geographical area/culture. ex. Y'all vs. you guys, soda vs. pop, sneakers vs. tennis shoes vs. trainers |
| comic relief | a character whose atcions are comedic and break up tension. |
| conceit | a far-fetched metaphor/simile |
| conflict | the problem a character faces |
| internal conflict | problem within one self |
| external conflict | outside problem, another person or perhaps a thing |
| connotation | the emotional side of a word (implied meaning that it has). for ex: trash and garbage have the same denotion (dictionary definition), but trash sounds more negative. other ex: lie vs. fib, essay vs. paper, novel vs. book, unattractive vs. ugly |
| consonance | the repetion of consonats in a sequence of nearby words, expecially at the end of stressed sylables or words when threre is no similar repetions of vowel sounds (example: moth breath) |
| denotation | the dictionary definition of a word |
| dues ex machina | literarlly "god in the machine." It's when a character is saved by a miraculously or improbably event. stems from Greek ida that the gods would come in a 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 | figure of speech in which a word or short phrase is omitted. ex: "out of many, one." what is left out is a verb, but we understand it to mean "out of many there is one." |
| Epanalepsis | repetition at the end of a clause of the word that appeared at the beginning of the clause. ex: possessing what we were still unpossessed by/ possessed by what we now no more possessed. |
| epigraph | a quotation placed at the beginning of a piece of leterature or at the beginning or one of its chapters or scenes to provide the readerw with some ideas abou tht econtent or meaning to follow. |
| epithet | an adjective or phrase that describes a prominent or distinguishing feature of a person or thing. |
| epiphany | a sudding, powerful, and often spiritual or life-changing realization that a character 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.) |
| epistrophe | the repetition of the word or group of words at the end of successive phrases, clauses, verses or sentences |
| epizeuxis | repetition of the same word without any other words between them. ex; "he! He stole my book!" |
| euphemism | a nice way of saying something unpleasant. ex: passed away instead of died. |
| euphony | a pleasing arrangement of sounds, swish, smooth, mushroom. |
| eulogy | a formal statement of praise (usually said at funerals) |
| foil | a character whose traits sharphly 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 flaw of a tragic hero |
| Hyperbole | an exaggeration, also known as an overstatement. |
| idiom | a phrase that is worded oddly, yet everyone understands. Ex: 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 ususally translate well into other languages. |
| imagery | language that appeals to the five senses - great descriptions of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. |
| in media res | Latin for "in the middle of things" - it's when a piece of literature starts in the middle of the action, not in the beginning. |
| irony | a contrast between what should be and what seems to be, a difference between expectation a fulfillment. |
| dramatic Irony | when the audience knows something about the plot that the characters don't know |
| cosmic irony | the depiction or fate or the universe as malicious or indifferent to human suffering, creating a painful contrast between our purposeful activity and its ultimate meaning less. |
| situational irony | a technique in which the logical outcome doesn't happen - an illogical, unforeseen outcome (usually the opposite of what SHOULD happen) |
| verbal irony | saying one thing, but meaning another |
| juxtaposition | placing unexpected combinations 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 is often affirmed by negating its opposite. (Queen Victoria saying, "We are not amused). |
| metaphor | comparing two unlike things - doesn't use "like " or "as" |
| metonymy | figure of speech in which something is referred to by one of its attributes. Example: "Friends, Romans, countrymen... lend me your ears." or when one term is substituted for something that closely resembles it. 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 |
| onomatopoeia | words that sound like what they do. Ex: snap, crackle, pop |
| oxymoron | the association of two contradictory terms. Example: jumbo Shrimp |
| paradox | a phrase that seems to be contradictory, yet there's some truth behind it. Ex: 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 mayor did a terrible job this year..." |
| parallelism | the use of similar grammatical structures or word order in two or more sentences, clauses or phrases to suggest a comparison or contrast between them. Ex: "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 point of view | 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 point of view | when the narrator is not a character, but talks to the audience. Addresses the audiences as "you", etc. |
| third person limited point of view | when the narrator is not a character, but the story is focusing on one character and what he/she knows, sees, |
| third person omniscient point of view | when the narrator is not a character, and the story is told from many perspectives: we see what many characters are thinking, seeing, feeling, doing, etc. |
| third person omniscient objective point of view | 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 series. ex: on my desk are books and pens and paper and pencil. Polysyndenton emphasizes quantity. |
| propaganda | ideas, facts, or allegations spread to persuade others 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 definition of the words or similarity in ways words are pronounced. ex: writing with a broken pencil is pointless. |
| rhetoric | the art of persuasion |
| rhetorical question | a question that does not warrant a response, 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 things using "like" or "as' |
| syllepsis | when one word modifies two or more words in other ways. ex: "mr. pickwick 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 Fluffy barks, then Fluffy is a dog. if a=b, b=c, then a=c. |
| Synaesthesia | the use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another. ex: she has a hunger to swim in the icy pond. |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part of an entity is used to refer to the whole or 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 needless and redundant repetition. ex: free gift, widow woman. Duh. Gifts are free, widows are women. |
| tone | the author's attitude of what he/she is writing about |
| understatement | deliberately representing/describing something with less importance than it really is. For example, if you parents are angry, an understatement would be describe then as a bit unhappy. |
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