Literary Terms & Definitions
Term / DefinitionAllegory / A literary device where words, people, things or actions represent an idea or generalization about life- Allegories usually have a strong lesson or moral.
Alliteration / The repetition of initial consonant sounds
Allusion / A reference to a well-known person, place, event, or literary work
Analogy / A comparison of objects or ideas that appears to be different but are alike in some important way
Antagonist / Character that opposes the main character
Apostrophe
(not the punctuation) / Talking to an animal, object, or dead person as if it/he/she could hear, understand, & respond
Archetype / Refers to characters, plots, themes and images that recur throughout the history of literature
The Epic Hero is an example of a well known Archetype
Aside / A short speech delivered by a character in a play, expressing the character’s thoughts to the audience, inaudible to the other actors
Assonance / The repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants e.g., the words "cry" and "side" have the same vowel sound
Bildungsroman
(coming of age) / a story about the moral and psychological growth of the main character from childhood to adult ideas
Caesura / A pause or break in a line of verse
Character / Any person, animal, or object in a story, play, or novel
Characters - major / important to plot development - Usually round or three-dimensional characters
Characters - minor / Usually flat or two-dimensional characters.
Characters - dynamic / undergoes change
Characters - static / Character who does not change
Characters- flat / a character that is not well developed and does not change
Characters - round / A character who reveals various, and sometimes contradictory, personality traits.
Characterization / The way in which the writer portrays the characters in a book, play, or movie
Climax / The point of greatest emotional intensity or interest
Complications / Events that interfere with main characters expectations or plans
Conceit / An author’s fanciful notion, usually demonstrated through an elaborate analogy
Conflict / Struggle between two opposing forces
Conflict - 4 types / · Internal Conflict- Man struggling w/ his heart or mind-man vs. himself
· External Conflict- Man vs. Man
Man vs. Nature
Man vs. Society
Connotation / Set of associations that occur to people when they hear or read a word
Couplet / A pair of rhyming lines, usually of the same length and meter
Denotation / Literal meaning of a word
Dialect / Way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular region or a particular group of people with differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation
Dialogue / Any written form of conversation between two or more speakers Dialogue generally serves two main purposes: to advance the plot and to reveal character.
Direct Characterization / When the author directly tells reader directly what character is like
Diction / An author’s choice of words based on effectiveness and authenticity
Types: Archaic- old fashion
Colloquialism – informal language
Jargon – specific to a field
Dramatic Irony / Occurs when the audience or the reader knows something important that a character in a play or story does not know
End Rhyme / Poetry that rhymes at the end of the lines
Epic poem / A long narrative poem about the deeds of gods or heroes
Epic Hero / A character whose actions are inspiring or noble and who is usually morally, physically, and intellectually superior
Epic simile / An epic or Homeric simile is a more involved, ornate comparison, extended in great detail
Epithet / Word or phrase used in place of a person’s name to help characterize the person
e.g., Alexander “the great”, swift-footed Achilles," and "all-seeing Jove."
Term / Definition
Essay / Prose writing generally limited to one topic that expresses an individual's point of view
· Descriptive Essay-Essay the seeks to convey an impression
about a topic; uses imagery
· Expository Essay-Essay that gives information
· Persuasive Essay-Essay that tries to convince the reader to do something or to accept writer's POV
· Narrative Essay-Essay that relates to a true story
Euphemism / Substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant e.g., "pass away" for die
Exposition / An author's introduction to the characters, setting, and situation at the beginning of the story
Fables / Brief stories told to teach lessons; characters are
usually animals
Falling Action / The action that follows the climax
Figurative Language / Writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally but used to create vivid expressions
First person narrator / The story is told from the view of a character using pronouns such as “I” “me” “we” and “us”
Flashback / A scene that interrupts the action of a story - A flashback moves back in time to reveal an event that happened earlier.
Foil / Character who is contrasted by another character to emphasize their differences
Foot / A unit of syllable that form a pattern in poetry
(e.g., A sonnet has two syllables per foot.)
Foreshadowing / The use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in the story.
Free Verse / Unrhymed verse
Genre / Category to which a literary work belongs- Some examples of popular genres include: gothic/horror fiction, romance, fantasy.
