114 terms

Allegory

a prose or poetic narrative in which the characters, behavior, and even the setting illustrates multiple levels of meaning and significance; often a universal symbol or personified abstraction such as Death portrayed as grim reaper, or the allegory (parable) of the Prodigal Son (think parables and fables...)

Alliteration

the sequential repetition of a similar initial sound, usually applied to consonants and heard in close proximate stressed syllables; ex. Peter Piper picked a patch of pickled peppers, OR bells, bells, bells

Allusion

reference to a literary or historical event, person, or place ex. referencing a story in the bible or other book character

Anapestic

a metrical foot in poetry that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed; found in "The Night before Christmas" ex. twas the NIGHT before CHRISTmas and ALL...

Anaphora

the regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses ex. "I Have a Dream" speech with "Let freedom ring from..."

Anecdote

A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature

Antagonist

any force that is in opposition to the main character, or protagonist

Antithesis

the juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words, phrases, grammatical structure, or ideas;

ex. "To err is human, to forgive divine."

Apostrophe

An address or invocation to something inanimate

ex. angry lover screaming at ocean in their despair, or "twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are"

Archetype

recurrent designs, patterns of action, character types, themes, or images which are identifiable in a wide range of literature; ex. femme fatale

Assonance

the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually those found in stressed syllables of close proximity

ex. "in Xanadu did Kubla Kahn..."

Asyndeton

a style in which conjunctions are omitted, usually producing a fast-paced, more rapid prose

ex. "I came, I saw, I conquered" (leaves out "and")

Attitude

the sense expressed by the tone of voice and/or the mood of a piece of writing; (author's attitude) the feelings the author holds toward his subject, characters, events, setting, etc.

Ballad

a narrative poem that is, or originally was, meant to be sung; use repetition and refrain; ex. "Scarborough Fair"

Ballad Stanza

A common stanza form, consisting of a quatrain (a stanza of four lines) that alternates four-beat and three-beat lines: one and three are unrhymed iambic tetrameter (four beats), and two and four are rhymed iambic trimeter (three beats)

Blank verse

the verse form that most resembles common speech; consists of unrhymed lines in iambic pentameter; ex. Shakespeare's plays

Caesura

a pause in a line of verse, indicated by natural speech patterns rather than due to specific metrical patterns.

Caricature

a depiction in which a character's characteristics or features are so deliberately exaggerated as to render them absurd ex. political cartoons, stereotypes?

Chiasmus

a figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. This may involve a repetition of the same words

ex. "Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure"

Colloquial

Ordinary language; the vernacular. For example, depending on where in the United States you live, a sandwich is called a sub, a grinder, a hero, or a hoagie.

Conceit

a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out within a piece of literature, in particular an extended metaphor within a poem;

ex. hair is spun gold, teeth like stars or pearls

Connotation

what is suggested by a word, apart from what it explicitly describes, often referred to as the implied meaning of a word

ex. words awesome, sweet, and gay have had connotative alterations recently

Consonance

the repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowels; ex pItter-pAtter, pIsh-pOsh, clInging and clAnging, etc.

Couplet

two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter that together present a single idea or connection

ex. "so long as men can breathe or eyes can see/So long lives this and this gives life to thee"

Dactylic

a metrical foot in poetry that consists of two stressed syllables followed by one unstressed syllable

ex. "Everywhere, everywhere, Christmas tonight"

Denotation

a direct and specific meaning, often referred to as the dictionary meaning of a word

Denouement

the final resolution of the main conflict in a play or story. It generally follows the climax

Dialect

language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area

ex. y'all, "you betcha"

Diction

the specific word choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effect; ex. "I hadn't so much forgot as I couldn't bring myself to remember" versus "I chose not to remember:

Dramatic monologue

a monologue set in a specific situation and spoken to an imaginary audience; soliloquy

ex. "To be or not to be"

Elegy

a poetic lament upon the death of a particular person, usually ending in consolation

Enjambment

the continuation of a sentence from one line or couplet of a poem to the next

Epic

a poem that celebrates, in a continuous narrative, the achievements of mighty heroes and heroines, often concerned with the founding of a nation or developing of a culture; uses elevated language and grand, high style

Exposition

the part of the structure that sets the scene, introduces/identifies characters, and establishes the situation at the beginning of a story or play

Extended metaphor

a detailed and complex metaphor that extends over a long section of a work (aka conceit)

Fable

a legend or a short moral story often using animals as characters

ex. Animal farm

Falling action

that part of plot structure in which the complications of the rising action are untangled (denouement)

Farce

a play or scene in a play or book that is characterized by broad humor, wild antics, and often slapstick and physical humor; ex. Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail

Flashback

retrospection, where an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronology of the narrative

Foreshadowing

to hint at or to present an indication of the future beforehand to the reader/audience

Formal diction

language that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal; used in narrative epic poetry

Free verse

poetry characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter, and non-rhyming lines

Genre

a type or class of literature such as epic or narrative or poetry or belles lettres

Hyperbole

overstatement characterized by exaggerated language

ex. "I'm starving!"

