Literary Terms
Terms
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- theme
- an insight about life or human nature
- narrator
- one who tells, or is assumed to be telling, the story in a given narrative
- prose
- the form of written language that is not organized according to the fomral patterns of verse; although it will have some sort of rhythm and some devices of repetition and balance, these are not governed by a regulary sustained formal arrangement, the significant unit being the sentence rather than the line
- round characters
- convincing and true to life. they have many different, and sometimes even contradictory personality traits
- oxymoron
- an expression impossible in face but not necessarily self-contradictory
- novel
- an extended fictional prose narrative
- antagonist
- the most prominent of the characters who oppose the protagonist or hero(ine) in a dramatic or narrative work
- fiction
- the general term used for invented stories, usually applied to novels, short stories, novellas, romances, fables, and other narrative works in prose
- assonance
- the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of neighboring words
- first person narrative
- a narrative or mode of storytelling in which the narrator appears as the 'I' recollecting his or her own part of the events related
- consonance
- the repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighboring words whose vowel sounds are different
- narrative writing
- a telling of some true or fictious event or connected sequence of events, recounted by a narrator
- enjambment
- the running over of a sentence or phrase from one verse to the next without terminal punctuation, hence not end-stopped. Such verses can be called run-on lines.
- tone
- the emotional attitude toward the reader (formal, intimate, pompous) or toward the subject (ironic, light, solemn, satiric, sentimental) implied by a literary work
- protagonist
- the main character in a literary work
- drama
- the general term for performances in which actors impersonate the actions and speech of fictional or historical characters for the entertainment of an audience
- satire
- a mode of writing that expresses the failings of individuals, institutions, or societies to ridicule and scorn
- euphemism
- a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrasing
- dynamic characters
- undergo some type of change or development in the story, often because of something that happens to them
- personification
- giving human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or abstract ideas
- metonymy
- figure of speech in which the name of something closely associated with a thing is substituted for the name
- dialogue
- spoken exchanges between or among characters in a dramatic or narrative work
- syntax
- the way in which words and clauses are ordered and connected so as to form sentences
- characters
- the people appearing in a literary work
- free verse
- rhythmical but non-metrical, non-rhyming lines. These may have a deliberate rhythm or cadence but seem to disappoint the reader's expectation for a formal meter such as iambic pentameter.
- allegory
- a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one
- realism
- a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully an actual way of life
- symbol
- anything that stands for or represents something else beyond it
- imagery
- the uses of language used in a literary work that evoke sense impressions by literal or figurative references to perceptible or concrete objects, scenes, actions, or states
- alliteration
- using the same consonant to start two or more stressed words or syllables in a phrase or verse line
- plot
- the pattern of events and situations in a narrative or dramatic work, as selected and arranged both to emphasize relationships-usually of cause and effect-between inceidents and to elicit a particular kind of interest in the reader or audience, such as surprise or suspense
- hyperbole
- exaggeration beyond reasonable credence
- irony
- the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite
- refrain
- one or more lines repeated before or after the stanzas of a poem
- indirect characterization
- simply presenting characters' words and actions without commentary and allowing the dramatization to imply their motives, feelings, and values
- romanticism
- a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual
- diction
- the choice of words used in a literary work
- point of view
- the position or vantage-point from which the events of a story seem to be observed and presented to us
- stream of consciousness
- the continous flow of sense perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind; a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue
- flashback
- when some of the events of a story are related at a point in the narrative after later story events have already been recounted; enables a storyteller to fill in background information about characters and events
- characterization
- the representation of persons in narrative and dramatic works
- setting
- the time and place in which a story's plot unfolds
- allusion
- a reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, movement, etc.
- simile
- a comparison using like or as
- couplet
- a pair or successive rhyming lines, usually the same length
- static characters
- do not change over the course of the story
- direct characterization
- the method by which the author describes, and comments on, characters' motives and values and often also passes judgment on characters and events, as a means of shaping the reader's response
- anachronism
- the act of attributing a custom, event, or object to a period of which it does not belong
- flat characters
- these characters are stereotyped, shallow, and often symbolic. They have only one or two personality traits.
- rhyme
- words that share all sounds following the word's last stressed syllable
- onomatopoeia
- an instance where the sound of a word directly imitates its meaning
- metaphor
- a comparison that is made literally without pointing out a similarity by using words such as "as," "like," or "than"
- end stopped
- a verse line ending at a grammatical boundary or break, such as a dash, a closing parenthesis, or punctuation such as a colon, semi-colon, or a period. The opposite to an end-stopped line is a line subject to enjambment
- foreshadowing
- a warning or indication of the future