2005 Lhhs Ocad Lang Lit Basic

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accent

Back 1

when a syllable is given a greater amount of force in speaking than is given to another; also called a stress

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alexandrine

Back 2

in English verses, a line of iambic hexameter, usually having a caesura after the third foot

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allegory

Back 3

a narrative in either verse or prose in which characters, events, and in some cases setting, represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of the story

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alliteration

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the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within them, especially in accented syllables

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allusion

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an indirect reference to a person, place, or thing-fictious, historical, or actual

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analogy

Back 6

a comparison made between two objects, situations, or ideas that share something in common but are otherwise totally different

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anapest

Back 7

a metrical foot consisting of three syllables, two unaccented followed by one accented

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anaphora

Back 8

the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of several successive clauses, verses, or paragraphs

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antagonist

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a character in a story or play that opposes the protagonist

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apostrophe

Back 10

a figure of speech in which a character or narrator directly addresses an abstract concept, an inanimate object, or a person who is not present

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assonance

Back 11

the repetition of similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables or words; like alliteration, assonance may occur either initially or internally

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ballad

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a narrative song or poem passed on orally

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blank verse

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verse written in unthymed iambic pentameter

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caesura

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a light but definite pause within a line of poetry

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catharsis

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the purification of emotions by vicarious experience, especially through drama

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characterization

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the methods used by an author to develop the personality of a character in a literary work

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chiasmus

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a rhetorical device in which words or phrases initially presented are restated in reverse order; for example, "do not live to eat, but eat to live"

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chorus

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in ancient Greek drama, a group of actors who sang and danced in unison and provided commentary on the actions of the main characters

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Cliche

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a trite or hackneyed expression, idea, plot, character development, etc.

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climax

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a decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot; a point when the action changes course and begins to resolve itself in some manner

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comedy

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a play written primarily to amuse the audience, usually featuring a protagonist whose fortunes take a turn for the better

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comic relief

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an amusing scene, incident, character, or speech introduced into a serious or tragic work to relieve tension

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conceit

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an elaborate, extended, and often surprising comparison made between two very dissimilar things that exhibits the author's ingenuity and cleverness; (from the Italian "concetto," meaning concept, bright idea)

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concrete poem

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a poem in which the visual arrangement of the letters and words suggests its meaning

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conflict

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a struggle between two opposing forces or characters in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem; a conflict can be external or internal; there are four common types of conflicts; a person against another person, a person against nature, a person against society, and a person against him or herself

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connotation

Back 26

the emotional associations that surround a word as opposed to its denotation

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consonance

Back 27

the repetition of consonant sounds that are preceded by a different vowel

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couplet

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two successive lines of verse that have the same meter and in many cases rhyme

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dactyl

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a three-syllable metrical foot consisting of a stresed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables

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declining action

Back 30

in a narrative, action that occurs after the climax and directly before the denouement or the resolution of the plot; falling action

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denotation

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the literal meaning of a word--its "dictionary definition" that does not take into account any other emotions or ideas the reader may associate with it

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denouement

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the resolution of the plot of a literary work; the final unravelling of the complications of a plot; the word "denouement" is French for "unknotting" or "untying"

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deus ex machina

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a Latin term meaning "the god from the machine"; in ancient dramas, a god would often descend to the stage to rescue the protagonist from doom; thus, this term is used to refer to any power, event, person, or thing that comes in the nick of time to solve a difficulty; also can refer to providential interposition, espeically in a novel or play

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dialect

Back 34

variety of language spoken by a social group or spoken in a certain locality that differs from the standard speech in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical form

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dialogue

Back 35

a conversation carried on between two or more people in a literary work; dialogue can serve many purposes, including characterization, advancement of the plot, development of the theme(s), and creation of mood

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diction

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the author's choice of words and phrases; diction involves both connotation and denotation

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didactic poetry

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poetry whose purpose is to teach the reader some kind of lesson

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dramatic irony

Back 38

a situation in which the author and the audience share knowledge by which they can recognize that the character's actions are inappropriate or that the character's words have a significance but these things are unknown to the character-the audience or reader has knowledge that the character does not have

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dramatic monologue

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a lyric poem in which the speaker addresses someone whose replies are not recorded; in a dramatic monologue, the poet adopts the voice of a fictive or historical voice or some other persona

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dramatic situation

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a situation that drives the plot of a drama that involves the dynamic relation between a character and a goal or objective and the obstacles that intervene between the character and the objective

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dynamic character

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a character that changes in some way-usually for the better-during the course of a story

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elegy

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a lament or a sadly meditative poem, sometimes written on the occasion of a death; usually formal in language and structure and solemn or melancholy in tone

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end rhyme

Back 43

rhyming of words at the ends of lines of poetry

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end-stopped line

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a line of poetry that contains a complete thought, usually ending with a period, colon, or semicolon, and therefore ends in a full pause; the opposite of a run-on line

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English or Shakespearean sonnet

