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IRONY
discrepancy between appearances and reality.
VERBAL IRONY
occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else.
SITUATIONAL IRONY
takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.
DRAMATIC IRONY
is so called because it is often used on stage.
A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better.
JUXTAPOSITION
poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit.
Ezra Pound: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough.”
Juxtaposition is also a form of contrast by which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas or images or metaphors.
Martin Luther King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
LITOTES
is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form:
Litotes uses exaggerated language to the opposite effect, in order to understate something, and does rely on negation. For example, “It's not the worst thing I've eaten” means that it probably tastes pretty good.
LOCAL COLOR
a term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect and landscape.
LOOSE SENTENCE
one in which the main clause comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units. See periodic sentence.
Hawthorne: “Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half-fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath him, and show the wavering track of this footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful verdure.”
LYRIC POEM
a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker. A ballad tells a story.
METAPHOR
a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles.
IMPLIED METAPHOR
does not state explicitly the two terms of the comparison: “I like to see it lap the miles” is an implied metaphor in which the verb lap implies a comparison between “it” and some animal that “laps” up water.
EXTENDED METAPHOR
is a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it. (conceit if it is quite elaborate).
DEAD METAPHOR
is a metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid: “The head of the house”, “the seat of the government”, “a knotty problem” are all dead metaphors.
MIXED METAPHOR
is a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible. “The President is a lame duck who is running out of gas.”
METONYMY
a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it. “We requested from the crown support for our petition.” The crown is used to represent the monarch.
MOOD
An atmosphere created by a writer’s diction and the details selected.
MOTIF
a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme. Kurt Vonnegut uses “So it goes” throughout Slaughterhouse-Five to remind the reader of the senselessness of death.
MOTIVATION
the reasons for a character’s behavior.
ONOMATOPOEIA
the use of words whose sounds echo their sense. “Pop.” “Zap.”
OXYMORON
a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.
“Jumbo shrimp.” “Pretty ugly.” “Bitter-sweet”
PARABLE
a relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a good life.
PARADOX
a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth.
KOAN
is a paradox used in Zen Buddhism to gain intuitive knowledge:
“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
PARALLEL STRUCTURE (parallelism)
the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures.
PARATACTIC SENTENCE
simply juxtaposes clauses or sentences. I am tired: it is hot.
relating to or using parataxis (= two clauses or phrases without a conjunction (= connecting word) between them to show their relationship): Chinese is comparatively paratactic. The example, "I came, I saw, I conquered," is a paratactic construction.
PARODY
a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer’s style.
PERIODIC sentence
sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after all introductory elements.
"When the cafe is too crowded, I work at home"
PERSONIFICATION
a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.
PLOT
the series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the storyline.
EXPOSITION (characteristic of a plot)
introduces characters, situation, and setting
RISING ACTION
complications in conflict and situations (may introduce new ones as well)
CLIMAX
that point in a plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest. Also called “turning point”
RESOLUTION
the conclusion of a story, when all or most of the conflicts have been settled; often called the denouement.
POINT OF VIEW
the vantage point from which the writer tells the story.
FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW
one of the characters tells the story.
THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW
an unknown narrator, tells the story, but this narrator zooms in to focus on the thoughts and feelings of only one character.
OMNISCIENT POINT OF VIEW
an omniscient or all knowing narrator tells the story, also using the third person pronouns. This narrator, instead of focusing on one character only, often tells us everything about many characters.
OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW
a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events.
POLYSYNDETON
sentence which uses a conjunction with NO commas to separate the items in a series.
Instead of X, Y, and Z... Polysyndeton results in X and Y and Z... Kurt Vonnegut uses this device.
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
PROTAGONIST
the central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the action. Usually the hero or anti-hero; in a tragic hero, like John Proctor of The Crucible, there is always a hamartia, or tragic flaw in his character which will lead to his downfall.
PUN
a “play on words” based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things.
A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired.
QUATRAIN
a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit.
REFRAIN
a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem.
“O Best of All Nights, Return and Return Again.”
RHYTHM
a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language.
Double, double toil, and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
RHETORIC
Art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse.
RHETORICAL QUESTION
a question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer.
ROMANCE
in general, a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest and is successful.
