English 4 Honors: A-Z Lit Terms

Allegory

An extended narrative that carries a second meaning along with surface meaning (Animal Farm)

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. (I sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock).

Allusion

When a writer or speaker refers something from history or literature and expect audience to understand what he/she is referencing to. (It has been raining for 40 days and 40 nights).

Anachronism

Something that is misplaced in a text because it's out of time/sequence or in the wrong time period. (In Julius Caesar, a clock strikes though there are no clock in his day).

Antagonist

The forces or character that opposes the protagonist (Bob Ewell in TKAM).

Anti-Hero

A kind of hero who seems to express qualities that are opposite of the traditional hero. (Cool Hand Luke)

Apostrophe

In poetry, it's a term used when a speaker directly addresses someone or something that isn't present in the poem/lit. text (Talking to the sun & sea).

Archetype

From greek "arche" means "orginial" and "typos" means "form". A pattern of plot or character found in a variety of works from different cultures throughout ages. (Rime of the Ancient Mariner).

Aside

Spoken to the audience or perhaps to another character while other characters are on stage. (The Office, in Shakespeare-Julius Caesar)

Assonance

A kind of internal rhyme that makes use of repeated vowel sounds and the ending consonant is not the same. (Gerard Manley Hopkin's poem "Spring", Strikes like Lightning)

Autobiography

The life story of a person written by the person. (Booke of Margery Kempe)

Avant-Garde

French "vanguard" in literature, a term designating new writing that contains innovation in form or techniques. (Postmodern artist such as language poet and the Outsider of New Orleans).

Ballad

A narrative poem that was originally intended to be sung. They use dialogue, repetition, and often suggest more than they actually state. (Barbara Allen, Get Up and Bar the Door, Lord Randall-British medieval ballads).

Bard

A word originally used to refer to an ancient Celtic order of minstrel-poets who composed and sang verses, now a synonym for poet. (Shakespeare, Anglo-Saxons are called scops).

Biography

An account of a person's life written, composed, or produced by another. (Samuel Johnson's "The Live of the Most Eminent English Poet" and "James Boswell's massive life of Samuel Johnson")

Black Humor

"Dark/Gallows Humor". A kind of humor dealing with extremely serious and even horrible subjects, usually death and mayhem. (Stanley Kubrick's film, Dr. Strange Love; How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter. The "blank" is the unrhymed part, consisting of five (penta) iambs. An iamb is a metrical foot that has two syllable, the first unaccented "U" and the second accented. (Shakespeare's play; Milton's literacy epic Paradise Lost).

Carpe Diem

Latin for "Seize the Day", the realization that life is short and precarious and that tomorrow is promised to no one. (Robert Herrick & Andrew Marvell: "To the Virgins, To make much of time" and "To his Coy Mistress")

Characterization

Techniques that writers use to develop characters. Direct characterization Vs. Indirect characterization. Method of indirect characterization include physiological, psychological, and sociological. (1) Appearance, (2) Speech, (3) Actions, (4) Thoughts & Feelings, (5) describe what other characters think or say.

Cliche

A trite or overused expression/idea. A person or character whose behavior is predictable or superficial. (Don't judge a book by its cover. The Macho cop of Hollywood movies. )

Comic Relief

A release of emotion or other tension resulting from a comic episode interposed in the midst of serious or tragic elements in a drama. (Christopher Marlowe introduced comic relief through presentation of crude/comic scene in Doctor Faustus).

Conciet

Metaphysical ________; An elaborate or unusual comparison-especially one using unlikely metaphors, smile, hyperbole, and contradictions. (John Donne's "A valediction: Forbidding Mourning")

Conflict

The opposition between two characters between two large groups of people or between the protagonist and larger crisis that involves forces of nature, ideas, public move, etc. (External VS. Internal; Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur).