Hubris: excessive pride / In Greek tragedy, hubris is often viewed as the flaw that leads to the downfall of the tragic hero
Hyperbole / Exaggeration to make a point
Iambic meter / A metrical pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables (~/~/~/~/~/) example “a-gain”
Inciting Force / The event or character that triggers the conflict
Idiom / the language peculiar to a group or people or to a district, community, or class
Ex: I have talked until I am blue in the face"
Imagery / Words or phrases that appeal to the five senses: Sight, smell, touch, sound, taste
Indirect Characterization / The information the reader learns about the character based on indirect information such as dialogue, action, thoughts or other characters
Internal Rhyme / Occurs when the rhyming words appear within the same line of poetry
Juxtaposition / The placement of two ideas or things in order to emphasize the comparison or contrast between them.
Malapropism / A type of pun or play on words that results when two words become mixed up in the speakers mind
· He's a wolf in cheap clothing.
· Michelangelo painted the Sixteenth Chapel.
Metaphor / Comparison between two unlike things
Meter / The rhythmical pattern of a poem that is determined by the number and types of stresses, or beats, in each line
Metonymy / A word that stands in for another object or idea
e.g., “the crown” standing in for the monarchy or “the man” representing the government or authority
Mood / The overall emotion created by a work of literature. It usually can be described with one or more adjectives. Ex: eerie, angry, peaceful
Monologue / A speech by one character in a play, story, or poem
Motif / An often repeated pattern or theme in literature
Myth / Traditional story that attempts to explain natural phenomenon or to justify a certain practice or belief in a
specific society
Narrative Hook / The point in a story or novel at which the author catches the reader's attention by presenting an interesting problem or situation
Narrator / Person telling the story
Term / Definition
Omniscient Narrator / All-knowing narrator – a types of third person narration
Onomatopoeia / Words that imitate sounds
Oxymoron / Pair of contradictory words A familiar word in the English language that is an oxymoron is the word
“sophomore”, which means wise fool. Others include: jumbo shrimp, tough love, act naturally
Paradox / Statement that seems contradictory but in fact is or may be true
An example: “The coach considered this a good loss”. If the team learns from its mistakes and wins the championship later, in hindsight the loss was good for the team.
Personification / Giving an animal/object human characteristics
Plot / Sequence of events in a story
Point of View / The perspective from which a story is told. There are four points of view.
· 1st Person -Story is told using the pronoun "I" or “we”
· 2nd Person - Speaker speaks directly to the audience- "you"
· 3rd Person Limited POV-Narrator tells the story from the viewpoint of only one character - "he" , "she" , or “it”
· 3rd Person Omniscient POV-told by an “all knowing” narrator
Protagonist / Main character
Pun / Play on words based on different meanings of words that sound alike
Resolution / The part of a plot that concludes the falling action by revealing or suggesting the outcome of the conflict
Rhythm / The repetition of sounds at the end of words
Rhyme Scheme / The regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem that is indicated by using different letters of the alphabet for each new rhyme
Rising Action / The part of the plot that adds complication to the plot's problems and increases reader interest
Satire / The use of wit, especially irony, sarcasm, and ridicule, to criticize faults
Second Person Narrator / The perspective is told from a narrator using pronouns such as “you” and “your”
Setting / Time, place, & circumstances of the story, play, or novel
Simile / Comparison using "like" or "as"
Situational Irony / You expect one thing to happen, but the opposite happens instead
Soliloquy / An unusually long speech in which a character who is onstage alone expresses his or her thoughts aloud.
Sonnet / Fourteen-line lyric poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter (Shakespearean sonnet: abab, cdcd, efef, gg)
Stanza / Divisional units for poetry - a number of lines of verse forming a separate unit within a poem
Style / How the author uses words, phrases, or sentences to form his or her ideas
Suspense / A feeling of uncertainty, curiosity, or anxiety about what will happen next in a story
Symbol / Something which stands for or represents something else
Theme / The significant idea, concept, or argument in a work of literature
Theme vs. Subject The subject is the topic on which an author has chosen to write. The theme, however, makes some statement about or expresses some opinion on that topic. For example, the subject of a story might be war while the theme might be the idea that war is useless.
Third Person limited Narrator / The story is told from a third person perspective but the narrative is limited to the point of view of one character.
Tone / The author’s attitude, stated or implied, toward a subject Some possible attitudes are pessimism, optimism, earnestness, seriousness, bitterness, humorous, and joyful. An author’s tone can be revealed through choice of words and details.
Tragedy / A story in which the main character(s) dies or comes to some other unhappy end
Tragic Hero / A character who is of noble stature or basically good who meets with a disaster or great misfortune, usually a result of fate or a serious character flaw or the combination of the two
Verbal Irony / Occurs when a writer or speaker says one thing but really means the opposite
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