Literary Terms

Allegory:

A story which has meaning on both the literal and

figurative or moral level.

Ex. Lord of the FliesDante’s Inferno

Star Wars

Alliteration:

The repetition of sounds in a group of words as in

“Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.”

Allusion:A 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.

Antagonist:

A major character who opposes the protagonist in

a story or play.

Archetype:

A character who represents a certain type

of person.

e.g. mother/father figurehero/heroine

the know-it-all

Aside

• When a character speaks to the audience or to another character, and other characters do not hear the lines.

Assonance:

The repetition of vowel sounds as in

“And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride.

--Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee

Atmosphere:

The overall feeling of a work, which is related to

tone and mood.

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?

Blank verse:

Unrhymed lines of poetry usually in iambic

pentameter. Plenty of modern poetry is written

in blank verse.

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.

Climax:

The point at which the action in a story or play reaches its emotional

peak.

Conflict:

The struggle in the story. Traditionally, there are four

main conflicts:person vs. self (internal)

person vs. person (external)person vs. society (external)person vs. nature (external)

Consonance:

The repetition of consonant sounds

at the end of words.“Let's take a long walk around the park after dark

Find a spot for us to sparkConversation, verbal elation, stimulation

Share our situations, temptations, education, relaxations

Elevations, maybe we can talk Revelation 3:17”

from Jill Scott “A Long Walk”

Contrast:

To explain how two things differ. To compare and

contrast is to explain how two things are alike and how they are different.

Couplets:

A pair of rhyming lines in a poem often set off from the rest of the poem.

Shakespeare’s sonnets all end in couplets.

Denouement:

The 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 Juliet’s families decide to build statues after

their death.

Diction

1)Word choice.

2) The author’s 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.

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.”

Connotation1)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.”

Claim

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

thesis.

Counter-claim orCounter-argument

An opinion that challenges the reasoning behind a position and shows that

there are grounds for having an opposite view.

Dramatic Monologue:

A poem in which the speaker reveals his or her

character through an extended speech or a one-

way dialogue.

e.g. Browning’s “My Last Duchess”

Elegy:

A poem mourning the dead.

End rhyme:

Rhyming words that are at the ends of their

respective lines—what we typically think of as normal

rhyme.

Epic:

A long poem narrating the adventures of a heroic

figure

e.g. Homer’s The Odyssey.

Fable:

A story that illustrates a moral often using animals as

characters

e.g. The Tortoise and the Hare

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,” you’re not talking about its temperature

but referring to some other quality it possesses.

Foreshadowing:

A technique in which an author gives clues about

something that will happen later in the story.

Free Verse:

Poetry with no set meter (rhythm) or

rhyme scheme.

Genre:

A term used to describe a particular category or type of literature. Some literary

genres are mysteries, westerns, and romances.

Hyperbole:

An 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.

Iambic pentameter:

Ten-syllable lines in which every other syllable is

stressed. - ’

e.g. “With eyes like stars upon the brave night air.”

Imagery:

The 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-grandmother’s

belly her sobs were so loud that even Nacha, the cook, who was half-deaf,

could hear them easily.” --Like Water for Chocolate

Internal rhyme:

A rhyme that occurs within one line such as “He’s King of the Swing.”

Irony:

Language that conveys a certain idea by saying just

the opposite.

e.g. Saying that you love someone’s shirt when you

really think it’s ugly is being ironic.

Literal Language:

Language that means exactly what it says.

Lyric:

A type of poetry that expresses the poet’s

emotions. It often tells some sort of brief story,

engaging the reader in the experience.

Logos:

An appeal to the audience’s logic—common

sense—in rhetoric.

Ethos:

An appeal to the audience’s ethics—

knowing right from wrong—in rhetoric.

Pathos:

An appeal to the audience’s emotions in

rhetoric.

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.”

Meter:

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in the lines of a poem.

Monologue:

A long speech by one character in a play or

story.

Mood:

The 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.  

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.

Myth:

A legend that embodies the beliefs of people and offers

some explanation for natural and social

phenomena.

Onomatopoeia:

The use of words that sound like what they mean such as “buzz,” “bang,” or “tic-tock.”

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.

--Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

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.

Parody:

A humorous, exaggerated imitation of a work of

literature.

Personification:

Giving inanimate objects human characteristics.

e.g. “The wind howled through the night.”

Plot:

The series of events that form the story.

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/we”2nd person= “you”

3rd person= “he/she, they/them”Omniscient Point of view The narrator is an all-knowing

outsider who can enter the minds of all of the characters.

Prose:

Writing organized into sentences and paragraphs

that is not poetry.

e.g. Novels and short stories are examples of

prose.

Protagonist:

The main character of a novel, play, or story.

Pun:

The 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.”

Quatrain:

A four-line stanza.

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?”

Sarcasm:

Language that conveys a certain idea by saying just the opposite such as if it’s

raining outside and you say, “My, what a beautiful

day.”

Satire:

A work that makes fun of something or someone.

e.g. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”

The SimpsonsSouth Park

Simile:

Comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as.”

e.g. “I’m as hungry as a pig,” or “Your eyes are like

stars that brighten my night.”

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.

Sonnet:

A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter.

Different kinds of sonnets have different rhyme schemes. The

most notable are Shakespeare’s Sonnets which employ the abab,cdcd,efef,gg

rhyme scheme.

Stanza:

A 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.

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.

Symbolism:

The use of one thing to represent another.

Something that stands for something else.

e.g. A dove is a symbol of peace.

Theme:

The central idea of a work.

Tone:

The author’s 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.

Voice:

The authorial presence in a piece of literature whether in the first,

second, or third person.