Literary Terms

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Literary Terms

• Natalie Hope
• English

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AllegoryA story which has meaning on both the
literal and figurative or moral level. e.g.
Young Goodman BrownScarlet LetterStar Wars
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AlliterationThe repetition of sounds in a
group of words as in Peter Piper Picked a Peck
of Pickled Peppers.
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AllusionA reference to a person, place, or
thing--often literary, mythological, or
historical. The infinitive of allusion is to
allude. e.g. Romeo alludes to the mythological
figure Diana in the balcony scene.
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AntagonistA major character who opposes the
protagonist in a story or play.
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ArchetypeA character who represents a certain
type of person. e.g. mother/father
figurehero/heroinethe know-it-all
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AssonanceThe repetition of vowel sounds as in
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the
sideOf my darling, my darling, my life and my
bride. --Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee
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AtmosphereThe overall feeling of a work, which
is related to tone and mood.
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Audience

• The audience for a piece of literature may be a
  single person or a group of people. To what
  person or group is the text directed?

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Blank verseUnrhymed lines of poetry usually
in iambic pentameter. Plenty of modern poetry is
written in blank verse.
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Characterization The means by which an author
establishes character. An author may directly
describe the appearance and personality of
character or show it through action or dialogue.
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ClimaxThe point at which the action in a story
or play reaches its emotional peak.
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ConflictThe struggle in the story.
Traditionally, there are four main
conflictsperson vs. self (internal)person vs.
person (external)person vs. society
(external)person vs. nature (external)
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Consonance The repetition of consonant sounds
as in The fair breeze blew, the white foam
flew, The furrow followed free --The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner
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ContrastTo explain how two things differ. To
compare and contrast is to explain how two things
are alike and how they are different.
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CoupletsA pair of rhyming lines in a poem
often set off from the rest of the poem.
Shakespeares sonnets all end in couplets.
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DenouementThe resolution of the conflict in a
plot after the climax. It also refers to the
resolution of the action in a story or play after
the principal drama is resolved. e.g. Romeo and
Juliets families decide to build statues after
their death.
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Diction

• 1)Word choice.
• 2) The authors choice of words. An author has
  the option of choosing any word from our
  language, why does he/she choose to use certain
  words and not others? In order to create a
  certain tone.

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Denotation

• 1)The definition of a word found in the
  dictionary.
• 2)Literal meaning of a word.
• 3) The verb form is to denote which means to
  mean.
• e.g. The word indolence denotes laziness.

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Connotation

• 1)The definition of a word found outside of the
  dictionary.
• 2)Figurative meaning of a word.
• 3) The verb form is to connote which means to
  suggest or imply a meaning beyond the literal
  meaning of a word.
• e.g. The word cool connotes
• an awesome or exciting thing.

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Claim

• What the writer wants to prove. Also called an
  assertion, position, or thesis.

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Counter-claim orCounter-argument

• An opinion that challenges the reasoning behind a
  position and shows that there are grounds for
  having an opposite view.

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Dramatic MonologueA poem in which the speaker
reveals his or her character through an extended
speech or a one-way dialogue. e.g. Brownings
My Last Duchess
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ElegyA poem mourning the dead.
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End rhymeRhyming words that are at the ends of
their respective lineswhat we typically think of
as normal rhyme.
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EpicA long poem narrating the adventures of a
heroic figuree.g. Homers The Odyssey.
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Fable A story that illustrates a moral often
using animals as characterse.g. The Tortoise
and the Hare
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Figurative Language Whenever you describe
something by comparing it with something else,
you are using figurative language. Any language
that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in
order to furnish new effects or fresh insights
into an idea or a subject. e.g. Whenever you
call something cool, youre not talking about
its temperature but referring to some other
quality it possesses.
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ForeshadowingA technique in which an author
gives clues about something that will happen
later in the story.
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Free VersePoetry with no set meter (rhythm)
or rhyme scheme.
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Genre A term used to describe a particular
category or type of literature. Some literary
genres are mysteries, westerns, and romances.
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HyperboleAn extreme exaggeration. e.g. To
say that it took you hours to walk home when in
reality it was only 10 mins would be a hyperbole.
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Iambic pentameterTen-syllable lines in which
every other syllable is stressed. - e.g.
With eyes like stars upon the brave night air.
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ImageryThe use of description that helps the
reader imagine how something looks, sounds,
feels, smells, or tastes. Most of the time, it
refers to appearance. e.g. Tita was so
sensitive to onions, any time they were being
chopped, they say she would just cry and cry
when she was still in my great-grandmothers
belly her sobs were so loud that even Nacha, the
cook, who was half-deaf, could hear them easily.
--Like Water for Chocolate
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Internal rhymeA rhyme that occurs within one
line such as Hes King of the Swing.
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IronyLanguage that conveys a certain idea by
saying just the opposite. e.g. Saying that you
love someones shirt when you really think its
ugly is being ironic.
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Literal LanguageLanguage that means exactly
what it says.
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LyricA type of poetry that expresses the
poets emotions. It often tells some sort of
brief story, engaging the reader in the
experience.
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LogosAn appeal to the audiences logiccommon
sensein rhetoric.
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Ethos An appeal to the audiences
ethicsknowing right from wrongin rhetoric.
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Pathos An appeal to the audiences emotions in
rhetoric.
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Metaphor A comparison of two unlike things
using any form of the verb to be-i.e. am, are,
is, was, were. Ex This chair is a rock, or
I am an island.
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Meter The pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables in the lines of a poem.
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Monologue A long speech by one character in a
play or story.
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MoodThe feeling created in the reader by a
literary work or passage.  The mood may be
suggested by the writer's choice of words, by
events in the work, or by the physical setting.  
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Motif A recurrent image, word, phrase, or
action that tends to unify the literary work or
that forms the theme in a work of literature.
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Myth A legend that embodies the beliefs of
people and offers some explanation for natural
and social phenomena.
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Onomatopoeia The use of words that sound like
what they mean such as buzz, bang, or
tic-tock.
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Paradox a statement that is apparently
self-contradictory or absurd but really contains
a possible truth. e.g. Cowards die many times
before their deaths.--Shakespeares Julius
Caesar
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Parallelism

