| 694263204 | ACTION | The bare events in a story. should not be confused with plot. Plot includes the meaning and purpose of the events. in Hamlet, for example, it simply begins with the guards' visitation by the Ghost and ends with the carrying out of the dead Hamlet. The plot involves Hamlet's attempt to avenge a murder which took place before the play even begins. | |
| 694263205 | ALLITERATION | A literary device which creates interest by the recurrence of initial consonant sounds of different words within the same sentence, e.g. the "s" and "h" sounds in "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid" (Matt. 5-14b). | |
| 694263206 | ALLUSION | A literary device which creates interests through a brief, indirect reference (not a quotation) to another literary work, usually for the purpose of associating the tone or theme of the one work with the other. Many times the indirect references are to the Bible and Greek mythology. | |
| 694263207 | AMBIGUITY | When, for a higher purpose, an author intentionally suggests more than one, and sometimes contradictory, interpretations of a situation. When the different meanings are not intentional, they are considered to be "vague," rather than this. The character of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice is ____ enough to have justified a wide range of conflicting literary interpretations, ranging all the way from villain to victim. This uncertainty adds interest and urgency to the play. | |
| 694263209 | ANTHROPOMORPHISM | A literary technique in which the author gives human characteristics to non-human objects, e.g. the speaking animals in the Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis), the Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame), or the stories of Beatrix Potter. | |
| 694263210 | ANTI-CLIMATIC | When the ending of the plot in poetry or prose is unfulfilling or lackluster. | |
| 694263212 | ASSONANCE | The close repetition of similar vowel sounds, in successive or proximate words, usually in stressed syllables. For example, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky." | |
| 694263213 | BLANK VERSE | Name for unrhymed iambic pentameter. | |
| 694263214 | COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE | Informal, conversational language. (i.e. In New Orleans, the locals say, "Making groceries") | |
| 694263215 | CONSONANCE | The repetition of consonant sounds in a phrase or line of poetry. The consonant sound may be at the beginning, middle, or end of the word. | |
| 694263216 | COUPLET | Two rhyming lines in poetry. | |
| 694263217 | CONCEIT | An unusual, elaborate or startling analogy; a poetic literary device which was common among the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century. A famous example is the metaphor used by John Donne in his poem, "The Flea," in which he pleads with his mistress not to leave him. He argues that she can save their relationship if she will just refuse to kill a flea: "Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare." Shakespeare satirized this literary device in Sonnet 130: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red." | |
| 694263218 | CONNOTATION | A literary device: a suggested, implied or evocative meaning. For example, an author may use the figurative meaning of a word for its effect upon The reader, as in the line: "he hath turned a heaven unto a hell!" The word "Heaven is used to designate a place of peace and joy, while "hell" is used to Express agony and distress (Hermia, MND, I.1). | |
| 694263219 | DENOTATION | A literary device. The author uses an explicit or literal meaning of a word in order to emphasize a specific, important fact; e.g. "How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?" [lacking color and indicating fear or distress] | |
| 694263220 | DENOUEMENT | The final outcome or unraveling of the main dramatic complications in a play, novel, or other work of literature. usually the final scene or chapter in which any necessary, and, as yet unmade, clarifications are made. It sometimes involves an explanation of secrets or misunderstandings. In Hamlet, it takes place after the catastrophe of Hamlet's death. | |
| 694263221 | DEUS EX MACHINA | A plot device dating back to ancient Greek drama, when a conflict was resolved through a means that seems unrelated to the story (e.g. when a god suddenly appeared, without warning, and solves everything). The term is used negatively, as a criticism, when an author's solution to a conflict seems artificial, forced, improbable, clumsy or otherwise unjustified. | |
| 694263222 | DICTION | The distinctive vocabulary of a particular author. "Concrete diction" refers to a use of words which are specific and "show" the reader a mental picture. | |
| 694263223 | DIGRESSION | A literary device in which the author creates a temporary departure from the main subject or narrative in order to focus on a related matter. In Midsummer Night's Dream the central plot deals with the two couples: Lysander and Hermia; Demetrius and Helena. Therefore, every scene which switches over to Theseus and Hippolyta, or to Oberon and Titania (and the fairies, etc.), could be considered a one. | |
| 694263224 | DOUBLE-ENTENDRE | A literary device which consists of a double meaning, especially when the second meaning is impolite or risqué. For example, when Guildenstern says: "her [Fortune's] privates we," his words can be interpreted either to mean, "ordinary men" (as in "private soldiers") or as "sexual confidants" (with a pun on "private parts"). | |
| 694263225 | ELEGY | A meditative poem in the classical tradition of certain Greek and Roman poems, which deals with more serious subject (e.g. justice, fate or providence). It often begins with an appeal to a muse for inspiration and includes ALLUSIONS to classical mythology. | |