SATIRE
a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change.
SIMILE
a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as , than, or resembles.
SOLILOQUY
a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage.
STEREOTYPE
a fixed idea or conception of a character or an idea which does not allow for any individuality, often based on religious, social, or racial prejudices.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character’s mind.
STYLE
the distinctive way in which a writer uses language: a writer’s distinctive use of diction, tone, and syntax.
SUSPENSE
a feeling of uncertainty and curiosity about what will happen next in a story.
SYMBOL
a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself.
SYNECDOCHE
a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole. “If you don’t drive properly, you will lose your wheels.” The wheels represent the entire car.
SYNTACTIC FLUENCY
Ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length.
SYNTACTIC PERMUTATION
Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved. Often difficult for a reader to follow.
TALL TALE
an outrageously exaggerated, humorous story that is obviously unbelievable.
TELEGRAPHIC SENTENCE
A sentence shorter than five words in length. THEME the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work.
“Car go” “Papa tired,” “hand wash” are all examples of telegraphic speech. They are short sentences with two ideas but are not connected by grammar words or grammar letters.
TONE
the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization.
TRAGEDY
in general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end.
TRICOLON
Sentence of three parts of equal importance and length, usually three independent clauses.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who is credited with: “Be sincere, be brief, be seated.”
UNDERSTATEMENT
a statement that says less than what is meant.
Example: During the second war with Iraq, American troops complained of a fierce sand storm that made even the night-vision equipment useless. A British commando commented about the storm: “It’s a bit breezy.”
UNITY
Unified parts of the writing are related to one central idea or organizing principle. Unity is dependent upon coherence.
For example, if your first paragraph uses an example following the topic sentence, your second and consecutive paragraphs should do the same.
VERNACULAR
the language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality.
For example, the word “y'all” is a very common vernacular term in the American South
PURITANISM
Writing style of America’s early English-speaking colonists. Emphasizes obedience to God and consists mainly of journals, sermons, and poems.
RATIONALISM
a movement that began in Europe in the seventeenth century, which held that we can arrive at truth by using our reason rather than relying on the authority of the past, on the authority of the Church, or an institution.
ALSO CALLED NEOCLASSICISM AND AGE OF REASON
ROMANTICISM
a revolt against Rationalism that affected literature and the other arts, beginning in the late eighteenth century and remaining strong throughout most of the nineteenth century.
a focus on individualism, an emphasis on nature, emotion over reason, freedom of form, and an exploration of the Gothic and unknown.
REALISM
a style of writing, developed in the nineteenth century, that attempts to depict life accurately without idealizing or romanticizing it.
IMPRESSIONISM
a nineteenth-century movement in literature and art which advocated a recording of the artist’s personal impressions of the world, rather than a strict representation of reality.
SYMBOLISM
a literary movement that originated in late nineteenth century France, in which writers rearranged the world of appearances in order to reveal a more truthful version of reality.
the use of a concrete image to represent an abstract idea. For example, the heart is often employed as a symbol of love.
TRANSCENDENTALISM
a nineteenth century movement in the Romantic tradition , which held that every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition, which transcends reasons and sensory experience.
REGIONALISM
literature that emphasizes a specific geographic setting and that reproduces the speech, behavior, and attitudes of the people who live in that region.
NATURALISM
a nineteenth century literary movement that was an extension of realism and that claimed to portray life exactly as it was.
Naturalism, in literature, is characterized by the use of realistic characters in a deterministic and often detached sense. Science and technology and the characters' environment, heredity, and life situation are common themes.
MODERNISM
a term for the bold new experimental styles and forms that swept the arts during the first third of the twentieth century.
individualism, experimentation, and absurdity
SURREALISM
in movement in art and literature that started in Europe during the 1920s. Surrealists wanted to replace conventional realism with the full expression of the unconscious mind, which they considered to be more real than the “real” world of appearances
Dream-like scenes and symbolic images. Unexpected, illogical juxtapositions. Bizarre assemblages of ordinary objects.
PLAIN STYLE
Writing style that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression (but will still utilize allusions and metaphors), and was the main form of the Puritan writers.
it uses short, action-driven sentences free of jargon to make language accessible and easy to understand.
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