• The use of similar grammatical structure for
  effect.
• e.g. I came,
• I saw,
• I conquered.
• Also, a requirement in grammar to use the same
  grammatical form for cojoined ideas.
• e.g. We went biking, sailing, and hiking on our
  trip, not We went biking, sailing, and hiked on
  our trip.

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ParodyA humorous, exaggerated imitation of a
work of literature.
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Personification Giving inanimate objects human
characteristics. e.g. The wind howled through
the night.
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PlotThe series of events that form the story.
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Point of View (P.O.V) The perspective from
which the story is told. Narrators of stories can
take on three points of view 1st person
I/we2nd person you3rd person he/she,
they/themOmniscient Point of view The narrator
is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the
minds of all of the characters.
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Prose Writing organized into sentences and
paragraphs that is not poetry.e.g. Novels and
short stories are examples of prose.
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Protagonist The main character of a novel,
play, or story.
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PunThe use of a word in a way that plays on
its different meanings. e.g. Noticing the
bunch of bananas, the hungry gorilla went ape.
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Quatrain A four-line stanza.
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Rhetorical Question A question not meant to be
answered but asked solely to produce an effect or
to make a statement. The purpose to such a
question, whose answer is obvious, is usually to
make a deeper impression upon the hearer or
reader than a direct statement would. Its effect
is to make the reader stop and think about what
is being asked.e.g. How many times have I
asked you to take out the trash?
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Sarcasm Language that conveys a certain idea
by saying just the opposite such as if its
raining outside and you say, My, what a
beautiful day.
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Satire A work that makes fun of something or
someone. e.g. Swifts A Modest ProposalThe
SimpsonsSouth Park
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SimileComparing two unlike things using like
or as. e.g. Im as hungry as a pig, or
Your eyes are like stars that brighten my
night.
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Soliloquy A monologue in which a character
expresses his or her thoughts to the audience and
does not intend the other characters to hear
them.
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SonnetA fourteen-line poem written in iambic
pentameter. Different kinds of sonnets have
different rhyme schemes. The most notable are
Shakespeares Sonnets which employ the
abab,cdcd,efef,gg rhyme scheme.
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StanzaA major subdivision in a poem. A stanza
of two lines is called a couplet a stanza of
three lines is called a tercet a stanza of four
lines is called a quatrain.
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Subplot The secondary action of a story,
complete and interesting in its own right, that
reinforces or contrasts with the main plot. There
may be more than one subplot, and sometimes as
many as three, four, or even more, running
through a piece of fiction. Subplots are
generally either analogous to the main plot,
thereby enhancing our understanding of it, or
extraneous to the main plot, to provide relief
from it.
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Symbolism The use of one thing to represent
another. Something that stands for something
else. e.g. A dove is a symbol of peace.
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ThemeThe central idea of a work.
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ToneThe authors attitude toward the subject
of the work. Usually positive or negative.e.g.
The tone of a piece of literature could be
pessimistic, optimistic, angry, or sarcastic.
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VoiceThe authorial presence in a piece of
literature whether in the first, second, or third
person.