English Literary Terms

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Denotation

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The dictionary definition

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Connotation

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What a word suggests or brings to mind

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A regular pattern in poetry

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Strong week strongly a pattern of strong and weak units of sound. strong is accented

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Free verse

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Poetry that does not have a recognizable rhythmic pattern

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Assonance

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The type of rhythm in which the vowels but not the consonant sound alike (ex Met, neck)

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Onomatopoeia

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The use of words that sound like the thing which they refer to

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Alliteration

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Repetitious and sound at the beginning of words that one I next each other are near each other (ex I must be hearing her heart)

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Closed poetry

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Includes the couplet, Ballard, epigram

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Open poetry

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Has no recognizable pattern, example free verse

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Symbol

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Something that stands for something else

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Irony

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A discrepancy between what appears and what is expected

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Flyting

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A dispute, or in exchange of personal abuse in verse (example, rj, do you bite your thumb and me sir?)

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Epithet

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Usually in adjective or a brief phrase used to characterize a person place or thing

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kenning

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A literary device in which a noun is renamed in a creative way using a compound word or union of two separate words to combine ideas (example school, a scholar's home)

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Motif

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a reoccuring symbol, object, theme, concept, or idea

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philosophy

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The love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline, investigation of causes and laws underlying reality, inquiry into the nature of things based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods

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ethics

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Philosophy of morals

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Existentialism

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The philosophy that denies the universe of any intrinsic meaning or purpose. It requires people to take responsibility for their own actions and shape their own destiny, free will

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Nihilism

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The belief that nothing is worth while. life is precious and human values are worthless. The total rejection of social norms

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Sophism

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A deliberate invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone

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Absurdity

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The condition or state in which he means existing meaningless, irrational universe where people's lives have no purpose or meaning

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Alienation

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The state of being withdrawn or isolated from the objective world, as though indifferent or it disaffected

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Anxiety

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A state of apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from the anticipation of a realistic or fantasized threatening a better situation, often impairing physical and psychological functioning

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Anguish

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Excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain

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angst

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A kind of fear or anxiety. Usually applied to a deep essentially philosophical anxiety about the world in general or personal freedom

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Dread

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Terror apprehension as to something in the future

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ennui

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A feeling of other wariness and disconnect resulting from lack of interest

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Essence

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The constituent quality or qualities which go on to any object, or class of objects, or on which they depend for being what they are. The real being, divested of all logical accidents. The quality which constitutes or marks the true nature of anything

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Elements of magical realism

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Transformation of the common everyday into the awesome and unreal
the frame or surface of the work may be conventionally realistic
elements of dream, fairy stories, or mythology combined with the everyday
have a strong narrative drive

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simile/metaphor

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A comparison of two seemingly unlike things

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foreshadowing

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presentation of events and scenes in a work of drama to prepare an observer for what is to occur later in the play

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Allusion

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A reference in a literary work to a person, place or thing in history or another work of literature

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Personification

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An object, idea, animal or force of nature given human characteristics

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Paradox

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A statement that seems self-contradictory but in reality expresses a possible truce

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Dramatic irony

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A device which gives the audience information that one or more of the characters in the work are unaware of

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Blank verse

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Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter

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iambic pentameter

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A form of meat or in which each line has 10 syllables. The syllables for five pairs which alternate unstressed and stressed syllables

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Soliloquy

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A speech in which an actor speeks to himself and reveals his thoughts the audience

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Aside

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And after speech, it directed the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage