Figurative And Literary Terminology

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Anthropomorphism

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The assignment of human characteristics to animals, inanimate objects, or gods.

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Aphorism

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A wise saying, usually short and to the point, as hippocrates' "Life is short, art is long." Also known as an epigram or maxim.

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Apostrophe

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A figure of speech in which a speaker addresses an absent person, inanimate object or an idea. For example: "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!" (Byron)

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Archetype

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A symbol, image, plot pattern or character type that occurs often in literature, such as the hero on a dangerous quest.

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Assonance

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The repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with different consonant sounds, as in the first line of Poe's "Lenore": "Ah, broken is the golden bowl--the spirit flown forever!"

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Ballad

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narrative song or poem

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Blank Verse

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Poetry or lines of dramatic verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

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Cadence

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The rhythmic rise and fall of oral language

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Caesura

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A pause or break in the meter or rhythm of a line of verse, marked in prosody by a double vertical line (||), as in this example from Tennyson: "Ring out the old, || ring in the new, /Ring, happy bells, || across the snow."

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Character

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Person portrayed in a literary work.

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Characterization

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the methods--direct and indirect--used by a writer to reveal a character's personality.

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Cliche

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A word of phrase that is so overused that it has lost its expressive power--for example, "I slept like a log."

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Climas

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the point of highest emotional intensivy or suspense in a literary work.

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Conflict

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the struggle, internal or external, between opposing forces in a work of literature.

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Connotation

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the suggested or implied meaning associated with a word beyond its dictionary definition.

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Consonance

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the repetition of final consonant wounds in words containing different vowels, as in "fresh cash" or "yard bird."

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Couplet

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a stanza made up of two rhyming lines that follow the same rhythmic pattern.

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Denotation

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The literal or dictionary meaning of a word

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Denouement

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the outcome, or resolution, of the plot

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Diction

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An author's choice of words, based on their effectiveness for the author's purpose.

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Drama

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A story intended to be performed before an audience by actors on a stage

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Dramatic Monologue

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a form of dramatic poetry in which a speaker addresses a silent listener

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Dramatic Poetry

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Poetry in which characters are revealed through dialogue, monologue, and description.

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End Rhyme

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Rhyming of words at the ends of lines

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Enjambment

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the continuation of a sentence from one line of a poem to another to complete meaning and grammatical structure (also called a run-on line)

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Epic hero

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larger than life central character in an epic--a long narrative poem about events of crucial importance to the history of a culture or nation.

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Epigram

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a short, witty verse or saying. Also known as an aphorism or maxim

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Epigraph

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a quotation from another work that suggests the main idea, or theme, of the work at hand.

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Epilogue

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a concluding statement or section added to a work of literature.

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Epiphany

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a sudden intuitive recognition of the essence or meaning of something.

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Epitaph

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a statement commemorating a dead person, often inscribed on a gravestone.

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Existentialism

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a philosophy that values human freedom and personal responsibility. Well-known existentialist writers include Jean-Paul Sartre, Soren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, and Simone de Beauvoir.

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Farce

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a type of comedy with ridiculous characters, events or situations.

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Fiction

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A narrative in which situations and characters are invented by the author.

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Figurative Language

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language used for descriptive effect rather than literal meaning and including at least one figure of speech.

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Figure of Speech

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a specific kind of figurative language, such as a simile, personification, metaphor or hyperbole.

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Flashback

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a literary device in which the author interrupts the chronological order of a narrative to show something that happened in the past

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Flash forward

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an interruption in the chronological sequence of a narrative to leap forward in time.

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Foot

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The basic unit in the measurement of a line of metrical poetry. Except for a spondee, a foot usually has one stressed syllable (/) and one or more unstressed syllables (˘). There are five basic descriptions of metrical feet.

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Free Verse

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Also called vers libre, this is verse that contains an irregular metrical pattern and line length.

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Heroic Couplet

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A pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter that works together to make a point or express an idea.

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Hubris

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The flaw that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero; the word comes from the Greek word, hybris, meaning "excessive pride."

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Hyperbole

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a figure of speech that uses exaggeration for emphasis

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Imagism

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a movement in early twentieth-century poetry, which regarded the image as the essense of poetry.

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Interior Monologue

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a literary technique that records a character's memories, opinions, and emotions.