| 694263226 | ENJAMBMENT | The continuation of reading one line of a poem to the next with no pause, a run-on line. | |
| 694263227 | EPIC | An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero. | |
| 694263228 | EUPHEMISM | The act of substituting a harsh, blunt, or offensive comment for a more politically accepted or positive one. (short=vertically challenged) | |
| 694263229 | FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE | Descriptive language in which one thing is associated with another, through the use of SIMILE, METAPHOR, or PERSONIFICATION | |
| 694263230 | FREE VERSE | A type of poetry which avoids the patterns of regular rhyme or meter. Rhyme may be used, but with great freedom. There is no regular meter or line length. The poet relies instead upon DICTION, IMAGERY and SYNTAX to create a coherent whole. | |
| 694263231 | FLASHBACK | When a character remembers a past event that is relevant to the current action of the story | |
| 694263232 | FLAT CHARACTER | A literary character whose personality can be defined by one or two traits and does not change over the course of the story. Flat characters are usually minor or insignificant characters. | |
| 694263233 | FOIL | A character that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of another. | |
| 694263234 | FOOT | see chart | |
| 694263235 | Iamb | _____ foot has two syllables. The first is unstressed and the second is stressed. The iambic foot is most common in English poetry. | |
| 694263236 | Trochee | _____ foot has two syllables. The first is stressed and the second is unstressed. | |
| 694263237 | Dactyl | _____foot has three syllables beginning with a stressed syllable; the other two unstressed. | |
| 694263238 | Anapest | _____foot has three syllables. The first two are unstressed with the third stressed. | |
| 694263239 | FORESHADOWING | Clues in the text about incidents that will occur later in the plot, foreshadowing creates anticipation in the novel. | |
| 694263240 | HUBRIS | Used in Greek tragedies, refers to excessive pride that usually leads to a hero's downfall. | |
| 694263241 | HEROIC COUPLET | One of the most common forms of English poetry. It consists of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter which together express a complete thought. Shakespeare's sonnets typically end with these, e.g.: "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee;" "For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds: Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds" (94). | |
| 694263242 | HYPERBOLE | Exaggeration for effect; e.g. "When sorrows come, they come not single but in battalions" (Hamlet, 4.5) | |
| 694263243 | IMAGERY | The use of words to create pictures. An author can use lively description to create vivid pictures in the mind or appeal to other sensory experience; e.g. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (Hamlet, 1.4). | |
| 694263244 | IRONY | Using a word or situation to mean the opposite of its usual or literal meaning, usually done in humor, sarcasm or disdain; e.g. "It's as easy as lying." A contradiction between what something appears to mean and what it really means. | |
| 694263245 | verbal or rhetorical irony | when a character says one thing and means something else (Hamlet). | |
| 694263246 | dramatic irony | when an audience perceives something that a character in the literature does not know (Oedipus Rex). | |
| 694263247 | IMPLIED METAPHOR | a metaphor embedded in a sentence rather expressed directly as a sentence | |
| 694263248 | INVERSION | In poetry is an intentional digression from ordinary word order which is used to maintain regular meters. For example, rather than saying "the rain came" a poem may say "came the rain". Meters can be formed by the insertion or absence of a pause. | |
| 694263249 | JUXTAPOSITION | The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development. | |
| 694263250 | LYRIC | A type of poem which was originally a song meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument, the lyre. It was associated with songs of celebration and dancing. Ancient examples include some of the Psalms of David, in the Old Testament, and some of the choral odes in the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles. The SONNET is also considered a form of this. | |
| 694263251 | METER | Repeated patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry In English the most common patterns are these- iambic, dactylic, trochaic, anapestic, spondaic. | |
| 694263252 | METONYMY | A figure of speech in which something is referred to by one of its distinct characteristics; e.g. referring to the theater as "The Stage," the monarchy as "The Crown," or the judicial system as "The Bench." Another example: "the pen [power of the written word] is mightier than the sword [power of physical violence]." | |
| 694263253 | MOOD | The atmosphere that pervades a literary work with the intention of evoking a certain emotion or feeling from the audience. | |
| 694263254 | MOTIF | One of the key ideas or literary devices which supports the main THEME of a literary work. It may consist of a character, a recurrent image or verbal pattern. | |
| 694263255 | OBLIQUE RHYME | Imperfect rhyme scheme. | |
| 694263256 | ODE | A lyric poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal stanzaic structure. An ode celebrates something. John Keats is known for writing these | |
| 694263257 | OXYMORON | A figure of speech that combines opposite qualities in a single term; e.g. open secret; original copy; definite maybe. | |
