| Term | Definition |
|---|
| alliteration | using the same consonant to start two or more stressed words or sullables in a phrase of verse line |
| consonance | the repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighboring words whose vowel sounds are different |
| couplet | a pair of successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length |
| end stopped | a verse line ending at a grammatical boundary or berak, such as a dash, a closing parenthesis, or punctuation such as a colon, a semi-colon, or a period. The opposite to an endstopped line is a line subject to enjambment |
| enjambment | the running over of a sentence or phrase from one verse to the next without terminal punctuation, hence not endstopped. Such verses can be called run-on lines |
| free verse | rhythmical but non-metrical, non-rhyming lines. These may have a deliberate rhythm or cadence but seem to disappoint the reader's expectation for a formal meter such as iambix pentameter |
| hyperbole | exaggeration beyond reasonable credence |
| metaphor | a comparison that is made literally without pointing out a similarity by using words such as "as," "like," or "than" |
| oxymoron | an expression impossible in fact but not necessarily self-contradictory |
| refrain | one or more lines repeated before or after the stanzas of a poem |
| rhyme | words that share all sounds following the word's lasy stressed syllable |
| simile | a comparison using like or as |
| antagonist | the most prominent of the characters who oppose the protagonist or hero(ine) in a dramatic or narrative work |
| allusion | a reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, movement, etc |
| anachronism | the act of attributing a custom, event, or object to a period of which it does not belong |
| characters | the people appearing in a literary work |
| characterization | the representation of persons in narrative and dramatic works |
| direct characterization | the method by which the author describes, and commencts on, characters' motives and values and often also passes judgement on characters and events, as a means of shaping the reader's response |
| dynamic characters | undergo some type of change or development in the story, often beecause of something that happens to them |
| euphemism | a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarassing |
| flat characters | these characters are sterotyped, shallow, and often symbolic. They have only one or two personality traits |
| foreshadowing | a warning or indication of the future |
| indirect characterization | simply presenting characters' words and actions without commentary and allowing that dramatization to imply their motives, feelings, and values |
| protagonist | the main character in a literary work |
| realism | a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully an actual way of life |
| round characters | convincing and true to life. They have many different, and sometimes even contradictory personality traits |
| static characters | do not change over the course of the story |
| novel | an extended fictional prose narrative |
| plot | the pattern of events and situations in a narrative or dramatic work, as selected and arranged both to emphasize relationships - usually of cause and effect - between incidents and to elicit a particular kind of interest in the reader or audience, such as surpise or suspense |
| narrator | one who tells, or is assumed to be telling, the story in a given narrative |
| point of view | the position or vantage - point from which the events of a story seem to be observed and presented to us |
| prose | the form of written language that is not organized according to the formal patterns of verse; although it will have some sort of rhythm and some devices of repetition and balance, these are not governed by a regularly sustained formal arrangement, the significant unit being the sentence rather than the line |
| symbol | anything that stands for or represents something else beyond it |
| diction | the choice of words used in a literary work |
| fiction | the general term used for invented stories, usually applied to novels, short stories, novellas, romances, fables, and other narrative works in prose |
| first person narrative | a narrative or mode of storytelling in which the narrator appears as the T recollecting his or her own part of events related |
| narrative writing | a telling of some true or fictitious event or connected sequence of events, recounted by a narrator |
| satire | a mode of writing that expresses the failings of individuals, institutions, or societies to ridcule and scorn |
| setting | the time and place in which a story's plot unfolds |
| stream of consiousness | the continuous flow of sense perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind; a literary method of representating such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue |
| dialogue | spoken exchanges between or among characters in a dramatic or narrative work |
| flashback | when some of the events of a story are related at a point in the narrative after later story events have already been recounted; enables a storyteller to fill in background information about characters and events |
| point of view | the position or vantage point from which the events of a story seem to be observed and presented to us |
| syntax | the way in which words and clauses are ordered and connected so as to form sentences |
| assonance | the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of neighboring words |
| imagery | the uses of language used in a literary work that evoke sense impressions by literal or figurative references to perceptible or concrete objects, scenes, actions, of states |
| metonymy | figure of speech in which the name of something closely associated with a thing is substituted for the name |
| onomatopoeia | an instance where the sound of a word directly imitates its meaning |
| personification | giving human characters to inanimate objects, animals, or abstract ideas |
| drama | the general term for performances in which actors impersonate the actions and speech of fictional or historical characters for the entertainment of an audience |
| allegory | a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one |
| irony | the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite |
| romanticism | a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual |
| theme | an insight about life or human nature |
| tone | the emotional attitude toward the reader (formal, intimate, pompous) or toward the subject (ironic, light, solemn, satiric, sentimental) implied by a literary work |
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