lit terms

  1. allusion
    • indirect reference to an event, person, place, or artistic work which the writer assumes the reader knows about
    • the allusion links the text to the larger meaning of the text
  2. analogy
    • illustrates the idea by liking the current idea to a more familiar idea that is easier to understand
    • typically uses an extended simile
  3. antagonist
    the most prominent of a story's characters who opposes the hero
  4. autobiography
    personal rememberance in which the writer tells the story of his or her own life
  5. ballad
    a song or poem that dramatically retells the sotry of a popular figure
  6. biography
    a book or story written about the life of someone else
  7. blank verse
    • unrhymed form of poetry
    • each line is 10 syllables and every other is stressed (iambic pentameter)
  8. cadence
    the rising and falling, the rhythm, of speech
  9. caesura
    • a pause in a line or verse
    • a rest or breath
  10. conflict
    • individual vs self
    • individual vs society
    • individual vs nature
    • individual vs fate
  11. connotation
    the range of further associations that a word may have other than its dictionary definition
  12. convention
    an established practice used by authors of literary works
  13. couplet
    a pair of lines in a verse that form a unit
  14. denotation
    the accepted, dictionary, meaning of a word
  15. denouement
    the resolution or undoing of central problems of a story
  16. dialect
    variations in a language based on regional, cultural, or social class differences
  17. dialogue
    conversation carried on between characters in a literary work
  18. diction
    word choice
  19. digression
    temporary departure from the main subject to address a separate idea
  20. dramatic monologue
    speeach in which the character speaks to themselves, or to the audience
  21. empathy
    the act of placing yourself in the position of others
  22. epic
    long narrative poem that tells the story of a hero
  23. epigram
    a brief, witty poem that often makes fun of the idea that it examines
  24. epigraph
    a short peom or verse placed in the beginning of a book which bears some relation to the book's theme
  25. epilogue
    concluding section of a story
  26. episodic
    a narrative constructed around a serioes of distinct but related incidents
  27. epitaph
    words or peom suited for iscription on a tomb or gravestone
  28. essay
    • a short written composition in prose that examines a particular subject in depth
    • analytical, reflective, causee-effect, personal
  29. existentialism
    a eurpoean philosophy which several authors have adapeted to fiction and drama to explore the themes of meaningless, individual freedom, and alienation that plague humanity
  30. exposition
    • writting that makes clear something that might be difficult for the reader to understand
    • it helps the reader to understand the larger action or subject of the text
  31. fiction
    • stories created from imagination
    • novels, short stories
  32. foot
    the smallested repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line or verse
  33. foreshadowing
    early on in the story the author gives hints of what will come later
  34. free verse
    poetry with no regular meter or rhyme
  35. hyperbole
    exaggeration or overstatment of the truth
  36. iambic pentameter
    • iampic; a poetry foot of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable
    • pentameter; ten syllable line which may or may not ryhme
  37. imagery
    descriptive language that appeals to the senses and creates an image
  38. irony
    using a phrase to mean the opposite of its literal or nomral meaning
  39. metaphor
    a comparison of two unlike things in which no word of comparison is used
  40. meter
    the patterened repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
  41. mood
    relates to the feeling a text arouses in its reader
  42. motif
    a frequently recurring theme or idea
  43. narrator
    the person telling the story
  44. onomatopoeia
    POP! CRASH! BOOM!
  45. oxymoron
    self-contradictory combination of words
  46. parable
    a short story that illustrates a particular moral
  47. parody
    form of literature that mocks the literary work or style
  48. paradox
    • a statement that is seemingly contradictiory but found to be true
    • ie. less is more
  49. personification
    giving an animal or object human characteristics
  50. prose
    writing that is not composed acording to rules or forms of poetry
  51. protagonist
    • the main character
    • the hero
  52. pun
    a word or phrase used to imply other possible meanings
  53. rhetoric
    the deliberate use of eloquece to persuade others feelings
  54. rhythm
    the way in which sound is used in a poem
  55. satire
    behaviors and institutions are ridiculed for the purpose of improvement
  56. simile
    compares two unlike things using like or as
  57. sililoquy
    a speech a character delivers while alone
  58. sonnet
    a 14 line poem in iambic pentameter
  59. style
    how a writter uses words, images, and phrases to create a feeling or convey a thought
  60. synopsis
    summery
  61. theme
    the deep structure consisting of the tests ideas and truths which the writer tries to convey
  62. tone
    relates to the overall feeling that a story can create
Author
amira93
ID
60415
Card Set
lit terms
Description
english final semester one; literary terms
Updated