Studied by 3 peopleAllegory
a prose or poetic narrative in which the characters, behavior, and even the setting demonstrates multiple levels of meaning and significance. examples: death (portrayed as a grim reaper), prodigal son (new testament, represents anyone who leaves family and friends for an extended period of time and then returns to the fold)
Alliteration
The sequential repetition of a similar initial sound, usually applied to consonants, usually in closely proximate stressed syllables. examples: peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Allusion
a reference to a literary or historical event, person, or place
Anapestic
a metric foot in poetry that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed. examples: the night before christmas
Anaphora
the regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses. examples: JFK's inaugural speech
Anecdote
a brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature. examples: canterbury tales is a collection of anecdotes told by the pilgrims on their journey
Antagonist
any force that is in opposition to the main character, or protagonist
Antithesis
the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure
Apostrophe
an address or invocation to something that is inanimate. examples: o little town of bethlehem
Archetype
recurrent designs, patterns of action, character types, themes, or images which are identifiable in a wide range of literature. examples: femme fatale, the female character responsible for the downfall of a significant male character
Assonance
a repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually those found in stressed syllables of close proximity. examples: in xanadu did kubla kahn. . .
Asyndeton
a style in which conjunctions are omitted, usually producing a fast-paced, more rapid prose. examples: i came, i saw, i conquered
Attitude
the sense expressed by the tone of voice and/or the mood of a piece of writing, the feelings the author holds toward their subject, the people in their narrative, the events, setting, the theme, or even the reader
Ballad
a narrative poem that is, or originally was, meant to be sung. repetition and refrain (recurring phrase or phrases) characterize the ballad
Ballad stanza
a common stanza form, consisting of a quatrain (a stanza of four lines) that alternatates four-beat and three-beat lines: one and three are unrhymed iambic tetrameter (four beats), and two and four are rhymed iambic trimeter (three beats)
Blank verse
the verse form that most resembles common speech, blank verse consists of unrhymed lines in iambic pentameter. examples: most of shakespeare's plays
Caesura
a pause in a line of verse, indicated by natural speech patterns rather than due to specific metrical patterns
Caricature
a depiction in which a character's characteristics or features are so deliberately exaggerated as to render them absurd. examples: political cartoons
Chiasmus
a figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second, may involve a repetition of the same words. examples: pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure
Colloquial
ordinary language, the vernacular. examples: depending on where you live in the us, a sandwich might be a hero, sub, or hoagie
Conceit
a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out within a piece of literature, in particular an extended metaphor within a poem
Connotation
what is suggested by a word, apart from what it explicitly describes, often referred to as the implied meaning of a word. examples: awesome, sweet, or gay have gone through a series of connotative alterations in the last couple decades
Consonance
the repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowels. not to be confused with alliteration, consonance is a special case of alliteration. examples: pitter-patter, pish-posh, clinging and clanging
Couplet
two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter that together present a single idea or connection.
Dactylic
metric foot in poetry that consists of two stressed syllables followed by one unstressed syllable
Denotation
a direct and specific meaning, often referred to as the dictionary meaning of a word
Denouncement
the final resolution fo the main conflict in a play or story, generally follows the climax
Dialect
the language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area, region, or group of people. examples: y'all, you betcha, etc
Diction
the specific word choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effect
Dramatic monologue
a monologue set in a specific situation and spoken to an imaginary audience. another term would be soliloquy
Elegy
a poetic lament upon the death of a particular person, usually ending in consolation
Enjambment
the continuation of a sentence from one line or couplet of a poem to the next
Epic
a poem that celebrates, in a continuous narrative, the achievements of mighty heroes and heroines, often concerned with the founding of a nation or developing of a culture, uses elevated language and grand, high style
Exposition
that part of the structure that sets the scene, introduces and identifies characters, and establishes the situation at the beginning of a story or play
Extended metaphor
a detailed and complex metaphor that extends over a long section of a work, also known as a conceit
Fable
a legend or a short moral story often using animals as characters
Falling action
that part of plot structure in which the complications of the rising action are untangled, also known as the denouement
Farce
a play or scene in a play or book that is characterized by broad humor, wild antics, and often slapstick and physical humor
Flashback
retrospection, where an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronology of the narrative
Foreshadowing
to hint at or to present an indication of the future beforehand
Formal diction
language that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal, often used in narrative epic poetry
Free verse
poetry that is characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter, and non-rhyming lines. example: to be or not to be soliloquy
Genre
a type or class of literature such as epic or narrative or poetry or belles lettres
Hyperbole
overstatement characterized by exaggerated language. examples: I'm starving!
