| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Allegory | a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. |
| Analogy | the comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship. The key is to ascertain the relationship between the first so you can choose the correct second pair. Part to whole, opposites, results of are types of relationships you should find. |
| Archetype | the usage of any object or situation as it was originally made - think of it as the biggest cliché ever, but one that never dies. |
| Conflict | the struggle found in fiction. Conflict/Plot may be internal or external and is best seen in (1) Man in conflict with another Man: (2) Man in conflict in Nature; (3) Man in conflict with self. |
| Connotation | an implied meaning of a word. Opposite of denotation. |
| Denotation | the literal meaning of a word, the dictionary meaning. Opposite of connotation |
| Diction | 1. Choice and use of words in speech or writing. 2. Degree of clarity and distinctness of pronunciation in speech or singing; enunciation. |
| Euphemism | the substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener;[1] or in the case of doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker.[citation needed] It also may be a substitution of a description of something or someone rather than the name, to avoid revealing secret, holy, or sacred names to the uninitiated, or to obscure the identity of the subject of a conversation from potential eavesdroppers. Some euphemisms are intended to be funny. |
| Point of view | The tone and feel of the story, and even its meaning, can change radically depending on who is telling the story.This angle of vision, the point of view from which the people, events, and details of a story are viewed, is important to consider when reading a story. |
| Plot | is the struggle found in fiction. Conflict/Plot may be internal or external and is best seen in (1) Man in conflict with another Man: (2) Man in conflict in Nature; (3) Man in conflict with self. |
| Flashback | action that interrupts to show an event that happened at an earlier time which is necessary to better understanding. |
| Foil | a character that contrasts another character, often the protagonist, that therefore highlights certain qualities of the protagonist (or whoever the foil may be). |
| Foreshadowing | the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in literature. |
| Hyperbole | exaggeration or overstatement. |
| Imagery | language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. |
| Irony | an implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. Three kinds of irony: 1. verbal irony is when an author says one thing and means something else. 2. dramatic irony is when an audience perceives something that a character in the literature does not know. 3. irony of situation is a discrepency between the expected result and actual results. |
| Metaphor | comparison of two unlike things using the verb "to be" and not using like or as as in a simile. |
| Motif | *A recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work. *A dominant theme or central idea. |
| Oxymoron | putting two contradictory words together |
| Paradox | reveals a kind of truth which at first seems contradictory. Two opposing ideas |
| Satire | a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the intent of correcting, or changing, the subject of the satiric attack. |
| Setting | determining Time and Place in fiction. |
| Simile | the comparison of two unlike things using like or as. |
| Symbol | using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning |
| Theme | the general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express. All of the elements of literary terms contribute to theme. A simple theme can often be stated in a single sentence. |
| Syntax | Etymology: French or Late Latin; French syntaxe, from Late Latin syntaxis, from Greek, from syntassein to arrange together, from syn- + tassein to arrange 1 a : the way in which linguistic elements (as words) are put together to form constituents (as phrases or clauses) b : the part of grammar dealing with this 2 : a connected or orderly system : harmonious arrangement of parts or elements 3 : syntactics especially as dealing with the formal properties of languages or calculi |
| Tone | the attitude a writer takes towards a subject or character: serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical, tongue-in-cheek, solemn, objective. Similar to Mood |
| Tragedy | Aristotelean defined tragedy as "the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself." It incorporates "incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions." |
| Understatement | used to understate the obvious |
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