| Term | Definition |
|---|
| alliteration | repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or accented syllables; used to emphasize ideas and create pleasing sounds |
| allusion | a reference to a well-known person, lace, or event, literary work, or work of art; writers can bring to mind complex ideas simple and easily |
| apostrophe | a figure of speech in which a speaker directly addressed an absent person or a personified quality, object, or idea. This technique is often used to add emotional intensity |
| assonance | the repetition of similar vowel sound |
| blank verse | poetry or drama written in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| caesura | a pause or break in the middle of a line of poetry |
| climax | the turning point or high point in a plot |
| connotation | an association that a word calls to mind in addition to the dictionary meaning of the word |
| characterization | the way in which an author develops the personality of a character |
| conflict | a struggle between opposing forces |
| consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds at the end of words or accented syllables |
| couplet | a two-line stanza |
| denouement | that portion of the plot that revels the final outcome of its conflict or the solution of its mysteries |
| deus ex machine | "god from the machine"; the resolution of a plot by use of a highly imporbable chance or coincidence |
| dialect | the form of language spoken by people in a particular region or group |
| dialogue | q conversation between characters |
| diction | a writer or speaker's word choice; part of a writer's style |
| dilemma | a situation in which a character must choose between two courses of action, both undesirable |
| exposition | as a mode of communication, it is writing or speech that explains, informs, or presents information; in terms of the dramatic structure of a literary work, it occurs in the beginning of the piece and acts as an introduction of the main characters, the plot, and the setting |
| figure of speech | way of saying one thing and meaning another |
| foil | a character who provides a contrast to another character |
| flashback | a section of a literary work that interrupts the chronological presentation of events to relate an event from an earlier time |
| foreshadowing | a textual clue in a literary wrok to an upcoming event or character change |
| free verse | poetry that lacks a regular rhythmical pattern or meter |
| Gothic | refers to the usue of primitive, medieval, wild, or mysterious elements in literature |
| hyperbole | a deliberate exaggeration or overstatement |
| imagery | words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses; writes use it to create word pictures and other sense experiences for the readers |
| irony of situation | an event ocuurs that directly contradicts the expectations of the characters, the read, or the audience |
| dramatic irony | contradiction between what a character thinks and what the audience or reader knows to be true |
| verbal irony | a word or phrase is used to support the opposite of its usual meaning |
| lyric poem | a poem that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker |
| metaphor | a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken as thought it were something else; it is an implied comparison such as "the long sleep of death" |
| meter | the rhythmical pattern of a poem determined by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables |
| metonymy | the use od something closely related for the thing actually meant |
| monologue | a speech delivered entirely by one person or character |
| mood | the atmosphere or feeling created in the reader y a literary work or passage |
| motivation | a reason that explains a character's thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech |
| narration | writing that tells a story |
| narrative poem | a story in the form of verse |
| narrator | a speaker or character who tells a story |
| omniscient point of view | an all-knowing third person narrator |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines two opposing or contradictory ideas, such as "freezing fire" |
| paradox | a statement that seems to be contradictory but that actually presents a truth |
| parallelism | the repetition of a grammatical structure; used to emphasize and link ideas |
| parody | humorous imitation of a literary work, one that exaggerates or distorts the original |
| personification | a figure of speaach in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics |
| plot | a sequence of events in a literary work; the arrangement of the action |
| point of view | the perspective or vantage point from which a story is told |
| refrain | a repeated line or group of lines in a poem or song |
| rhyme scheme | a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem |
| rising action | that part of the plot in a story that leads up to the climax; suspense increases as complications of the conflict develop |
| satire | writing that ridicules or criticizes individuals, ideas, or institutions, social conventions, or other works of art of literature |
| simile | a figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two subjects using "like" "as" or "than" |
| setting | the time and place of the action |
| soliloquy | a long speech made by a character who is alone and who revels his or her private thoughts or feelings to the audience |
| stanza | a group of lines in a poem, considered as a unit |
| stream of consciousness | a narrative technique taht presents thoughts as if they were coming directly from a character's mind; instead of being arranged in chronological order, the events of the story are presented from the character's point of view |
| style | a writer's typical way of writing; includes word choice, tone, degree of formality, figurative language, sentence length, etc. |
| suspense | a feeling of growing uncertainty about the outcome of events |
| symbol | anything that stands for or represent something else |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to stand for the whole thing |
| theme | a central message or insight into life revealed by a literary work |
| tone | the writer's attitude towrd his or her subject, characters or audience |
| understatement | saying less than is actually meant, generally in an ironic way |
| vernacular | the ordinary language of people in a particular region; also called colloquial language; it is the informal, realistic language of the common man |
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