Part I: Literature and Language Terms

ENGLISH

“Examinable” Terms (i.e. terms which the examiners will assume you know and can use correctly).

Part I: Literature and Language Terms

Act: a major section of a play. Acts are divided into shorter scenes. Classical and Shakespearean plays traditionally have five acts, but modern plays usually have one, two or three acts.

Action: the events in a literary work. E.g. the action in Macbeth begins with the witches planning a meeting with Macbeth.

Allegory: a story in which people and things represent something other than themselves – perhaps an idea or philosophy. Allegories typically contain a moral or lesson.

Alliteration: the repetition of the same sounds at the beginning of words, e.g. “scrolls of snowy, silvery sentences.”

Allusion: a reference to a famous person, place or thing, or to another work of literature.

Analogy: the comparison of an unfamiliar object or idea to a familiar one in an attempt to explain or illuminate the unfamiliar.

Anecdote: a short and amusing story about a real incident or person.

Antagonist: a character who is opposite to or challenges the protagonist.

Apostrophe: (not to be confused with the punctuation mark of the same name): speech directed in an abstract direction, to a person not present, or to a thing. In dramatic works and poetry, it is often introduced by the word “O.” e.g. “O Time, thou must untangle this, not I!” (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night).

Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds within a short passage of verse or prose. E.g. “Try to light the fire tonight.”

Aside: a technique in drama whereby the actor steps “aside” from the action and delivers a soliloquy to the audience.

Atmosphere: the feeling or emotions evoked by a work of art or literature.

Audience: the people for whom a piece of literature is written. Authors usually write with a certain audience in mind.

Bias: preference or prejudice in favour of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another. Bias occurs in a piece of writing when the author leaves out information that is necessary to give an accurate presentation of a person or subject. It is important to remember that every piece of writing contains some degree of bias.

Cacophony: a jarring, discordant sound – opposite of euphony.

Caricature: a distorted character resulting from the author's deliberate exaggeration of a trait or traits of personality.

Character: a character is a person in a literary work. Character can also refer to the particular, unique traits of a person in a literary work. Characterization is the way in which an author presents and defines characters. A flat character is one who is minimally described, stereotypical or who has only one purpose, while a round character is one who is presented in greater depth and detail; a character who does not undergo any change is called a static character, while a character who undergoes some sort of trans-formation is called a dynamic character. E.g in A Separate Peace, Gene is both a round and dynamic character, while a minor character such as Chet Douglas is flat and static.

Chorus: in Greek tragedies, a group of people who serve to comment on the characters and events. The chorus usually expresses traditional moral, religious and social attitudes.

Cliché: a trite or overused expression or idea. “It’s raining cats and dogs” is a cliché.

Climax: the high point , or turning point, in a story—usually the most intense point near the end of a story at which the story’s conflict reaches its highest point and is resolved.

Closing by return: concluding statements in an essay that refer directly back to the thesis statement.

Coherence: the relationship among sentences and paragraphs that creates a unified piece of writing. Using transitional words and phrases, repeating words, showing time relationships (last, next), using pronouns, using parallel structure, and referring back to ideas help make a story or essay coherent.

Comic relief: a humourous scene or incident that takes away tension in a serious work. The drunken porter in Macbeth, appearing immediately after the murder of Duncan, is an example of comic relief. Comedy can also be a separate genre of literature, distinct from tragedy in that it aims to make the reader/viewer laugh and offers a happy ending.

Comparison: describes similarities and differences between two or more items.

Complication: goes along with the rising actionof a story – it develops or intensifies the plot.

Composition: the arrangement of elements within a piece of art to create a satisfying whole. Composition can be both a literary term (for example, how the parts of an essay are put together) or a visual (referring to how a piece of visual art, like a painting, is composed).

Conflict: the struggle between opposing forces that provides the central action and interest in any literary plot. We often speak of conflict as being either:

internal (e.g. Macbeth’s inner conflict over whether to kill Duncan)
external (a struggle against God/gods, nature, or other outside forces, such as Creon’s setting himself against the laws of the gods in Antigone)
interpersonal (conflict between people, as in the conflict between Macbeth and Macduff).

Connotation: an idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing.

Consonance: the repetition of consonants or of a consonant patter, especially at the ends of words. E.g. “blank” and “think.”

Context: all the other information given to form the background of a word, a piece of literature, or a visual image. The same information can have different meanings if used in a different context.

Contrast: examining two or more items by looking only at their differences.

Denotation: the exact meaning of a word, without the feelings or suggestions the word may imply. It is the opposite of connotation because it is the dictionary definition of a word, without attached feelings or associations.

Dialogue: conversation between two or more people that advances the action, is consistent with the character of the speakers, and serves to give relief from passages essentially descriptive or expository.

Diction: word choice and/or levels of language used in a work of literature.

Dominant impression/image: the central thought or object that stands out in a literary work.

