| Term | Definition |
|---|
| allegory | A story in which each aspect has a symbolic meaning outside the story itself. |
| alliteration | repetition at close intervals of initial consonant sounds |
| allusion | an implicit reference within a literary work to a historical or literary person, place, or event |
| anachronism | out of place for a particular time period |
| anagnorisis | the critical moment of recognition or discovery |
| anaphora | the regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of two or more successive phrases or clauses. |
| anastrophe | a rhetorical term for the inversion of the normal order of the parts of a sentence. |
| anecdote | A short narrative or an interesting or entertaining nature. |
| antagonist | The force in conflict with the protagonist, may be society, nature, fate, self, or another person |
| anthropomorphism | inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena have human characteristics, behavior, or motivation |
| antithesis | The balancing of contrasted words, ideas, etc. against each other. |
| aphorism | short and usually witty saying; e.g. "Classic? A book which people praise and don't read." --Mark Twain |
| apostrophe | speaking to someone or something as if it were standing in front of you |
| apposition | a sentence where a noun or phrase is placed beside another to explain the first |
| archetype | a theme, motif, symbol, or stock character that holds a familiar and fixed place in a culture's consciousness |
| aside | a speech made by an actor to the audience as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage |
| assonance | repetition of identical VOWEL sounds in words that occur in close proximity: "it's hot and monotonious" |
| atmosphere | suggestive mood that the setting may create |
| bathos, pathos | when the writing of a scene evokes feelings of dignified pity & sympathy, pathos is at work;when writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries to elicit tears from every little hiccup=bathos |
| bildungsroman | A German term, "formation novel" "coming-of-age novel" for a novel about a child or adolescent's development into maturity with special attention focused on the protagonist's quest for identity |
| black comedy | disturbing or absurd material presented in humorous manner, usually with the intention of confronting uncomfortable truths EX: Catch-22 |
| burlesque | a broad parody, one that takes a style or a form, and exaggerates it into ridiculousness |
| cacophony | harsh, non-melodic, unpleasant sounding arrangement of sounds |
| catalyst | a person or thing that precipitates an event or change |
| catharsis | cleansing of emotion an audience experiences, having lived vicariously through the experiences presented on stage |
| cliche | an expression such as "turn over a new leaf" that has been used so frequently it has lost all its expressive power |
| climax | the moment of highest tension, at which the conflict comes to a head |
| colloquialism | A colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech. |
| conceit | A startling or unusual metaphor usually extended beyond one line. AKA metaphysical conceit |
| conflict | the central struggle that moves the plot forward; against another person or element of nature, fate, society, etc |
| connotation | the emotions associated with a word |
| consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds within words (not beginning). |
| denotation | basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word |
| deus ex machina | Literally "god from the machine." This is a plot device in which a person or thing appears "out of the blue" to help a character to overcome a seemingly insolvable difficulty. |
| diction | author's choice of words; wept vs. cried for example |
| didactic literature | literature intended to instruct or educate |
| dramatic irony | when the audience know something that the characters in the drama do not. |
| dynamic characters | characters who undergo change because of the action in the plot |
| Electra complex | The term given for an unnatural obsession with one's father by his daughter. |
| elegy | poem meditating on death or mortality seriously |
| epic | a lengthy narrative that describes the deeds of a heroic figure, often of national or cultural importance, in elevated language |
| epiphony | a sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life changing realization that a character reaches in an otherwise ordinary or everyday moment |
| epistolary novel | a novel written as a series of letters |
| epithet | an adjective or phrase that describes a prominent feature of a person or thing "Richard 'the lionheart'" |
| euphemism | word or phrase tha takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant reality; ex. "passed away"=died |
| euphony | a pleasing arrangement of sounds |
| exposition | introduces the setting, characters, and basic situation |
| falling action or denouement | latter part of the narrative; during which the protagonist responds to the events of the climax and the various plot elements introduced in the rising action are resolved. |
| farce | A light dramatic work employing unlikely situations, broad stereotypes, exaggeration, and violence. |
| figurative language | a way of saying something other than the literal meaning |
| first-person narration | a narrative in which the narrator tells the story from his/her own point of view and refers to him/herself as "I"; active participant in novel or observer |
| flashback | a sudden vivid memory of an event in the past |
| flat character | Not fully developed, we only know one side of the character |
| foil | a secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast |
