Literary Terms: English III-A
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ChapStudent on August 9, 2011
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141 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 allegory | a visible symbol representing an abstract idea |
| alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sounds |
| allusion | a reference to another work of literature, person, or event |
| analogy | drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect |
| anecdote | short account of an incident (especially a biographical one) |
| antagonist | the character who works against the protagonist in the story |
| antithesis | the direct opposite, a sharp contrast |
| apostrophe | address to an absent or imaginary person |
| archetype | an original model on which something is patterned |
| aside | a message that departs from the main subject |
| assonance | the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words |
| atmosphere | a particular environment or surrounding influence |
| autobiography | An account of the writer's own life. |
| ballad | a narrative poem of popular origin |
| folk ballad | a song that is traditionally sung by the common people of a region and forms part of their culture |
| literary ballad | A narrative poem that is written in deliberate imitation of the language, form, and spirit of the traditional ballad. |
| biography | an account of the series of events making up a person's life |
| blank verse | unrhymed verse (usually in iambic pentameter) |
| caesura | a break or pause (usually for sense) in the middle of a verse line |
| character | the inherent complex of attributes that determine a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions |
| characterization | the act of describing distinctive characteristics or essential features |
| climax | the decisive moment in a novel or play |
| comedy | light and humorous drama with a happy ending |
| comic relief | A humorous scene or speech intended to lighten the mood |
| complication | An element of a plot that alters the conflict. |
| conceit | a fanciful, particularly clever extended metaphor |
| conflict | opposition in a work of drama or fiction between characters or forces (especially an opposition that motivates the development of the plot) |
| connotation | the implied or associative meaning of a word |
| convention | a rule or practice based upon general consent and upheld by society at large |
| couplet | a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse |
| denotation | the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression |
| denoument | the resolution of the conflict in a story's plot; a final outcome |
| deus ex machina | In literature, the use of an artificial device or gimmick to solve a problem. |
| dialect | a variety of speech characterized by its own particular grammar or pronunciation, often associated with a particular geographical region |
| dialogue | a conversation between two persons |
| diction | the manner in which something is expressed in words |
| didactic | instructive (especially excessively) |
| dramatic monologue | a poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener |
| dramatic poetry | poetry in which one or more characters speak |
| dramatis personae | the actors in a play |
| elegy | a mournful poem |
| epic | a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds |
| essay | an analytic or interpretive literary composition |
| explication | the act of making clear or removing obscurity from the meaning of a word or symbol or expression etc. |
| exposition | The introductory material which gives the setting, creates the tone, presents the characters, and presents other facts necessary to understanding the story. |
| fable | a short moral story (often with animal characters) |
| farce | a comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations |
| fiction | a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact |
| figurative language | writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally |
| figure of speech | language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense |
| flashback | a transition (in literary or theatrical works or films) to an earlier event or scene that interrupts the normal chronological development of the story |
| foil | anything that serves by contrast to call attention to another thing's good qualities |
| foot | a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm |
| foreshadowing | the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot |
| free verse | unrhymed verse without a consistent metrical pattern |
| genre | a kind of literary or artistic work |
| hyperbole | extravagant exaggeration |
| iambic pentameter | a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable |
| imagery | language that appeals to the senses |
| inversion | the reversal of the normal order of words, turning upside down |
| irony | incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs |
| dramatic irony | (theater) irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play |
| verbal irony | occurs when what is said contradicts what is meant or thought |
| situational irony | occurs when the outcome of a work is unexpected, or events turn out to be the opposite from what one had expected |
| literal language | A form of language in which writers and speakers mean exactly what their words denote. |
| litotes | understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary) |
| lyric poem | a short poem of songlike quality |
| melodrama | an extravagant comedy in which action is more salient than characterization |
| 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 |
| implied metaphor | Implies or suggests the comparison between the two thing without stating it directly |
