English Midterm Literary Terms
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44 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 tone | the writer's attitude towards his or her subject, characters, or audience |
| metaphor | a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else without using "like" or "as" |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds; Emily Dickinson & Edgar Allan Poe |
| assonance | the repetition of vowel sounds in conjunction with dissimilar consonant sounds |
| connotation | an association that a word calls to mind in addition to the dictionary meaning of the word |
| alliteration | the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or accented syllables |
| sibilance | a consonant characterized by a hissing sounds ("s" or "sh") |
| plain style | a type of writing in which uncomplicated sentences and ordinary words are used to make simple, direct statement; used by the Puritans who wanted to express themselves clearly with their religious beliefs; William Bradford |
| ornate style | elaborately, excessively, and heavily decorated with rich decorative details; John Smith |
| setting | the time and place of the action of a story |
| Romanticism | a literary and artistic movement of the 19th century that arose in reaction against 18th century Neoclassicism and placed a premium on imagination, emotion, nature, individuality, and exotica; Poe, Thoreau, Emerson, Dickinson, Hawthorne, and other Transcendentalists |
| Gothic | use of primitive medieval wild or mysterious elements in literature; Poe; story is set in a bleak or remote place, macabre or violent incidents, psychological or physical torment; supernatural element |
| Transcendentalism | American literary and philosophical movement of the 19th century; intuition and individual conscience "transcend" experience; individual spirit and natural world; divinity was present and nature and all people; Emerson and Thoreau |
| Epistolary style | contained in or carried on in letters |
| narrator | a speaker or character who tells a story |
| omniscient narrator | narrator who knows and tells about what each character feels and thinks |
| limited narrator | the narrator relates the inner thoughts and feelings of only one character |
| reliable narrator | narrator who writes an account that the reader is able to trust is accurate |
| third person narrator | the narrator is one who stands outside the action and speaks about it |
| first person narrator | the narrator is one who tells a story and participates in its action |
| Point of view | the perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told |
| creation myth | stories that explain how life began that were passed down from generation to generation |
| logical appeal | an appeal that addresses listeners' reasoning ability |
| emotional appeal | an argument that appeals to the reader's emotions |
| aphorism | a general truth or observation about life, usually stated concisely; witty and wise; Emerson and Franklin |
| symbol | anything that stands for or represents something else |
| metrical feet | the meter of a poem and its rhythmical pattern; determined by the number and types of stresses |
| persuasive writing | writing or speech that attempts to convince a reader to think or act in a particular way; Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine |
| personification | a figure of speech in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics |
| context | the part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meanings |
| verse | a line of a poem |
| stanza | a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem |
| slave narrative | an account of the experiences of an enslaved person; "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano" |
| historical narrative | a narrative account of significant historical events; William Bradford |
| adventure narrative | a firsthand account of an explorer's travels in a new land; John Smith |
| autobiographical narrative | usually written in first person and is a person's account of his or her own life; provides a view of history that is more personal than accounts in history books; Benjamin Franklin |
| captivity narrative | records events and personal feelings during the writer's captivity; Mary Rowlandson |
| oxymoron | figure of speech that combines two opposing or contradictory ideas; pretty ugly |
| hymn | a religious song or poem, usually to praise God; "An Hymn to the Evening" |
| alliteration | the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words |
| proverb | a short pithy saying in general use, stating a general truth or piece of advice |
| elegy | a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead; "The Raven" |
| synonym | a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase |
| antonym | a word opposite in meaning to another |
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