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Literary Terms

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Term
Definition
Understatement   A statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said.  
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Figurative language   Language that communicates ideas beyond the ordinary or literal meaning of the words.  
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Literal language   A fact or idea stated directly.  
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Connotation   The attitudes and feelings associated with a word. Negative or positive.  
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Metaphor   A figure of speech that states or suggests that one thing is the same as another. Direct or indirect.  
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Image/Imagery   Words and phrases that create vivid sensory experiences for the reader.  
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Juxtaposition   A placing in nearness or contiguity, or side by side, often done in order to compare/contrast phrases, or ideas.  
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Paradox   A statement that seems self-contradictory, but in reality expresses a possible truth.  
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Satire   A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.  
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Parody   Where one imitates or mocks another work or type of literature.  
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Caricature   A representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect.  
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Sarcasm   A kind of verbal irony, specifically intended to convey insults or scorn.  
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Denotation   The literal or dictionary definition of a word.  
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Direct Presentation   A method of presentation in which the writer explicitly describes a character, situation, or event.  
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Indirect Presentation   The writer presents the character in action, allowing the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about the personality of that character.  
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Audience   The author's reading public; individuals to which one's work is being directed.  
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Register   The level of formality in language as determined by context. Formal and Informal.  
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Motif   The recurrence of either an image, word, or idea in a text.  
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Theme   The implied or stated meaning of the work, stated in a complete sentence.  
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Mood   The predominant emotional characteristic of a work of literature, as experienced by the audience.  
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Tone   The attitude of an author/speaker towards his or her subject matter and office.  
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Description   Language that aims to make vivid a place, object, character, mental/physical sensation, or group.  
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Extended metaphor   A metaphor that is continued over multiple sentences, sections, or throughout a whole text.  
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Simile   A comparison of two unlike things in which a word of comparison (often like or as) is used.  
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Personification   A form of metaphor in which language relating to human action is used to refer to non-human agents or objects,.  
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Irony   An implied discrepancy/difference between what is said and what is meant. Verbal, dramatic and situational.  
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Symbol   Something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible.  
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Dialogue   Conversation between two or more people that advances the action, is consistent with the character of the speakers, and gives relief from passages essentially descriptive or expository.  
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Hyperbole   An intentional exaggeration for emphasis or comic effect.  
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Allusion   An implied or indirect reference in a text, especially to a well-known story, character, or event.  
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Contrast   Actively pointing out differences. Include juxtaposition and oxymoron.  
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Oxymoron   A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.  
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Foreshadowing   A writer's use of hints or clues to indicate events that will occur later in a story.  
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Flashback   A scene in a story or novel that returns the reader to a time earlier than the main action.  
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Cliché   An overused statement that has lost the strength of its meaning  
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Apostrophe   An address to an absent or imaginary person who cannot respond to the speaker.  
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Repetition   The repeated use of the same word or word pattern as a rhetorical device.  
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Parallelism   The repetition of the same grammatical form/structure in two or more parts of a sentence or a section of a text.  
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Euphemism   An inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh.  
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Onomatopoeia   The use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning.  
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Speaker   The persona expressing ideas in a piece of poetry.  
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Stanza   A fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem.  
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Rhyme   The repetition of terminal (ending) sounds of words.  
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Rhyme Scheme   In poetry, the pattern in which rhyme sounds occur in a stanza.  
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Rhythm   The general flow of words according to their length, sequence, punctuation, or combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables.  
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Meter   The basic rhythmic structure of a line within a work of poetry. Consists of two components: the number of syllables, and a pattern of emphasis on those syllables  
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Blank Verse   Unrhymed lines in the same meter, most commonly in iambic pentameter.  
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Free Verse   Poetry without rhyme or fixed metrical pattern.  
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Iambic Pentameter   A metrical line of five metric feet or units, each made up of an unstressed then a stressed syllable  
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Alliteration   The repetition of initial consonant sounds in words.  
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Assonance   Repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences.  
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Consonance   The repetition of consonant sounds, either at the ends of words  
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Sonnet   A verse form consisting of 14 lines in iambic pentameter with a fixed rhyme scheme.  
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Lyric Poetry   A short poem with one speaker which expresses personal thoughts or feelings.  
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Narrative Poetry   A poem that relates an event or a series of events.  
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Epic Poetry   A long narrative that tells of the deeds and adventures of a hero or heroine.  
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Enjambment   The continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next.  
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