ELA 2 Lit Terms

Archetype

Original model from which something is developed or made; in literary criticism those images, figures, character types, settings, and story patterns that are universally shared by the people across cultures and are often identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature.

Antagonist

The character pitted against the protagonist of a work with who the readers most often identify; usually has evil or distasteful qualities but they are not necessarily all bad. If the antagonist is all evil they are considered a villain.

Protagonist

The most important or leading character in a work; usually identical to the hero/heroine, but not always; the protagonist both good and bad qualities.

Dynamic

Character has an epiphany or experiences a change during the course of the work; gains a new understanding.

Static

Character stays the same throughout the work from beginning to end.

Epiphany

Used more figuratively to describe the insight or revelation gained when one suddenly understands the essence of a (generally commonplace) object, gesture, statement, situation, moment, or mentality—that is, when one 'sees' that commonplace for what it really is beneath the surface and perceives its inner workings, its nature.

Foil

A character, who by contrast with the main character, serves to accentuate that character's distinctive qualities or characteristics.

Flat

Characters that are not developed; are easily recognizable by their lack of complexity; and are usually created to emphasize a single important trait.

Round

Characters that have a level of complexity and depth we associate with real people and that have been fully developed by the author.

Motivation

The mixture of situation and personality that impels a character to behave the way he or she does.

Stock

A type of character who regularly appears in certain literary forms; they are often stereotyped characters.

Direct characterization

Author intervenes authoritatively in order to describe, and often to evaluate, the motives and dispositional qualities of the characters.

Indirect characterization

Author simply presents the characters talking and acting and leaves the reader to infer the motives and dispositions that lie behind what they say and do.

Detail

Fact revealed by the author or speaker that support the attitude or tone in a piece of poetry or prose.

Diction

A speaker's word choice intended to convey a certain effect; typically divided into two components: vocabulary and syntax.

Connotation

Association evoked by a word beyond its literal meaning; emotional feeling associated with a word.

Denotation

A word's literal meaning; dictionary meaning of a word.

Dialect

Regional variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary; language peculiar to a particular group or social class.

Dialogue

Character's voice; the conversation between two or more characters.

Euphemism

The use of a word or phrase that is less direct, but that is also less distasteful or less offensive than another.

Idiom

A speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar.

Vocabulary

The degree of difficulty, complexity, abstractness, formality, and currency of words used, as well as the origin of the words chosen.

Imagery

The actual language that a writer uses to convey a visual picture to create or represent any sensory experience.

Mood

Defined by some as synonymous with atmosphere and/or tone; it can be attitude toward readers, subject matter, or even toward the author themselves or it can refer to the general feeling created in the reader.

Plot

The arrangement and interrelation of events in a narrative work which engages the reader's attention while also providing a framework for the exposition of the author's message, theme or other such elements.

Conflict

A confrontation or struggle between opposing characters or forces in the plot or narrative work, from which the action emanates and around which it revolves.

Internal conflict

A character who is fighting something within themselves (in their mind).

External Conflict

Conflict involving man versus supernatural being, man versus fate, man versus nature, man versus man, man versus machine, or man versus society.

Flashback

A scene that interrupts the present action of a narrative work to depict some earlier event - often an event that occurred before the opening scene of the work via remembrance, dreaming or some other mechanism.

Foreshadowing

A technique by which an author suggests or predicts an outcome of plot.

Spatial

Organization of information using spatial cues such as top to bottom, left to right, etc.

Chronological

Order of events in which they occur.

Transitional devices

Techniques used to connect or link different events or ideas.

Suspense

What builds the reader's attention.

Point of View

Vantage point from which a narrative is told; usually told from first person, third person, third person omniscient, or third person limited.

First person point of view

The character telling the story speaks as though it had happened to him or her personally, using personal pronouns such as 'I,' 'me,' 'my,' etc.

Third person omniscient

The author tells the story as though he or she knows everything about the actions, thoughts, and feelings of all the characters.

Third person limited

The author tells the story as though he or she can only perceive the thoughts and feelings of one of the characters.

Rhetorical shift

A shift used to influence or persuade.

Setting

Time and place that provides general background for the characters and plot of the story.

Style

The way a literary work is written; the devices the author uses to express his or her thoughts and convey the work's subject matter.

Theme

A statement that the text seems to be making about the subject of the literary work; can be moral or an amoral lesson.

Tone

Writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject and the audience, determined through diction, imagery, detail, point of view, syntax, and tone shifts.

Pronoun/antecedent agreement

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number, gender, and person.

Subject/verb agreement

A verb must agree with its subject in person and number.

Antithesis

A rhetorical device in which two ideas are directly opposed.

Juxtaposition

A rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another.

Omission

The omission of conjunctions (asyndeton) or a word or phrase for a complete syntactical construction but not for understanding (ellipsis).

Parallelism

Refers to a grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence.

Chiasmus

A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures.

Polysyndeton

Repetition of conjunctions in close succession for rhetorical effect.

Repetition

a device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and create emphasis (ex. ...a government of the people, for the people, by the people...)

Apostrophe

a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present and the inanimate, as if animate.

Personification

a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics

Symbolism

something that stands for or suggests something larger and more complex

Simile

a comparison using like or as; a Homeric simile is an extended simile originated from Homer in his great epics The Iliad and The Odyssey

Metaphor

a comparison without the use of like or as

Synecdoche

a form of a metaphor where part of something is used to signify the whole (ex. All hands on deck) or the whole is used for part (ex. Canada played the United States in the Olympic hockey finals.)

Metonymy

changed label or substitute name or the name of one thing is applied to another (ex. 'The White House declared...' rather than saying 'The president declared...')

Allusion

a reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing (literary technique)

Hyperbole

a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration

Understatement

(meiosis, litotes - an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite - ex. This is no small problem) opposite of hyperbole; a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is

Oxymoron

a form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms (ex. Sweet sorrow; fiend angelical)

Paradox

a statement that contradicts itself (ex. 'The more you know, the more you know you don't know.')

Pun

a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings (ex. Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.)

Alliteration

the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of words (ex. live and let live)

Assonance

the repetition of a vowel sound within words (ex. rise and shine; down and out)

Consonance

repetition of consonance especially at the end of stressed syllables without the like correspondence of vowels

Meter

rhythm that continuously repeats a single basic pattern; a measure or unit of metrical verse

Onomatopoeia

the use of words that imitate sounds (ex. creak, quack)

Rhyme

repetition of a sounds at the ends of words (ex. September, November)

Rhythm

the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a sentence or line of poetry (ex. On this green bank, by this soft stream)

Irony

the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, often for humorous or emphatic effect.

Motif

a unifying element in an artistic work, especially any recurrent image, symbol, theme, character, type subject, or narrative detail.

Satire

A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform and ridicule.

Allegory

the presentation of an abstract idea through more concrete means; typically a narrative that has at least two levels of meaning.

Catharsis

a dramatic, serious or complete action that evokes both fear and pity in the audience and allows the character to experience a 'purification'.

Dramatic unities

time, action, place.

Hamartia

an error in judgment; a tragic flaw.

Hubris

overweening pride; arrogance before the gods.

Recognition

as the hero meets his catastrophe, he recognizes his flaw and why he must die.