Literary Terms

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Literary Terms
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Epigram

• A brief, witty saying or poem often dealing with
  its subject in a satirical manner.
• There never was a good war or a bad peace.
  -Benjamin Franklin

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Diction

• Word choice. To discuss a writers diction is to
  consider the vocabulary used, the appropriateness
  of the words, and the vividness of the language.

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Verbal Irony

• The use of words used to suggest the opposite of
  what is meant.

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Farce

• Literature based on a humorous and improbable
  plot.

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Epithet

• A word or phrase used in place of a persons
  name it is characteristic of that person
  Alexander the Great, Material Girl, Mr.
  Know-it-All.

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Antithesis

• Figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas
  are intentionally juxtaposed, usually through
  parallel structure a contrasting of opposing
  ideas in adjacent phrases, clauses, or sentences.

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Hyperbole

• A deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.

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Denouement

• The final resolution or outcome of a play or
  story.

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Mood

• The feeling a text arouses in the reader
  happiness, peacefulness, sadness, and so on.

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Tragic Hero

• A character who experiences an inner struggle
  because of a character flaw. That struggle ends
  in the defeat of the hero.

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Motif

• The term for an often-repeated idea or theme in
  literature.

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Hubris

• Excessive pride. In Greek tragedy, hubris is
  often viewed as the flaw that leads to the
  downfall of the tragic hero.

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Soliloquy

• A speech delivered by a character when he or she
  is alone on stage. It is as though the character
  is thinking out loud.

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Oxymoron

• A combination of contradictory terms as in jumbo
  shrimp, tough love, or intelligent woman.

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Omniscient point of view

• Point of view which allows the narrator to share
  the thoughts and feelings of all the characters.

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Renaissance

• Means Rebirth. The period of history following
  the Middle Ages. The term now applies to any
  period of time in which intellectual and artistic
  interest is revived or reborn.

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Person Vs. Self Conflict

• A character has a problem deciding what to do in
  a situation.