WORLD LIT VOCAB 1

Metaphor

A comparison of two things, often unrelated.

Alliteration

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Example: Sheep should sleep in a shed.

Personification

The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman

Imagery

Visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work; descriptive language that appeals to the senses

Dramatic Irony

The full significance of a character's words or actions is clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character. (You often see this in TV shows and movies as it creates suspense)

Tone

The writer's attitude toward or feelings about the subject matter and audience.

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. "downsizing" as a euphemism for cuts

Aside

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

Analogy

A comparison to a directly parallel case. When a writer uses an analogy, he or she argues that a claim reasonable for one case is reasonable for the analogous case.

Anecdote

A brief recounting of a relevant episode. Anecdotes are often inserted into fictional or nonfiction texts as a way of developing a point or injecting humor.

Annotation

Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographic data

Antithesis

A balancing of two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses.

Caesura

Any break or pause in a line or sentence.

Syntax

In grammar, the arrangement of words as elements in a sentence to show their relationship.

Verbal Irony (Sarcasm)

When the reader is aware of a discrepancy between the real meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the writer's words.

Literary foil

A character who contrasts with another character; typically, a character who contrasts with the protagonist, in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist

Hyperbole

Is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech.

Asyndeton

A literary scheme in which one or several conjunctions are deliberately omitted from a series of related clauses. Examples include "I came, I saw, I conquered".

Paradox

A paradox is a statement that appears at first to be contradictory, but upon reflection then makes sense. Example: Less is more or the beginning of the end.

Allegory

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

Anaphora

A rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.

Point-of-view

First Person: I

Third Person Limited: From this point of view

the narrator only describes the thoughts and feelings of one character at a time.

Third Person Omniscient: This is where the narrator knows and shares the thoughts

feelings, and actions of all the characters. (An all-knowing perspective).

Apostrophe

A speech or address to a person who is not present or to a personified object

Allusion

An indirect reference to something with which the reader is expected to be familiar

Pun

A play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings

Foreshadowing

A warning or indication of something to come (a future event)

Simile

A figurative comparison of two things, often dissimilar, using the connecting words: "like" or "as"

Mood

An atmosphere created by a writer's word choice (diction) and the details selected

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction or side-by-side (ex: jumbo shrimp; bittersweet).

Symbolism

Symbolism is the use of words or images to symbolize specific concepts, people, objects, or events. The key here is that the symbols used aren't literal representations, but figurative or implied ones.

Diction

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