| foreshadowing | an author's deliberate use of hints or suggestions to give a preview of events or themes that do not develop until later in the narrative |
| genre | a "type" or kind of literature |
| hamartia | the tragic character's inner weakness or error in judgment |
| hubris | pride--the most common character flaw of tragic character |
| hyperbole | exaggeration, overstatement |
| imagery | representation through language of a sensory experience (five senses) |
| In medias res | Latin term for "in the midst of things." One of the conventions of the epic, denoting that the action begins in the middle of the story. |
| internal conflict | conflict type; person in conflict with some aspect of self |
| irony | difference between what might be expected and what actually happens |
| juxtaposition | the deliberate positioning of two elements (words, ideas, etc.) in order to emphasize the relationship between the two |
| memoir | an autobiographical work, pays significant attention to the author's involvement in historical events and the characterization of individuals other than the author |
| metaphor | comparison of two dissimilar items: "Her feet were boats." |
| mimesis | imitation of human action represented in art form (literature) |
| mixed metaphor | a combination of metaphors that produces a confused or contradictory image ex: "the company's collapse left a mountain of debt in its wake" |
| mood | the atmosphere suggested by the setting or diction = emotional response from reader |
| motif | a recurring structure, contrast, or other device that develops or informs a work's major themes |
| novella | a work of fiction of middle length, often divided into a few short chapters |
| Oedipus complex | sigmund Freud's theory that a male child feels unconscious jealousy toward his father and lust for his mother |
| omniscient narration | the narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the characters. |
| onomatopoeia | use of words which mimic their meaning in sound |
| opposition | a pair of elements that contrast sharply |
| oxymoron | the association of two contrary terms ex: "same difference" "wise fool" |
| parable | A short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth religious principle, or moral lesson. |
| paradox | statement that seems like a contradiction, but actually has truth |
| parallelism | repeated syntactical similarities used for effect |
| parody | a humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author |
| pathos | feeling"; the quality in a work of literature that evokes high emotion, most commonly sorrow, pity, or compassion |
| periodic sentence | A sentence that is not grammatically complete until its end. |
| peripetia | a sudden shift that sends the protagonist's fortunes from good to bad or vice versa |
| personification | giving a non-human the characteristics of a human |
| plot | the main events of a play, a novel, move or similar work |
| point of view | mental position from which things are viewed |
| protagonist | The hero or usually main character of the story. |
| pun | a witty word-play which reveals that words with different meanings have similar or even identical sounds. |
| resolution (denouement) | where the conflict has ended/been resolved |
| rhetoric | the art of persuasive writing; broadly, the art of all effective writing. |
| rising action | the early part of the narrative, which builds momentum and develops the narrative's major conflict |
| round character | Fully developed, with many traits- bad and good |
| sarcasm | a simple form of verbal irony in which it is obvious from context and tone that the speaker means the opposite of what he or she says |
| satire | writing that ridicules or holds up to contempt the faults of individuals or groups |
| setting | The time and place where the story happens. |
| simile | comparison using like or as |
| situational irony | When the reverse of the expected happens or when the person you least expect to do something does it. |
| soliloquy | a speech, often in verse, by a lone character; most common in dramas EX: Hamlet's "to be or not to be" |
| static character | one who does not change throughout the story |
| stereotype/archetype | A type of logical oversimplification in which all the members of a class or set are considered to be definable by easily distinguishable set of characteristics. |
| stream-of-consciousness narration | the narrator conveys a subject's thoughts, impressions, and perceptions exactly as they occur, often in disjointed fashion and without the logic and grammar of typical speech and writing |
| suspense | The anxiety that we feel about what will happen next in a story. |
| symbol | a person, place, thing or an event that stands for itself and beyond itself |
| synaesthesia | the use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another ex: "heard melodies are sweet" |
| synecdoche | a form of metonymy in which a part of an entity is used to refer to the whole ex: "my wheels" for "my car" |
| syntax | refers to the structuring of words; greedily i devoured the cheese pizza vs. the pizza was cheese; I devoured it greedily. |
| theme | moral or lesson that was the author's purpose for writing the story |
| thesis | the central argument that an author makes in a work |
| third person omniscient | narrator can tell thoughts and feelings of characters in the story |
| tone | writer's attitude toward the audience or subject, implied or related directly |
| verbal irony | the use of a statement that, by its context, implies its opposite; sarcasm is a particulary blunt form of sarcasm |
Combine with other sets
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