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a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter having a rhyme scheme of abab/cdcd/efef/gg; is usually presented in a four-part structure in which a theme or idea is developed in the first three quatrains and then is brought to a conclusion in the couplet

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enjambment

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the employment of run-on lines of poetry, whereby the meaning of the statement is carried from one line to the next without a pause

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epic

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a long narrative poem describing the deeds of a great hero, great adventures, and matters of national or global significance and sometimes featuring supernatural forces

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epigram

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a short poem that ends in a witty or ingenious turn of thought, to which the rest of the composition is intended to lead up

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epigraph

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a motto or quotation at the beginning of a book, poem, or chapter that usually indicates its theme

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epiphany

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a moment of enlightenment in which the underlying truth or essential nature of something is sudenly revealed or made clear to a character

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epistolary

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associated with letters or the writing of letters; for example, an dpistolary poem is a letter written in verse

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eye rhyme

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rhyme in which two or more words look the same and are spelled similarly but have different pronunciations, for example, "have" and "grave"; also called sight rhyme

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exposition

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in fiction, the narrative passages that establish the basic details of the story, including setting, time, and characters; in drama, scenes that introduce the main characters and introduce the dramatic situation; in some cases, the exposition will provide the audience with information on events that occurred prior to the point in time at which the work begins

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falling action

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in a narrative, action that occurs after the climax and directly before the denouement or the resolution of the plot

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farce

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a highly comic, light-hearted drama, usually involving stock situations and characters and based on a far-fetched humorous situation

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feminine ending

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an unaccented syllable at the end of a line of poetry

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feminine rhyme

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a rhyme in which the similarity of sound is in both of the last two syllables; for example, "weary" and "dreary"

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figurative of language

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language used in a nonliteral way; figurative language uses figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, synecdoche, etc.

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figure of speech

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an expression in which words are used in a nonliteral way to achieve an effect beyond the range of ordinary language

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flashback

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an interruption in the continuity of a story by the portrayal of some earlier episode

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flat character

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a character that has a single distinguishing trait and is not developed into a whole personality

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foil

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a person or thing that highlights the traits of a character by contrast

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foot

Back 63

a division of verse consisting of a number of syllables, one of which has the principal stress; the basic unit of meter in poetry

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foreshadowing

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the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem

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framed story

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a narrative device whereby a story or group of stories is presented (often told by one of the characters) within the framework of a larger narrative; Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is an example of a framed story

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free verse

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poetry that does not have a fixed meter or rhyme scheme

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haiku

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a Japanese poetic form that is comprised of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively

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half-rhyme

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slant rhyme

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hero/heroine

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the central character in a work of fiction

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heroic couplet

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two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter

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high comedy

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a comedy that appeals to the intellect using verbal wit, a clever plot, and visual elegance, usually having upper-class characters

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hyperbole

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a figure of speech in which exaggeration or overstatement is used for special effect

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iamb

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a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, the first unaccented, the second accented

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iambic pentameter

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poetry consisting of a line of five iambs; the most common verse line in English poetry; a meter especially familiar because it occurs in all blank verse, heroic couplets, and sonnets

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imagery

Back 75

the details in a work of literature that appeals to the senses of the reader, lend the work vividness, and tend to arouse an emotional response in the reader

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In medias res

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a Latin phrase meaning "in the middle of things"; used in reference to narratives that begin in the middle of the action

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internal rhyme

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rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry

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irony

Back 78

the contrast between what appears to be and reality; see dramatic irony, situational irony, and verbal irony

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Italian or Petrarchan sonnet

Back 79

a fourteen-line poem in two parts, an initial octet (eight lines) followed by a sestet (six lines), usually having a rhyme scheme of abbaabba/cdecde; the octet and the sestet are usually played off of one another in some way

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limerick

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a five-line comic verse form with a rhyme scheme of aabba, with the first, second, and fifth lines in trimeter and the third and fourth in dimeter

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litotes

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a type of understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negation of its opposite; for example, "this is no small problem."

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low comedy

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comic actions based on broad physical humor, scatology, crude punning, and the argumentative behavior of ignorant and often lower-class characters

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lyric

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a poem that expresses an emotion or state of mind, creating a single, highly personal impression upon the reader

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masculine ending

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an accented syllable that ends a line of verse

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masculine rhyme

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a rhyme of one-syllable words (ex: "jail" and "bail" ) or of stressed final syllables (ex: "divorce" and "remorse")

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melodrama

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a sensational nineteenth-century play that featured a suspenseful, plot-oriented drama with all-good heroes, all-bad villains, simplistic dialogue, and soaring moral conclusions

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metaphor

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a frigure of speech that makes direct comparison (without the use of a qualifier such as "like" or "as") between two things which are basically dissimilar but share something in common

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meter

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a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry

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metonymy

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a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated; for example, the use of the word "Washington" to mean the U.S. government

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microcosm

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in literature, refers to a model in which events on a miniature scale parallel those occurring on a larger scale; for example, conflict within a family might be a microcosm of a world at war; the word literally means "small world"