ELAR 7-12

Exposition

portion of a story that introduces important background information to the audience; for example, information about the setting, events occurring before the main plot, characters' back stories, etc.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. (The literal Greek meaning is "overshoot.")

Irony/ironic

The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant, or the difference between what appears to be and what is actually true.

Metaphor

A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similarity. Metaphorical language makes writing more vivid, imaginative, thought provoking, and meaningful.

Personification

A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions. it is used to make these abstractions, animals, or objects appear more vivid to the reader.

Symbol/symbolism

Generally, anything that represents itself and stands for something else. Usually a symbol is something concrete -- such as an object, action, character, or scene - that represents something more abstract.

Theme

The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life.

Tone

describes the author's attitude toward his material, the audience, or both. it is easier to determine in spoken language than in written language.

Foreshadowing

A literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.

Situational Irony

when events turn out the opposite of what was expected; when what the characters and readers think ought to happen is not what does happen

Dramatic Irony

when facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work.

Verbal irony

a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharply different from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed.

setting

the location and time frame in which the action of a narrative takes place.

climax

the most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex.

rising action

a series of related incidents build toward the point of greatest interest.

external conflict

A struggle between a character and an outside force

resolution

the action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter.

third person limited

the narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character. All characters are described using pronouns such as 'they', 'he', and 'she.'

first person POV

a point of view (who is telling a story) where the story is narrated by one character at a time.

internal conflict

psychological struggle within the mind of a literary or dramatic character

third person omnisient

the narrator knows all the thoughts and feelings of all the characters in the story.

allusion

reference to, mention of, suggestion of, hint to, intimation of, comment on, remark on

Allegory

a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor. They are written in the form of fables, parables, poems, stories, and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has characters, a setting, as well as other types of symbols, which have both literal and figurative meanings.

Alliteration

the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of two or more words in close succession. For example: Cloudless climes.

Allusion

a reference to another work of literature, person, or event.

Amplification

a literary device in which the writer embellishes the sentence by adding more information to it in order to increase its worth and understandability; often marked by a colon or dash.

Anagram

a word or phrase spelled by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase.

Analogy

a comparison of two different things that are similar in some way.

Anastrophe

an inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Its purpose is rhythm, emphasis or euphony. Anastrophe is a fancy word for inversion.

Anecdote

a short account of an interesting or humorous incident.

Anthropomorphism

attributes human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects. Also known as personification.

Antithesis

the balancing of two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses.

Aphorism

A concise statement made in a matter of fact tone to state a principle or opinion that is generally understood to be a universal truth.

Archetype

A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response

Assonance

Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity

Asyndeton

Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are emphasized equally when the conjunction is omitted; in addition, the use of commas with no intervening conjunction speeds up the flow of the sentence. (Read, Write, Learn.)

Authorial Intrusion

Discussions directed to the reader and constituting a substantial break in the narrative illusion of reality

Cacophony

The use of harsh-sounding mixture of words, voices, or sounds that create a disturbing atmosphere.

Caesura

A dramatic pause

Characterization

Actions, dialogue, and narrative description that reveal a sense of a character's personality to the reader.

Chiasmus

A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.

Circumlocution

A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.

Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces

Connotation

All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests

Consonance

Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity.

Denotation

Literal meaning of a word as it appears in the dictionary

Diction

An author's choice of words, phrases, sentence structures and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning and tone.

Doppelganger

A device by which a character is self-duplicated; the "divided self" or ghostly double.

Ekphrastic

A dramatic expression of a work of art (mostly poetry).

Epilogue

A short poem or speech spoken directly to the audience following the conclusion of a play, or in a novel the epilogue is a short explanation at the end of the book which indicates what happens after the plot ends.

Epithet

An adjective or other descriptive phrase that is regularly used to characterize a person, place, or thing (Alexander "The Great")

Euphemism

An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant

Euphony

A succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony.

Faulty Parallelism

orderly construction of a sentence keeps parallel ideas in the same grammatical form, ideas in a series should be in the same grammatical form, even when the series consists of only two items, parallel ideas should be in the same grammatical form, parallel ideas are often signaled by pairs of words like either/or, neither/nor, etc.

