Brennen Lit Terms
Terms
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- epic
- long narrative poem about the adventures of a god or hero that gives a portrait of a culture
- characterization
- act of creating and developing a character either directly (being told) or indirectly (being shown)
- fable
- a brief story, usually with animal characters, that teaches a moral or lesson
- hero/heroine
- person who tends to be bold and resourceful beyond the means of ordinary mortals
- metaphor
- figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else
- myth
- story, origin of which is unknown, that explains natural phenomenon or a culture's belife or custom
- parallelism
- arrangement of equal ideas in eequal literary structures
- persona
- character assumed by the speaker of a poem, short story, or novel...a "mask"
- plot
- sequence of events in a literary work (exposition/developmen or conflict/climax/resolution/denouncement)
- point of view
- type of narrator: 1st person/omniscentt orr 3rd person/limited
- style
- manner in which a riter puts his/her ideas into words
- theme
- central idea, concern or purpose of a literary worrks; insight it gives to life;universal truth or message
- tone
- author's attitude toward his/her subject and characters
- topic sentence
- expresses the main idea of a paragraph and defines the scope of the paragraph
- archetype
- symbols, images, or patterns appearing in the myths,literature and visual art of many different cultures
- choka
- poetic form/unlimited lines of alternating lines of 5 and 7 syllables
- culture
- particular form of civilization
- dramatic irony
- a situation where the audience (reader) knows what will happen but the characters do not
- existentialism
- kind of philosphical, religious, and artisic thought emphasizing existence rather than abstract ideas
- paradox
- situation or statement that seems contradictory yet is actually true
- tanka
- poetic form/five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7, & 7 syllables
- verbal irony
- situation or use of language that involves a surprising, interesting, or amusing contradiction
- quest
- a search for immortal life or some kind of secret knowledge
- denotation
- exact, specific meaning independent of other associations the word might call to mind (dictionary meaning)
- folk tale
- a story composed orally, in simple language, about unrealistic events that is then passed by word of mouth
- haiku
- poetic form/three lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables
- protagonist
- main character
- simile
- comparison of two unlike things usually "like" or "as"
- antagonist
- character or force in conflict with the main character
- connotation
- an association that a word calls to mind in addition to its dictionary meaning (implied)