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Literary Terms LITERARY TERMS Level: Term and Definition: 20/30 Allegory - A literary mode or work in which figures, events, settings, etc. represent abstractions, or, in which the characters and events correspond closely to actual persons and happenings. Example: Animal Farm by George Orwell 10 Alliteration – The repetition of sound, usually the initial sound and most often a consonant, in words of one line or successive lines of verse. Example: “…Bend/ Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.” 10 Allusion – Indirect reference to an event, person, thing, place, or quality. An allusion may serve, by suggestion, to extend the significance of a poetic image or prose passage. Example: “He has the patience of Job.” Job is an Old Testament character who endured every form of loss and rejection and illness with infinite patience because he knew that God was testing him. 20/30 Ambiguity – The use of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage with two or more separate, often contradictory, meanings in such a way that the sense of the statement remains in doubt. 20/30 Anachronism – Something, as an occurrence, that is out of its time. In Julius Caesar the clock strikes, yet such a timepiece had not yet been invented at that time. 10 Analogy – Likeness; resemblance in some particulars between things otherwise unlike. An analogy explains something unfamiliar by comparing it to something that is familiar. 10 Anecdote – A short account of entertaining historical or personal fact. 10 Antagonist – the character or force that opposes the protagonist in any story. The antagonist attempts to prevent the protagonist from achieving his or her goal. 10 Antecedent action – The significant action that takes place before a story begins. 10 Anticlimax – A sudden drop from the dignified or important to the trivial or banal, often employed for humorous effect, as in Alexander Pope’s “Not louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast, when husbands, or when lapdogs breath their last.” 10 Anti-hero – A literary figure whose every action is the inverse of what is considered to be heroic. 20/30 Antithesis – Opposition of thought or meaning or of passages, phrases, lines, and half-lines, as in “To err is human, to forgive divine.” 30 Apostrophe – Words addressed to one or more persons (absent or present) generally in an exclamatory tone, as in Wordsworth’s “Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour.” 30 Archaism – The use or imitation of archaic (old, ancient, no longer in use) words or techniques. 1 20/30 Archetype – Literary - the original pattern or model from which all similar things were made; things universal to all mankind. 10 Aside – Speech of a character (in a play) conventionally addressed to the audience and not heard by the other characters. 20/30 Assonance – A kind of partial rhyme characterized by a correspondence of vowel sounds, but not of consonants. Example: greener, dreamer 10 Atmosphere – The pervasive color or tone of a literary work. The atmosphere established at the opening of Hamlet is cold, apprehensive and fearful. 10 Autobiography – The story of a person’s life, written by himself or herself. 10 Ballad – A narrative (tells a story) poem or song, written in simple words and short stanzas, usually four lines with a rhyme scheme of abcb. 10 Blank Verse – Unrhymed iambic pentameter, as in Wordsworth’s lines: “There are // in our // exist //ence spots // of time That with //distinct // pre-em // inence // retain A renovating virtue….” Much of Romeo and Juliet is written in blank verse. 20/30 Cacophony – Harshness of sound; lack of euphony; discordant quality. 10 Characterization – The process through which the author reveals to the reader the qualities of a character. 10 Chronicle – A historic record in prose or verse, usually in order of events in time. (Chronological order = time order). 10 Cliché – A trite expression, a platitude. (Situations, actions, patterns which have been very often used or repeated whether in life, in literature, or in art, may also be termed cliches.) Worn out word or phrase. 10 Climax – The final, culminating event in a series of actions, the decisive moment in a literary work when the protagonist’s course is finally a fact and no longer simply a predictable action. 10 Colloquialism – A word, phrase or sentence which belongs to the language of common conversation. 10 Comedy – Any literary or dramatic composition whose ending is not tragic. 10 Comic Relief – A humorous scene or incident in a serious story. It occurs most often in drama and is consciously introduced by the writer with the purpose of providing relief from tension, and, by contrast, intensifying the seriousness of the rest of the play. 10 Complication – The event that initiates the conflict. Also known as initial incident. 