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Allegory

Allegory

a story that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning

Alliteration

‘peter piper picked a pickled pepper”

Allusion

a reference to something in history or another work of literature

Analogy

“you have to be as busy as a bee to get good grades in high school.”

Anaphora

repetition of certain words

“Go big or go home”

Antecendent

when a pronoun or noun refers to an earlier word

“Ali is a lawyer. She is very smart".”

Antihero

a central character that lacks the qualities of a hero

Antithesis

the opposite between two things

‘Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer.”

Aphorism

a short memorable expression of truth

Apostrophe

addressing an absent person or object as if it were there

Assonance

repetition of a similar vowel

Atmosphere

the feeling, emotion, or mood a writer conveys to a reader through the description of setting

“it was a dark and stormy night”

Bildungsroman

a coming of age novel

Blank verse

verse without rhyme that uses iambic pentameter

Cacophony

harsh sounds

Caesura

a break or pause in the middle of a line

Caricature

a comic that exaggerates traits

Catharsis

purging of emotions in a story or play

Characterization

the construction of a character’s traits and qualities

Dynamic Character

character that undergoes significant internal change throughout the story

Round Character

a character with a deep, layered, complex personality

Flat Character

an uncomplicated character with only one or two traits and has no depth to them

Static Character

a character that does not undergo change throughout the novel

Chiasmus

“all for one and one for all”

Clause

a group of words that contains a subject and a verb

Colloquial

speech used in familiar and informal conversation

Conceit

compares two dissimilar things

Connotation

a feeling that a word provokes in addition to its literal meaning.

“Guest vs Intruder”

Consonance

“mike likes his new bike”

Couplet

a two line poem that rhymes

Denotation

a word’s literal meaning

Deus ex Machina

an unexpected event saving a hopeless situation

Diction

word choice

Didactic

intended to teach rather than entertain

Doppelganger

a double of a living person

Elergy

a poem that expresses sorrow, usually about death

Elision

the omission of unstressed syllables to fit a metric scheme

“I dunno”

End stopped

a complete phrase ended with a type of punctuation

Enjambment

a continuation from one phrase to the next without a break of punctuation

Epic

long narrative poem regarding heroic deeds

Epigraph

a brief quotation at the beginning of the novel regarding the theme

Epiphany

a visionary moment when a character has a sudden realization that changes their understanding

“the Aha moment”

Epistolary

works of fiction that are written in the form of letters

Epithet

an adjective phrase to characterize a person

Euphemism

a polite word used in place of a word that is direct or unpleasant

Euphony

words that create a pleasing sound

Extended Metaphor

a metaphor introduced and then further developed throughout all or part of a literary work