English HL Vocab

Allegory

A narrative technique in which characters representing things or abstract ideas are used to convey a message or teach a lesson. Allegory is typically used to teach moral, ethical, or religious lessons but is sometimes used for satiric or political purposes.

Example: Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene and John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.

Anachronism

Something that does not fit into a certain historical time period

Anecdot

A brief narrative of an interesting incident or event

Anti-Climax

An outcome with little significance, disappointing the audience because it was not what was expected. Ex. Reading a cool story, but it was all a dream

Apopstrophe

A figure of speech in which the absent are addressed as if present, the inanimate as though animate or the dead as though living. Example: "Ah, Sun-flower, counting the steps of the sun." B. Scholes

Archaic Language

Language of an older time of style which is no longer used. Ex. Methought

Archetype

The word archetype is commonly used to describe an original pattern or model from which all other things of the same kind are made. This term was introduced to literary criticism from the psychology of Carl Jung. It expresses Jung's theory that behind every person's "unconscious," or repressed memories of the past, lies the "collective unconscious" of the human race memories of the countless typical experiences of our ancestors. These memories are said to prompt illogical associations that trigger powerful emotions in the reader. Often, the emotional process is primitive, even primordial. Archetypes are the literary images that grow out of the "collective unconscious." They appear in literature as incidents and plots that repeat basic patterns of life.

Aside

A stage device in which a character gives a comment to the audience which is assumed not to be heard by other characters on stage. Example: In Shakespeare's Macbeth before the final battle, a character says to the audience, "Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, / Profit again should hardly draw me here."

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in words which are placed close together.

Ballad

A simple narrative poem that was usually meant to be sung and often has a refrain or chorus.

Blank Verse

Loosely, any unrhymed poetry, but more generally, unrhymed iambic pentameter verse(composed of lines of five two-syllable feet with the first syllable accented, the second unaccented). Blank verse has been used by poets since the Renaissance for its flexibility and its graceful, dignified tone.

Cacophony

Language that sounds rough, harsh and unmusical in sound.

Caricature

Writing or drawing that exaggerates or distorts a person's appearance or qualities for a humorous effect.

Consistent Character

One who does not change without motivation

Developing/ Dynamic Character

One who undergoes significant change in some aspect of his character, personality or values.

Round Character

Many personality traits

Static

Does not change in personality or values

Stock Character

A character that consistently occurs in a genre. A westerns has a sheriff, bartender, outlaw etc

Colloguialism

An expression used in informal conversation but not accepted as appropriate in formal speech or writing. “crash” for sleep

Consonance

The repetition of identical consonant sounds that are followed by different vowel sounds. Dog and gig, bold and mad

Denotation

literal meaning of a word

Deus Ex Machina

“A god from a machine” in latin. Plot manipulation by the author. It is forced and improbable

Diction

The choice and use of words. Example: The gazelle moved swiftly across the sand. The word "swiftly" indicates speed as well as the quality of the movement

Didactic

Writing to teach

End Rhyme

Two words that sound alike which occur at the end of the line and at the end of some other line, usually within the same stanza if not in subsequent lines. In some cases, rather than making use of a full end-rhyme such as "me" and "sea," poets instead employ off-thyme or slant rhyme for a strange unsettling effect.

Wilfred Owen, a 20th-century English poet, expresses the senselessness of war through the use of slant rhymes.

Example: I had a duck-billed platypus when I was up at Trinity With whom I soon discovered a remarkable affinity.

Enjambment

The running over of the sense and structure of a line of verse or a couplet into the following verse or couplet.

Example: Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress is structured as a series of enjambments, as in lines 11-12 "My vegetable love should grow/Vaster than empires and more slow."

Epigram

Any short poem, often witty. "Swans sing before they die -twere no bad thing Should certain people die before they sing!* S.T. Coleridge

Euphemism

A polite expression used in place of a blunt one that is felt to be disagreeable or embarrassing.

Example: "Pass away" instead of "die" and "powder room" instead of "toilet"

Hubris (Hybris)

Excessive pride or self-confidence that leads a protagonist to disregard a divine warning or to violate an important moral law. In tragedies, hubris is a very common form of hamartia.

Example: Macbeth's pride and ambition led to his downfall.

Onomatopeia (Imitative Harmony)

Sound and rhythm together which suggest the sense.

Example: In D.H. Lawrence's poem The Snake the line "And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough." The sound of the words and the rhythm suggest a slow, sinuous movement.

Cosmic Irony

God, destiny, or fate is used to crush the hopes of a character.

Dramatic Ironoy

Audience knows, but the character does not.

Situational Irony

A contrast occurs between what is expected and what happens.

Verbal Irony

When someone says the opposite of what is meant.

Jargon

Specialized language for specialized work

Juxtaposition

The device of placing side by side elements which would not normally be associated.

Example: "A summer cold" and "harmonious madness"

First Person POV

Narrator is in the story

Second Person POV

Told from the "You are..." perspective, and often in present tense, it is extremely difficult to execute successfully.

This form is most commonly used when describing a process, giving directions or advice, or in correspondence letters directed to a specific individual.

Omniscent (3rd Person POV)

Narrator is not in the story. All knowing. Limited Omniscent is when they can only see a few, or even 1 character.

Object (3rd Person POV)

Narrator doesn’t enter anyone’s mind. Like a camera on a wall

Syntax

The ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns such as phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Poets often manipulate syntax, changing conventional word order, to place certain emphasis on particular words.

Example: Emily Dickinson, for instance, writes about being surprised by a snake in her poem A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, and includes this line "His notice sudden is." In addition to the alliterative hissing s-sounds here, Dickinson also effectively manipulates the line's syntax so that the verb is appears unexpectedly at the end, making the snake's hissing presence all the more "sudden."

Theme

NOT a MORAL. Central idea in fiction. It is merely a comment the author makes.