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Internal Rhyme

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Rhyme that occurs within a line of verse.

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Inversion

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Reversal of the usual word order for variety or emphasis, as in Coleridge's lines "a damsel with a dulcimer/ in a vision once I saw."

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Irony

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The use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or expected meaning. There are three types of irony: Dramatic, Verbal, Situational.

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Magic realism

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literary style in which the writer combines realistic characters, events, situations, and dialogue with elements that are magical, supernatural or fantastic.

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Malapropism

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a type of pun, or play on words, that results when the speaker gets two words mixed up. For example, "The flamingo dancers kept us entertained for an hour."

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Maxim

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a short saying that expresses a general truth or gives practical advice, usually about behavior and morality. Also called an adage or aphorism

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Metaphor

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figure of speech in which a comparison is implied but not stated, such as "The snow was a white blanket on the meadow."

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Meter

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a rhythmical pattern in verse that is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables

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Metonymy

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a figure of speech in which a word of phrase is substituted for another that is related--for example, the king of a country might be called "the crown."

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Monologue

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a long speech by a character in a literary work.

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Mood

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the feeling a literary work evokes in a reader

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Moral

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a lesson about right and wrong conduct taught in a fable or parable

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Motif

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a significant word, phrase, idea, description or other element repeated throughout a literary work and related to the theme. Luck is a motif in Bret Harte's "The Outcases of Poker Flat."

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Narrative

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writing or speech that tells a story

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narrative poetry

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verse that tells a story

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Onomatopoeia

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the use of a word or phrase that imitates or suggests the sound it describes, as in "mew," "hiss," "buzz," and "plop."

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Oxymoron

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a figure of speech in which opposite ideas are combined, like "wise fool."

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Paradox

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a statement or situation that seem to be contradictory but actually make sense, like "the more I learn, the more I find out I don't know."

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Parallelism

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the use of a series of words, phrases or sentences that have similar grammatical form. For example, "...our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

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Plot

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the sequence of event in a short story, novel or drama.

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Point of view

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the perspective from which a story is told. There are three forms of POV: first, third, omniscient, limited omnicient

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Prologue

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an introductory section of a play, speech, or other literary work

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Refrain

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the repetition of a line or phrase in a poem at regular intervals, usually at the end of each stanza

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regionalism

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an emphasis on themes, characters, settings and customs of a particular geographical region

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repetition

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the recurrence of sounds, words, phrases, ines or stanzas in a literary work or speech.

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rhetoric

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persuasive writing

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rhetorical question

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a question to which no answer is expected or the answer is obvious

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rhyme

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the repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds and any suceeding sounds in two or more rhymes. There are three types of rhyme: end rhyme, internal rhyme, slant rhyme

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Rhyme scheme

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the pattern formed by end rhyme in a stanza or poem. Rhyme scheme is indicated by the assignment of a different letter of the alphabet to each new rhyme.

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Rhythm

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the pattern of sound created by stressed and unstressed syllables, particularly in poetry

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simile

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figure of speech uses like or as to compare two unlike things

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soliloquy

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in drama, a long speech given by a character who is alone on stage. A soliloquy reveals the inner thoughts and emotions of that character

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stream of consciousness

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free-flow

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suspense

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feeling of curiosity or dread about what will happen next in a story

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symbol

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a noun or event used to represent something else, such a sthe scarlet A representing Hester Prynne's sin of adultery in the scarlet letter

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Synecdoche

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a figure of speech in which a part is used for a whole or a whole is used for a part, as in "All hands on deck."

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Theme

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the central understanding about life as expressed in a work of literature. A theme may be stated or expressed directly. More commonly, the theme is implied or revealed gradually through events, dialogue and outcome. A literary work can have more than one theme.

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Tone

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Author's attitude toward his or her subject matter or audience. Tone is expressed through word choice, punctuation, sentence structure and figures of speech. A writer's tone might be described as humorous, serious, formal, distant, friendly, or in any number of ways.

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Transcendentalism

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a literary movement and philosophical attitude that became important during the mid-19th century in New England. Transcendentalists emphasized a reliance on intuition and conscience and focused on protesting the puritan ethic and materialism. Individualism, freedom, experimentation, and spirituality are hallmarks of the movement. Noted Transcendentalists: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Holmes.

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Unreliable Narrator

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narrator who gives a faulty or distored account of the events in a story.