i hate lit

complexity

the competing, conflicting, or inconsistent elements within a text that develop significance in style and content, which a reader engages with in order to develop a defensible thesis

perspective

how narrators, characters, or speakers understand their circumstances; is informed by background, personality traits, biases, and relationships; a character's perspective is both shaped and revealed by relationships with other characters, the environment, the events of the plot, and the ideas expressed in the text; a character's perspective may shift over the course of the narrative; NOT to be confused with point of view

pun

the humorous use of a word so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings; a play on words

imagery

vivid appeals to one or more of the five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell)

irony

a technique of indicating, through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated

dramatic irony

depends upon the audience knowing something the protagonist has not yet realized (and thus experiencing simultaneously its own interpretation of events and that of the protagonist)

situational irony

when events in the text are inconsistent with the expectations the reader brings to the text or the expectations established by the text itself

verbal irony

when statements in the text are inconsistent with the expectations the reader brings to the text or the expectations established by the text itself; stating the opposite of what is meant

loose sentence

a sentence in which the main clause is first, followed by dependent clauses and/or modifying phrases

antecedent

that which goes before, especially the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers

closed forms of poetry

include predictable patterns in the structure of lines, stanzas, meter, and rhyme that develop relationships among ideas in the poem

meter

the basic rhythmic structure of verse; the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

speaker

in poetry, relates accounts to readers and establishes a relationship between the text and the reader

apostrophe

direct address to someone or something not present

extended metaphor

created when the comparison of a main subject and comparison subject persist through parts of an entire text; when the comparison is expanded through additional details, similes, and images

conceit

a form of extended metaphor that develops complex comparisons—images, concepts, and associations in surprising or paradoxical ways

pacing

the manipulation of time within a text that may evoke an emotional reaction in readers by the order in which information is revealed; the relationship between the information, when it is revealed, and other parts of the narrative; several factors contribute, including the frequency of details, repetition, the frequency of events, shifts in tense, or the chronology of events

stream-of-consciousness

a narrative structure that duplicates that inner workings of a character's mind (interrupting the chronology of the plot)—can directly affect readers' experiences with the text by creating anticipation, or suspense, or building tension

climax

the decisive moment where the protagonist confronts the central conflict, and the outcome of the story is determined

resolution

the final stage in the plot when, after the climax, conflicts are worked out and action comes to an end

suspense

when events in a plot collide and accumulate to create a sense of anticipation

point of view

vantage point from which a story is told (3rd person omniscient, 3rd person limited, 1st person, or multiple voices); NOT to be confused with perspective

point of view (omniscient)

the narrator can know, see, and report whatever he/she chooses; the narrator can describe the thoughts of any of the characters, can skip about in time or place, & can speak directly to the reader; creates narrative distance

3rd person point of view

creates narrative distance