| extended metaphor | The comparison between two things is continued beyond the first point of comparison. This extends and deepens a description. |
| meter | the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that can establish the rhythm of a poem |
| metonymy | substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in 'they counted heads') |
| monologue | a (usually long) dramatic speech by a single actor |
| motif | a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work |
| motivation | A character's incentive or reason for behaving in a certain manner; that which impels a character to act |
| mood | the emotional atmosphere of a work |
| myth | a traditional story accepted as history |
| narrative poetry | poetry that tells a story |
| narrator | someone who tells a story |
| nonfiction | story or piece about true events |
| novel | a printed and bound book that is an extended work of fiction |
| ode | a lyric poem with complex stanza forms |
| onomatopoeia | using words that imitate the sound they denote |
| oxymoron | conjoining contradictory terms (as in 'deafening silence') |
| parallelism | phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other |
| paraphrase | rewording for the purpose of clarification |
| personification | giving human qualities to animals or objects |
| plot | the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc. |
| poetic license | license used by a writer or artist to heighten the effect of their work |
| poetry | literature in metrical form |
| point of view | a mental position from which things are viewed |
| omniscient POV | written by an all-knowing author-3rd person-the reader gets the thoughts and feelings of MORE than ONE character |
| first person POV | story is told by one of the characters who uses pronouns such as I or we and participates in much of the action |
| second person POV | this point of view places the reader in a story using the pronoun YOU |
| third person POV | the author tells the story using the third person, but is limited to a complete knowledge of one character in the story and tells us only what that one character thinks, feels, sees, or hears |
| objective POV | story told through actions and dialogue; reader infers what the characters think and feel. narrator is a detatched observer. |
| subjective POV | Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. It is dependent on the mind or an individual's perception for existence |
| prose | ordinary speech or writing without rhyme or meter; referring to speech or writing other than verse |
| protagonist | the principal character in a work of fiction |
| quatrain | a stanza of four lines |
| realism | the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth |
| refrain | The repetition of one or more phrases or lines at definite intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza |
| repetition | repeated use of sounds, words, or ideas for effect and emphasis |
| resolution | the falling action of a narrative; the events following the climax |
| rhetorical question | a statement that is formulated as a question but that is not supposed to be answered |
| rhyme | be similar in sound, especially with respect to the last syllable |
| internal rhyme | a rhyme between words in the same line |
| end rhyme | Rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines of poetry |
| rhyme scheme | the pattern of rhyme in a poem |
| rhythm | the arrangement of spoken words alternating stressed and unstressed elements |
| rising action | events leading up to the climax |
| romance | a novel dealing with idealized events remote from everyday life |
| satire | witty language used to convey insults or scorn |
| scansion | analysis of verse into metrical patterns |
| setting | arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted |
| short story | a prose narrative shorter than a novel |
| simile | a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like' or 'as') |
| soliloquy | speech you make to yourself |
| sonnet | a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme |
| Petrarchan sonnet | a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd. |
| Shakespearean sonnet | a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg. |
| Elizabethan sonnet | a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg. |
| speaker | the person speaking in the poem, like the narrator in prose - not always the poet |
| stage directions | The specific instructions a playwright includes concerning sets, characterization, delivery, etc. |
| stanza | a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem |
| stereotype | a conventional or formulaic conception or image |
| stream of consciousness | the continuous flow of ideas and feelings that constitute an individual's conscious experience |
| style | a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period |
| subplot | a minor plot that relates in some way to the main story |
| symbol | something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible |
| synecdoche | using a part of something to represent the whole thing |
| theme | a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work |
| tone | the quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author |
| tragedy | drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance |
| tragic flaw | the character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall |
| tragic hero | A literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy |
| tragic comedy | A play that combines elements of tragedy and comedy, either by providing a happy ending to a potentially tragic story or by some more complex blending of serious and light moods. |
| unity | the quality of being united into one |
| verisimilitude | the appearance of truth |
| verse | a line of metrical text |
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