-
-
Imagery
- :
- the use of figures of
- speech to create vivid images that appeal to one of the senses.
-
In Medias Res:
- Latin meaning “in the
- middle of things”
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Inference
- :
- a conclusion that one
- draws (infers) based on premises or evidence.
-
Interior Monologue
- : The presentation to the reader of the flow of
- a character’s inner emotional experience.
-
Stream of Consciousness
- , 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
-
Irony
- : the use of words to convey the opposite
- of their literal meaning; or, incongruity between what is expected and what
- actually occurs.
-
Verbal Irony
: what is said and what is meant
-
Situational Irony
: what is expected to happen and what actually happens; at times, the direct opposite of what is expected to happen
-
Dramatic Irony
- : what people know
- and what others do not; what the audience knows and what the characters do not
-
Cosmic Irony
- : the “greater forces” are indifferent to or
- ineffective in the human condition
-
Jargon
- :
- the specialized language
- or vocabulary of a particular group or profession
-
Juxtaposition
- : placing two elements side by side to
- present a comparison or contrast
-
Legend
- : a narrative handed down from the past,
- containing historical elements and usually supernatural elements.
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Limited Narrator
- : 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.
-
Litotes
- : 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.”)
-
Lyric Poetry
- :
- characterized by
- emotion, subjectivity, and imagination; song-like
-
Malapropism
- : the mistaken substitution of one word for
- another word that sounds similar (“The doctor wrote a subscription”).
-
Melodrama
- :
- excessive appeal to the emotions
-
Metaphor
- :
- 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
-
Meter
- : The patterned repetition of stressed and
- unstressed syllables
-
Metonymy
- :
- substituting the name of one object for
- another object closely associated with it (“The pen [writing] is mightier than
- the sword [war/fighting]”)
-
Mood
: the emotional atmosphere of a work
-
Motif
- : a standard theme, element, or dramatic
- situation that recurs in various works
-
Motivation
- -:a character’s incentive or reason fir
- behaving in a certain manner; that which impels a character to act
-
Myth
- : a traditional story presenting supernatural
- characters and episodes that help explain natural events
-
Narrative
: a story or narrated account
-
Narrative Poetry
- :
- verse that tells a story (Ex.: ballad or epic)
-
Narrator
- : the one who tells the story; may be first- or
- third-person, limited or omniscient.
-
Nemesis
: A character’s arch-rival
-
Non sequitur-
- an inference that does not
- follow logically from the premises (literally,
- “does not follow”)
-
Novel
- : 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
-
Ode
- : a lyric poem with a dignified tone in praise
- of someone, something, or an important occasion
-
Omniscient Narrator
- :
- a narrator who is able to know, see, and tell all, including
- the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters
-
Onomatopoeia
- -
- a word formed from the
- imitation of natural sounds
-
Oxymoron
- : an expression in which two words that
- contradict each other are joined
-
Parable
- : a simple story that illustrates a moral or
- religious lesson
-
Paradox
- : an apparently contradictory statement that
- actually contains some truth
-
Parallelism
- : the use of corresponding grammatical or
- syntactical forms
-
Paraphrase
- : a restatement of a text in a different form or
- in different words, often for the purpose of clarity
-
Parody
: a humorous imitation of a serious work
-
Parenthetical
- : a comment that interrupts
- the immediate subject, often to qualify or explain
-
Pastoral
- : 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
-
Pathos
- : the quality in a work that prompts the reader
- to feel pity
-
Pedantic
- : characterized by an excessive display of
- learning or scholarship
-
Personification
- : endowing non-human objects or creatures with
- human qualities or characteristics
-
Picaresque Novel
- :
- life story of a rascal, a rogue, a “picaro.” A picaresque novel follows the episodic
- adventures of this “picaro.”
-
Poetry
- : the creative experience in verse. Literature in its most intense, most
- imaginative, and most rhythmic forms.
-
Plot
: the action of a narrative or drama
-
Point of View
: the vantage point from which a story is told
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