Lit Terms

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As Misericordiam

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An appeal to the audiences sympathy

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Alliteration

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Repetition of accented consonant sounds at beginning of words
Ex: big, bad, barking dog

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Allusion

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Reference in literature or in art to previous literature

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Ambiguity

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intentionally unclear

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Anachronism

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an element in a story that is out of its time frame

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Analogy

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clarifies an unfamiliar concept or object by comparing it with one which is familiar

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Analysis

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examining the components of a literary work

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Anapest

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The poetic foot

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Anecdote

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a short and often personal story to develop a character or a theme

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Antagonist

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a villain

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Antecedent

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the word or phrase to which a pronoun refers

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Anticlimax

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disappointing, sudden end to an intense situation

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Antihero

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A protagonist who does not embody the classical characteristics of courage, strength, and nobility

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Antithesis

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A concept that is directly opposed to a previously presented idea
Ex: Darth Vader of the dark side of the force opposed to the jedi

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Aphorism

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Folk Proverb

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Apostrophe

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Rhetorical figure of direct address to a person, object, or abstract entity

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Apotheosis

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Elevating someone to the level of god

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Archetype

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A character, situation, or symbol that is familiar to people from all cultures because it occurs frequently in literature

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Aside

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A short speech or remark made by an actor to the audience

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Assonance

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Repeated use of a vowel sound
Ex: How now brown cow

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Attitude

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the author's feelings towards the topic he or she is writing about

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Aubade

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a poem or song about lovers

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Ballad

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A folk song passed down orally that tells a story

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Blank Verse

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unrhymed poetry or iambic pentameter

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Cacophony

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harsh, discordant sounds

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Carpe Diem

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Latin for "seize the day"

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Catharsis

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an emotional cleansing or feeling of relief

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Chiasmus

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the opposite of parallel constructions
Ex:
Parallel construction- I like the idea; I don't like its execution
Chiasmus- I like the idea; its execution I don't

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Colloquial

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Slang used in familiar everday conversation

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Comic relief

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humor that provides a relief of tension

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Conceit

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A far-fetched comparison between two seemingly unlike things

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Connotation

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Associations a word calls to mind

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Consonance

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Same consonant sounds in words with different vowel sounds
Ex: Work, stark, ark, belong, among

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Conventional Character

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a character with traits that are expected or tradition

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Couplet

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two successive rhyming lines of the same number or syllables

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Dactyl

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foot of poetry with three syllables, one stressed and two short or unstressed

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Denotation

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dictionary definition

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Denouement

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outcome of a story, winding down to the conclusion

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Deus Ex Machina

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When gods intervene in a story

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Diction

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style of language

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Didactic

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a story, speech, or essay in which the author's primary purpose is to instruct or teach (moral)

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Distortion

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exaggeration

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Enjambment

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running over or a sentence from one verse to the next

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Epigram

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a short, clever poem with a witty turn of though

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Epigraph

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a brief quotation at the beginning of a literary work

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Epiphany

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sudden flash of insight

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Epistolary novel

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a novel in letter form written by one or more of the characters

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Essay

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a short composition on a single topic expressing the view or interpretations of the writer

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Euphemism

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substitution of an inoffensive word for a harsher one

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Euphony

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quality of a pleasant or harmonious sound of a word or group of words as an intended effect

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Farce

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comedy that depends on exaggerated situations

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Figurative Language

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unlike literal expression
Ex: metaphor, simile, personification

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First person

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A character in the story tells the story

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Flashback

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Interruption of a narrative by the introduction of an earlier or by an image of a past experience

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Flat Character

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A simple, one-dimensional character who remains the same, and about whom little or nothing is revealed

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Foil

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A character whose contrasting personal characteristics draw attention to enhance or contrast with those of the main character

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Foreshadowing

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hinting at whats to come

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Free Verse

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Poetry that does not have regular rhythm

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Genre

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category into which a piece of writing can be classified

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Heroic Couplet

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a rhymed couplet written in iambic pentameter (5 feet, each with one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one

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Hubris

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pride

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Hyperbole

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an extreme exaggeration

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Iambic Pentameter

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A 5-foot line made up of unaccented followed by accented

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Imagery

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anything that appeals to the readers senses

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In Medias Res

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In literature, a work that beings in the middle of a story

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Interior Monologue

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a literary technique used in poetry that reveals a character's unspoken thoughts and feelings

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Internal Rhyme

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a rhyme that is within a line rather than at the end

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Inversion

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A switch in normal word order
Ex: Strong he was

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Italian Sonnet

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14- line poem divided into 2 parts, 1st 8 lines is (abbaabba) and next 6 are (cdcdcd or cdecde)

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Litotes

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Affirmation of an idea by using a negative understatement

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Lyric Poem

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A fairly short, emotionally expressive poem that expresses the feelings and observations of a single speaker

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Metamorphosis

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a radical change in a character

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Metaphor

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a figure of speech which compares two dissimilar things

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Meter

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the rhythmical pattern of a poem

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Metonymy

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a figure of speech that replaces the name of something with a word or phrase closely associated with it

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Myth

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a story that explains the origins of gods, heroes, or natural phenomena

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Narrative Poem

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a poem that tells a story

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Near, off, or slant rhyme

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a rhyme based on an imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds

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Onomatopoeia

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words that imitate sounds

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Oxymoron

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a figure of speech that combines two contradictory things

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Parable

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A short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson

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Paradox

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statement of situation that at first seems impossible, but it solves itself and reveals meaning

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Parallelism

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the repeated use of the same grammatical structure in a sentence or a series of sentences

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Parody

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A comical imitation of a serious piece with the intent of ridiculing the author or his work

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Pastoral

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a story that idealizes the simple of life of shepards

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Pathos

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quality of a literary work or passage which appeals to the readers emotions

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Periodic Sentence

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a sentence that delivers its point at the end

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Personification

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attribution of human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object

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Point of view

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perspective of the speaker

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Protagonist

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hero

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Pun

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humorous play on words that have several meanings

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Quatrain

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4-line stanza

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Refrain

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repetition of a line

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Repetition

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a word of phrase used more than once to emphasize the idea

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Rhetorical Question

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a question with an obvious answer

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satire

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use of humor to ridicule and expose the shortcomings and failings of society

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Sestet

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6-line stanza of poetry

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Shift

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a movement from one idea to another

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Simile

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comparison of unlike things using like, as, or so

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Soliloquy

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a characters speech to the audience, in which emotions and ideas are revealed

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Sonnet (English or Shakespearean)

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traditionally, a 14-line love poem in iambic pentameter

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Stanza

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a grouping of poetic lines

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Stock Character

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a stereotypical character

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Stream of Consciousness

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a form of writing which replicates the way the human mind works

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Structure

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the particular way in which parts of a written work are combined

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Style

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the way a writer uses language
Ex: word-choice, diction, figures of speech

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Symbol

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a concrete object, scene, or action which has deeper significance

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Synecdoche

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a figure of speech where one part represents the entire object

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Syntax

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the way in which words, phrases, and sentences are ordered and connected

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Theme

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the central idea of a literary work

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Tone

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refers to the authors attitude towards the subject

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Tongue in cheek

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expressing a thought in a way that appears to be sincere but is actually joking

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Tragic Flaw

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traditionally, a defect in a hero that leads to his downfall

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Transition/Segue

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the means to get from one portion of a poem or story to another