Iambic

a metrical foot in poetry that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable; often used in sets of five

Idyll

a short poem describing a country or pastoral scene, praising the simplicity and peace of rustic life

Imagery

broadly defined, any sensory detail or evocation in a work; more narrowly, the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling, to call to mind an idea, or to describe an object;

involves any or all of the 5 senses

In media res

refers to opening a story in the middle of the action, requiring filling in past details by exposition or flashback. (Think the Odyssey)

Informal diction

language that is not as lofty or impersonal as formal diction; similar to everyday speech; might include "OK, bye, hey, huh"

Irony

a situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant; often humorous or sarcastic (when it uses words to imply the opposite of what they normally mean)

Jargon

specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group

ex. in the computer industry, words like geek, crash, and interface

Juxtaposition

the location of one thing as being adjacent or juxtaposed with another. This placing of two items side by side creates a certain effect, reveals an attitude, or accomplishes some purpose of the writer

Limited point of view

a perspective confined to a single character, whether a first person or a third person; the reader cannot know for sure what is going on in the minds of other characters

Litote

A figure of speech that emphasizes its subject by conscious understatement; ex. "not bad" as a comment about something very well done

Loose sentence

a sentence grammatically complete and usually stating its main idea before the end

ex. "The child ran as if being chased by demons"

Lyric

originally designated poems meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre; now any short poem in which the speaker expresses intense personal emotion rather than describing a narrative or dramatic situation;

ex. sonnet and ode

Message

a misleading term for theme, the central idea or statement of a story, or area of inquiry or explanation; (misleading b/c it suggests a simple, packaged statement that pre-exists and for the simple communication of which the story is written)

Metaphor

one thing pictured as if it were something else, suggesting a likeness or analogy between them without the use of the words "like" or "as"

Meter

the more or less regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry; determined by the kind of "foot" and the number of feet per line

Metonymy

a figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something

ex. "the pen is mightier than the sword" (pen stands for publishing, and sword for military)

Mood

a feeling or ambiance resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writer/narrator's attitude and point of view

Motif

Recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event; ex. green light in Great Gatsby

Narrative structure

a textual organization based on sequences of connected events, usually presented in a straightforward, chronological framework

Narrator

the "character" who "tells" the story, or in poetry, the persona

Occasional poem

a poem written about or for a specific occasion, public or private; ex. epithalamium is a wedding poem

Ode

a lyric poem that is somewhat serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style and sometimes uses elaborate stanza structure, which is often patterned in sets of three

Omniscient point of view

also called unlimited focus: a perspective that can be seen from one character's view, then another's, then another's, or can be moved in or out of the mind of any character at any time (access to perceptions/thoughts of all characters in the story)

Onomatopoeia

a word capturing/approximating the sound of what it describes. ex. buzz

Overstatement

hyperbole (exaggerated language)

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements, sometimes resulting in a humorous image/statement

ex. "deafening silence", etc.

Parable

a short fiction that illustrates an explicit moral lesson through the use of analogy

ex. "The Loaves and Fishes" in Bible

Paradox

a statement that seems contradictory but may actually actually true; ex. "fight for peace"

Parallel structure

the use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts; ex. "Martha takes notes quickLY, accurateLY, and thoroughLY"

Parody

a work that imitates another work for comic effect by exaggerating the style and changing the content of the original; ex. Weird Al Yankovic

Pastoral

a work that describes the simple life of country folk who live a timeless, painless life in a world full of beauty, music and love

Periodic sentence

a sentence that is not grammatically complete until its last phrase; ex. "The child, who looked as if she were being chased by demons, ran."

Persona

the voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual author; ex. Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby

Personification

Treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by giving it human qualities

Petrarchan sonnet

Also called Italian Sonnet: a sonnet form that divides the poem into one section of eight lines (octave) and a second section of six lines (sestet), usually following the abba abba cde cde rhyme scheme though the sestet's rhyme varies.

Plot

the arrangement of the narration based on the cause-effect relationship of the events