Connotation

The extra meaning or emotional association that each word carries beyond the minimal, strict definition (denotation), positive, neutral, negative tone. (Method of poetry analysis TP-CAST: Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Atitude, Shift, Title, Theme).

Couplet

Two lines-2nd line immediately follows the 1st that ends in a rhyme to form a complete unit. (Geoffrey Chaucer-"The Canterbury Tales")

Denotation

Strict definition of words that is found in the dictionary, contrast denotation and connotation. (Shakespeare-Macbeth; Ambition/Greed).

Denouement

A French word meaning "unknotting" or "unwinding" refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events; an aftermath or resolution that usually occurs during the final stage of plot. (Unraveling the main dramatic complications in a play; final scene of Romeo and Juliet).

Deus Ex Machina

An unrealistic or unexpected interventions resolve the story's conflict. "The god out of the Machine", refers to stage machinery. (A writer might reach a climatic point where a band of pioneers are attacked by bandits, Calvary Brigade arrives to drive away the bandits).

Dialect

The languages of a particular district, class, or group of persons. The term dialect encompasses the sound, spelling, grammar, and diction employed by a specific people as distinguished from other persons either geographically or socially. (Mark Twain-Huckleberry Finn).

Dialogue

A conversation between two characters, or a literary work but takes the form of such a discussion. (Plato's Republic, which contains "The Cave").

Diction

Choice of a particular word as opposed to other, contribute to author's style and tone. (Rock formation: A stone, A boulder, An Outcropping, a pile of rocks, a mound, "Anomalous geographical feature").

Dramatic Irony

Situation in a narrative in which the reader or audience. Knows/Expects something about the present or the future and the character doesn't know or expect. (Oedipus in classic Greek Play "Oedipus Rex".)

Didactic

Writing that overtly seeks to convince a reader of a particular point or lesson, to teach. ("Milton's Paradise Lost"-justify God's way to men; Aesop's Fable; Pathos, an appeal to an audience's emotions.

Dynamic Character

Someone whose personality changes or evolves over the course of a narrative or appears to have the capacity for such change. (Ebenezer Scrooge; Charles Dicken's-A Christmas Carol)

Dystopia

The opposite of utopia, a dystopia is an imaginary society in fictional writing that represents, "A very unpleasant imaginary world in which ominous tendencies of our present social, political, and technological order are projected, in some disastrous future culmination". ("A Brand New World"-Aldas Huxley; 1984-George Orwell; Anthem-Ayn Rand)

Elegy

a poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person. (Various Anglo-Saxon poems such as “The Wife’s Lament” and “The Wanderer”are also considered elegies. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam, written in memory of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, is a famous elegy.)

Elison

1. the omission of a sound in pronunciation 

2. the omission (sometimes indicated in print by an apostrophe) of an unstressed vowel, consonant, or syllable such as in the example Hallowe'en from All Hallow’s Eve.

They’d (they had, they should, or they would), haven’t (have not) and so on.

Je adore = J’adore

La enfant = L’enfant

Ellipsis

1. in it’s oldest sense as a rhetorical device, ellipsis refers to the artful omission of a verb implied by a previous clause. 

2. its modern sense, refers to a punctuation mark indicated by 3 periods to indicate material missing from a quotation.

“______…_____”

Enjambment

a line having no pause of end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing on to the next line. 

(George s. Verdis’ “The Haunted House” )

Epic

 a genre of classical poetry; it is a poem (a) a long narrative (b) told in an elevated style (c) a hero who represents the cultural values (d) the hero’s success determines the fate of that people or nation. (Classical Greek texts: the Iliad and the Odyssey

Anglo-saxon poem: Beowulf

Chrisitan novel: Milton’s Paradise Lost

Oldest known example: Epic of Gilgamesh)

Epistolary

taking the form of a letter, or actually consisting of a letter written to another; for instance, several books in the New Testament of the Bible, written by Saint Paul, are epistolary-they were originally letters written to newly founded Christian churches. ( C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740), Frankenstein)

Epitaph

refers literally to an inscription carved on a gravestone; in a more general sense, it is a final statement spoken by a character before his death. (Famous epitaphs include British poet John Keats’ grave inscription: “Here lies one whose name was writ in the water.”)

