English Lit. Terms

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Archetype

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The fundamental human pattern that recurs in dream, ritual, myth, and literature.

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Synecdoche

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A figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole.

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Structural Irony

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Involves the use of a naive or deluded hero or unreliable narrator, whose view of the world differs widely form the true circumstances recognized by the author and readers.

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Antistrophe

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repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses

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Anaphora

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The repetition of a word of phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.

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Consonance

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the repetition of similar consonant sounds, especially at the end of words.

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Anadiplosis

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("doubling back") the rhetorical repetition of one or several words;specifically, repetition of a word that ends one clause at the beginning of the next.

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Anacoluthon

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rhetorical device that can be loosely defined as a change of syntax within a sentence.

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Alliteration

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the repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words.

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accent

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the prominence or emphasis given to a syllable or word

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Rhyme

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The matching of final vowel or consonant sounds in 2 or more words

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Personification

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The endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities.

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Asyndeton

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lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.

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Pathos

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A Greek term for deep emotion, passion, or suffering.

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Cacophony

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a jarring, jangling juxtaposition of words can be used to bring attention. A discordant language that can be difficult to pronounce.

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Euphony

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lines that are musically pleasant to the ear.

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Blank verse

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a line of poetry or phrase in unrhymed iambic pentameter

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Anapest

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2 unaccented syllables followed by an accented one. com-pre-HEND

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Situational Irony

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what the characters or the readers expect to happen in the plot is not what happens

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Complication

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An intensification of the conflict in a story or play

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Contrast

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a comparison by differentiation

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Diction

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the selection of words in a literary work

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Couplet

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a pair of rhymed lines that may or may not constitute a separate stanza in a poem.

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Verbal irony

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words that appear to mean one thing really mean the opposite.

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Dactyl

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a metrical foot of 3 syllables, one long(or stressed) followed by 2 short(or unstressed)DAC-tyl-ic

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Dramatic Irony

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what appears true to a character is not what the audience or reader knows to be true.

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Foil

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A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story

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Foreshadowing

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hints of what is to come in the action of a play or story

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Simile

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A figure of speech involving a comparison between 2 unlike things

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Metaphor

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a comparison between essentially unlike things without an explicitly comparative word such as like or as.

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allusion

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a comparison by reference to something outside of the text or to something not originally part of the text

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Point of View

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the angle of vision from which a story in narrated

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Motif

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A recurring concept or story element in literature.

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Ballad

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A narrative poem written in 4-line stanzas characterized by swift action and narrated in a direct style.

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Stanza

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A division or unit of a poem that is repeated in the same form.

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Visual imagery

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Language though the experience of sense. Sight

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Aural imagery

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Language though the experience of sense. Sound

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Olfactory imagery

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Language though the experience of sense. Smell

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Gustatory Imagery

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Language though the experience of sense. Taste

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Tactile Imagery

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Language though the experience of sense. Touch

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Organic Imagery

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Language though the experience of sense. Human Sensations (hunger)

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Fabliau

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A short, humorous or sarcastic piece of work.

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Syntax

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The grammatical order of words in a sentence or line of verse or dialogue.

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Apostrophe

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A direct address speaking to an absent human being, or to a personified thing or abstraction.

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Assonance

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the repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or line of poetry or prose

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Allegory

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A symbolic narrative in which the surface details imply a secondary meaning

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Antithesis

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A figure of speech in which words and phrases with opposite meanings are balanced against each other.

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Homophone

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When 2 words sound the same but have different meanings

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Metonymy

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A figure of speech in which one word is substituted for another with which it is closely associated.

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Conceit

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A fanciful poetic image or metaphor that likens one thing to something else that is very different.

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Analogy

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The means by which simile proceeds: comparison of things that are not identical.