Quizlet Literary Terms

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  1. Allegory: The representation of ideas or moral principles by means of symbollic characters, events, or objects
  2. Alliteration: The repetition of a consonant sound to create rhythm and aid memory
  3. Allusion: A brief reference to a historical or literary person, place, object, or event
  4. Analogy: The comparioson of two similar things to suggest that if they are alike in some respects, they are probably alike in other ways as well
  5. Anecdote: A short narrative that tells the particulars of an interesting and/or humorous event
  6. Antagonist: A person or thing that opposes the protagonist or hero/heroine of a story
  7. Apostrophe: A figure of speech where someone, an object, some abstract quality, or a nonexistent person is directly adressed as though present and real
  8. Blank Verse: Unrhymed, but otherwise regular verse, usually iambic pentameter
  9. Caricature: A representation or imitation of a person's physical or personality traits that are so exaggerated they become comic or absurd
  10. Characterization: The creation of imaginary persons so that they seem lifelike
  11. Cliche: A word or phrase that is so overused taht it is no longer effective in more writing situations
  12. Climax: A high point or turning point in a piece of literature, the point at which the rising action reverses and becomes the falling action or the denoument
  13. coherence: The parts of a coposition should be arranged in a logical and orderly manner so that hte meaning and ideas aare clear and intelligable
  14. conflict: The problem or struggle that the characters have to solve or come to grips with by the end of the story
  15. connotation: The emotions and feelings that surround a word; htey may be negative, neutral, or positive, depending on their content
  16. context: The einviornment of a word, the words that surround a particular word and help to determine or deepen its meaning
  17. couplet: In poetry (verse), two consecutive lines that rhyme
  18. critique: A critical examination of a work of art to determine how it measures up to establish standards
  19. denotation: The literal or basic meaning of a word (the dictonary definintion)
  20. denouement: The resolution or the outcome of a play of story
  21. dialogue: The conversation between two or more characters in a work of literature
  22. diction: The writers choice of words based on their clarity and effectiveness
  23. Direct Metaphor: When the writer directly states both of the things being compared
  24. drama: A story told by actors who play hte characters and reveal the conflict through hteir actions and dialogue
  25. editorial: A short essay in a newspaper or magazine that expresses the opinion of the writer
  26. foil: the term is applied to any person who, through contrast, underscores the distinctive characteristics of another
  27. Foreshadowing: the suggestion or hint of events to come later in a literary work
  28. Free Verse: verse written without rhyme, meter, or regular rhythm
  29. Genre: a French word that means type or form of liturature
  30. Hamartia: the error,frailty, mistaken judgement, or misstep through which the fortunes of a tragic hero are reversed
  31. Heroic Couplet: two consecutive lines of rhymed verse written in iambic pentameter
  32. Historical Fiction: fiction whose setting is in some time other than which it is written
  33. Hyperbole: a type of figurative language that makes an overstatement for the purpose of emphasis
  34. Iambic Pentameter: a line of poetry that contains five iambic feet: an iamb is a foot consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable
  35. Imagery: the use of descriptive words or phrases to create vivid mental pictures in the minds of the reader, often appealing to sigt, sound, taste, and smell
  36. Indirect Metaphor: When the writer states one of the things and the reader must infer the other
  37. Irony: Dramatic: when the audience knows more than the characters on stage, which creates tension
  38. Irony: Situational: a situation or event that is the opposite of waht is or might be expected.
  39. Irony: Verbal: the experession of an attitude of intention that is the opposite of what it actually meant.
  40. Legend: A narrative or tradition handed down from the past; distinguished from a myth by having more historical truth and perhaps less of the supernatural
  41. Limerick: A form of light verse that follows a definite rhyme scheme where the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme and the third and fourth lines rhyme(patterns may vary)
  42. Lyric: A short poem that expresses the personal feelings and thoughts of a single speaker
  43. Malapropism: When two words become jumbled in the mind of a speaker because they resemble each other and he/ she uses the wrong one
  44. Melodrama: An exaggerated, sensational form of drama which is intended to appeal to the emotions of the audience
  45. Metaphor: A comparison of two dissimilar things
  46. Metonymy: The substitution of an object closely associated with a word for the word itself
  47. Mood: The feeling a piece of literature arouses in the reader
  48. Motif: Recurring ideas, images, and actions that tend to unify a work
  49. Myth: A traditional story that presents supernatural beings and situations that attempt to explain and/ or interpret natural events
  50. Narrator: The person who is telling the story
  51. Novel: Covering a wide range of prose materialswhich have two common characteristics: they are fictional and lengthy