Epithet

a short, poetic nickname that is often in the form of an adjective or adjective clause-attached to the normal name or as a term of abuse outside of literature. 

The homeric epithet (after Homer) is in classical literature and often includes compounds of two words such as “fleet-footed Achilles” and “gray-eyed Athena”. 

The historical epithet is a descriptive phrase attached to a ruler’s name such as “King Alfred the Great” and “Richard the Lionheart”. 

Eponym

a word that is derived from the proper name of a person or place.

(The sandwich gained its name from its inventor, the fourth Earl of Sandwich. The word lynch comes from Captain William Lynch, who led bands of vigilantes to hang bobos and bums.)

Euphemism

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

(Saying “Grandfather has passed or gone to a better place” is a euphemism for “Grandfather is dead.”)

Farce

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

(Many of Shakespeare’s early works, such as The Taming of the Shrew, are considered farces.)

Figure of Speech/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 (nonliteral language).

A comparison between two distinctly different things using “like,” “as,” “than,” or “resembles” (“My love’s like a red, red rose”).

Metaphors (metonym and synecdoche), personification, and hyperbole. 

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, narrations. 

Flashbacks can also be achieved through authorial commentary (such as saying, “But back when King Author had been a child…”).

Most of the Odyssey is told in flashback since it starts medias res (in the middle of things).

Foil

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

(In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Laertes the unthinking man of action is a foil to the intelligent but reluctant Hamlet. )

Folklore

sayings, verbal compositions, stories, and social rituals passed along by word of mouth rather than written down in a text.

Folklore includes superstitions; modern “urban legends”; proverbs; riddles; nursery rhymes; songs; legends, or lore.

Paul Bunyan with his blue ox, Babe 

Pesos Bill

Johnny appleseed

Foreshadowing

suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative; foreshadowing often provides hints about what will happen next.

(The three witches’ ominous predictions and actions in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.)

Free Verse

poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and pauses and normal pauses; it does not contain regular rhyme or rhythm (meter).

The American poet Walt Whitman first made extended successful use of free verse in the 19th century, and he in turn influenced French poet Baudelaire.

The distinction between free and blank verse is that this meter or rhyme is not sustained through the bulk of the poem.

Genre

a type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions. the four broadest categories of literature or poetry, drama, fiction (prose), and nonfiction.

Murder mysteries, westerns, sonnets, lyric poetry, epics, tragedies, etc.

Gothic Literature

poetry, short stories, or novels designed to thrill readers by providing mystery and blood-curdling accounts of villainy, murder, and the supernatural.

The term became associated with ghost stories and horror novels because early gothic novels were often associated with the middle ages and with things “wild, bloody, and barbarous of long ago.”

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is the quintessential example of gothic Literature.

Hubris

the Greek term hubris is difficult to translate directly into English, it is a negative term implying both arrogant excessive self pride or self confidence and also a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one's abilities.

Arete is a humble and constant striving for perfection.

The tragic flaw of Odysseus, Icarus, and Creons (from Antigone) is hubris. 

Hyperbole

a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect. 

“I could sleep for a year,” “this book weighs a ton,” “his thundering shout could split rocks,” or “yo momma’s so fat…”

Iambic/iambic pentameter

a unit or foot of poetry that consists of a lightly stressed syllable U followed by a heavily stressed syllable

When scanning a line, we might, for instance, describe the line as “iambic pentameter” (having five feet, with each foot having to be a light syllable followed by a heavy syllable U/U/U/U/U/

Idiom

a construction or an expression in one language that cannot be matched or directly translated word-for-word in another language 

“Kill two birds with one stone”

Imagery

the “mental pictures” or “images” that leaders experience with a passage of literature

Imagery is not limited to visual imagery: it includes auditory, tactile, thermal, olfactory, gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic sensation.

