Literary Terms a Literatus** Should Know (Literatus - a literary person; pl., literati) Mitchell – IB Literature 1. Allegory - an extended metaphor in which a person, abstract idea, or event stands for itself and for something else, usually a moral or spiritual concept more significant than the actual narrative 2. Alliteration - the repetition of consonant sounds in a sequence of words (“dew drops”) 3. Allusion - a brief, indirect reference to a historical or literary (or other artistic) figure, event, or object 4. Ambiguity - the state of having more than one possible meaning 5. Anapest - a foot where a stressed syllable follows two unstressed syllables (“understand”) 6. Anaphora - a type of parallelism created when successive phrases or lines begin with the same words; the repetition can be as simple as a single word or as long as an entire phrase 7. Antagonist - the character or force which opposes the protagonist 8. Anti-hero - a protagonist who lacks the characteristics that would typically make him/her a hero/ heroine 9. Apostrophe - a figure of speech in which someone or some entity (usually absent), some abstract quality or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present (“Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!”) 10. Archaism - a word or phrase (or a particular meaning of a word or phrase) that is no longer in common use and is considered extremely old fashioned; can also be a literary style modeled on older works to achieve a desired effect 11. Archetype - an image, descriptive detail, plot pattern, or character type that frequently occurs in literature, myth, folklore, or religion and can be universally recognized 12. Aside - a remark directed to the audience that characters onstage don’t hear 13. Assonance - the repetition of internal vowel sounds (“each evening”) 14. Aubade - a poem about dawn; a morning love-song; or a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn 15. Ballad - a narrative poem that tells a story and imitates traditional folk styles 16. Bildungsroman - a novel dealing with the development of a young person, usually from adolescence to maturity 17. Blank verse - unrhymed iambic pentameter 18. Cacophony - language that is harsh-sounding and difficult to pronounce 19. Cadence - the rhythmical movement of writing when it is read aloud 20. Caesura - a pause within a line of poetry that contributes to the line’s rhythm 21. Canon - works generally considered by scholars to be essential for study 22. Catastrophe - the conclusion of a tragedy which involves the death of the hero (usually after the climax) 23. Catharsis - the release of emotions by the audience at the end of a tragedy 24. Chorus - a group of characters in Greek tragedy who comment on the action of a play without participation in it 25. Cinquain - a five line stanza 26. Climax - the moment of great tension in a story which marks the turning point 27. Comic relief - a humorous scene or incident that alleviates tension in a serious work 28. Complication - the part of the plot in which the entanglement caused by the conflict develops; the knot to be untied during the resolution 29. Conceit - an extended metaphor with complex logic that governs an entire poem or passage 30. Conflict - the struggle within the plot between two opposing forces 31. Connotation - the emotional implications and associations that a word may carry 32. Consonance - repetitive sounds of consonants within a sentence or phrase; in poetry, it can manifest as slant rhyme (words like “worth”/“breath” or “poem/same”) 33. Couplet - two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme and have the same meter 34. Crisis - a turning point in the action of a story that leads to the climax 35. Criticism - the analysis, study, and evaluation of individual works of art, as well as the formulation of general principles for the examination of such works 36. Dactyl - one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (“desperate”) 37. Denouement - French word used to describe the falling action of a story 38. Deus ex machina - an improbable means by which an author too easily resolves a story 39. Diction - simply put, word choice 40. Dirge - a song expressing mourning or grief (as would be performed at a funeral) 41. Dissonance - harsh and inharmonious sounds which cause a marked breaking of the poetry 42. Dramatic irony - a discrepancy between what a character believes/says and what the audience knows 43. Dynamic character - a character who undergoes some kind of change due to the action in the plot 44. Elegy - a mournful lyric poem written to commemorate someone who has died 45. Ellipsis - the deliberate omission of a word or of words which are readily implied by the context (“And he to England shall along with you” -from Hamlet) 46. End rhyme - rhyme that comes at the end of lines 47. End-stopped