| 694263258 | PARADOX | A statement that appears to be contradictory, but which reveals a deeper (or higher) truth. For example, one of the most important principles of good writing is this: "Less is more." It means that the most effective writing is clear and focused; everything extraneous is avoided. | |
| 694263259 | PARODY | A literary technique which imitates and ridicules (usually through exaggeration) another author or literary genre. | |
| 694263260 | POETIC JUSTICE- | The rewarding of virtue and the punishment of vice in the resolution of a plot. The character, as they say, gets what he/she deserves. | |
| 694263261 | RHYME SCHEME | The act of assigning letters in the alphabet to demonstrate the rhyming lines in a poem. (aabbcc) | |
| 694263262 | RITES OF PASSAGE | An incident which creates tremendous growth signifying a transition from adolescence to adulthood. | |
| 694263263 | ROUND CHARACTER | A character who is developed over the course of the book, round characters are usually major characters in a novel. | |
| 694263264 | RESOLUTION | Solution to the conflict in literature. | |
| 694263265 | SATIRE | a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the intent of correcting, or changing, the subject of the attack. | |
| 694263266 | SCENIC NARRATION | Narration in which an event or moment of a plot is stretched out for dramatic effect. | |
| 694263267 | SOLILOQUY | An extended speech in which a lone character expresses his or her thoughts; a dramatic monologue which allows the audience to "hear" what the character is "thinking." | |
| 694263268 | SONNET | a fourteen-line lyric poem in predominantly iambic pentameter, with a formal rhyme scheme. Although there can be considerable variation in rhyme scheme, most are written in either the Italian (Petrarchan) style or the English (Shakespearean) style. | |
| 694263269 | STATIC CHARACTER | a figure who remains the same from beginning to the end of a narrative. (i.e. Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby). | |
| 694263270 | STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS | A literary style which was first used (in English) by James Joyce in his novel, Ulysses. The writer expresses a character's thoughts and feelings as a chaotic stream, with no apparent order or logic. The text is held together through psychological association and realistic characterization. | |
| 694263271 | STYLE | the choices that writers or speakers make in language for effect. | |
| 694263272 | SYNECDOCHE | A figure of speech by which a part of something refers to the whole, as in "Give us this day our daily bread" (for basic necessities of life) or "fifty wagging tails" (for fifty dogs).[ | |
| 694263273 | SYNTAX | An author's distinctive form of sentence construction. Distinctive forms include: very long sentences; very short sentences; parallelism (e.g. "on the sea, in the air, etc.); and repetition of key words or phrases. A good author should be very intentional about his or her sentence construction. Very long sentences may be intended to suggest confusion or to simulate a rapid flow of ideas or emotions; or perhaps to illustrate the enormity or weight of a situation. Very short sentences may be intended to emphasize factuality or to stress a key idea. Parallelism may be used to create rhythm or stir emotion. Repetition may be used to stress a key idea or to convey an emotion. | |
| 694263274 | THEME | an author's insight about life. It is the main idea or universal meaning, the lesson or message of a literary work.It may not always be explicit or easy to state, and different interpreters may disagree. Common literary ones involve basic human experiences such as: adventure; alienation; ambition; anger; betrayal; coming-of-age; courage; death; the testing of faith; overcoming fear; jealousy; liberation; love; loyalty; prejudice; the quest for an ideal; struggling with fate; truth-seeking; vengeance. One of the greatest t in literature is the "quest," the search to attain some noble goal or purpose. | |
| 694263275 | TONE | The writer's attitude, mood or moral outlook toward the subject and/or readers, e.g.: as angry, cynical, empathetic, critical, idealistic, ironic, optimistic, realistic, suspicious, comic, surprised, sarcastic or supportive; | |
| 694263276 | UNDERSTATEMENT | A statement which says less than is really meant. It is a figure of speech which is the opposite of HYPERBOLE. Hyperbole exaggerates; understatement minimizes. | |
| 694263277 | TRAGEDY | A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. | |
| 694263278 | TONE | Reflects how the author feels about the subject matter or the feeling the author wants to instill in the reader. | |
| 694263279 | FIRST PERSON PARTICIPANT VIEWPOINT | the story is narrated by one of the main characters in the story (e.g. Mark Twain's, Huckleberry Finn). | |
| 694263280 | FIRST PERSON OBSERVER VIEWPOINT | the story is narrated by a minor character, someone plays only a small part in the plot (e.g. Emily Bronte's, Wuthering Heights). | |
| 694263281 | THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT VIEWPOINT | the story is narrated not by a character, but by an impersonal author who sees and knows everything, including characters' thoughts (e.g. the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid). | |
| 694263282 | THIRD PERSON LIMITED VIEWPOINT | the story is narrated by the author, but he/she focuses on the thinking and actions of a particular character. | |
| 694263283 | VOICE | An author's distinctive literary style, basic vision and general attitude toward the world. This "voice" is revealed through an author's use of SYNTAX (sentence construction); DICTION (distinctive vocabulary); PUNCTUATION; CHARACTERIZATION and DIALOGUE. | |
| 694263284 | DYNAMIC CHARACTER | a character who undergoes some trans-formation throughout a piece of literature (ex. Scrooge in A Christmas Carol) | |
