Terms | Definitions |
allegory | a literary work in which all or most of the characters, settings, and events symbolize ideas |
alliteration | the repetion of consonant sounds at the beginning of words |
allusion | a reference in a wok of literature to a well-known person, place, event, written work, or work of art |
analogy | a comparison based on a similarity between things that are otherwise dissimilar |
assonance | the repetition of the some or similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end in different consonant sounds |
character | a personage in a narrative of drama |
conflict | the central struggle between two opposing forces in a story or drama |
denotation | the literal, or dictionary, them meaning of a word |
dialogue | conversation between characters in a literary work |
fiction | a narrative in which situations and characters in a literary work |
foil | a minor character whose attitudes, beliefs, and behavior differ significantly from those of a minor character |
genre | a category or type of literature |
hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a oint, or envoke humor |
irony | a contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality |
metaphor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things to help readers perceive the first thing more vividly and suggest an underlying similarity between the two |
narrative | writing that tells a story |
narrator | the person who tells the story |
personification | a figure of speech in which an animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given human qualities |
plot | a sequence of events in a narrative work |
apostrophe | a direct address to someone or something |
aside | (blank) |
Monologue | An extended speech by a single character, a solo speech to listeners. (different than solilogy) |
Moral | a message or lesson implied or directly stated in a literary work. |
Motif | An element that recurs throughout a narrative, or throughout several works. |
Motivation | The reasons an author provides for a character's actions. Can either be explicit or or implicit. |
Onomatopoeia | Literary device that attempts to represent a thing or action by the word that imitates the sound associated with it ex(crash, bang) |
Persona | Latin word for "mask". A ficticious character the author uses to narrate a story. |
Simile | Comparison of two things usually joined by like, as, than or a verb such as resembles. |
Soliloguy | A speech by a character when they are alone on stage. Character says thoughts outloud. |
Symbol | A person place or thing in a narrative that suggests meanings beyond its literal sense. |
Synecdoche | The use of a significant part of a thing to stand for the whole of it, such as wheels for car. |
Tone | The attitude of toward a subject conveyed in a literary work. Can be playful, sarcastic, ironic, sad, solemn, or any other attitude. |
Understatement | An ironic figure of speech that deliverately describes something in a way that is less than the true case. |