Literary Terms H-IB World Literature Wojciechowski

Your assignment: Familiarize yourself with the following literary terms and their definitions. Expect a test on these terms at the beginning of the school year.

Archetype - the original model on which something in literature is patterned; examples include characters, quests, or artifacts

Allusion – a reference to something in history, literature, art, etc.

Beats – sub-section within a scene in a , demarcated by ends of conversations, entrances, and exits

Black humor - humor that is viewed as dark, morbid, cruel, and offensive to some, and/or is graphic in nature and is yet still found funny

Catharsis - when the reader or a reacts to the by releasing strong emotion (such as pity or fear)

Connotation- the range of emotions that are connected to a word in addition to its dictionary definition

Deus ex machina - the name for an inorganic resolution; when a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved with the unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object

Diction - the part of literary analysis that focuses on an author’s vocabulary and word choices

Direct - when the narrator comments directly on the attributes of the character (i.e., “He is a funny guy.”)

Dramatic – occurs when the knows something that the characters do not

Dynamic character - a type of character who changes throughout the course of a narrative

Elements of : – obstacle or problem that is necessary to a narrative rising - occurs when the conflict is introduced turning point – occurs when the conflict changes or intensifies – occurs when the conflict is directly addressed resolution – occurs as the conflict is resolved denouement – the aftermath of the conflict; loose ends are tied up

Epigraph - a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a work; the purpose is to either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context

Literary Terms H-IB World Literature Wojciechowski

Flashback (also known as analepsis) - interruptions that writers include to insert past events in order to provide background or context to the current events of a narrative; allows readers to gain insight into a character’s motivation and provide a background to a current conflict

Foil - A minor character who contrasts with the ; the purpose is to highlight particular characteristics of the protagonist

Foreshadowing - in a narrative, a warning or predictor of a future event

Imagery- makes language concrete instead of abstract by appealing to the senses; most commonly creates “mental pictures”

Indirect characterization – the narrator shows the attributes of the character by placing him or her in situations by which the read can judge what kind of person he is

Juxtaposition – to place two concepts, characters, ideas, or places near or next to each other so that the reader will compare and contrast them

Legend – if the protagonist is a human being and not supernatural, such stories are referred to as instead of

Metaphor – a that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things without using a connective word such as like, as, than, or resembles

Moira – the classical Greek idea of possessing free will within the constraints of predestination by the gods

Mood - the emotional atmosphere of a work as a whole or in a particular part

Motif - a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work

Myth – mythos (Greek: “story”) – hereditary stories believed to be true by a particular cultural group; serve to explain why the world is as it is and why things happen as they do

Paragraph – a group of unified sentences in prose writing

Paraphrasing – occurs when you take someone else’s writing and put the main idea into your own words

Patriarchy- a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it

Poetic justice - a literary device in which virtue is ultimately rewarded or vice is ultimately punished

Prose - written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure Literary Terms H-IB World Literature Wojciechowski

Round character - a type of character who is complex and is prone to develop throughout a narrative; is a characteristic of a dynamic character

Scene - a sequence of continuous action in a play, movie, opera Sentence - in prose writing, a complete unit typically consisting of a subject and verb

Simile- comparison of two unlike things using the words “like,” “as,” “than,” “seems”

Situational irony- a contradiction between what is expected and what actually occurs

Stage directions- part of the script of a play that tells the actors how they are to move or to speak their lines

Stanza - an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem

Static character - a type of character that does not change during the course of a narrative

Stichomythia – in verse, dialogue especially of altercation or dispute delivered by two actors in alternating lines (as in classical Greek drama); heightens tension

Stream-of-consciousness writing– method of that describes in words the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters; interior monologue is also appropriate to describe a character’s thought process and generally is a part of stream-of-consciousness writing

Subtext- underlying and often distinct in a piece of writing or conversation that, while not directly stated, is often implied by the linguistic or social context

Symbol - a word or object that represents another word or object

Syntax- the grammar and sentence structure of a text

Theme - what a text has to teach about life or the way the world works; this is comprised of a statement, not a subject

Tone - The author's attitude toward a particular subject; determined by analyzing and narrative descriptions

Unity of action (also referred to as Chekhov’s gun)- the principle that requires every element of a narrative to be necessary and irreplaceable

Unreliable narrator - when a character’s credibility is compromised; the reader has to judge what to believe about a character’s perspective

Literary Terms H-IB World Literature Wojciechowski

Verbal irony – a statement in which the meaning that a speaker implies differs sharply from the meaning that is being expressed

Verse - a single metrical line in a poetic composition