Literary Terms

Allegory

A story, poem that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. The story occurs on both a symbolic and a literal level. Ex: Animal Farm

The Chronicles of Narnia. The lion, Aslan, represents a Christ character, who is the rightful ruler of the kingdom of Narnia. Aslan sacrifices himself for Edmund, the Judas figure, and is resurrected to rule over Narnia once again. Biblical allegory can also refer to allegorical interpretations of the Bible, which differ from literal interpretations, and were popular in the Middle Ages.

Allegory

Allegory of the Cave. In this story, Plato imagines people living in a cave, only ever seeing objects as shadows reflected on the wall from the light of a fire—rather than seeing the objects directly. Plato used the cave as a symbolic representation of how humans live in the world, contrasting reality versus our interpretation of it.

Allegory

Animal Farm: In this farm fable, animals run a society that divides into factions and mirrors the rise of Leon Trotsky and the Russian Revolution. The story can be read as a fable of farm animals running a society, or it can be interpreted as the author’s criticism of communism.

Allegory

The Scarlet Letter: Hester Prynne is forced to undergo public humiliation, including wearing the scarlet letter “A” (standing for “adultress”) after she becomes pregnant out of wedlock. The scarlet letter is itself an allegorical representation of sin, and how society punishes it. The novel can be read as a criticism of the hypocrisy of a Puritanical society.

Allegory

Anecdote

A brief narrative or a retelling of a story or event often based on the speaker’s own experience. Ex: When a teacher is telling students not to plagiarize and tells a story about a time a student did just that and describe the consequences.

Back in my day I had to walk three miles to the watering hole just to brush my teeth.

Anecdote

I had a friend who smoked a cigarette once. Now she’s in jail for tax evasion.

Anecdote

Apostrophe

An address – usually poetic – to an inanimate object or to someone not present. Ex: “O, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”

“Sylvan historian, who canst thus express / A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme”

Apostrophe

“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.”

Apostrophe

“Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory; let me become as naught; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness.”

Apostrophe

Genre

A particular literary category – novels, poems, plays

Drama – Stories composed in verse or prose, usually for theatrical performance, where conflicts and emotion are expressed through dialogue and action.

Genre

Folklore – The songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a people or "folk" as handed down by word of mouth.

Genre

Satire

A literary work in which the ideas, customs, behaviors or institutions of society are ridiculed to effect change. Ranged from mild to harsh. Irony and exaggeration are the main weapons.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (1884), pokes fun at religion, for instance, with the feud between the Grangerfods and Shepardsons.

Satire

A Modest Proposal (1729), by Jonathan Swift. This essay suggested eating babies to solve famine in Ireland. It was intended to mock the heartless attitudes of the rich towards the poor and also the way in which some genuine proposals seemed to regard the poor as commodities.

Satire

Brave New World (1932); Aldous Huxley – This dystopian science fiction novel has a futuristic society that exaggerates and satirizes elements of the real world: Huxley imagined how a highly state-controlled futuristic world might look. It depicts conformity, a caste system with genetically engineered babies, and a drugged, compliant population.

Satire

Stock

A common stereotypical character who occurs frequently in literature. Ex: Mad scientists, scarred veterans

Absent-minded Professor

Stock

Wicked Stepmother

Stock

Round/Dynamic

Characters are portrayed in great depth and are given more generous details. These tend to develop over the course of the story. Ex: Lady Macbeth – Beginning wants her husband to murder for power; by the end she is overcome with regret.

Walter White (Breaking Bad) exhibits complex dimensions to his personality and he changes significantly over the course of the series.

Round/Dynamic Characterization

Hamlet (Hamlet) is worried about life and death. The greatest fear of Hamlet is the afterlife, which is quite understandable, because his father’s Ghost comes out of purgatory and tells him about the horror and terror awaiting there. Because of his preoccupation with this fear, Hamlet does not act out on his desire to take vengeance on Claudius. Nevertheless, when he visits the graveyard, and holds Yorick’s dead skull, he becomes apprehensive of the inevitability of death. Hamlet thinks that even great men, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, could not escape it. This philosophical change in his perspective about death lets him finally take revenge on King Claudius.

Round/Dynamic Characterization

Foil Characterization

Characters that stand in contrast to the main character. Ex: Alec and Angel to Tess in Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) – Victor Frankenstein shuts himself off from others, driven by his obsession to create a living being. As a result, he creates a creature who craves companionship and connection, exhibiting the human characteristics that Frankenstein lacks.

