| Term | Definition |
|---|
| atmosphere | the prevailing tone or mood of a work, generally established partly by setting |
| conceit | an elaborate or protracted analogy or metaphor comparing two dissimilar things |
| convention | any device or style that has become a recognized means of literary expression; e.g. all of this literary terminology, all of these words are these |
| epic | a long narrative poem about the adventures of a hero; e.g. The Iliad, the Odyssey, Beowulf |
| format | the physical make-up of a work, including page size, typeface, margins, etc. |
| internal monologue | thinking inside one's head, records the internal, emotional experience of the character (we call this "soliloquy" in theater) |
| irony | incongruity between what might be expected and what actually happens |
| verbal irony | a character says one thing but intends another; Marc Antony in Julius Caesar says "and Brutus is an honorable man" when he really means Brutus is dishonorable |
| dramatic irony | contrast between what the character thinks is true and what we readers know to be true; Blanch drinks like a fish but tells Stella that one is her limit |
| situational irony | contrast between what happens and what is expected (or would seem appropriate); if a greedy millionaire wins the lottery, we might think that the situation is unfair |
| litotes | a form of understatement in which a thing is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite; e.g. "She's not bad looking" for "She's good looking" |
| lyric | a brief subjective poem marked by imagination, melody, and emotion, focused on creating a single unified impression of the subject |
| lyrical/lyricism | something that focuses primarily on the presentation of inner thoughts, feelings, and moods |
| metonymy | substitution of a term closely associated with a word for the word itself - when you use something generally or loosely associated with a concept to stand in for it; e.g. "The crown" for "The king" or "The White House" for "The president" |
| mood | the feeling that the writer evokes in the reader through carefully selected words and details (tone) |
| onomatopoeia | words that sound like what they mean; e.g. buzz, sizzle, splash, ding |
| persona/voice | the second self; the speaker or mask created by the author and through whom the narrative is told |
| stichomythia | when single lines of verse are spoken by alternate speakers, usually in the form of a verbal fencing match |
| structure | planned framework of a piece of literature |
| style | arrangement of words that best expresses the individuality of the author and the intention of the author's mind |
| surrealism | an artistic movement emphasizing expression of the imagination as realized in dreams and presented without conscious control |
| synecdoche | a trope(figurative language/the use of words in a sense other than the literal) in which a part signifies the whole or vice versa; when you speak of a part of something but mean the whole thing or vice versa; e.g. "threads" for "clothes" or "wheels" for "car"; "law" for "policeman" or "America" (which refers to the whole continent) for "United States"; must be an essential part |
| syntax | the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences |
| tone | the author's attitude or feeling towards the subject and/or towards the audience of a literary work |
| understatement | the literal sense of what is said falls short of (under) the magnitude of what is meant; e.g. saying something is "pretty fair" when you mean it is "excellent" |
| allegory | symbolic story |
| cacophony | unpleasantness of sound - John Updike's "never my numb plunker fumbles" |
| counterplot (subplot) | underlying, secondary plot that feeds the plot. having a way to discuss plot |
| double entendre (sexual innuendo) | form of ambiguity. spoken phrase can be taken in 2 ways, 1 innocent, 1 risqué |
| euphony | pleasantness of sound - "so smooth, so sweet, so silvery is thy voice" |
| epiphany | sudden revelation or insight |
| foil | contrast character's characteristics. A character that contrasts with another. Protagonist foils the antagonist. Enhances characteristics of the main character by presenting the opposite |
| montage | a collection of images. Every film is one |
| paradox | a statement that seems to contradict itself, but may be true. A self contradictory phrase |
| prose | normal writing, not poetry |
| personification | giving human qualities to inanimate objects "wind howling" |
| pun | play on words |
| refrain/repetend | in songs, ex: bingo - a series of lines that are repeated - poetry |
| satire | poking fun at the human condition to improve it. critical writing that uses humor in an effort to change society. ex: Onion |
| spondee | foot consisting of 2 accented syllables. Generally a compound noun. Ex: childhood |
| stream of consciousness | unorganized series of thoughts |
| symbol | picture/word/idea that is itself in a story but represents something else |
| protagonist | something with a desire to be, to do, to have. Main character |
| antagonist | something against the desire of the protagonist |
| bildungsroman | an experience of a coming of age; loss of innocence. Childhood to maturity |
| consonance | e.g. alliteration. Repetition of consonant sounds, not necessarily at beginning of words |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sounds. e.g. "please keep the peace" |
| Freytag's Pyramid | 5 part plot-general structure. Exposition (Inciting moment), Conflict/Complication (Rising Action), Climax, Falling Action, Resolution/dénouement (moment of last suspense) |
| anastrophe | inversion of normal word order/syntax. Yoda speak: "Away put your weapon". Shifts focus |
| apostrophe | an address to a thing, a person, or an abstraction that is not present |
| antiphrasis | use a word to convey an idea opposite to its real significance/meaning. Sarcasm, understatement. "He is but a youngster" (describing a middle-aged man) |
| hyperbole | exaggeration for emphasis |
| imagery | olfactory, tactile, gustatory, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, organic. Any series of words used to create a mental image |
| connotation | emotionally laden words. Call someone a snake = sly, conniving |
| denotation | dictionary definition. A snake is scaly, a reptile |
| aesthetic distance | degree of emotional involvement/connection in a work. High means you are far away. Low means close, connected to characters |
| doppelgänger | ghostly double. copy with a mustache. e.g. Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, Minime |
| alliteration | repetition of initial identical consonant sounds |
| blank verse | not rhymed |
| caesura | pause/break/space in lines, forces the reader to pause. |
| couplet | a pair of rhymed lines |
| end-stop | grammatical sense ends at end of line. Has punctuation |
| enjambment | grammatical sense continues to next line |
| free verse | not necessarily in rhyme, no standard meter |
| heroic couplet | couplet written in iambic pentameter |
| iamb | type of foot - unstressed followed by stressed syllable |
| internal rhyme | rhyme within a line |
| metaphor | direct comparison - uses is/are |
| meter (metrical pattern) | established by a combination of syllables. |
| partial/slant rhyme | imperfect rhyme |
| rhyme scheme | pattern in which rhymes occur |
| rhythm | reoccurrence of specific sounds |
| simile | comparing using like/as |
| soliloquy | character alone, speaking |
| sonnet | 14 lined lyrical poem |
| stanza | group of lines. Isolated on page |
| ambiguity (purposeful) | something that means two things |
| anthropomorphism | giving human characteristics or behavior to animals |
| catalexis | the absence of a syllable at the beginning or end of a line of metrical verse resulting in an incomplete foot, most often occurring in the last foot at the end of a verse |
| existentialism | a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts |
| expressionism | a technique of distorting objects and events in order to represent them as they are perceived by a character in a literary work |
| leitmotif | a dominant and recurring word |
| monologue | a prolonged talk or discourse by a single speaker |
| nihilism | nothingness or nonexistence |
| ode | a lyric poem typically of elaborate or irregular metrical form and expressive of exalted or enthusiastic emotion |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.” |
| parody | any humorous, satirical, or burlesque imitation, as of a person, event, etc. |
| polysyndeton | style that employs a great many conjunctions |
| setting | the surroundings or environment of anything |
| theme | a unifying or dominant idea |
| allusion | a passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication |
| diction | style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words |
| motif | a recurring subject, theme, idea, etc. |
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