 | Term | Definition |
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Motif |
A recurrent image, word, phrase, represented object or action that to unify the literary work or that may be elaborated into a more general theme. |
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Naturalism |
The term naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings. Unlike realism, which focuses on literary technique, naturalism implies a philosophical position. |
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Nemesis |
A villain who has a particular interest in defeating a hero or group of heroes, and who is often of particular interest to the hero(es) in return. |
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Oxymoron |
A combination of contradictory terms, like compassionate conservative. |
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Parallelism |
the repetition of words, phrases, sentences that have the same grammatical structure or that restate a similar idea. Restatement is repetition of an entire idea in different words. Structuralism Parallelism is the repetition of a word or entire sentence pattern. Antithesis is connecting ideas that are opposite, rather than similar. |
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Parable |
a brief and often simple narrative that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. Some of the best-known parables are in the Bible, where Jesus uses them to teach his disciples. |
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Parody |
a literary form in which the style of an author or particular work is mocked in its style for the sake of comic effect. |
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Pathetic fallacy |
The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example, angry clouds; a cruel wind. |
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Pastoral |
Of, relating to, or being a literary or other artistic work that portrays or evokes rural life, usually in an idealized way. |
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Persona |
In literature, the persona is the narrator, or the storyteller, of a literary work created by the author. As Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama puts it, the persona is not the author, but the author’s creation--the voice “through which the author speaks.” |
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Personification |
A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human characteristics. One example of this is James Stephens’s poem “The Wind” in which wind preforms several actions. In the poem Stephens writes, “The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his two fingers.” |
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Point of view |
a way the events of a story are conveyed to the reader, it is the “vantage point” from which the narrative is passed from author to the reader. In the omniscient point of view, the person telling the story, or narrator, knows everything that’s going on in the story. In the first- person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story. Using the pronoun “I” the anrrator tells us his or her own experiences but cannot reveal with certainty any other character’s private thoughts. In the limited third-person point of view, the narrator is outside the story- like an omniscient narrator- but tells the story from the vantage point of one character. |