Foil Characterization

Romeo and Juliet(Shakespeare) – While Romeo is a whimsical lover, Mercutio doesn’t see the big deal. In fact, he’s skeptical of love. Romeo is anything but, and it shows. Mercutio’s “whatever” attitude works to show the depth of Romeo’s feelings.

Foil Characterization

Epiphany

A moment of insight, discovery or revelation by which a character or a character’s life is altered. Ex: Macbeth realizes his false security

Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) – Guy Montag has lived his life going through the motions. As a firefighter in this post-apocalyptic society, he has mindlessly burned books without questioning. This continues until he realizes that books are not the enemy.

Epiphany

In the middle of a typical argument with his wife, a man realizes he has been the one causing every single argument, and that in order to keep his marriage, he must stop being such an aggressive person.

Epiphany

Flat/Static Characterization

A character with only one outstanding characteristic trait or quality. They remain the same throughout the novel. Ex: Crush in Finding Nemo

The main antagonist of Peter Pan, Captain Hook is a cruel and buffoonish pirate captain who remains cruel and buffoonish throughout the story, ultimately being bested by Peter Pan. He never significantly changes or learns any lessons.

Static Characterization

Sherlock Holmes – The famous detective undergoes no significant interval changes throughout any of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories—Holmes continuously regards the world with the same witty, confident attitude, even after encountering serious conflicts.

Static Characterization

Captain America – While there are a lot of different versions of the Captain America story with varying levels of staticism, overall the character remains the same: he begins and ends the story as a moral person who wants to help others and serve his country. Even though he undergoes significant external changes, his internal traits remain the same.

Static Characterization

Archetype

Recurring symbol, character or landscape that is viewed as common to many cultures.

The Damsel in Distress - The hero rescues her

Archetype

Battle of Good and Evil - Good ultimately triumphs

Archetype

The Garden - Symbolizes love and fertility

Archetype

Objective POV

Camera Angle; Reader is in the position of the speaker; Reader must draw their own conclusions about what is occurring; All that is related is what characters say and do; Feelings/emotional states must be inferred; Purest form would be dialogue only

"He watched from a distance as the police officer questioned the subject," the author uses third person objective to describe what is happening in the story but he does not reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters.

Objective POV

“Hansel walked ahead of Gretel. Gretel dropped breadcrumbs behind her as she went.

Objective POV

Ahead of them, an old witch waited.”

Objective POV

Stream of Consciousness

Seeks to depict how we think; Flow of inner experiences. Procession of unrelated images and ideas.

I continue to live inside a dichotomy: what was and what shall be. The pain in my skull is me trying to mesh the two.

Stream of Consciousness

“I am I and you are you and I know it and you don't know it and you could do so much for me if you just would and if you just would then I could tell you and then nobody would have to know it except you and me and Darl”

Stream of Consciousness

Omniscient

All knowing; Most flexible point of view; Permits widest scope - allows for depth and breadth; Inside the minds of all characters; Interprets and comments

“As the campers settled into their tents, Zara hoped her eyes did not betray her fear, and Lisa silently wished for the night to quickly end.”

Omniscient

“He had no way of knowing that things were about to get much worse.” Or: “Waiting for her around the corner was the killer, looking for his tenth victim.”

Omniscient

Limited Omniscient

Story told from the perspective of one character. The narrator comments on the story’s events from the character’s perspective. The narrator informs the reader of what the character thinks and feels and comments on the character as the narrator knows more about the character than the character may know about themselves.

“Marcus warily took one more glance at his mom, unable to read the look on her face, before heading to school.” The narrator is experiencing the action through the experience of one character, whose thoughts and feelings are closely held.

Limited Omniscient

“Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. Fawkes the phoenix let out a low, soft, musical cry. To Harry’s intense embarrassment, he suddenly realized that Dumbledore’s bright blue eyes looked rather watery, and stared hastily at his own knee.

Limited Omniscient

First Person

Story told from the perspective of one character – this character is the narrator; can be a major or minor character i.e. participant of observer; as the story is told from the only one perspective - the reliability of the narrator must always be questioned; allows for immediacy, dramatic irony, human error; be wary of the “authorial fallacy”

My heart leaped into my throat as I turned and saw a frightening shadow.

First Person

There are places I'll remember / All my life, though some have changed / Some forever, not for better / Some have gone and some remain. / All these places had their moments / With lovers and friends / I still can recall / Some are dead and some are living In my life, / I've loved them all.