Flashback

A scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time

Foil

A character who is in most ways opposite to the main character (protagonist) or one who is nearly the same as the protagonist. The purpose of the foil character is to emphasize the traits of the main character by contrast only

Foreshadowing

A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader.

Hubris

Excessive pride or arrogance that results in the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy

Hyperbaton

A literary device wherein the author plays with the regular positioning of words and phrases and creates a differently structured sentence to convey the same meaning. (Example: Alone he walked)

Hyperbole

A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor

Imagery

Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

Internal Rhyme

A poetic device in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end of the same metrical line.

Inversion

A switch in the normal word order, often used to emphasis or for rhyme scheme

Irony

A contrast or discrepancy between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen.

Juxtaposition

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts

Kennings

Phrases that are an elaborative and indirect way of naming persons, places things (nouns). Ex "the pathless deep"= the sea; "soul's prison house"= the body; "wave-skimmer"=ship

Litote

A type of understatement in which an idea is expressed by negating its opposite (describing a particularly horrific scene by saying, "It was not a pretty picture.")

Malapropism

A blunder in speech caused by the substitution of a word for another that is similar in sound but different in meaning.

Metaphor

A direct comparison between two unlike things, saying one thing is another, using the "to be" verb, not "like" or "as."

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty").

Mood

Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader

Motif

A recurring theme, subject or idea

Negative Capability

a theory of the poet John Keats describing the capacity for accepting uncertainty and the unresolved.

Nemesis

1. Due punishment for evil deeds (from Nemesis, goddess of vengeance) 2. One who inflicts such punishment

Onomatopoeia

A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. Simple examples include such words as buzz, hiss, hum, crack, whinny, and murmur. If you note examples in an essay passage, note the effect.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech consisting of two apparently contradictory terms (...a cold fire in his eyes)

Paradox

A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

Pathetic Fallacy

Assigning human feelings to nature. Ex. A cold, lonesome wind. Strong powerful mountain. This is a type of personification.

Periodic Structure

A sentence in which the main clause or predicate is withheld until the end. Despite the heavy winds and nearly impenetrable ground fog, the landed safely.

Periphrasis

A round-about or long-winded way of expressing something

Personification

A figure of speech in which an animal, an object, or an idea is given human form or characteristics

Plot

Also called storyline. the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story

Point of View

Perspective from which a story is told.

Polysyndeton

Deliberate use of many conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted. Hemingway and the Bible both use extensively. Ex. "he ran and jumped and laughed for joy"

Portmanteau

a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings

Prologue

Can be understood to be a sort of introduction to a story that usually sets the tone for the story and acts as a bit of a backgrounder or a "sneak peek" into the story. Typically a narrative 'spoken' by one of the characters and not from the part of the author.

Puns

A humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different meanings.

Rhyme Scheme

A regular pattern of rhyme that is consistent throughout the poem. It is labeled according to their rhyme sounds.

Rhythm & Rhyme

refer to the recurrence of similar sounds in prose and poetry, creating a musical, gentle effect.

Satire

A literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness.

Setting

Time, place, atmosphere/weather, time of year/season, time of day, and particular historical moment of a literary work.

Simile

A direct comparison made between two unlike things, using a word of comparison such as like, as, than, such as, or resembles.

Spoonerism

(n.) verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect; word play; slip of the tongue

Stanza

A group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit; a division of a poem that is often referred to as a "paragraph of poetry"

Stream of consciousness

A style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character's thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character feels them.

Suspense

A felling of excitement, curiosity, or expectation about the outcome of a work of fiction.

Syllepsis

A construction in which one word is used in two different senses ("After he threw the ball, he threw a fit.")

Symbol

An object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that stands for something beyond itself

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole (for example, ABCs for alphabet) or the whole for a part ("England won the World Cup in 1966")

Synesthesia

Describing one kind of sensation in terms of another "a loud color, a sweet sound"