10 Conflict – The struggle between opposing forces, that is the protagonist and someone or something else. 10 Connotation – Specific associations carried (with words) apart from the literal meaning. (See -Denotation) 2 20/30 Consonance – The harmony, congruity, or rhyme which occurs when vowel sounds differ and final, consonantal sounds agree. Example: call, pull 10 Couplet – A pair of rhymed lines of verse. (See - Heroic Couplet) 10 Criticism – The art of discussion and evaluation of literary and artistic work. 10 Denotation – The literal (dictionary) meaning of a word. 10 Denouement – The tying up of loose ends or resolution (in a story). 20/30 Deus ex machina – Latin for “god from the machine” Earlier in history, a deity in Greek and Roman drama who was brought in by stage machinery to intervene in the action; therefore, any character, event, or device suddenly introduced to resolve the conflict. 10 Dialogue – Any conversation between two or more characters in a story. 10 Diction – A writer’s vocabulary; his choice of particular words or phrases over others. 20/30 Didactic - Having the nature of writing intended or used for teaching. Instructive. 10 Dilemma – A situation in which a character must make a choice between two disagreeable, undesirable or unfavourable alternatives. Posing a dilemma is one method an author can use to generate conflict and suspense in a story. 20 Doggeral - Rough, clumsy, awkward verse. (Hecate in Macbeth) 10 Dramatic Monologue – A vivid, often emotionally intense composition in prose or poetry in which the speaker creates the drama by anticipating replies and remarks from an assumed listener. (Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess) 20/30 Eclectic – Composed of material gathered from various sources and traditions. 30 Elegy – A poem of lament and praise for the dead. 10 Ellipsis - In Grammar – words omitted. In Writing – the three dots (…) indicating an omission of letters or words. 10 Empathy – The identification of one’s own feelings with those of a fictional or poetic character in order to understand him better. 10 English Sonnet - (See also Shakespearean Sonnet) A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter divided into three quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg 10 Epic – A long, dignified, formal narrative poem celebrating the exploits of a folk of national hero, frequently including warfare, supernatural events, and a setting involving heaven, hell and earth. Example: John Milton’s Paradise Lost. 10 Epilogue – A closing section appended to a novel or play when that novel or play is completed. 10 Epiphany – Refers to a moment of significant realization and insight experienced by the protagonist, often at the end of a story. 3 10 Episode – An incident or event within the main plot of the story. 10 Euphemism – The use of a word or expression considered less offensive, blunt and harsh than another. Example: “sanitary landfill” instead of “garbage dump”. 20/30 Euphony – a pleasant, agreeable combination of sounds. Example: Keats’ “Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian.” 20 Explication – A detailed analysis; a literary “explanation” of a passage. 10 Exposition – Background information provided by the author to further the development of plot, conflict, setting, and characterization. 30 Expressionism - Concerned with the inner life that lies beyond the obvious details. 10 Fable – A short narrative with a moral lesson, usually with animal characters, as in Aesop’s Fables. 10 Falling action – The action immediately following the climax and lasting until the end of the story. 10 Fantasy – Fantasy is a picture of life as it could never be. In literature, fantasy is a work in which the imagination is given full play. 10 Farce – Generally, a play abounding in ludicrous situations, clowning, practical jokes, coincidences, improbabilities and exaggerations. 10 Flashback – A sudden switch in the plot from the present to the past.May be used to illustrate an important point or to aid in characterization. 10 Foil – A character whose behaviour and qualities set off, or enhance by contrast, those of another figure. Fortinbras, Laertes, and to an extent Horatio, are foils for Hamlet. 10 Foreshadowing – An anticipation, by indication of suggestion, of what will eventually happen. A remark, an image, etc., can later be associated with the later event. Foreshadowing can create suspense, or it can be used to comment ironically or indirectly upon an event before it occurs. 10 Free Verse – Poetry based on an irregular rhythm, the flow of the verse rising and falling irregularly with the thought or emotion over a group of lines or indeed, over the whole poem. 10 Goal – (See Motivation) 10 Gothic Novel – Novels characterized by gloom, terror, mystery, violence and an interest in the supernatural. Example: Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. 20/30 Hamartia – (See Tragic flaw) 10 Hero (or heroine) – A protagonist of a story who possesses heroic qualities such as courage, or virtues such as honesty. The terms hero and heroine are not interchangeable with the more general term protagonist. 10 Heroic Couplet – A pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter.
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