vocab [a - l]

Allegory

describes any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning

Allusion

a casual reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature, often without explicit identification

Anadiplosis

repeating the last word of a clause at the beginning of the next clause

Alliteration

repeating a consonant sound in the beginning with the same vowel sound

Allusion

casual reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature, often without explicit identification

Anadiplosis

repeating the last word of a clause at the beginning of the next clause

Anapest

a foot or unit of poetry consisting of two light syllables followed by a single stressed syllable

"light stress, light stress, heavy stress" pattern

Anaphora

the intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic effect

Anecdote

short narrative account of an amusing, unusual, revealing, or interesting event

Anglo-Saxon poetry

the term refers to a group of Teutonic tribes who invaded England in the fifth and sixth centuries following the departure of Roman legions in 410 CE; the term Anglo-Saxon is often used to distinguish people of "English" ethnicity in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States

Antagonist

one who opposes and contends against another; an adversary

Antimetobole

rhetorical scheme involving repetition in reverse order

Antithesis

using opposite phrases in close conjunction.

"I burn and I freeze”

“her character is white as sunlight, black as midnight."

Aphorism

a tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage

Apostrophe

the act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present: "Oh, Death, be not proud."

Archetype

an original model or pattern of recurring symbolic situations, themes, characters, symbolic colors, and images

Aside

in drama, a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker's words

Assonance

repeating identical or similar vowels

(especially in stressed syllabes)

in nearby words

Asyndeton

the artistic elimination of conjunctions in a sentence to create a particular effect

Attitude

a manner in which the author carries himself through literature

Author's purpose

the message that the author is trying to convey

Autobiography

a non-fictional account of a person's life--usually a celebrity, an important historical figure, or a writer--written by that actual person

Ballad

a narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter; song hits, folk music, and folktales or any song that tells a story

Ballad stanza

a four-line stanza or a quatrain containing alternating four-stress and three-stress lines with an ABCB or ABAB rhyme scheme

Biography

a non-fictional account of a person's life--usually a celebrity, an important historical figure, or a writer

blank verse

unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents

Burlesque

a work that ridicules a topic by treating something exalted as if it were trivial or vice-versa

Caesura

a pause separating phrases within lines of poetry--an important part of poetic rhythm

Canon

an approved or traditional collection of works; standard works in anthologies; the writings of an author that generally are accepted as genuine

Caricature

a representation, especially pictorial or literary, in which the subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect

Character

any representation of an individual being presented in a dramatic or narrative work through extended dramatic or verbal representation

Chiasmus

a literary scheme in which the author introduces words or concepts in a particular order,

then later repeats those terms or similar ones in reversed or backwards order

Climax

the moment in a play, novel, short story, or narrative poem at which the crisis reaches its point of greatest intensity

Colloquial

word or phrase used everyday in plain and relaxed speech, but rarely found in formal writing; compare with cliché, jargon and slang

Comedy

a Renaissance drama in which numerous characters appear as the embodiment of stereotypical "types" of people

a comic drama consisting of five or three acts in which the attitudes and customs of a society are critiqued and satirized according to high standards of intellect and morality

coming-of-age story

a novel in which an adolescent protagonist comes to adulthood by a process of experience and disillusionment

Conceit

an elaborate or unusual comparison--especially one using unlikely metaphors, simile, hyperbole, and contradiction

Conflict

the opposition between two characters (such as a protagonist and an antagonist), between two large groups of people, or between the protagonist and a larger problem such as forces of nature, ideas, public mores, and so on

Connotation

the extra tinge or taint of meaning each word carries beyond the minimal definition found in a dictionary

Consonance

a special type of alliteration in which the repeated pattern of consonants is marked by changes in the intervening vowel

Contrast

to set in opposition in order to show or emphasize differences

Couplet

2 lines

the second line immediately following the first

of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit

Dactyl

a three-syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables.

Denotation

the minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation

Denouement

French word for "unknotting" or "unwinding”

refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events

an aftermath or resolution that usually occurs near the final stages of the plot

unraveling of the main dramatic complications in a play, novel or other work of literature

Description

the act, process, or technique of describing

Dialect

the sounds, spelling, grammar, and diction employed by a specific people as distinguished from other persons either geographically or socially

Dialogue

the lines spoken by a character or characters in a play, essay, story, or novel, especially a conversation between two characters, or a literary work that takes the form of such a discussion

Diary

an informal record of a person's private life and day-to-day thoughts and concerns

Diction

the choice of a particular word as opposed to others

Drama

a composition in prose or verse presenting, in pantomime and dialogue, a narrative involving conflict between a character or characters and some external or internal force

dramatic irony

a situation in a narrative in which the reader knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know

dramatic monologue

a poem in which a poetic speaker addresses either the reader or an internal listener at length

dynamic character

one whose personality changes or evolves over the course of a narrative or appears to have the capacity for such change

Elegy

any poem written in elegiac meter (alternating hexameter and pentameter lines)

a sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead.