line - a poetic line that has a pause at the end, often with punctuation 48. English sonnet - a type of poem that consists of three quatrains and a concluding couplet (written in abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme; also known as Shakespearean sonnet 49. Enjambment - when a thought in poetry continues to the next line; also called a “run-on line” 50. Epic - a long narrative poem characterized by elevated language and heroic deeds 51. Epilogue - a concluding statement in a play made to the audience 52. Epiphany - an event in which the essential truth or nature of something (person/situation/object) is suddenly perceived 53. Epithet - adjective expressing a quality/attribute considered characteristic of a person/thing (“swift-footed Achilles”) 54. Euphony - language that is pleasing to hear (“cellar door”) 55. Exposition - narrative device that provides background and information about characters 56. External rhyme - a rhyme scheme composed of lines using end rhyme 57. Farce - a form of humor featuring slapstick comedy and extravagant dialogue 58. Feminine rhyme - words that rhyme and are both stressed on the first syllable (“butter/gutter”) 59. Flat character - a character with only one or two qualities; not psychologically complex 60. Foil - a character who, by contrast, illuminates the distinctive traits of another 61. Foot - the metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured 62. Foreshadowing - Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story 63. Free verse - a poetic style that doesn’t follow established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza 64. Haiku - Japanese poem consisting of three phrases of 5, 7, then 5 syllables, usually involving nature or the juxtaposition of two different images or ideas 65. Hamartia - the tragic flaw or misfortune that brings about a hero’s downfall 66. Heptastich - a seven line stanza 67. Hero - the central character who engages the reader’s interest and empathy 68. Hubris - excessive pride or self-confidence that leads to a character’s downfall 69. Hyperbole - a bold exaggeration 70. Iamb - a poetic foot where one stressed syllable follows an unstressed syllable (“Nicole”) 71. Imagery - words, phrases, or figures of speech that address the senses 72. In medias res - the common strategy of beginning a story in the middle of the action 73. Internal rhyme - where words rhyme within the line (“Sam McGee was from Tennessee…”) 74. Italian sonnet - a type of poem which is divided into two parts: an octave (rhyming abba abba) and a sestet (rhyming cde cde); the octave raises the question, states a problem, or presents a brief narrative, and the sestet answers the question, solves the problem, or comments on the narrative (also known as a Petrarchan sonnet) 75. Juxtaposition - arrangement of two or more ideas/characters/actions/settings/phrases/words side-by-side for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development 76. Litotes - an understatement meant for rhetorical effect (“I was not a little upset”) 77. Lyric - type of poem that expresses the emotions/thoughts of a single speaker 78. Masculine rhyme - words that rhyme and are both stressed on the 2nd syllable (“contend/defend”) 79. Measure - a metrical grouping (such as a type of foot) 80. Metaphor - a direct comparison of two unlike things (“my love is a red, red rose”) 81. Meter - rhythmic patterns of stress in a poem 82. Metonymy - substitution of one word for another object/ idea to symbolize that object/idea (“the pen is mightier than the sword”)The substitution of one word for another object or idea which it 83. Monologue - a speech by one person directly addressing an audience 84. Motif - a pattern in literature, specifically the recurrent presence of certain character types, objects, settings, or situations 85. Neologism - a newly coined word or expression 86. Octave - a poetic stanza of eight lines, usually forming part of a sonnet 87. Ode - a formal lyric poem that expresses lofty emotions about a serious subject 88. Onomatopoeia - words that are spelled how they sound 89. Oxymoron - the combination of contradictory terms to produce a paradoxical effect (“jumbo shrimp”) 90. Paradox - a statement that seems to be contradictory but actually makes sense 91. Parallelism - the use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning 92. Parody - a literary or artistic work that imitates the style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule 93. Pastiche - an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period 94. Pastoral - a poem involving rustic people or a rural setting; in a contemporary sense, a means of expressing complex ideas in a simple way 95. Pentameter - a line of poetry consisting of five feet 96. Persona - a speaker created by the writer to tell a story or speak in a poem 97.