Terms : Hide Images
| 10346310378 | allegory | A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. | 0 | |
| 10346310380 | allusion | A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. | 1 | |
| 10346310401 | denouement | an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot |  | 2 |
| 10346310403 | didactic | Intended to instruct; teaching, or teaching a moral lesson |  | 3 |
| 10346310404 | dirge | a funeral hymn or mournful speech |  | 4 |
| 10346310405 | euphemism | An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant |  | 5 |
| 10346310408 | epitaph | A brief statement written on a tomb or gravestone |  | 6 |
| 10346310410 | epistolary | A piece of literature contained in or carried on by letters |  | 7 |
| 10346310411 | flashback | A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events |  | 8 |
| 10346310412 | foreshadowing | A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader. |  | 9 |
| 10346310416 | genre | A category or type of literature (or of art, music, etc.) characterized by a particular form, style, or content. |  | 10 |
| 10346310421 | hyperbole | A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor |  | 11 |
| 10346310423 | imagery | Descriptive or figurative language in a literary work; the use of language to create sensory impressions. |  | 12 |
| 10346310424 | irony | A contrast or discrepancy between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen. |  | 13 |
| 10346310425 | verbal irony | In this type of irony, the words literally state the opposite of the writer's true meaning |  | 14 |
| 10346310426 | situational irony | Occurs when the outcome of a work is unexpected, or events turn out to be the opposite from what one had expected |  | 15 |
| 10346310427 | dramatic irony | Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. |  | 16 |
| 10346310428 | jargon | Special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand |  | 17 |
| 10346310434 | mood | Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader |  | 18 |
| 10346310436 | motivation | A psychological factor that provides a directional force or reason for behavior. |  | 19 |
| 10346310437 | narration | The purpose of this type of rhetorical mode is to tell the story or narrate an event or series of events. |  | 20 |
| 10346310438 | novel | A long fictional narrative written in prose, usually having many characters and a strong plot. |  | 21 |
| 10346310439 | novella | A short novel usually under 100 pages. | 22 | |
| 10346310440 | novelette | When a novel is short and has chapters reffered to as vignettes |  | 23 |
| 10346310446 | parable | A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson |  | 24 |
| 10346310447 | paradox | A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. |  | 25 |
| 10346310449 | parody | A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. |  | 26 |
| 10346310450 | pedantic | An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish. |  | 27 |
| 10346310452 | persona | A pattern of relatively permanent traits, dispositions, or characteristics that give some consistency to people's behavior. |  | 28 |
| 10346310453 | personification | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes |  | 29 |
| 10346310454 | plot | Sequence of events in a story |  | 30 |
| 10346310455 | point of view | The perspective from which a story is told |  | 31 |
| 10346310458 | protagonist | Chief character in a dramatic or narrative work, usually trying to accomplish some objective or working toward some goal. |  | 32 |
| 10346310459 | pun | A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings. |  | 33 |
| 10346310462 | rhetorical question | A question asked merely for rhetorical effect and not requiring an answer |  | 34 |
| 10346310469 | satire | A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies. |  | 35 |
| 10346310471 | shifts/turns | Changes in the speaker's attitude. Look for key words such as but, yet, however, and although, punctuation, and stanza division. | 36 | |
| 10346310473 | symbol | A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. |  | 37 |
| 10346310475 | syntax | Arrangement of words in phrases and sentences |  | 38 |
| 10346310476 | theme | A topic of discussion or writing; a major idea broad enough to cover the entire scope of a literary work. |  | 39 |
| 10346310477 | tone | A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels. |  | 40 |
| 10346310478 | understatement | the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is. |  | 41 |
| 10349781985 | frame story | a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story | 42 | |
| 10349785636 | setting | The context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs. | 43 | |
| 10349787524 | historical context | the historical period that shapes a work of literature and allows the reader to understand important issues in a given time period | 44 | |
| 10349788057 | historical fiction | A type of realistic fiction that takes place in a particular time period in the past. Often the setting is real, but the characters are made up from the author's imagination. | 45 | |
| 10349789802 | Subtext | The implied meaning that underlies the main meaning of a work of literature | 46 | |
| 10349791988 | anthropomorphic | attributing human characteristics or qualities to objects, animals, or gods | 47 | |
| 10349792541 | pathetic fallacy | The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example angry clouds; a cruel wind. | 48 | |
