Honors 9Th Grade Literature-Composition

Literary Terms List Honors 9th Grade Literature-Composition

1. Allegory – a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning 2. Alliteration - repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words 3. Allusion - a brief reference to a person, event, place, or work of art; used to enhance writing 4. Anachronism -placing an event, person, item, or verbal expression in the wrong historical period 5. Anecdote - short narrative account of an amusing, unusual, revealing, or interesting event; (example: Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," contains "The Miller's Tale" and "The Carpenter's Tale”)

6. Archetype - generic, idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated 7. Blank Verse - (also called unrhymed iambic pentameter): Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even- numbered syllables accented; has been called the most "natural" verse form for dramatic works, since it supposedly is the verse form most close to natural rhythms of English speech 8. Bildungsroman – protagonist who undergoes growth through entire narrative; growth is often impeded by opposition of their desires by other characters; a "Coming Of Age Story” 9. Cacophony - harsh, discordant sounds

Characters & Characterization terms: 10. Direct Characterization – specifically writing about a character; (example: “She is a nice person.”) 11. Indirect Characterization – writing that implies what a character is; (ex: “She would give you her last penny.” to imply that a person is charitable) 12. Dynamic Character – character who changes in an important way 13. Static Character – character who does not change significantly 14. Flat Character – character with only one or 2 character traits (ex: ‘dumb blonde”, “mean step-mother”) 15. Round Character - character with many character traits; fully developed character

16. Claim/ Warrant - (in writing) - To state to be true, especially when open to question 17. Connotation - implied meaning of a word (opposite of denotation) 18. Denotation – dictionary definition of a word 19. Diction - writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, to help create meaning

20. Didactic Literature – Writing designed explicitly to instruct 21. Epiphany - sudden flare into revelation of an ordinary object/scene; a revelation of such power and insight that it alters the entire world-view of the thinker ; a personal revelation 22. Euphemism - commonly used term to express a certain idea without bluntly declaring that idea; also called “double speak”; (example: instead of “used car,” it is a “guaranteed previously owned car”) 23. Euphony - soothing pleasant sounds; (Example: O star - the fairest one in sight) 24. Foreshadowing - use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in literature 25. Freudian Slip - a slip of the tongue in which a person means to say one thing, but accidentally says another word or phrase; subconscious desires are revealed through verbal errors 26. Hyperbole - exaggeration or overstatement (example: “I’ve told you a million times to not do that.”) 27 . Imagery – descriptive language used to evoke sensory (sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste) emotions; “create a picture in the reader’s head” 28. In medias res - "into the middle of things"; usually describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle — usually at some crucial point in the action 29. Irony - an implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. Three basic kinds of IRONY: 30. V erbal irony - when an author says one thing and means something else 31 . D ramatic irony when an audience knows something that a character in the literature does not know. 32. Situational Irony - discrepancy between the expected result and actual results OVER 33. Jargon - words and phrases used in a particular occupation, trade, or field of study (ex: medical jargon: “iv”; police jargon : “vic”; or military jargon: “AWOL” ) 34. Local Color – use of characters and details unique to a particular geographic area; could be using dialect, customs, clothing, manners, attitudes, or landscapes (Mark Twain used Mississippi River area, Bret Harte used the West) 35. Metaphor -comparing two unlike things using the verb "to be" and not using like or as (a simile uses “like” or “as”)

36. Onomatopoeia - a word that imitates the sound it represents (Example: splash, wow, gush, kerplunk) 37. Oxymoron - putting two contradictory words together (Examples: Jumbo Shrimp; act naturally; found missing; resident alien; genuine imitation; good grief) 38 . Parallel Structure - repetition of sentences/ phrases/ words using the same structure, done to emphasize 39. Personification - giving human qualities to animals or non-human objects

Basic Types of POETRY: 40. Lyric - a type of emotional songlike poetry, opposite of dramatic and narrative poetry 41. Ballad- simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed in short stanzas and adapted for singing. 42. Sonnet –poem expressing a single, complete thought/idea of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter; 2 types: either Italian (8 lines followed by 6 lines ), or Shakespearian (3 sets of 4 lines followed by a couplet) 43. Narrative poem - a poem that tells a story and has a plot 44. Blank verse - unrhymed verse, usually unrhymed iambic pentameter; used in dramatic/epic/reflective verse

Points Of View: 45. First Person - narrator is character in the story who can reveal only personal thoughts/ feelings and what he/she sees and is told by other characters. He/she can’t tell us thoughts of other characters 46. Third-Person Objective - narrator is an outsider who can report only what he/she sees and hears. This narrator can tell us what is happening, but he can’t tell us the thoughts of the characters 47. Third-Person Limited - narrator is an outsider who sees into the mind of one of the characters 48. Omniscient - narrator is all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of more than one character

49. Pun - play on two words similar in sound but different in meaning (example: “sun” and “son”; “fair” and “fare”)

Types of Rhyme: 50. End rhyme - a poem has lines ending with words that sound the same. 51. Slant rhyme –(half-rhyme) approximate rhyme, occurring when the rhyming sounds are similar (Emily Dickinson used this) Is rarely accidental 52. I nternal rhyme- created by two or more words in the same line , or 2 or more lines of verse, that rhyme

53. Simile - comparison of two unlike things using like or as 54. Stream of consciousness - writing in which a character's perceptions, thoughts, and memories are presented in an apparently random form, without regard for logical sequence, chronology, or syntax; writing that often makes no distinction between various levels of reality--such as dreams, memories, imaginative thoughts or real sensory perception 55. Theme - general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express; often stated in a single sentence. 56. Tone – author’s attitude, stated or implied, towards a subject or character (ex: serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical, tongue- in-cheek, solemn, objective); can be revealed through choice of words and details.

57. Understatement – words purposefully used to “play down” the obvious

Remember: The quizzes will only cover 40 of the above terms, but the 40 terms will switch around, so learn ALL terms. For more help with literary terms: http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/ http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_S.html http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/ http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/glossary_l.htm http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/terms/Literary.Terms.html Also, see class website