English 10-Lit Terms #1

Verbal Irony

Words used to suggest the opposite of what is meant

Motive

The underlying reason, desire, or purpose that drives a character's actions or behavior

In Medias Res

In the middle of things

Syntax

Sentence structure

Protagonist

Main character or hero of story

Motif

Recurring subject, theme, idea, etc.

Style

The choices an author makes when writing such as diction, syntax, and other literary devices

Monologue

A speech by one character, unlike a soliloquy, that is addressed to another

character or characters

Situational Irony

When the actual outcome of a situation is the opposite of someone’s

expectation

Allusion

Reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art

Hubris

Excessive pride or vaulting ambition

Antagonist

A character or force in conflict with a main character or protagonist

Narrative

Story told in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama

Analogy

Comparison between two or more things that are similar in some ways but other ways unalike

Irony

A literary device involving a contrast or incongruity between expectations for a situation and reality, what is said and what is meant, or what a character knows versus what the audience knows

Argument

Writing or speech that attempts to convince the reader to adopt a particular opinion or course of action

Oversimplification

Description of something in a way that does not include all the facts or details (and that causes misunderstanding)

Parallelism

Two or more words, phrases, or clauses, that are similar in length and grammatical form

Pun

Play on words involving two words that sound alike or have different meanings

Aside

A character’s comment, in a play, that is directed to the audience or another character

Personification

Animal, object, etc. given human qualities or characteristics

Archetype

Type of character, detail, image, or situation that appears in literature

throughout history (e.g. beggar)

Foil

A character who provides a strong contrast to another character (e.g. Shrek to the donkey)

Paradox

Statement that seems to say two opposite things, but that may be true

Climax

The point of highest tension, emotional intensity, or turning point in a narrative's plot structure

Assonance

Repetition of same or similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end

with different consonant sounds (e.g. low, tow, given, distance)

Dramatic Irony

Contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or

audience knows to be true

Onomatopoeia

Use of words that imitate sounds (e.g. hiss, barking)

Genre

Category of literary work characterized by a particular form or style (e.g.

fiction/non-fiction)

Juxtaposition

An act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for

comparison or contrast

Satire

A writing that exposed and ridicules the flaws of people in society