English 10 Honors Lit Terms #1

Verbal irony

Words used to suggest the opposite of what is meant.

Motive

The underlying reason, desire, or purpose that drives a character's actions or behavior.

In Medias Res

In the middle of things.

Syntax

Sentence structure.

Protagonist

Main character or hero of story.

Style

The choices an author makes when writing such as diction, syntax, and other literary devices.

Monologue

A speech by one character, unlike a soliloquy, that is addressed to another character or characters.

Situational irony

When the actual outcome of a situation is the opposite of someone’s expectation.

Allusion

Reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.

Hubris

Excessive pride or vaulting ambition.

Antagonist

A character or force in conflict with a main character or protagonist.

Narrative

Story told in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama.

Analogy

Comparison between two or more things that are similar in some ways but other ways unalike.

Irony

A literary device involving a contrast or incongruity between expectations for a situation and reality, what is said and what is meant, or what a character knows versus what the audience knows.

Argument

Writing or speech that attempts to convince the reader to adopt a particular opinion or course of action.

Oversimplification

Description of something in a way that does not include all the facts or details (and that causes misunderstanding).

Parallelism

Two or more words, phrases, or clauses, that are similar in length and grammatical form.

Pun

Play on words involving two words that sound alike or have different meanings.

Aside

A character’s comment, in a play, that is directed to the audience or another character.

Personification

Animal, object, etc. given human qualities or characteristics.

Archetype

Type of character, detail, image, or situation that appears in literature throughout history (e.g. beggar).

Foil

A character who provides a strong contrast to another character (e.g. Shrek to the donkey).

Paradox

Statement that seems to say two opposite things, but that may be true.

Climax

The point of highest tension, emotional intensity, or turning point in a narrative's plot structure.

Assonance

Repetition of same or similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with different consonant sounds (e.g. low, tow, given, distance).

Dramatic Irony

Contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience knows to be true.

Onomatopoeia

Use of words that imitate sounds (e.g. hiss, barking).

Genre

Category of literary work characterized by a particular form or style (e.g. fiction/non-fiction).

Juxtaposition

An act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.

Satire

A writing that exposes and ridicules the flaws of people in society.

Motif

Recurring subject, theme, idea, etc.