Emotional appeals: technique used by writers of opinion pieces to sway the emoions of their audience. E.g. linking an issue to values such as peace, justice, or fair play, or presenting testimonials from admired or respected individuals. Note that this term also appears under your “media literacy” terms as it is a common element in advertising.

Emphatic devices: techniques used to make words and phrases stand out in the reader’s mind. These can include:

Font: the kind of typeface used, such as boldface, italics,underliningor CAPITALIZATION.
Listing (like this list you’re reading now!)
Parallelism (parallel structure): similarity or correspondence, in either construction or meaning, of successive clauses or passages in writing. Parallel grammatical construction allows the reader to focus on the words that change and therefore provide emphasis. This is particularly effective in speeches. E.g. “Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.”
Punctuation: use of a colon, dash, exclamation mark, brackets, etc.
Repetition
Sentence fragements: incomplete sentences. Technically, these are grammatically incorrect, but it is acceptable to use them in a piece of formal writing if their purpose is clearly for emphasis. Like this. Or this.
Short sentences.

Epiphany: a sudden revelation of truth or profound meaning in life.

Essay: a brief work of nonfiction that offers an opinion on a subject. The purpose of an essay may be to express ideas and feelings, to analyze, to inform, to entertain, or to persuade. An essay can be formal, with thorough, serious, and highly organized content; or informal, with a humorous or personal tone and less rigid structure. Several methods of essay development are discussed below:

Argumentation/Persuasion: an essay (or portion of an essay)intended to convince by establishing truth. Most argumentation begins with a statement of an idea or opinion, which is then supported with logical evidence. An essay whose primary method of development is argumentation might be described as an argumentative essay,persuasive essay or opinion essay.
Cause and effect: developing the writers point by showing how one thing causes another. For example, in an essay arguing that the use of fossil fuels is bad for the environment, you might develop your argument by listing negative causes of increased fossil fuel usage.
Classification and division: explaining the characteristics of something by breaking it down into smaller types or sub-categories. In an essay about your high school, you might break down your fellow students into groups or categories and discuss each.
Comparison and contrast: exploring two things by showing the similarities and differences between them. This method of development is often used in literary analysis essays in which you might compare two different books, or two characters from the same book.
Definition: explaining the meaning of a key word or phrase in your essay.
Description: creating a picture of a scene, event or character using carefully chosen details that appeal to the senses. An essay can be mainly descriptive, or description can be used as a method of development within another type of essay.
Examples and illustration: giving examples from your own experience or from your research to illustrate a point you are making in your essay.
Exposition: explaining or giving information. Some essays are mainly expository in nature.

Euology: a speech or essay written in praise of a person who has recently died.

Euphony: agreeable, pleasing and harmonious sounds.

Exposition: the part of a play or story that provides background information needed to understand the characters and the action.

Extended metaphor: a metaphor that is extended through a stanza or an entire poem, often by multiple comparisons of unlike objects or ideas.

Fable: a traditional tale usually intended to teach a story. The most famous ancient fables are Aesop’s Fables.

Fiction: a story created from the imagination of the author: not factual (although it can be based on or resemble actual events).

Figurative language: language that uses figures of speech, such as simile, metaphor, and personification, which are used extensively to create imagery.

Flashback: a device used to depict events in the past, before the time in which the story takes place.

Flash Fiction: a piece of fiction that is extremely brief, usually only a few hundred words.

Foil: a character whose main purpose in a work of literature is to provide contrast to another.

Foreshadowing: a device that hints at the future or events occurring later in the work. E.g. in A Separate Peace, the story begins with Gene as an adult visiting Devon and wanting particularly to see the tree and the marble staircase. This scene acts as foreshadowing, telling us that something important is going to happen at those two locations.

Genre: a category of literary work such as poetry, novel, or drama.

Hyperbole: a boldly exaggerated statement that adds emphasis without intending to be literally true. “I’m so hungry I could eat the arse off a low-flying duck.”

Imagery: the verbal “pictures” used by the writer.

Irony: a statement or situation containing contrast or incongruity.

Verbal irony occurs when a speaker means the opposite of what s/he says.
Dramatic irony occurs when the reader or audience knows something that the character in a story does not know.
Situational irony occurs when there is a “twist” in a story – a discrepancy between what’s expected and what actually happens. For example, Macbeth’s death at the hands of Macduff who was “not born of woman” is ironic.

Journal: a journal can be a personal collection of reflective writings, somewhat like a diary. Journal can also refer to published mass media such as a magazine. The profession of writing for newspapers and news magazines is called journalism.

Juxtaposition: placing two things close together to show contrast or difference between the two.

Lead: in a dramatic production the “lead” is the principle role. In a news story, the “lead” is the introductory portion meant to grab the reader’s attention.

Literal meaning: writing about a subject that contains no exaggeration, embellishment or figurative language: writing that means exactly what it says.

Lyrics: the words to a song.

