English Literary Terms I-P
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37 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Indeterminate Ending | A story ending in which there is no clear outcome or result |
| Indirect Presentation | A writer lets you arrive at your own conclusions regarding a character |
| Internal Rhyme | Rhyme which occurs in lines of poetry |
| Introduction | Provides necessary background details |
| Irony | What you expect to happen does not happen or what you didn't expect to happen happens |
| Verbal Irony | Contrast between what character says and actually means |
| Dramatic Irony | Author shares with reader information that is not known to character |
| Situational Irony | Set of circumstances turns out differently from what is expected or considered appropriate |
| Jargon | The language or vocabulary |
| Juxtaposition | Act or instance of placing two things close together or side by side (often done in order to compare/contrast) |
| Legend | A story which has a basis in fact but which also includes imaginative material |
| Literal Language | Literal expressions denote what they mean according to common or dictionary usage |
| Litotes | A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite |
| Lyric | Short poem expressing the internal and emotional thoughts of a single speaker |
| Melodrama | A drama, such as a play, movie or television show, characterized by exaggerated emotions, stereotypical characters and interpersonal conflicts |
| Metaphor | A comparison between two things that is not literally applicable |
| Metre | The pattern of stressed syllables which occurs at regular intervals and makes up the rhythm of a verse |
| Metonymy | The name of some object or idea is substituted for another |
| Monologue | An extended speech by one person |
| Mood | The feeling or emotional atmosphere present in a literary work |
| Myth | An anonymous tale, supposedly historical, the origins of which are unknown |
| Narrative | A poem that tells a story and organizes its action according to a sequence of time |
| Narration | An account, story, or narrative |
| Narrator | The being telling the story |
| Objective Point of View | The author presents his characters in an impersonal, noncommittal fashion without offering any judgment of them or their actions |
| Octave | An eight line stanza |
| Ode | A poem on an exalted theme, expressed in dignified, sincere language, serious in tone, and usually in praise of something or someone |
| Onomatopoeia | Words that imitate the sounds they represent |
| Overstatement | An exaggerated statement (hyperbolic) |
| Oxymoron | An expression that combines two seemingly incompatible terms |
| Paradox | A statement that may seem to be absurd but is actually true |
| Parallelism | The use of identical or equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding clauses or phrases |
| Parody | A poem written in humorous imitation of another poem |
| Pastoral | Literature concerning country life |
| Pathetic Fallacy | The attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects |
| Pathos | The quality in a work of literature which evokes from the reader feelings of pity, tenderness and sympathy |
| Pentameter | Five metric feet per line |
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