First Person

Flashback

A scene in a movie, novel, etc., set in a time earlier than the main story

A woman is about to get married. As she puts on her veil, she remembers her fiancé three years before, swearing he would make her his wife someday. A tear comes to her eye and she prepares to walk down the aisle.

Flashback

The backfiring of the bus sent the older man spiraling back to his youth. He could hear the guns firing and his comrades shouting. Adrenaline rushed through him, taking his breath. Leaning against the sign for the bus stop, he covered his ears trying to staunch the flow of memories.

Flashback

Foreshadowing

A warning or indication of a future event

“My life were better ended by their hate, than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.”

Foreshadowing

“On December the third the wind changed overnight and it was winter.” “The birds had been more restless than ever this fall of the year. Their agitation more remarked because the days were still.”

Foreshadowing

Abstract

Referring to a word that signifies a general idea, concept or condition that is intangible. Ex: Truth, beauty, democracy

‘Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom’

Abstract

A thing of beauty is a joy forever

Abstract

Colloquialism

Words and phrases used in casual conversation and given new, informal meanings. Could originate from a dialect, but does not have to. Ex: Y’all, wicked pissa

It’s wicked good – It pleases me

Colloquialism

Ballpark – Something that is close but not exact

Colloquialism

Concrete

A word that specifies what is tangible; a word whose meaning we understand with one or more of our five senses. Ex: Desk, chair, frozen

I ate an apple

Concrete

I understand that you believe you are correct, but you are missing a necessary piece of information.

Concrete

Connotation

The implied or understood meaning of a word that is more than or different from its definition. Ex: “She is feeling blue.”

Stench, smell, aroma, scent, odor.

Connotation

Broke, poor, impoverished

Connotation

Denotation

Dictionary definition.

The boy was pushy. (He was literally pushing people.)

Denotation

The dog is a mutt

Denotation

Diction

The specific word choice the author/narrator/speaker employs

“I will address that issue right away.” vs. , “You got it.”

Diction

Anaphora

The exact repetition of the first few words or phrases at the beginning of successive sentences or clauses. Ex: ”Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama. Go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia…”

Stay safe. Stay well. Stay happy

Anaphora

Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.

Anaphora

Repetition

Repeated words or phrases. Ex: I love bats; I love cats; I love worms \= EMPHASIS

Oh, woeful, oh woeful, woeful, woeful day

Repetition

Nory was a Catholic because her mother was a Catholic, and Nory’s mother was a Catholic because her father was a Catholic, and her father was a Catholic because his mother was a Catholic, or had been.

Repetition

Cataloging

A list. Ex: The air was filled with the smell of car emissions, burnt leaves, septic\=tank stench, festering garbage, dead cat, putrid vomit.

“Glory be to God for dappled things – / For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow; / For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; / Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; / Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough; / And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.”

Cataloging

Our grapes fresh from the vine, / Pomegranates full and fine, / Dates and sharp bullaces, / Rare pears and greengages, / Damsons and bilberries, / Taste them and try: / Currants and gooseberries, / Bright-fire-like barberries.

Cataloging

Juxtaposition

The placement of words or phrases next to or near each other for effect. Ex: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness…”

All's fair in love and war

Juxtaposition

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.

Juxtaposition

Caesura

A pause/interruption/break near the middle of a line. Often emphasizes what follows. Ex: The hallway was silent – except for the creak of the floorboards.

To be or not to be – that is the question

Caesura

Death, || only death, can break the lasting chain

Caesura

Allusion

A reference to a historical event, a literary work, biblical story/character, etc. Ex: The butterfly is my Achilles heel in swim meets.

Then leaf subsides to leaf. / So Eden sank to grief, / So dawn goes down to day. / Nothing gold can stay.

Allusion

He's a cool guy, but he becomes a lovesick Romeo every time he's around her.

Allusion

Analogy

An extended comparison between two Unlike things that share some similarities. It is similar to an extended metaphor and simile but the difference lies in the fact that this comparison has similarities. Ex: My experience at the periodontist was like being in a medieval torture chamber. The dental implements looked like instruments of torture and the pain I felt was like being stretched on teh rack.

As cold waters to a thirsty soul, / So is good news from a far country

Analogy

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more. It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing

Analogy

Hyperbole

Exaggeration. Ex: I was so thirsty; I could have drunk the entire lake.