In media res

in Latin “in the middle of things”: the classical tradition of opening a work, especially an epic, not in the chronological point at which the sequence of events would start, but rather at the midway point of the story

The Greek epic, The Odyssey, is told in this manner (many of the events are memorable plot events told through flashback). Star Wars is also told in this manner. 

Irony

verbal irony: when a speaker says something but means the exact opposite 

dramatic irony: when the reader knows something that the characters do not; most important for literature

situational irony: when the situation or event turns out to be the exact opposite of hat was expected

Dramatic irony: Oedipus Rex

Situational irony: Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, the poetic justice of a pickpocket getting pickpocketed 

Juxtaposition

arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, setting, phrases or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect 

Youth and age, individual and society, good and evil, light and dark, city and country, nature and nurture, etc. These run rampant through Shakespeare’s plays.

Kenning

a form of compounding in Old English, Old Norse, and Germanic poetry. In this poetic device, the poet creates a new compound word or phrase to describe a simple object or activity 

“Thor-Weapon” to a smith’s hammer

“battle-flame” the light that shines on swords

“gore-bed” for a battlefield 

Lyric/lyric poetry

a short poem, often designed to be set to music; unlike a ballad, the lyric usually does not have a plot, but rather expresses the feelings, perceptions, and thoughts of a single poetic speaker in a an intensely personal, emotional, or subjective manner

Often, the lyric is subdivided into various genres, including the dramatic monologue, the elegy, the hymn, the ode, and the sonnet.

Machiavellian

Refers generally to sneaky, ruthless, and deceitful behavior, especially in regard to a ruler obsessed with power; “The end always justifies the means.”

The term originates in a treatise known as The Prince: this work was written by Nicolo Machiavelli.

Malapropism

a “bad” or misuse of words to create comic effect or to characterize the speaker as being to confused, ignorant, or flustered to use correct diction

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn in which one character declares, “‘I was most putrified with astonishment,’” instead of “petrified.”

Metaphor

a comparison or analog stated in such a way to imply that one object is another one figuratively speaking; metaphorical conceit 

A pair of eggs, “this is your brain,” the eggs would be cracked and thrown onto a hot skillet, where the eggs would bubble, burn, and seethe, “this is your brain on drugs.”

Meter

a recognizable though varying patterns of stress syllables alternating with syllables of less stress; compositions write in meter are also said to be written in verse”

Iambic: the noun is “iamb” or “iambus”: a highly stressed (unaccented) syllable (u) followed by a heavily stressed syllable (accented) (/).

MLA

the acronym for the Modern Language Association

English students primarily know the MLA as the publisher of the MLA guideline for research papers, the standard format used in American college English classes. 

Modernism

a vague term referring to the art, poetry, literature, architecture, and philosophy of Europe and America in the early twentieth-century (1900s)

Under its general umbrella, we find several art movements such as surrealism, formalism, and various avant-garde French movements.

Motif

a recurring element, such as a type of incident, device, reference, or image, which appears frequently in a work of literature 

The mockingbird is an important repeated symbol or motif in To Kill a Mockingbird; it is also a symbol for someone who is innocent or harmless.

Multiculturalism

in literature, the belief that literary studies should include writings from a number of different cultures rather than focus on Western European civilization alone

The Harlem Renaissance and the Mexican Renaissance 

Muses

the nine daughters of Zeus who had the power to inspire artists, poets, singer, writers 

Calliope: epic poetry

Clio: history 

Myth

a traditional tale of deep cultural significance to people in terms of ritual practice or models of appropriate and inappropriate behavior

If the story concerns supernatural beings who are not deities, but rather spirits, ghosts, fairies, and other creatures, it is usually called a folktale or fairy tale rather than a myth; samples of myths appear in the wiring of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid.