| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Abstract | Language that refers to intangible concepts and qualitites |
| Accent | Poetic term stress on certain syallables |
| Aestehtic(s) | Degree of emotional involvement in a work of art |
| Allegory | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside of the story itselt |
| Alliteration | The repition of consonant sounds at the beginning of works |
| Allusion | A reference to another work or famous person |
| Anachronism | Derived from Greek "misplaced in time" |
| Analogy | Comparisons two or more symbollic parts, clarifies an action or relationship |
| Anecdote | A short narrative |
| Anthropomorphism | When inanimate objects are given human characteristics |
| Anticlimax | Occurs when an action produces for smaller results than one had been led to expect |
| Antihero | A protagnoist whose marketdly unheroic (Morally weak, cowardly, dishonest) |
| Aphorism | Short witty sayings |
| Archaism | Use deliberatly old fashioned language |
| Aside | A speech, short comment, made by actor to the audience |
| Assonance | Repition of vowel sounds |
| Atmosphere | Emotional tone, background that surrounds a scene |
| Ballad | A long narrative poem |
| Bathos | Trying to get tears from every little thing |
| Pathos | A scene evokes some kind of pity and sympathy |
| Black humor | Disturbing themes in comedy |
| Bombast | Really exaggeradetly learned language |
| Burlesque | A parody, takes form of a tragic drama and exagerates it into something ridiculous |
| Cacophony | Particuraly in poetry-use of really harsh sounds |
| Cadence | A beat or rhythm in poetry |
| Canto | A divison in a long work of poetry |
| Caricature | A protrait that exagerates the facits of a personality |
| Catharsis | Cleansing of emotion that an audience member experiences |
| Chorus | Group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it |
| Classic | Typical or an accepted masterpiece |
| Coinage (Neologism) | A new word usually invented on the spot |
| Colloquialism | A word or phrase used in everyday conversation not "schoolbook language" |
| Conceit, Controlling image | Startling or unusual metaphor that donminates |
| Connotation | What a word suggests and implies |
| Denotation | Literal definition or a word |
| Consonance | Repitition of consonance sounds with in words |
| Couplet | A pair of lines that end in rhyme |
| Decorum | A person's speech must be styled according to his or her social station and in accordance to the occasion to observe a decorum |
| Diction | Author's choice of words |
| Syntax | The ordering and structure of the words |
| Dirge | A song for the dead, typically slow, heavy, depressed |
| Dissonance | A greating of incompatable sounds in poetry |
| Doggerel | A crued simplistic verse often in a sing song line like limmeraks |
| Elegy | A type of poem that mediatates on death in a serious thoughtful manner |
| Epic | Very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style |
| Mock Epic | A parody form of an epic using mundane events |
| Epitaph | Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place |
| Euphemism | A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh unpleasant or impolite reality. |
| Euphony | When sound blends harmoniously |
| Farce | Comedy, funny play |
| Feminine Rhyme | Lines that are rhymed by the final syllables |
| Foil | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of the main character, usually by contrast |
| Foot | Basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry formed by a combo of two or three syllables |
| Foreshadowing | An event or statement in a narrative that in minature suggests a larger event that comes later |
| Free Verse | Poetry written without regular rhyme verse or matircal pattern |
| Genre | A sub category of literature |
| Gothic, Gothic Novel | Middle of the 10th centruy, gloomy castles on high steer cliffs |
| Hubris | Excessive pride or ambition that leads to a main character's downfall |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement |
| In medias res | In the midsnst of things, sometimes has taken place prior to the action |
| Interior monologue | Refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on in a character's head |
| Inversion | When you switch the order of elements in a sentence or phrase |
| Irony | Statement that means opposite of what it seems to mean or is supposed to mean. Insinuates |
| Lament | A poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved on or another intense lose |
| Lampoon | Type of satire |
| Loose Sentence | Complete before its end |
| Periodic | Not grammatically complete until its reached its final phrase |
| Lyric | A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world |
| Masculine rhyme | A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable |
| Melodrama | Cheesy drama hero very good evil very bad |
| Metaphor | Comparison, analogy |
| Simile | Softens out the full equation of things doesnt always have to use like or as |
| Nemesis | The protagonists arch enemy can also be a supreme difficulty |
| Objectivity | Impersonal or outside view |
| Subjectivity | Interior or personal views |
| Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean BOOM! |
| Oxymoron | Phrase composed of opposites jumbo shrimp |
| Parable | Fable or alagory, a story that instructs |
| Parenthetical phrase | A phrase set off by commas that interupts the flow of a sentence (added details) |
| Parody | A work that results when a specific work is exaggerated to ridiculousness |
| Pastoral | A poem set in tranquil nature about shepards |
| Persona | The narrator in a non first person novel |
| Personification | An inanimate object takes on human shape |
| Plaint | Poem or speech expressing sorrow |
| Point of View | Perspective from which the action of a story is presented |
| Omniscient Narrator | A third person narrator who sees like god "all knowing" |
| Limited Omniscient Narrator | A 3rd person narrator who only reports what is visible to a camera |
| First person narrator | A narrator who is a character in the story they tell it from their POV |
| Stream of consciousness technique | Instead of character telling story, author places reader inside main character's head |
| Prelude | Introductory poem to a longer work or verse |
| Protagonist | Main character |
| Refrain | A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem |
| Requiem | A song of prayer for the dead |
| Rhapsody | An intensly passionate verse or section of verse; usually love or praise |
| Rhetorical Question | A question that suggests an answer |
| Satire | Exposes common character flaws to the cold light of humor |
| Soliloquy | A speech spoken by a character alone onstage |
| Stanza | A group of lines roughly analogous in function inverse to the paragraph's function in pros |
| Stock Characters | Standard or cliche characters |
| Suspension of disbelief | The demand made of the theatre audience to accept the limitations of staging and supply the details with their imagination |
| Thesis | Main position of a agrument |
| Tragic Flaw | The weakness of a character in an otherwise great individual that ultimatley leads to his demise |
| Travesty | A grotesque parody |
| Unreliable narrator | Not credited, biased, not trustable POV |
| Utopia | Idealized place |
Combine with other sets
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