| 10349793376 | fallacy | a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument | 49 | |
| 10349794015 | logical fallacy | An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid | 50 | |
| 10349795262 | Symbolism | A person, place or object which has a meaning in itself but suggests other meanings as well "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts," | 51 | |
| 10349797729 | analysis | A detailed examination of the elements or structure of something. | 52 | |
| 10349799320 | explication of text | Explanation of a text's meaning through an analysis of its constituent parts, including the literary devices used; also called close reading | 53 | |
| 10349799907 | inference | A conclusion one can draw from the presented details. | 54 | |
| 10349801295 | literary present tense | By convention, the present tense is used when writing about imaginative literature, except when discussing antecedent action. | 55 | |
| 10349803067 | non sequitur | A statement that does not follow logically from evidence | 56 | |
| 10349803526 | paraphrase | express the meaning of (the writer or speaker or something written or spoken) using different words, especially to achieve greater clarity. | 57 | |
| 10349804647 | summarize | give a brief statement of the main points of (something). | 58 | |
| 10349807066 | Thesis | Focus statement of an essay; premise statement upon which the point of view or discussion in the essay is based. | 59 | |
| 10349808847 | motif | a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition | 60 | |
| 10349816727 | tragedy | A serious form of drama dealing with the downfall of a heroic or noble character | 61 | |
| 10349818119 | antecedent action | Events that preceded the starting point of the piece of literature. | 62 | |
| 10349818798 | Rising Action/Complications | the series of struggles that builds a story or play toward a climax | 63 | |
| 10349819702 | conflict | A struggle between opposing forces | 64 | |
| 10349820101 | Climax | the most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex; usually the turning point | 65 | |
| 10349821715 | digression | a temporary departure from the main subject in speech or writing | 66 | |
| 10349824066 | Exposition/Introduction | the beginning of the story where the characters and the setting are revealed | 67 | |
| 10349825019 | falling action/resolution | conflict ends and loose ends are tied up | 68 | |
| 10349826037 | Initial Incident | the critical event that gets the story going | 69 | |
| 10349827808 | Red Herring | A fallacy that introduces an irrelevant issue to divert attention from the subject under discussion "Grading this exam on a curve would be the most fair thing to do. After all, classes go more smoothly when the students and the professor are getting along well." | 70 | |
| 10349831016 | Subplot | A subordinate or minor collection of events in a novel or play, usually connected to the main plot | 71 | |
| 10349832519 | anecdote | a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person | 72 | |
| 10349833604 | Non-chronological | Texts written without reference to a time order. | 73 | |
| 10349836006 | in media res (in the middle of things) | the technique of beginning a story in the middle of the action | 74 | |
| 10349836797 | Parallel plot structure | A structure in which two stories of equal importance are told simultaneously, and the story moves back and forth between the two plots | 75 | |
| 10349837679 | circular plot structure | elements of the plot are repeating. Details of the story and the plot are repeated in the beginning and the end so that the story actually appears to come full circle around and back to the beginning | 76 | |
| 10349839400 | anticlimax | a disappointing end to an exciting or impressive series of events | 77 | |
| 10349842000 | Bildingsroman | a novel dealing with one person's formative years or spiritual education. | 78 | |
| 10349847551 | Epistolary | A piece of literature contained in or carried on by letters | 79 | |
| 10349849425 | Gothic novel | an English genre of fiction popular in the 18th to early 19th centuries, characterized by an atmosphere of mystery and horror and having a pseudomedieval setting. | 80 | |
| 10349850922 | memior | A type of TRUE nonfiction story that presents PART of the writer's life and is written from the first-person point of view. | 81 | |
| 10349851525 | picaresque | of or relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero Origin early 19th century: from French, from Spanish picaresco . See picaro. | 82 | |
| 10349854794 | regional novel | represents accurately the habits, speech, and folklore of a particular geographical section | 83 | |
| 10349855819 | sociological novel | work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel | 84 | |
| 10349857098 | romantic novel | Features larger-than-life heroes who live idealistic lives. | 85 | |
| 10349879533 | dialect | A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation. | 86 | |
| 10349880323 | Dialogue | Conversation between two or more characters | 87 | |
| 10349883739 | authorial voice | The voices or speakers used by authors when they seemingly speak for themselves in a book. | 88 | |
| 10349905552 | Socratic Irony | the device of pretending to be ignorant and asking questions in order to trap the opponent into obvious error | 89 |
