Learn: Semester 1 Lit Terms

Absolute

a word free from limitations or qualifications (best, all, unique, perfect)

Allegory

any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning; an extended metaphor in which persons, abstract ideas, or events represent not only themselves on the literal level

Alliteration

repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words such as tongue twisters like "She sells seashells by the seashore"

Allusion

reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature which carries its own importance (The Bible)

Anaphora

the repetition of wording at the beginning of sequenced clauses (used for emphasis)

Apostrophe

a literary technique in which the speaker addresses a person who isn't present or an inanimate object or idea

Archetype

a symbol, theme, setting, or character with some universal meaning and recurs in different times and places in myth, literature, folklore, etc.

Aside

in drama, a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker's words

Assonance

repetition of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words (hat-ran-amber)

Asyndeton

a stylistic device that intentionally eliminates conjunctions between the phrases in a sentence

Cacophony

an unpleasant combination of loud, often jarring, sounds; 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe

Caesura

a pause in a line of poetry, especially to allow its sense to be made clear or to follow the rhythms of natural speech, often near the middle of the line

Chiasmus

the order of the words in the second of two paired phrases is the reverse of the order in the first; "gray was the morn, all things were gray."

Conceit

a fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor

Connotation

the implied or associative meaning of a word

Consonance

repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words (book-plaque-thicker)

Dialect

the language of a specific group of people; usually regional

Diction

choice of a particular word as opposed to others. (A writer could call a rock formation by many words--a stone, a boulder, an outcropping, a pile of rocks, a cairn, a mound, or even an "anomalous geological feature.")

Direct characterization

method of characterization in which the author tells us directly what a character is like, or has someone else in the story do so

Epigraph

a quotation at the beginning of a book, chapter, or section of a book, usually related to its theme

Epithet

an adjective that expresses a quality of a character i.e.- Catherine the Great

Euphony

a pleasant sound, especially in speech or pronunciation (ant. cacophony)

Feminine rhyme

in poetry, words that are accented on the second to last syllable making it feminine; e.g. season

Hyperbole

type of figurative language in which great exaggeration is used

Imagery/Sensory Detail

use of language to create vivid images that appeal to at least one of the five senses (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory)

Internal rhyme

rhyme which occurs within a single line of poetry

Interior monologue

also known as inner voice, internal speech, or stream of consciousness through which the author depicts the interior thoughts of a single individual in the same order these thoughts occur inside that character's head

Invective

a rude expression or discourse intended to offend or hurt

Irony

incongruity between what happens and what was expected to happen; dramatic, situational, and verbal

Juxtaposition

the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side; drawing comparisons or parallels between similar characters or situations in literature

Masculine rhyme

words with the accent on the final syllable; snow having only one syllable is masculine, below is accented on the last syllable making it masculine

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which a direct comparison is made between two things

Metonymy

a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing: "Hollywood" = "US Cinema"

Onomatopoeia

use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound (boom, click, pop)

Oxymoron

a combination of contradictory terms (jumbo shrimp)

Paradox

an apparently contradictory statement that contains some truth ("War is peace." "Freedom is slavery." "Ignorance is strength." George Orwell, 1984)

Parallelism

an arrangement of the parts of a composition so that elements of equal importance are balanced in similar constructions; drawing comparisons between similar situations or characters

Personification

a figure of speech in which human qualities are attributed to animals, inanimate objects, or ideas (happy house)

Point of View

a specified position or method of consideration and appraisal: three types of POV: Physical - the position of the author relative to action; mental - the author's attitude toward the subject; Personal - the perspective from which the writer relates the story

Polysyndeton

a technique where conjunctions are used repeatedly in quick succession

Refrain

a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song

Rhetorical question

question asked solely to produce an effect or to make a statement, but not requiring an answer

Simile

a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two things using the words "like" or "as" (He is as sly as a fox)

Structure

the organization of a piece of literature

Symbol

object or idea that represents something beyond its literal meaning

Synecdoche

part of something is used to refer to the whole thing

Synesthesia

a rhetorical device or figure of speech where one sense is described in terms of another ('And her silver voice / Is the rich music of a summer bird)

Syntax

how words and sentences are placed together in writing

Tone

the way an author or speaker expresses her/his attitude through writing

Understatement

a literary device by which a particular quality of a person, object, emotion, or situation is downplayed or presented as being less than what is true to the situation