| Term | Definition |
| allusion | the spirit of the time; the spirit characteristic of an age |
| Characterization | acting the part of a character on stage |
| Personification | the act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas etc. |
| Simile | a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like' or 'as') |
| Metaphor | a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity |
| Zeitgeist | the spirit of the time |
| Bildungsroman | A novel that follows the spiritual, moral, psychological, and/or social development and growth of the main character. |
| Anthropomorphism | the representation of objects (especially a god) as having human form or traits |
| Conflict | opposition in a work of drama or fiction between characters or forces (especially an opposition that motivates the development of the plot) |
| Connotation/Denotation | the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in action to its strict dictionary definition |
| Consonance | the repetition of consonants (or consonant patterns) especially at the ends of words |
| Denouncement | the final resolution or clarification of a dramatic or narrative plot |
| Emulation | imitation |
| Euphony | sweet sound; ADJ. euphonious |
| Genre | type of literature |
| Hyperbole | exaggeration |
| Imagery | the ability to form mental images of things or events |
| Internal Rhyme | rhyme between words in the same line |
| Motif | literature and the fine arts, a salient feature or |
| Narrative | consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story |
| Narrator | someone who tells a story |
| Nemesis | An opponent or rival whom a person cannot defeat |
| Oxymoron | apparent paradox acheived by the juxtaposition of words which seem to contradict one another |
| Paradox | situation or statement that seems to be impossible or contradicting, but is nevertheless true, either literally or figuratively |
| Plot | the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc |
| Point of View | the spatial property of the position from which something is observed |
| Satire | The employment of sarcasm, irony, or keenness of wit in ridiculing vices |
| Setting | arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted |
| Stanza | fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem |
| Syntax | the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences |
| Theme | a unifying idea, that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work |
| Tragedy | Play/novel that depicts serious events, hero becomes unhappy in the end |
| Unreliable Narrator | literary device in which the trustworthiness of the narrator of the story is suspect or cannot be determined |