Literary Terms

1
Literary Terms

• Understanding what makes literature work.

2
Oxymoron

• When two contradictory words are put together.

• dark light
• hot ice
• living dead
• genuine imitation

3
Alliteration

• The repetition of consonant sounds in neighboring
  words.
  
• Alliteration is commonly in poetry but can also
  be seen in prose.
  

• Tennyson
• The moan of doves in immemorial elms,And
  murmuring of innumerable bees.
  
• Beowulf
• Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,
  Leader beloved, and long he ruled In fame with
  all folk since his father had gone
  

4
Simile

• The comparison of two unlike things using like or
  as.
  

• He eats like a pig.
• Hes as quick as a bunny.
• Shes as cute as a button.
• Her smile is like a ray of sunshine.

5
Metaphor

• A figure of speech that makes a comparison
  between two unlike quantities, that unlike a
  simile, does not the words "like" or "as."
  

• From Shakespeares Macbeth
• Life's but a walking shadow a poor player,That
  struts and frets his hour upon the stage.

6
Personification

• The giving of human qualities to animals or
  objects which would normally not display these
  qualities.
  

• In John Keats' "To Autumn," the fall season is
  personified as having the human qualities of
  being able to sit and to sleep.
  
• Thee sitting careless on a granary floor (line
  14)
  
• Drowsd with the fume of poppies (line 17)

7
Allegory

• A form of extended metaphor, in which objects,
  persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated
  with meanings that lie outside the actual
  narrative. This underlying meaning has moral,
  social, religious, or political significance, and
  characters are often symbols of abstract ideas
  such as love or greed. An allegory can be seen
  as a story with two meanings, a literal meaning
  and a symbolic meaning.

• In Edmund Spensers The Faerie Queene, Red Cross
  Knight is a heroic knight in the literal
  narrative, but also a figure representing
  everyman in the Christian journey.  Works may be
  contain allegories or be allegorical in part, but
  not many are entirely allegorical as The Faerie
  Queene is.

8
Satire

• A piece of literature designed to ridicule the
  subject of the work. A satire can be funny.
  However, its aim is not to amuse, but rather to
  arouse contempt.

• Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" satirizes
  the English people, making them seem dwarfish in
  their ability to deal with large thoughts,
  issues, or deeds.

9
Foreshadowing

• A method used in literature to build suspense by
  providing hints of what is to come in the rest of
  the story.
  

• In Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," Romeo's
  expression of fear in Act 1, scene 4 foreshadows
  the catastrophe to come
  
• I fear too early for my mind misgives
• Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
• Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
• With this night's revels and expire the term
• Of a despised life closed in my breast
• By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

10
Soliloquy

• In drama, a moment when a character is alone and
  speaks his or her thoughts aloud to the
  audience.
  

• The line "To be, or not to be, that is the
  question," begins Hamlets famous soliloquy from
  Act 3, scene 1 of Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Here,
  Hamlet questions whether or not life is worth
  living, and speaks out loud the reasons why he
  does not end his life.

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