Name______

Literary Terms Glossary

English I Academic

NOTE: You will need to keep and use this glossary for the ENTIRE YEAR. You MUST keep it in your English notebook at all times.

Basic Literary Terms

·  Setting: The time, place, or weather in which a story takes place

·  Theme: The central idea in a work of literature

·  Symbol: An object or name that stands for itself as well as for something else

·  Metaphor: A DIRECT comparison between two unlike objects

·  Simile: An INDIRECT comparison between two unlike objects; usually uses “like” or “as”

·  Personification: When inanimate objects are given human qualities

·  Hyperbole: an exaggeration that creates an unusual image

·  Foil: two characters with opposite traits

·  Imagery: language that is used to vividly conveys the five physical senses

·  Mood: the emotional atmosphere of a literary work

·  Pun: a play on words, often achieved through the use of words with similar sounds but different meanings

·  Paradox: a statement that seems to contradict itself, but actually contains some truth

·  Oxymoron: an expression in which two words that contradict each other are joined

·  Allusion: a reference to something literary, mythological, or historical that the author assumes the reader will recognize

·  Suspense: the quality that makes the reader uncertain or tense about the outcome of events

Language Usage

·  Diction: Author’s word choices

·  Tone: Author’s attitude toward the subject or toward the reader

·  Figure of Speech: a phrase that is not meant to be understood at a literal level

·  Synonym

·  Antonym

·  Denotation: the dictionary definition of a word

·  Connotation: meanings or associations suggested by a word

Genres

·  Allegory: a literary work on which characters, objects, or actions represent abstract ideas

·  Epic: A long narrative poem which presents the adventures of a national or legendary hero

·  Fable: a brief story that leads to a moral, often using animals as characters

·  Satire: the use of humor to emphasize human weaknesses or imperfections

·  Short Story: a brief fictional narrative in prose

·  Coming-of-Age Novel: a novel in which the protagonist grows from a childlike view to an adult understanding of the world. These novels deal with a character’s loss of innocence.

Irony

·  Irony: the difference between what appears to be real and what is actually real in a story

·  Situational Irony: the difference between what the reader expects to happen and what actually happens

·  Verbal Irony: the difference between what a speaker says and what he means

·  Dramatic Irony: the difference between what the reader knows and what a character knows. The reader has more or better information than the character

Plot Structure

·  Plot: Sequence of related events that make up a story

·  Foreshadowing: Clues that hint toward what will happen later in the story

·  Flashback: interrupts the plot and tells of an earlier time

Conflict

·  Conflict: a struggle between opposing forces

·  Internal Conflict: a character’s struggle within himself; a character is torn between opposing feelings or different courses of action

·  External Conflict: a character’s struggle with an outside force

o  Man vs. man (character vs. another character)

o  Man vs. society

o  Man vs. nature (physical)

o  Man vs. supernatural being

Characterization

·  Characterization: How the authors reveals the personality of a character

·  Protagonist: the main character (the “good guy”)

·  Antagonist: the character or force in conflict with the protagonist (the “bad guy”)

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Poetry and Sound Devices

·  Poetry: language arranged in lines with regular rhythm

·  Onomatopoeia: words that imitate sounds

·  Alliteration: the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words

·  Rhyme:

Drama Terms

·  Soliloquy

·  Monologue

·  Aside