English Lit Vocab

Abstract

(in writing) a complex style; discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, and rarely uses examples to support its points

Academic

(adj) describes a style of dry and theoretical writing; when a piece of writing seems to be sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis

Accent

(in poetry) refers to the stressed portion of a word, that is often a matter of opinion

Aesthetic

(adj) appealing to the senses; a ___ judgment is synonymous with artistic judgement. (noun) a coherent sense of taste

Aesthetics

(n) study of beauty

Allegory

a story in which each aspect of the story has symbolic meaning outside the tale itself

Alliteration

The repetition of the initial consonant; consonant clusters are close and cramped — not coincidental

Allusion

a reference to another work or famous figure

a classical ____ is a reference to Greek and Roman mythology, such as the Iliad

they can be topical or popular; topical ____ refer to a current event; popular ____ refer to something in pop culture

Anachronism

derived from Greek; misplaced in time

ex.

An actor playing a Queen Elizabeth forget to take off her smart watch

Analogy

a comparison that involves two or more symbolic parts; utilized to clarify an action or relationship

Anecdote

a short narrative

Antecedent

a word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to

Anthropomorphism

(in literature) when inanimate objects are given human characteristics

*Not the same as personification because personification requires the non-human object to take on human shape

Anticlimax

when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect

Antihero

when the protagonist (main character) is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or other unsavory qualities

Aphorism

a short, witty saying

Apostrophe

A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something nonhuman

Archaism

the use of deliberately old fashioned language; creates a feeling of antiquity;

Aside

a speech (usually a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though the actor momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage

Aspect

a trait or characteristic

Assonance

The repeated use of vowel sounds

Atmosphere

The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene

Ballad

A long, narrative poem, usually in a very regular meter and rhyme; typically has naive folksy quality — a characteristic that distinguishes it from epic poetry

Bathos / Pathos

when the writing of a scene evokes feelings of dignified pity and sympathy

when writing strains from grandeur it can’t support and tries to jerk tears from every little hiccup

Black Humor

the use of disturbing themes in comedy

Bombast

Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language

Burlesque

a broad parody, one that takes a style or a form, such as a tragedy, and exaggerates it into ridiculousness; usually takes on a specific work

synonymous with the word parody

Cacophony

In poetry, using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds

Cadence

The beat or rhythm of poetry in a general use

Canto

The name for a section division in a long work of poetry; ____ divides a poem into parts the way chapters divide a novel

Caricature

a portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet personality

Catharsis

term drawn from Aristotle’s writings on tragedy; refers to cleansing of emotion an audience member experiences, having lived (vicariously) through experiences presented on stage

Chorus

(in Greek drama) a group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it

Classic

means typical; an accepted masterpiece

Coinage

a new word, usually one invented on the spot; technical term is neologism

Colloquialism

a word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn’t accepted “school-book” English

Complex / Dense

suggest that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words (image, idea, opposition); there are subtleties and variations; there are multiple layers of interpretation; the meaning is both explicit and implicit

Conceit, controlling image

In poetry, (doesn’t mean stuck up) refers to a startling or unusual metaphor, or to a metaphor developed and expanded upon over several lines. It is when the image dominates and shapes the entire work. A metaphysical version is reserved for metaphysical poems only.

Denotation, connatation

is the literal meaning of the word. ___ are everything else that the word suggests or implies.

Consonance

the repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings, which is alliteration)

Couplet

a pair of lines that end in rhyme

Decorum

to observe ___, a character’s speech must styled according to her social station, and in accordance with the occasion.

Diction / syntax

____ the author’s choice of words meanwhile ____ refers to the ordering and structuring of the words.

Dirge

a song for the dead; the tone is typically slow, heavy, depressed, and melancholy

Dissonance

refers to the grating of incompatible sounds

Doggerel

crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme.

