Lit Terms 101-150

• :
•  a sensory detail.

• :
• the use of figures of
• speech to create vivid images that appeal to one of the senses.

• Latin meaning “in the
• middle of things”

• :
• a conclusion that one
• draws (infers) based on premises or evidence.

• :  The presentation to the reader of the flow of
• a character’s inner emotional experience.

• , a particular type of interior monologue,
• is an attempt to represent the inner workings of a character’s mind, to
• re-create the continuous, chaotic flow of half-formed and discontinuous
• thoughts, memories, sense impressions, random associations, images, feelings,
• and reflections that constitute a character’s consciousness

• : the use of words to convey the opposite
• of their literal meaning; or, incongruity between what is expected and what
• actually occurs.

:  what is said and what is meant

:  what is expected to happen and what actually happens; at times, the direct opposite of what is expected to happen

• :  what people know
• and what others do not; what the audience      knows and what the characters do not

• :  the “greater forces” are indifferent to or
• ineffective in the human condition

• :
• the specialized language
• or vocabulary of a particular group or profession

• : placing two elements side by side to
• present a comparison or contrast

• :  a narrative handed down from the past,
• containing historical elements and usually supernatural elements.

• :  a narrator who presents the story as it is
• seen and understood by a single character and restricts information to what is
• seen, heard, thought, or felt by that one character.

• :  a type of understatement in which an idea is
• expressed by negating its opposite (describing a particularly horrific scene by
• saying, “It was not a pretty pictures.”)

• :
• characterized by
• emotion, subjectivity, and imagination; song-like

• :  the mistaken substitution of one word for
• another word that sounds similar (“The doctor wrote a subscription”).

• :
•  excessive appeal to the emotions

• :
•  a direct comparison of two different
• things.  An extended metaphor is a metaphor that continues throughout the work
• and may be the controlling or central idea in the work

• :  The patterned repetition of stressed and
• unstressed syllables

• :
•  substituting the name of one object for
• another object closely associated with it (“The pen [writing] is mightier than
• the sword [war/fighting]”)

:  the emotional atmosphere of a work

• :  a standard theme, element, or dramatic
• situation that recurs in various works

• -:a character’s incentive or reason fir
• behaving in a certain manner; that which impels a character to act

• :  a traditional story presenting supernatural
• characters and episodes that help explain natural events

:  a story or narrated account

• :
•  verse that tells a story (Ex.: ballad or epic)

• :  the one who tells the story; may be first- or
• third-person, limited or omniscient.

:  A character’s arch-rival

• an inference that does not
• follow logically from the premises  (literally,
• “does not follow”)

• :  a lengthy fictional narrative in prose
• dealing with characters, incidents, and settings that imitate those found in
• real life.   A novella is a shorter novel, usually with a single major incident
• rather than a series

• :  a lyric poem with a dignified tone in praise
• of someone, something, or an important occasion

• :
•  a narrator who is able to know, see, and tell all, including
• the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters

• -
• a word formed from the
• imitation of natural sounds

• :  an expression in which two words that
• contradict each other are joined

• :  a simple story that illustrates a moral or
• religious lesson

• :  an apparently contradictory statement that
• actually contains some truth

• :  the use of corresponding grammatical or
• syntactical forms

• :  a restatement of a text in a different form or
• in different words, often for the purpose of clarity

:  a humorous imitation of a serious work

• : a comment that interrupts
• the immediate subject, often to qualify or explain

• :  Latin for “shepherd.”  Originally, a poem that had to do with
• shepherds and rural living.  It has
• evolved to include rural settings, and descriptions of the simple, charming
• rural life

• :  the quality in a work that prompts the reader
• to feel pity

• :  characterized by an excessive display of
• learning or scholarship

• :  endowing non-human objects or creatures with
• human qualities or characteristics

• :
•  life story of a rascal, a rogue, a “picaro.”  A picaresque novel follows the episodic
• adventures of this “picaro.”

• :  the creative experience in verse.  Literature in its most intense, most
• imaginative, and most rhythmic forms.

:  the action of a narrative or drama

:  the vantage point from which a story is told