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

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