lit terms 26-50

attitude

authors feelings toward the topic they write about, interchangeable with tone, revealed through word choice

aubade

morning love song or song/poem about lovers separating at dawn

ballad

folk song or poem passed down orally that tells a story derived from an actual incident legend or folklore, composed in four line stanzas/quatrains with abcb, often contain refrain

bildungsroman

coming of age novel whose principal subject is moral, psychological, and intellectual development of a youthful main character, comes from German bidung = education and roman = novel

blank verse

unrhymed poetry in iambic pentameter

cacophony

harsh, discordant sounds, unpleasant to the ear, used by poets for effect

caesura

pause occuring within a line of poetry

carpe diem

latin for “seize the day”, frequent concept in 16th/17th century court poetry

catharsis

emotional cleansing or feeling or relief, in poetics Aristotle wrote that tragedy should “arouse pity and fear in such a way as to accomplish a catharsis of such emotions in the audience”

characterization

way an author presents characters, in direct presentation a character is described by the author, narrator, or other characters. in indirect presentation, a characters traits are revealed by action and speech

chiasmus

opposite of parallel construction; inverting the second of two phrases that would otherwise be in parallel form, comes from greek word meaning crossed, criss cross structure, often used as an effect to place emphasis upon a word or idea

colloquial

of or relating to slang or regional dialect, used in familiar everyday conversation

conceit

far fetched comparison between two seemingly unlike things; extended metaphor gaining appeal from unusual or extraordinary comparison

connotation

associations a word calls to mind, more connotative means less objective

consonance

same consonant sounds with different vowel sounds, can be found in middle or end of words

couplet

two successive rhyming lines of the same number of syllables, with matching cadence

dactyl

foot of poetry with three syllables, one stressed and two short or unstressed syllables

denotation

dictionary or literal meaning of a word or phrase

denouement

outcome or clarification at end of a story or play; winding down from climax to ending

deus ex machina

when gods intervene at a storys end to resolve a seemingly impossible conflict, refers to an unlikely or improbable coincidence

diction

deliberate choice of a style of language for a desired effect or tone, words chosen to achieve a particular effect such as formal, informal, colloquial

didactic

story speech or essay or play where author’s primary purpose is to instruct, teach, moralize

distortion

exaggeration or stretching of the truth to achieve a desired effect

elegy

type of literature, often a song or poem, that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died, stemmed out of a Greek work known as elegus, song of mourning or lamentation accompanied by flute

enjambment

running over of a sentence from ne verse or stanza into the next without stopping at the end of the first