| Term | Definition |
|---|
| alliteration | the repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words |
| antagonist | a peson or force which opposes the protagonist in a literary work |
| assonance | the repetition of vowel sounds but not consonant sounds as in consonance |
| allusion | an implied or indirect reference especially in literature |
| biography | the story of a person's life written by someone other than the subject of the work |
| blank verse | a poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| characterization | the method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work |
| climax | the decisive moment in a drama, the turning point of the play to which the rising action leads |
| dialect | a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language |
| dialogue | in drama, a conversation between characters |
| diary | a record of events, transactions, or observations kept daily or at frequent intervals |
| diction | an author's choice of words |
| drama | a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue and typically designed for theatrical performance |
| exposition | in drama, the presentation of essential information regarding what has occured prior to the beginning of the play |
| fiction | something invented by the imagination or feigned |
| figurative language | in literature, a way of saying one thing and meaning something else |
| flashback | is action that interrupts to show an event that happened at an earlier time which is necessary to better understanding |
| foreshadowing | is the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in literature |
| free verse | unrhymed poetry with lines of varying lengths, and contatining no specific metrical pattern |
| genre | a literary type or form |
| hero | a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability |
| hyperbole | exaggeration or overstatement |
| imagery | language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching |
| irony | an implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant |
| local color | a detailed setting forth of the characteristics of a particular locality enabling the reader to "see" the setting |
| metaphor | a comparison of two unlike things using the verb "to be" and not using the word "like" |
| mood | the emotional attitude the author takes towards its subject |
| narrative | a story that has been narrated |
| novel | a fictional prose work of substantial length |
| novella | a story with a compact and pointed plot |
| onomatopoeia | a word that imitates the sound it represents |
| personification | giving human qualities to animals or objects |
| plot | the struggle found in fiction |
| point of view | a piece of literature contains a speaker who is speaking either in the first person, telling things from his or her own perspective, or in the third person, telling things from the perspective of an onlooker. |
| protagonist | the hero or central character of a literary work. |
| pun | the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound |
| refrain | to keep oneself from doing, feeling, or indulging in something and especially from following a passing impulse |
| satire | a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the intent of correcting, or changing, the subject of the satiric attack |
| sermon | a religious discourse delivered in public usually by a clergyman as a part of a worship service |
| setting | determining Time and Place in fiction |
| simile | the comparison of two unlike things using like or as. Related to metaphor |
| stage directions | a description (as of a character or setting) or direction (as to indicate stage business) provided in the text of a play |
| stereotype | an author's method of treating a character so that the character is immediately identified with a group |
| style | many things enter into the style of a work: the author's use of figurative language, diction, sound effects and other literary devices |
| symbol | using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning |
| theme | the general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express |
| tone | the attitude a writer takes towards a subject or character: serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satrical, tongue-in-cheek, solemn, objective |
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