| Term | Definition |
|---|
| allegory | A literary form in which some or all of the elements of actions, character, and setting stand for either general concepts or parallel elements in life. |
| alliteration | Repetition of initial consonant sounds or letters in two or more neighboring words or syllables. Mainly for tonal effects. "Scyld, son of Sceaf, Snatched from the forces of savage foes" Basic form of Anglo-Saxon and some medieval verse |
| allusion | A reference in literature to a familiar person, place, thing, or event. |
| ambiguity | A situation in which something can be understood in more than one way and it is not clear which meaning is intended. An expression or statement that has more than one meaning |
| anecdote | Short, personal account of an incedent or event. |
| antagonist | The primary character or entity that acts to frustrate the goals of the protagonist |
| antihero | Somebody who is the central character in a story but who is not brave, noble, or morally good as heroes traditionally are. |
| antithesis | The use of words or phrases that contrasdt with each other or are the exact opposite of each other. "Be not the first by whom the new is tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside." |
| archetype | recurrent patterns, character types, images, symbols in art andliterature. Ex: quest, rite of passage, utopia, rebirth, hero, king, prince, warrior, explorer, child, mother, hermit |
| aside | A remark made by an actor, usually to the audience, that the other characters on stage supposedly cannot hear. A spoken remark not directed to all listeners and usually made in a quiet voice. |
| autobiography | A history or memoir of one's life written by oneself |
| Bildungsroman | A novel of formation or of education; the subject is the development of protagonist's mind and character in passage from childhood into maturity. Often involves a spiritual crisis. |
| biography | A written account of a particular person's life, written by another person |
| character foil | Character who, by his contrast with the protagonist, serves to accentuate that character's distinctive qualities or characteristics. Also know as character foil. |
| characterization | The method the writer uses to reveal or describe characters and their personalities |
| context | The words, phrases, or passages that come before and after a particular word or passage in a speech or piece of writing and help to explain its full meaning. Circumstances or events that form the environment within which something exists or takes place. |
| denouement | a final part in which everything is made clear and no questions or surprises remain. French for "unknotting." |
| diction | Author's word choice |
| direct characterization | the writer tells us directly what a character's personality is like |
| double entendre | A remark that is ambiguous and sometimes sexually suggestive |
| exposition | explanation of background, setting, or situation of the text |
| foreshadowing | Giving suggestions or clues about what will occur later in a text. |
| genre | Distinctive form of literary work. novel, lyric, drama, comedy, romance, tragedy. |
| hamartia | Error of judgement. A defect in the character of the protagonist of a tragedy that brings about his downfall. A tragic flaw. |
| hubris | Pride; especially in Greek tragedy, the pride that sets man at variance with the gods. |
| imagery | Figurative language, especially metaphors and similes. Words or phrases a writer selects to create a picture in the reader's mind. Usually based on sensory detail. |
| in media res | At a critical point in the development of the action: referring to the principle that epics and other narratives should begin literally in the middle of things and postpone previous events to later in the story. |
| indirect characterization | the writer does not tell us what the character is like, he reveals his personality through the character's action's, words, thoughts, and what others say about the character |
| metaphor | A figure of speech in which one object or action is asserted to be another. A resemblance implied rather than stated. |
| monologue | In drama a speech given by an actor by himself, and not part of the chorus or dialogue. |
| motif | An important and repeated theme or element in a text. |
| non-fiction | Prose literature comprised of factual information. |
| novel | A long fictitious prose narrative; the characters and action usually represent real life. |
| personification | The attributing of human qualities to animals, to abstractions, or to inanimate objects. |
| poetry | A literary work written in verse, in particular verse writing of high quality, great beauty, emotional sincerity or intensity, or profound insight. |
| prose | Writing or speech in its normal continuous form, without the rhythmic or visual line structure of poetry. |
| protagonist | The main character or hero of the story. |
| rising action | Action or sequence of events in a text. Series of conflicts that build toward the climax |
| simile | A figure of speech that draws a comparison between two different things, especially a phrase containing the word "like" or "as" |
| tragic hero | A character who experiences an inner struggle because of a character flaw. The flaw causes the downfall of the hero. |
| voice | Awareness of a voice behind the fictitious voices that speak in a text. Sense of a pervasive authorial presence, intelligence, and moral sensibility which invented and ordered the literary characters. |
Combine with other sets
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