Memoir: an autobiographical form of writing in which the author gives his her or personal impressions of events.

Metaphor: a type of figurative language in which a statement is made that says one thing is another, but, literally, it is not. Similar to a simile, but without using the words “like” or “as.” A metaphor may be a simple comparison, or may be developed throughout an entire poem (an extended metaphor).

Monologue: a speech made by one person speaking his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing a reader, audience or character. A soliloquy is a monologue used in drama.

Mood: the atmosphere that pervades a literary work with the intention of evoking a certain emotion or feeling from the audience. In drama, mood may be created by sets and music as well as words; in poetry and prose, mood may be created by a combination of such elements as setting, voice, tone and theme.

Motif: a recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature. A motif may also be two contrasting elements in a work, since as good and evil. The imagery of blood in Macbethis a recurring motif in the play.

Motivation: the presentation of the reasons, justifications, and explanations for the actions of a character. Motivation results from a combination of the character’s moral nature with the circumstances in which the character is placed. For example, an essay might examine Gene’s motivation for making Finny fall from the tree in A Separate Peace, or Macbeth’s motivation for killing Duncan.

Myth: an anonymous tale that uses supernatural explanations for natural phenomena and creation and death. It often includes heroes and gods/goddesses.

Narrative: a piece of writing (poetry or prose) which tells a story.

Narrator: the speaker in a work of prose.

Nonfiction: writing which is factual; writing about real people and events.

Onomatopoeia: the formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions to which they refer. For example, the words “buzz” and “murmur” are onomatopoeic.

Oxymoron: a rhetorical figure in which two contradictory terms are combined. For example: “deafening silence,” or “jumbo shrimp.”

Parable: a brief and simple narrative that illustrates a moral or religious lesson.

Paradox: a seemingly contradictory statement that may be true in context. For example, “We are strong at the broken places.” Similar to an oxymoron.

Paraphrase:

Parody: an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, genre, or person with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

Personification: treating an inanimate object or an abstraction as if it were a person; endowing something non-human with human qualities.

Plot: the action and all of the motivations lying behind the action in a literary work. A plot may include such elements as exposition, where the setting is established, the characters are introduced, and background information is provided; the conflict; the climax, where the action comes to its moment of greatest tension and the conflict is resolved, and the denouement, where the reader learns what happens after the climax.

Poetic forms: various forms of poetry may include:

ballad: a long traditional poem, often set to music, which tells a story
elegy: a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
epic poem: also traditionally very long, which tells a story of heroes from history or mythology
free verse: a poem that uses no regular pattern of rhyme or metre. This type of poetry became popular in the early twentieth-century and most poetry written today fits into this form.
lyric poem: poem whose purpose is to express feeling or emotion.
sonnet: a fourteen-line poem following a very strict pattern of rhyme and metre, traditionally used for love poetry
narrative poem: any poem (including a ballad and an epic poem) whose main purpose is to tell a story
ode: a lengthy lyric poem, usually of a serious or meditative nature with an elevated style and formal structure. Usually contains a tribute in praise of someone or something. “The Ode to Newfoundland” is an example.

Point of view: the intellectual or emotional perspective held by a narrator or speaker. A narrator's point of view may be classified according to whether it is in the first-person, where the speaker uses the pronoun "I"; the second-person, where the speaker uses the pronoun "you"; or the third-person, where the speaker uses the pronouns "he," "she," "it" or "they." The third-person point of view may be further classified according to whether it is all-knowing, or omniscient; or limited in its knowledge.

Prologue: the opening speech or dialogue of a play, especially a classical Greek play, which usually gives the exposition necessary to follow the subsequent action. The term may also refer to the introduction to any literary work.

Protagonist: the central character in a literary work.

Proverb: a short saying in general use that is intended to state a general truth or piece of advice. “Too many cooks spoil the soup” is a proverb suggesting that having too many people involved in a project may decrease its quality.

Pun: a play on words that relies on a word’s having one or more meaning or sounding like another word. Shakespeare and other writers use puns extensively, usually (though not always) for humourous purposes.

Purpose: the reason why a piece of writing was written. Purpose will determine tone, diction, style, selection of specific details, etc.

Refrain: a phrase, a line, or lines repeated in a poem. In song lyrics, the refrain is sometimes called the chorus.

Rhetorical question: a question asked for effect and to promote thought and reflection, not to elicit an answer. E.g. Lady Macbeth’s question “Will these hands ne’er be clean?” is a rhetorical question.

Sarcasm: the use of bitter or wounding remarks, especially in an ironic way.

Satire: the literary art of ridiculing a folly or vice in order to expose or correct it. Satire evokes contempt, scorn, or indignation toward its subject in hopes of improving it.

Scene: in drama, a scene is a subdivision of an act. Traditionally, a scene changes when the location of the action shifts.

Screenplay: a script for a film or television show including dialogue and descriptions of characters, sets, camera angles etc.