English 102 - Literary Terms

Week 1

1. Alexandrine: A type of meter - a line of poetry that has six iambs per line, totaling 12 syllables.

2. Allegory: A story with more than one meaning.

3. Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds in writing, often used to create rhythm or emphasis in poetry and prose.

4. Allusion: An indirect reference to something or someone else.

5. Analogy: A comparison of two things.

6. Anecdote: A short, informal story.

7. Animism: The belief that all living things have a spirit or a soul.

8. Antagonist: A character or force in conflict with the main character, often creating tension in the narrative.

9. Anticlimax: When the reader is led to believe that the character will grow and develop, but never does or experiences a less significant outcome than expected.

10. Antithesis:The complete opposite

11. Aphorism: A short, clever saying about life

12. Apostrophe: Talking to an inanimate object

13. Archetype: The original

14. Aside: A private conversation between two characters

15. Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds

16. Atmosphere: the mood of the feeling

Augustan: anything in the style of ancient rome

Week 2

1. Autobiography: A story you write about your own life

2. Biography: A story about someone else’s life

3. Balled: A song or poem that tells a story

4. Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter

5. Cadence:The flow of the language

6. Caesura: A pause or break in the middle of a line of poetry

7. Canto: A chapter in a long poem

8. Capitalism: Keep what you earn

9. Carpe Diem: Seize the day

10. Character: An individual in a story

11. Chivalry: A code of conduct from the middle ages

12. Classicism: Anything to do with ancient Greece or Rome

13. Cliché: An overused expression

14. Climax: Part of the plot when the main character changes or grows

15. Comedy: A story where the main character gets married

16. Communism: Everyone gets what you earn

17. Conceit: An extended metaphor
    

Week 3

1. Conflict:The struggle in the story

2. Connotation: The suggested meaning of a word

3. Consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds at the end of words

4. Couplet: Two lines that go together in a poem

5. Courtly love: How a knight should treat his lady

6. Deism: A belief that God created the world then left it alone

7. Denotation: The dictionary definition of a word

8. Denouement: Everything that happens after the climax

9. Deus ex machina: God from a machine

10. Dialect: Writing that imitates how people talk

11. Dialogue: People talking

12. Diction: The author’s word choice

13. Didactic literature: Instructive literature

14. Dissonance: Harsh and clashing

15. Dramatic monologue: An actress speaking their thoughts

16. Dramatic song: A song or poem in a play

17. Elegy: A poem for a dead person

Week 4

1. End stopped line: The pause or stop at the end of a poetry line

2. Enlightenment: A period when people used logic and reason

3. Epic: A long, heroic poem

4. Epigram: A short clever saying about life

5. Epiphany: A sudden understanding

6. Epitaph: The writing in a tombstone or conclusive saying

7. Epithet: Descriptive name

8. Essay: A formal, organised type of writing

9. Exaggeration: An overstatement of what you mean

10. Fable: A short story with a lesson

11. Falling action: Everything that happens after the climax

12. Farce: Over the top comedy

13. Fascism: A government controlled by a dictator

14. Feudalism: The social structure of the middle ages

15. Figure of Speech: When we don’t literally mean what we say

16. Flashback: A return to a moment in the past

17. Foil: A character who is a contrast with the main character

Week 5

1. Foreshadowing: When an author hints or suggests at what will happen later

2. Frame story: A story within a story

3. Free verse: Poetry with no structure or form

4. Gothic: Dark, scary literature

5. Haiku: A three line poem with a strict syllable count

6. Humanism: The belief that we have to focus on human life here and now

7. Hyperbole: extreme exaggeration

8. Iambic pentameter: when you have 10 syllables per line

9. Imagery: very descriptive writing

10. Incremental repetition: When a line is repeated but changes

11. Industrial Revolution: The use of factories and assembly lines

12. In medias res: A story telling technique where you start in the middle of the action

13. Irony: Where the outcome is the opposite of what is expected

14. Kenning:Describe something instead of using its name

15. Laissez faire: No government involvement in the economy

16. Literary epic: An epic written by a modern writer

17. Lyric Poetry: Poetry that focuses on the writers emotions or feeling