Lit. Exam
Terms
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- tone
- feeling or effect the writer creates toward his character or his subject
- personification
- giving human or animate qualities to nonhuman or inanimate things
- denotation
- the dictionary definition of the word- the literal meaning
- literary allusion
- a reference to a person, place, or thing from previous literature.
- flat character
- A character who shows only one main characteristic during the course of a work of literature.
- rhyme
- words that are similar is sound, especially with respect to the last syllable
- poetry
- type of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery to appeal to the reader's emotions and imagination
- synecdoche
- A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole.
- motivation
- the reasons that cause characters to act as they do
- falling action
- the last section of a play or story that works out the decision arrived at during a climax
- apostrophe
- addressing someone who is absent or something nonhuman as if it were alive
- conflict
- a struggle or clash between opposing characters, forces, or emotions
- theme
- message or main idea in a piece of literature, what the author wants us to know about the truth of the story
- situational irony
- discrepancy between what is expected, as in action or as regards to the situation/setting, and what one wold expect to happen
- internal conflict
- a struggle between opposing needs, desires, or emotions within a single character
- character
- one of the persons in a drama, including all their particular qualities, properties and attributes
- sonnet
- a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
- exposition
- background information on character or events in novel or play
- symbol
- any object, person, place, or experience that means more than what it is.
- foil character
- a character who is used as a contrast to another character; the contrast emphasizes the differences between the two characters, bringing out the distinctive qualities in each
- dead metaphor
- a metaphor that has been so over used that we no longer realize that it is a figure of speech
- pun
- a play on the multiple meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike but have different meanings
- irony
- saying the opposite of what is true
- external conflict
- A struggle between the protagonist and some outside force
- onomatopoeia
- the use of waords that imitate the sounds they define
- rhythm
- in poetry, a pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds; in prose, some sort of recurrence (for example, of a motif) at approximately identical intervals
- writing style
- Includes a writer's syntax (sentence structure) and diction (word choice)
- first person point of view
- the narrator is a character in the story and used words like I, me, we
- metaphor
- a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles
- alliteration
- repetition of the same sound beginning several words in a sequence
- assonace
- is the repition of accented vowel sounds in a series of words and side have the same vowel sound and so are said to be in assonance.
- dramatic climax
- the point of greatest interest or intensity in the story. This type of climax is not related to plot structure
- dynamic character
- a character in a story who undergoes an important change during the story
- expository
- gives you facts and information
- verbal irony
- when the speaker or writer says one thing but means something very different--often opposite of what is said
- paradox
- a situation or statement that seems to be impossible or contradicting, but is nevertheless true, either literally or figuratively
- plot
- events of a story or narrative with a variety or sequencing paterns, what happens in a story
- repitition
- repeating a word, phrase, or idea for emphasis or rhythmic effect
- plotless short story
- In some modern fiction, plot has a relatively minor function. These works may focus instead on characterization and point of view
- lyric
- a form of poetry that does not attempt to tell a story, more personal
- refrain
- a group of words forming a phrase or sentence and consisting of one or more lines repeated at intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza (hint: think song)
- resolution
- conclusion of the story, unfolding of the theme
- stanza
- A group of consecutive lines in a poem that create a single unit
- round character
- more complex--there are more sides to this character; personality, 3-dimensional
- limited third-person
- narrarator that is outside the story, but tells the story from the vantage point of only one character
- protagonist
- The central character of a story who serves as a focus for its themes and incidents and as the principal rationale for its development.
- point of view
- the relationship of the narrator to the story (viewpoint)
- setting
- the time and place where a plot takes place
- extended metaphor
- a metaphor continued through several lines
- characterization
- the process by which the writer the writer reveals the personality of a character
- narrator
- someone who tells a story
- dramatic irony
- discrepancy between what the character knows, and what the reader knows to be true, when the reader knows something that the character doesn't
- symbol
- something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible
- narrative
- story told in verse
- antithesis
- Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure.
- consonance
- the repitition of consonant sounds that are not at the beginning of wards in a line of verse
- connotation
- suggested or implied meaning of an expression
- mixed metaphor
- The inconsistent mixture of two or more metaphors; a common problem in bad writing, and they can often be unintentionally funny
- ballad
- a narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain
- third- person omniscient
- the narrarator is outside the story, a god-like observer who can tell the reader what all the characters are thinking and feeling, as well as what is happening in the rest of the story
- complications
- A series of events that take place that makes it hard for the character to get wat he or she wants and creats suspense
- technical climax
- turning point of the plot, outcome is determined, and the protagonist often changes or has an opportunity to change but does not
- antagonist
- the character or force that blocks the protagonist
- static character
- a character that does not change from the beginning of the story to the end
- simile
- a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like', 'than', 'resembles' or 'as')
- atmosphere
- sets emotion in a story, generally through setting; can be set with words such as peace, gloom, mystery, etc.
- dramatic
- pertaining to or characteristic of drama; has to put together what character is like, indirect
- direct metaphor
- Directly compares the two things by the use of a verb such as "is"
- foreshadowing
- hints to what will happen later in the plot
- implied metaphor
- suggests a comparison without using "is" (ex: my love blossoms and flowers)