Elizabethan Sonnet

a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg

end rhyme

rhyme in which the last word at the end of each verse is the word that rhymes

end-stopped

a line ending in a full pause

English Sonnet

uses three quatrains; each rhymed differently, with a final, independently rhymed couplet that makes an effective, unifying climax to the whole. Its rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Typically, the final two lines follow a "turn" or a "volta," (sometimes spelled volte, like volte-face) because they reverse, undercut, or turn from the original line of thought to take the idea in a new direction

Enjambment

a line having no pause or end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing into the next line

Enlightenment

the philosophical and artistic movement growing out of the Renaissance and continuing until the 1800s \[Age of Reason\]

Epic

a) a long narrative about a serious subject

b) told in an elevated style of language

c) focused on the exploits of a hero or demi-god who represents the cultural values of a race, nation, or religious group

d) in which the hero's success or failure will determine the fate of that people or nation. Usually, the epic has

e) a vast setting, and covers a wide geographic area

f) it contains superhuman feats of strength or military prowess, and gods or supernatural beings frequently take part in the action

the poem begins with

g) the invocation of a muse to inspire the poet and

h) the narrative starts in medias res (see above)

i) The epic contains long catalogs of heroes or important characters, focusing on highborn kings and great warriors rather than peasants and commoners

Epigram

an inscription in verse or prose on a building, tomb, or coin; a short verse or motto appearing at the beginning of a longer poem or the title page of a novel; a short, humorous poem, often written in couplets, that makes a satiric point

Epistrophe

repetition of a concluding word, or word endings

"he's learning fast; are you earning fast?"

Epitaph

refers literally to an inscription carved on a gravestone the final statement spoken by a character before his death

Epithet

a short, poetic nickname--often in the form of an adjective or adjectival phrase--attached to the normal name

Epizeuxis

\[also known as Diacope\]

uninterrupted repetition, or repetition with only one or two words between each repeated phrase

shows strong emotion

Euphemism

using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt, embarrassing, or painful one

Exaggeration

the act of making something more noticeable than usual

Exposition

the use of authorial discussion to explain or summarize background material rather than revealing this information through gradual narrative detail

extended metaphor

comparison between two things is continued beyond the first point of comparison thus deepening comparison

external conflict

a problem or struggle between a character and someone or something outside of the character

Fable

a brief story illustrating human tendencies through animal characters

falling action

events after the climax, leading to the resolution

Fantasy

any literature that is removed from reality--especially poems, books, or short narratives set in nonexistent worlds, such as an elvish kingdom, on the moon, in Pellucidar (the hollow center of the earth), or in alternative versions of the historical world--such as a version of London where vampires or sorcerers have seized control of parliament; in nonexistent worlds, such as an elvish kingdom, on the moon, in Pellucidar (the hollow center of the earth), or in alternative versions of the historical world--such as a version of London where vampires or sorcerers have seized control of parliament. The characters are often something other than humans, or human characters may interact with nonhuman characters such as trolls, dragons, munchkins, kelpies, etc

Farce

a form of low comedy designed to provoke laughter through highly exaggerated caricatures of people in improbable or silly situations

Fiction

literature that is not based on realistic occurrences and/or accounts

figurative language

a deviation from what speakers of a language understand as the ordinary or standard use of words in order to achieve some special meaning or effect

first person point of view

the narrator does participate in the action of the story

Flashback

a method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events--usually in the form of a character's memories, dreams, narration, or even authorial commentary

flat character

a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of a narrative, or one without extensive personality and characterization

Foil

a character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize opposing traits in another character

Folk ballad

usually anonymous and the presentation impersonal

recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories with emphasis on a central dramatic event

Folk tale

stories passed along from one generation to the next by word-of-mouth rather than by a written text

Foot

a basic unit of meter consisting of a set number of strong stresses and light stresses

Foreshadowing

suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative

formal diction

involves elaborate, technical, or polysyllabic vocabulary and careful attention to the proprieties of grammar

Frame

The result of inserting one or more small stories within the body of a larger story that encompasses the smaller ones

free verse

poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial constraints of metrical feet

Genre

a type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions

Hero

in mythology and legend, a man, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, and favored by the gods

heroic code

a code by which all warriors had to abide to

heroic couplet

two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter

heroic quest

quest that all warriors have to go on once entering the heroic code

historical writing

gives facts and explains historical events

Humanism

a Renaissance intellectual and artistic movement triggered by a "rediscovery" of classical Greek and Roman language, culture and literature

Hyperbole

the trope of exaggeration or overstatement

iamb

a lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable

iambic pentameter

a lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable; If a line has five feet, it is pentameter

Imagery

a common term of variable meaning, imagery includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature