literary devices

ALLEGORY

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

ALLITERATION

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

ALLUSION

an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.

ANALOGY

A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way

ANECDOTE

A brief narrative that focuses on a particular incident or event.

ANTAGONIST

a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.

APHORISM

a concise statement of a truth or principle

APOSTROPHE

Addressing someone who is not there, or living

ASIDE

a remark or passage by a character in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters in the play.

ASSONANCE

Repetition of vowel sounds

ATMOSPHERE

The way an author using setting

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

An account of a person's life written by that person

BALLAD

A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas

BIOGRAPHY

story of a person's life written by another person

BLANK VERSE

verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter.

CAESURA

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line.

CATALOG

a list of all works

CHARACTER

the distinctive qualities that describe how a person thinks, feels, and behaves

CLICHE

a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.

CLIMAX

Most exciting moment of the story; turning point

COMEDY

A humorous work of drama

CONCEIT

extended metaphor

CONCRETE POEM

a poem with a shape that suggests its subject

CONFLICT

A struggle between opposing forces

CONNOTATION

the implied or associative meaning of a word

CONSONANCE

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

COUPLET

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

DENOTATIVE

Literal meaning of a word

DENOUEMENT

an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot

DESCRIPTION

a spoken or written summary of observations

DIALECT

a form of language spoken by people in a particular region or group

DIALOGUE

Conversation between characters

DICTION

the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

when a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience

DYNAMIC CHARACTER

A character that changes throughout the story

ELEGY

a sad or mournful poem

EPIC

A long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds

EPIPHANY

A moment of sudden revelation or insight

EPITHET

A descriptive name or phrase used to characterize someone or something

ESSAY

a short piece of writing on a particular subject.

EXPOSITION

The introduction of a story or book

FABLE

short tale that teaches a lesson

FALLING ACTION

Events after the climax, leading to the resolution

FARCE

A comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purpose.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally

FIRST PERSON

the narrator is a character in the story

FLASHBACK

A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events

FLAT CHARACTER

A character who embodies a single quality and who does not develop in the course of a story

FOIL

A character who acts as a contrast to another character

FOLKTALE

a story originating in popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth.

FOOT

A metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables.

FORESHADOWING

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

FREE VERSE

Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme

GENRE

A category or type of literature (or of art, music, etc.) characterized by a particular form, style, or content.

HYPERBOLE

exaggeration

IAMB

an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

IAMBIC PENTAMETER

A common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable.

IDIOM

A common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally.

IMAGERY

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

IMPRESSIONISM

An artistic movement that sought to capture a momentary feel, or impression, of the piece they were drawing

INCONGRUITY

nonconformity, disagreement, incompatibility

INFERENCE

A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning

INTERNAL RHYME

a rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next.

INVERSION

inverted order of words in a sentence (variation of the subject-verb-object order)

IRONY

A contrast between expectation and reality

JARGON

special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand.

LITERAL LANGUAGE

A form of language in which writers and speakers mean exactly what their words denote.

LYRIC POEM

a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of a speaker

METAPHOR

A comparison without using like or as

METER

A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

METONYMY

the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant

MODERNISM

A cultural movement embracing human empowerment and rejecting traditionalism as outdated. Rationality, industry, and technology were cornerstones of progress and human achievement.

MOOD

Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader

MOTIF

A recurring theme, subject or idea

MYTH

A traditional story about gods, ancestors, or heroes, told to explain the natural world or the customs and beliefs of a society.

NARRATIVE

The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events.

NARRATOR

Person telling the story

NATURALISM

a style and theory of representation based on the accurate depiction of detail.

NONFICTION

writing that tells about real people, places, and events

OCTAVE

8 line stanza

ODE

A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject.

OMNICIENT POV

the narrator knows all the feelings and thoughts of all characters

ONOMATOPOEIA

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

OXYMORON

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.

PARABLE

a simple story that illustrates a moral or religious lesson

PARADOX

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

PARALLEL STRUCTURE

the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures

PARODY

A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule.

PERSONIFICATION

A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

PERSUASION

A kind of speaking or writing that is intended to influence people's actions.

PLAIN STYLE

a way of writing that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression

PLOT

Sequence of events in a story

POINT OF VIEW

the perspective from which a story is told

POSTMODERNISM

a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed affiliations

PROLOGUE

A speech, passage, or event coming before the main speech or event

PROSE

written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.

PROTAGONIST

Main character in a story

PROVERB

wise saying

PUN

A play on words

QUATRAIN

A four line stanza