Iambic
a metrical foot in poetry that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. examples: shakespeare's sonnets are written in iambic pentameter
Idyll
a short poem describing a country or pastoral scene, praising the simplicity and peace of rustic life
Imagery
broadly defined, any sensory detail or evocation in a work; more narrowly, the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling, to call to mind an idea, or to describe an object
Informal diction
language that is not as lofty or impersonal as formal diction; similar to everyday speech
In media res
"in the midst of things"; refers to opening a story in the middle of the action, necessitating filling in past details by exposition or flashback.
Irony
a situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant; when the opposite of what is expected happens
Jargon
specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group. examples: geek, crash, interface
Juxtaposition
the location of one thing as being adjacent or juxtaposed with one another
Limited POV
a perspective confined to one character (1st or 3rd person)
Litote
A figure of speech that emphasizes its subject by conscious understatement. examples: not bad
Loose sentence
a sentence grammatically complete and usually stating its main idea before the end. examples: the child ran as if being chased by demons
Lyric
originally designated poems meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre; now any short poem in which the speaker expresses intense personal emotion rather than describing a narrative or dramatic situation. examples: sonnet and ode
Message
a misleading term for theme, the central idea or statement of a story, or area of inquiry or explanation, misleading because it suggests a simple, packaged statement that pre-exists and for the simple communication of which the story is written
Metaphor
one thing pictured as if it were something else, suggesting a likeness or analogy between them, sometimes used as a general term for figure of speech
Meter
the more or less regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry, determined by the kind of "foot" and by the number of feet per line
Metonymy
a figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something. examples: the white house, the pen is mightier than the sword
Mood
the feeling or ambiance resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writer/narrator's attitude and POV
Motif
recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event
Narrative structure
a textual organization based on sequences of connected events, usually presented in a straightforward, chronological framework
Narrator
the "character" who "tells" the story, or in poetry, the persona
Occasional poem
a poem written about or for a specific occasion, public or private
Ode
a lyric poem that is somewhat serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style and sometimes uses elaborate stanza structure, which is often patterned in sets of three
Omniscient POV
also called unlimited focus, a perspecitve can be seen from one character's view, then another's, or can be moved in and out of the mind of any character at any time
Onomatopoeia
words that sound like what they mean. examples: buzz, snap, crackle, pop
Overstatement
exaggerated language; also called hyperbole
Oxymoron
a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. examples: jumbo shrimp
Parable
a short fiction that illustrates an explicit moral lesson through the use of analogy
Paradox
a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but may actually be true
Parallel structure
the use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts
Parody
a work that imitates another for comic effect by exaggerating the style and changing the content of the original
Pastoral
a work that describes the simple life of country folk. also called ecologue, bucolic, or idyll
Periodic sentence
a sentence that is not gramatically complete until the end. examples: the child, who looked like she were being chased by demons, ran.
Persona
the voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual author.
examples: nick carraway from the great gatsby
Personification
treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by giving it human qualities.
Petrarchan sonnet
also called italian sonnet: a sonnet form that divides the poem into one section of eight lines (octave) and a second section of six lines (sestet), usually following the abba abba cde cde rhyme scheme though the sestet's rhyme varies.
Plot
the arrangement of the narration based on the cause-effect relationship of the events
Protagonist
the main character in a work, who may or may not be heroic
Quatrain
a poetic stanza of four lines
Realism
the practice in literature of attempting to describe nature and life without idealization and with attention to detail
Refrain
a repeated stanza or line(s) in a poem or song.
examples: refrain (chorus) repeats "glory, glory, halleluiah; glory, glory, halleluiah"
Rhetorical question
a question that is asked simply for stylistic effect and is not expected to be answered
Rhyme
the repetition of the same or similar sounds, most often at the ends of lines
Rhythm
the modulation of weak and strong (stressed and unstressed) elements in the flow of speech
Rising action
the development of action in a work, usually at the beginning. the first part of plot structure.
Sarcasm
a form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually harshly or bitterly critical
Satire
a literary work that holds up human failings to ridicule and censure
Scansion
the analysis of verse to show its meter
Setting
the time and place of the action in a story, poem, or play
Shakespearan Sonnet
also called an english sonnet: a sonnet form that divides the poem into three units of four lines each and a final unit of two lines, usually abab cdcd efef gg
Shaped verse
another name for concrete poetry: poetry that is shaped to look like an object
Simile
a direct, explicit comparison of one thing to another, usually using the words like or as to draw the connection
Soliloquy
a monologue in which the character in a play is alone and speaking only to themselves. examples: "to be or not to be" speech from hamlet
Speaker
the person, not necessarily the author, who is the voice of a poem
Stanza
a section of a poem demarcated by extra line spacing. can be identified by the number of their lines.
Note
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