Literary Term

Allegory

a narrative either in verse or prose, in which characters, action, and sometimes setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of the story. (ex. Everyman)

Alliteration

the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

Allusion

a brief reference to a person, event, or place in history, or to a work of art/ literature.

Analogy

a comparison made between two items, situations, or ideas that are somewhat alike but unlike in most respects.

Anaphora

figure of repetition that occurs when the first word or set of words in one sentence, clause, or phrase is/are repeated at or very near the beginning of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases.

Antagonist

a character in a story or play who opposes the chief character or protagonist.

Apostrophe

a figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an absent person or a personified quality, object, or idea.

Archetype

a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life. Often include a symbol, a theme, a setting, or a character that have a common meaning in an entire culture, or even the entire human race.

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

the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in stressed syllables or words.

Asyndeton

the omission of conjunctions from constructions in which they would normally be used.

Atmosphere (mood)

the mood/ feeling of the literary work created for the reader by the writer.

Ballad

a narrative poem that usually includes a repeated refrain.

Blank verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter, a line of five feet.

Cacophony

the use of words in poetry that combine sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodious sounds.

Caesura

a pause of break within a line of poetry.

Carpe diem

Latin for “seize the day,” the name applied to a theme frequently found in lyric poetry: enjoy life’s pleasures while you are able.

Catharsis

purification or purging of emotions (pity or fear).

Character

an imaginary person represented in a work of fiction (described as a round/flat, protagonist/antagonist, etc.)

Characterization

the method an author uses to acquaint the reader with his or her characters.

Chiasmus

A scheme in which the author introduces words or concepts in a particular order then later repeats those terms or similar ones in reversed or backwards order. It involves taking parallelism and deliberately turning it inside out, creating a “crisscross” pattern.

Cliché –

an expression or phrase that is overused as to become trite and meaningless.

Climax

as a term of dramatic structure, the decisive or turning point in a story or play when the action changes course and, as a result, begins to resolve itself.

Conceit

elaborate figure of speech combining possible metaphor, simile, hyperbole, or oxymoron.

Conflict

the struggle between two opposing forces (man v. man, man v. nature, man v. self, man v. society).

Connotation

the emotional associations surrounding a word, as opposed to its literal meaning or denotation.

Couplet

a pair of rhyming lines with identical meter.

Denotation

the strict, literal meaning of a word.

Denouement

the resolution of the plot.

Dialogue

the conversation between two or more people in a literary work.

Diction – the author’s choice of words or phrases in a literary work.

Dramatic irony – refers to a situation in which events or facts not known to a character on stage or in a fictional work are known to another character, the audience, or the reader.

Dramatic monologue – a lyric poem in which the speaker addresses someone whose replies are not recorded.

Elegy – a mourning poem of lament for an individual or tragic event.

Enjambment – the continuation of a complete idea from one line of poetry to another, without pause.

Epiphany – a revealing scene or moment in which a character experiences a deep realization about him/ himself.

Epistrophe – repetition of a concluding word or word endings.

Euphemism – using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt, embarrassing, or painful one.

Euphony – attempting to group words together harmoniously, so that the consonants permit an easy and pleasing flow of sound when spoken.

Exposition – the opening section of a narrative or dramatic structure in which characters, setting, theme, and conflict can be revealed.

Flashback – interruption of the narrative to show an episode that happened before that particular point in the story.

Foot – a group of syllables in verse usually consisting of one accented syllable and the unaccented syllables associated with it.

Foreshadowing – a hint given to the reader of what is to come.

Free verse – a type of poetry that differs from conventional verse forms in being “free” from a fixed pattern of meter and rhyme.

Hamartia – a tragic flaw, especially a misperception, a lack of some important insight, or some blindness that ironically results from one’s own strengths and abilities.

Hubris – in a hero, hubris refers to arrogant, excessive self

pride or self

Hyperbole – a figure of speech involving great exaggeration.
Iambic pentameter – a line of verse having five metrical feet (Shakespeare’s most frequent writing pattern).

Imagery – the sensory details that provide vividness in a literary work and tend to arouse emotions or feeling in a reader which abstract language does not.

In medias res – Latin for “in the middle of things”

a plot that begins in the middle of events and then reveals past through flashbacks.

Irony – the term used to describe a contrast between what appears to be and what really is.

Juxtaposition – placing two ideas, words, or images side by side so that their closeness creates and original, ironic, or insightful meaning.

Litotes – a figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite (ex. Not a bad idea. She’s not the sharpest tool in the shed).

Metaphor – a figure of speech involving an implied comparison.

Meter (rhythm) – the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Metonymy – a figure of speech in which a specific term naming an object is substituted for another word with which it is closely associated.

Motif – a recurrent word, image, theme, object, or phrase that tends to unify a literary work or that may be elaborated into a theme.

Narrator (persona/ point of view) – the teller of the story.

Onomatopoeia – words sued in such a way that the sound of the words imitates the sound of the thing being spoken of.

Paradox – a statement, often metaphorical, that seems to be self

contradictory but which has valid meaning.

Parallelism – when the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length.

Parody – a kind of burlesque that is a humorous imitation of serious writing, usually for the purpose of making the style of an author appear ridiculous.

Persona – the speaker or narrator of a text or poem. Cannot be assumed to be the author.

Personification – the representation of abstractions, ideas, animals, or inanimate objects as human beings by endowing them with life

like qualities.

Plot – the series of happenings in a literary work.

Point of view – the relation between the teller of the story and the characters in it.

Polysyndeton – using many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect in a sentence.

Prosody – the mechanics of verse poetry – its sounds, rhythms, scansions and meter, stanzaic form, alliteration, assonance, euphony, onomatopoeia, and rhyme.

Protagonist – the leading character in a literary work.

Pun – a play on words

a humorous use of a word that has different meanings or of two or more words with the same or nearly the same sound but different meanings.

Rhyme – exact repetition of sounds in at least the final accented syllables of two or more words.

Rhyme scheme – The pattern of rhyme. The traditional way to mark these patterns of rhyme is to assign a letter of the alphabet to each rhyming sound at the end of each line.

Satire – the technique that employs wit to ridicule a subject, usually some social institution or human foible, with the intention of inspiring reform.

Setting – the time, place, societal situation, and weather in which the action of a narrative occurs.

Simile – a figure of speech involving a comparison of two unlike things using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

Situational irony – an occurrence that is contrary to what is expected or intended.

Soliloquy – a dramatic convention that allows a character alone on stage to speak his or her thoughts aloud.

Sonnet – a fourteen

line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with a varied rhyme scheme.

Stereotype – a conventional patter, plot, or setting that possesses little or no individuality, but that may be used for a purpose.

Stream of consciousness – the recording or re

creation of a character’s flow of thought.

Style – the distinctive handling of language by an author.

Symbol – a person, place, or object that represents something beyond itself.

Synecdoche – figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole.

Synesthesia – the description of one sense using another sense.

Syntax – the arrangement of words within a sentence.

Theme – the main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work.

Tone – the author’s attitude toward his or subject matter and toward the audience.

Understatement – figure of speech that says less than one means.

Verbal irony – the intended meaning of a statement or work is different from what the statement or work literally says.

Villanelle – poetic form of five tercets and a final quatrain (19 lines).