Allegory
a story that is represented through another story
Allusion
a refrence to another literary work in a story
Anaphora
the repition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence or poem
Colloquialism
informal language
Dynamic character
the character that changes between the beginning and the end of a story
Anecdote
brief story to hook someone
Aphorism
a short, witty statement that reveals the truth, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”
Asyndeton
when you use a series of commas with no conjunction, ex. “milk, water, eggs”
Conceit
a long extending metaphor, mostly found in poetry
Synecdoche
when you use a part to represent a whole, ex. “give me a hand” the “hand” represents you as a whole person
Cliche
a phrase or opinion that is overused
Couplet
two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme
Metonymy
when a word is replaced by something very close to the original meaning
Epistrophe
the repetition of a word at the end of sentences
Apostrophe
a punctuation mark used to indicate possession, or the omission of letters and numbers
Bildungsroman
coming of age story
Cadence
inflection and rhythm of someone’s voice
Palindrome
a word that is spelled the same way forward and backwards
Denouement
resolution of a play
Homophone
two words that sound the same but have different meanings
Pun
A play on words
Polysyndenton
only conjunctions between commas
Anastrophe
inverted word order
Caesura
a break in the middle of a line of poetry
Assonance
the repetition of a vowel sound
antihero
character of that has non-heroic attributes
foil
a character that brings out opposite characteristics in another character
juxtaposition
two ideas placed closely to each other in order to bring out differing ideas
analogy
comparison of two ideas
epic
long narrative writing about an important/historical
ad hominem
attack individuals instead of ideas in arguments
farce
type of satire- baffonery because it is so outlandish
anachronism
wrong time period
didactic
intended to teach
chiasmus
a phrase that is reversed in the second part from the first part
euphony
pleasing to the ear
cacophony
harsh sounding word
anthropomorphism
giving inanimate objects human qualities
euphemism
using wording that sounds nicer to describe what it really is
doppelganger
a literal copy or duplicate, can also be opposites
Ethos
Appeal to credibility
Logos
Appeal to logic
Pathos
Appeal to emotion
Mood
How the literature makes the reader feel
Motif
Recurring idea in a work of literature