| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Allegory | a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor |
| Dramatic Monologue | a literary device that is used when a character reveals his or her innermost thoughts or feelings that are hidden throughout the story |
| Didactic | refers to literature or other types of art that are instructional or informative |
| Denouement | literally meaning the action of untying, is the final outcome of a main complication in a play or story |
| Elegy | a song or poem written in elegiac couplets that expresses sorrow or lamentation usually when someone dies |
| Epigram | a short poem or verse that weeks to ridicule a thought or event, usually with witticism or sarcasm |
| Figurative Language | a type of language that varies from the norms of literal language, in which words mean exactly what they say |
| Metonymy | substitutes one term with another that is being associated with that term |
| Narrative | a collection of events that tells a story |
| Narrative Poem | a poem that tells a story |
| Persona | in literature, the persona is the narrator, or the story teller of a literary work created by the author |
| Point of View | a way that events are conveyed to the reader |
| Rhyme | repetition of similar accented sounds |
| Slant Rhyme | rhyme in which either the vowels or consonants of stressed syllables are identical |
| Theme | common thread or repeated idea that is incorporated throughout a literary work |
| Unreliable narrator | one who gives his own understanding of a story instead of the explanation and interpretation the author wishes the audience to obtain |
| Alliteration | a pattern of sounds that includes the repetition of consonant sounds |
| Antagonist | a character in a story who deceives, frustrates, or works against the main character |
| Allusion | a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature |
| Aside | an actor's speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage |
| Ballad | a narrative folk song |
| Character | a person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions within a story |
| Connotation | an association that comes along with a particular word |
| Couplet | a style of poetry defined as a complete thought written in two lines with rhyming ends |
| Denotation | the exact meaning of a word without the feelings of suggestions that the word may imply |
| Dialogue | the conversation between characters |
| Flashback | presents past events during current events |
| Genre | a type of literature |
| Gothic | usually portrayed fantastic tales dealing with horror, despair, the grotesque and other "dark" subjects |
| Hyperbole | an extravagant exaggeration |
| Irony | the use of words to convey a meaning that is opposite of its literal meaning |
| Lyric | a song like poem written to express feelings of emotion or thought |
| Metaphor | a statement in which is made that says that one thing is something else but literally is not |
| Motif | a recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature |
| Myth | any story that attempts to explain why the world is the way it is or how it started |
| Narrator | one who tells a story or the "voice" of a book |
| Parable | a brief or often simple narrative that illustrates a moral or religious lesson |
| Personification | where ideas or inorganic objects or animals are given human characteristics |
| Protagonist | considered the main character |
| Rhyme Scheme | the pattern of rhyme used in a poem, generally indicated by matching lowercase letters to show which lines rhyme |
| Setting | the time, place, physical details and circumstances in which a situation occurs |
| Simile | comparison using "like" or "as" |
| Short Story | a narrative that is brief in nature |
| Sonnet | distinctive poem that uses system or patterns of metrical structure and verse composition usually consists of 14 lines |
| Symbol | word or object that stands for another word or object |
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