Elements of Literature and Composition
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Created by:
cdruhan on February 3, 2010
Subjects:
english, english vocab, english vocabulary, english 12, literary terms, english composition
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30 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 accent | the stress given a syllable in pronunciation |
| allegory | a story in which people, things, and events have another meaning |
| alliteration | the repetition of initial consonant sounds within a line of poetry |
| allusion | a reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history |
| ambiguity | language that gives more than one meaning, that leaves uncertainty as to meaning, alternate meanings to words, and that gives several streams of thought from the same words |
| ambivalence | present when people have contradictory attitudes or emotions toward the same things or person at the same time |
| analogy | a comparison of two things, alike in certain respects; particularly a method of exposition by which one familiar object or idea is explained by comparing it in certain of its similarities with other objects or ideas more familiar |
| anecdote | a short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting episode or event which differs from a short story in that it lacks complicated plot and is unified in its presentation on time and place elements and in its relation of a single episode |
| antagonist | the character in fiction who stands directly opposed to the protagonist. This need not be a villain. |
| anti-hero | a graceless, inept, sometimes stupid or dishonest protagonist who is opposite of a traditional hero |
| antithesis | a figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas; a balancing of one term against another for impressiveness and emphasis |
| Apollonian | when applied to literature, it stands for reason, order, culture, and moral rectitude |
| apocalyptic | literature concerned with predicting the ultimate destiny of the world, imminent catastrophe, and final judgment on mankind |
| apostrophe | figure of speech in which someone (usually absent), some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though alive and capable of understanding |
| archetype | an image, a descriptive detail, a plot pattern, or a character type that occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore, and is, therefore, believed to evoke profound emotions in the reader since it awakens a primordial image in his unconscious memory and thus calls into play illogical but strong responses |
| assonance | resemblance or similarity in sound between vowels followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables; its effect is more subtle than alliteration |
| atmosphere | the prevailing tone or mood of a literary work, particularly - but not exclusively- when that mood is established in par bu setting or landscape |
| aubade | a poem about dawn; a morning love song; a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn |
| avant-garde | new writings which show striking innovations in style, form, and subject matter; avant-garde literature makes a frontal and organized attack upon established literary traditions |
| ballad | a simple poem which deals with a dramatic situation usually created for singing |
| banality | demonstrates a lack of effectiveness, seems tasteless or offensive, and expresses hackneyed, stale, trite, stereotyped images or ideas |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| cacophony | a harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones |
| caesura | a pause or break in the rhythmical progress of a line of poetry |
| carpe diem | literally means "seize the day"; a motif in poetry which advises the reader to enjoy the present pleasures because of the brevity of life and the finality of death |
| characterization | the creation of imaginary persons so credible that they exist for the reader as real within the limits of the fiction; may be accomplished through direct exposition, presentation of the character in action, or representation from within a character |
| cliche | an overused phrase which has lost its freshness or an overused situation |
| climax | the turning point in the action, the place at which the rising action reverses and becomes the falling action. The point in the plot of greatest excitement, intensity, or impressiveness |
| comic relief | a humorous scene, incident, or speech in the course of a serious fiction or drama, Its purpose is to relieve the tension and thereby heighten then tragic emotion by contrast |
| conflict | the struggl which grows out of the interplay of the two opposing forces in a plot. It may be internal or external |
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