Ex. Limericks

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not

Dramatic Monologue

When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience

Elegy

a type of poem that mediates on death or morality in a serious, thoughtful manner; often use the recent death of a loved as a starting point; memorialize specific dead people

Elements

the basic techniques of each genre of literature

Elements of a short story

characters, Irony, theme, symbol, plot, setting

Elements of Poetry

Figurative, language, symbol, imagery, rhythm, rhyme

Elements of Drama

conflict, characters, climax, conclusion, exposition, rising action, falling action, sets, props

Elements of Non-fiction (rhetorical)

argument, evidence, reason, appeals, fallacies, thesis

Enjambment

the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause

Epic

a very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style

Typically deal with glorious or profound subject matter: a great war, a heroic journey

Epitaph

lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place

Euphemism

a word or a phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality

Euphony

the result of sounds blending harmoniously

Explicit

To say or write something directly and clearly (rare in literature)

Farce

(in modern times) refers to extremely broad humor; (in earlier times) writers used this word as a more neutral term, meaning simply a funny play — a comedy

Feminine Rhyme

lines that rhyme by the final two syllables; typically, the penultimate syllables are stressed and the final syllables are unstressed

First person narrator

this is a narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from their point of view; can be unreliable

Foil

a secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main, usually by contrast

Foot

the basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry; formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed

Foreshadowing

an event or statement in a narrative that in miniature suggests a larger event that comes later

Free verse

poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern

Genre

a sub-category of literature

Examples: Science fiction and detective stories are ___ of fiction

Gothic, Gothic Novel

a sensibility characterized by mysterious gloomy castles perched high upon sheer cliffs; this form first showed up in the mid-eighteenth century and garnered a lot of popularity for about sixty years

Hubris

The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character’s downfall; derived from Aristotle’s discussion of tragedy

hyperbole

exaggeration or deliberate overstatement

implicit

to say or writes something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly

In medias res

latin for ‘in the midst of things’; most epic poetry begin like the trojan war in the Illiad

Interior Monologue

(in novels and poetry) refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character’s head; related to stream of consciousness, but not as loose; coherent, as though the character were actually talking

Inversion

switching the customary order of element in a sentence or phrase; can look stilted if done poorly but common in poetry

Irony

undertow of meaning, sliding against the literal meaning of words

Lament

a poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss

Lampoon

a satire

Loose sentences

a sentence that is complete before it ends.

Lyric

a type of poetry that explores the poet’s personal interpretation of and feelings about the world (or the part that his poem is about); when used to describe the tone it refers to a sweet, emotional melodiousness

Masculine rhyme

a rhyme that ends on the final stressed syllable

Means, Meaning

There is a literal meaning which is concrete and explicit, and there is emotional meaning

Melodrama

a form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very very good, the villain is mean and rotten, and the heroine is pure

Metaphor

a comparison or analogy that states one thing is another

Simile

similar to a metaphor but softens the full out equation often, but not always, by using like or as

Metaphysical conceit

startling or unusual metaphor reserved for metaphysical poems

Metonym

a word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with

Nemesis

The protagonists arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty

Neologism

technical term for inventing a word on the spot

Objectivity

subject matter treated with an impersonal or outside view of events

Subjectivity

subject matter treated with the interior or personal view of a single observer and is typically colored withe that observer’s emotional response

Omniscient Narrator

a third person narrator who sees, like God, into each character’s mind and understands all the action going on

Onomatopoeia

words that sound like what they mean

Opposition

One of the most useful concepts in analyzing literature. It means that one has a pair of elements that contrast sharply; not a conflict but rather a pair of images whereby each becomes more striking and informative because of the contrast

Oxymoron

a phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction

Parable

a story that instructs

Paradox

a situation or statement that seems to contradict itself, but in closer inspection does not

Parallelism

Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect

Paraphrase

to restate and sentences in your own words; rephrase. Demonstrates comprehension

**Not an analysis or interpretation

Parenthetical phrase

a phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail