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Allegory:
A story which has meaning on both the literal and
figurative or moral level.
Ex. Lord of the FliesDante’s Inferno
Star Wars
Alliteration:
The repetition of sounds in a group of words as in
“Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.”
Allusion:A reference to a person,
place, or thing--often literary, mythological, or historical. The infinitive of allusion is
to allude. e.g. Romeo alludes to the
mythological figure Diana in the balcony scene.
Archetype:
A character who represents a certain type
of person.
e.g. mother/father figurehero/heroine
the know-it-all
Aside
• When a character speaks to the audience or to another character, and other characters do not hear the lines.
Assonance:
The repetition of vowel sounds as in
“And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride.
--Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee
Audience:
The audience for a piece of literature may be a single
person or a group of people. To what person or group is
the text directed?
Blank verse:
Unrhymed lines of poetry usually in iambic
pentameter. Plenty of modern poetry is written
in blank verse.
Characterization: The means by which an
author establishes character. An author may
directly describe the appearance and
personality of character or show it through action or
dialogue.
Conflict:
The struggle in the story. Traditionally, there are four
main conflicts:person vs. self (internal)
person vs. person (external)person vs. society (external)person vs. nature (external)
Consonance:
The repetition of consonant sounds
at the end of words.“Let's take a long walk around the park after dark
Find a spot for us to sparkConversation, verbal elation, stimulation
Share our situations, temptations, education, relaxations
Elevations, maybe we can talk Revelation 3:17”
from Jill Scott “A Long Walk”
Contrast:
To explain how two things differ. To compare and
contrast is to explain how two things are alike and how they are different.
Couplets:
A pair of rhyming lines in a poem often set off from the rest of the poem.
Shakespeare’s sonnets all end in couplets.
Denouement:
The resolution of the conflict in a plot after the climax. It also refers to the resolution of the action in a story or play after
the principal drama is resolved.
e.g. Romeo and Juliet’s families decide to build statues after
their death.
Diction
1)Word choice.
2) The author’s choice of words. An author has the option of choosing any word from our language, why does he/she
choose to use certain words and not others? In order to create a
certain tone.
Denotation
1)The definition of a word found in the dictionary.
2)Literal meaning of a word.3) The verb form is “to
denote” which means “to mean.”
e.g. The word “indolence” denotes “laziness.”
Connotation1)The definition of a word found
outside of the dictionary.2)Figurative meaning of a word.3) The verb form is “to connote”
which means “to suggest or imply a meaning beyond the literal
meaning of a word.”e.g. The word “cool” connotes
“an awesome or exciting thing.”
Counter-claim orCounter-argument
An opinion that challenges the reasoning behind a position and shows that
there are grounds for having an opposite view.
Dramatic Monologue:
A poem in which the speaker reveals his or her
character through an extended speech or a one-
way dialogue.
e.g. Browning’s “My Last Duchess”
End rhyme:
Rhyming words that are at the ends of their
respective lines—what we typically think of as normal
rhyme.
Fable:
A story that illustrates a moral often using animals as
characters
e.g. The Tortoise and the Hare
Figurative Language:
Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you
are using figurative language. Any language that goes beyond the literal
meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or fresh insights into an idea or a
subject.
e.g. Whenever you call something “cool,” you’re not talking about its temperature
but referring to some other quality it possesses.
Foreshadowing:
A technique in which an author gives clues about
something that will happen later in the story.
Genre:
A term used to describe a particular category or type of literature. Some literary
genres are mysteries, westerns, and romances.
Hyperbole:
An extreme exaggeration.
e.g. To say that it took you hours to walk home when in reality it was only 10
mins would be a hyperbole.
Iambic pentameter:
Ten-syllable lines in which every other syllable is
stressed. - ’
e.g. “With eyes like stars upon the brave night air.”
Imagery:
The use of description that helps the reader imagine how something
looks, sounds, feels, smells, or tastes. Most of the time, it refers to
appearance.
e.g. “Tita was so sensitive to onions, any time they were being chopped, they say
she would just cry and cry; when she was still in my great-grandmother’s
belly her sobs were so loud that even Nacha, the cook, who was half-deaf,
could hear them easily.” --Like Water for Chocolate
Irony:
Language that conveys a certain idea by saying just
the opposite.
e.g. Saying that you love someone’s shirt when you
really think it’s ugly is being ironic.
Lyric:
A type of poetry that expresses the poet’s
emotions. It often tells some sort of brief story,
engaging the reader in the experience.
Metaphor:
A comparison of two unlike things using any form of the verb “to be”–-i.e. am, are,
is, was, were.
Ex: “This chair is a rock,” or
“I am an island.”
Mood:
The feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage. The mood may be
suggested by the writer's choice of words, by events in the work, or by the physical
setting.
Motif:
A recurrent image, word, phrase, or action that tends to unify the literary work or that forms the theme in a
work of literature.
Myth:
A legend that embodies the beliefs of people and offers
some explanation for natural and social
phenomena.
Onomatopoeia:
The use of words that sound like what they mean such as “buzz,” “bang,” or “tic-tock.”
Paradox:
a statement that is apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really contains
a possible truth.
e.g. Cowards die many times before their deaths.
--Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
Parallelism:The use of similar grammatical structure
for effect. e.g. I came,
I saw,I conquered.
Also, a requirement in grammar to use the same grammatical form for cojoined
ideas.e.g. We went biking, sailing, and hiking on our trip, not We went biking, sailing, and hiked on
our trip.
Personification:
Giving inanimate objects human characteristics.
e.g. “The wind howled through the night.”
Point of View (P.O.V):
The perspective from which the story is told. Narrators of stories can take on three points of view:
1st person= “I/we”2nd person= “you”
3rd person= “he/she, they/them”Omniscient Point of view The narrator is an all-knowing
outsider who can enter the minds of all of the characters.
Prose:
Writing organized into sentences and paragraphs
that is not poetry.
e.g. Novels and short stories are examples of
prose.
Pun:
The use of a word in a way that plays on its different
meanings.
e.g. “Noticing the bunch of bananas, the hungry gorilla
went ape.”
Rhetorical Question:
A question not meant to be answered but asked solely to produce an effect or
to make a statement. The purpose to such a question, whose answer is
obvious, is usually to make a deeper impression upon the hearer or reader
than a direct statement would. Its effect is to make the reader stop and think about
what is being asked.
e.g. “How many times have I asked you
to take out the trash?”
Sarcasm:
Language that conveys a certain idea by saying just the opposite such as if it’s
raining outside and you say, “My, what a beautiful
day.”
Satire:
A work that makes fun of something or someone.
e.g. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
The SimpsonsSouth Park
Simile:
Comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as.”
e.g. “I’m as hungry as a pig,” or “Your eyes are like
stars that brighten my night.”
Soliloquy:
A monologue in which a character expresses his or
her thoughts to the audience and does not
intend the other characters to hear them.
Sonnet:
A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter.
Different kinds of sonnets have different rhyme schemes. The
most notable are Shakespeare’s Sonnets which employ the abab,cdcd,efef,gg
rhyme scheme.
Stanza:
A major subdivision in a poem. A stanza of two
lines is called a couplet; a stanza of three lines is
called a tercet; a stanza of four lines is called a
quatrain.
Subplot:
The secondary action of a story, complete and interesting in its own
right, that reinforces or contrasts with the main plot. There may be more than one subplot, and sometimes as many as
three, four, or even more, running through a piece of fiction. Subplots are generally either analogous to the main
plot, thereby enhancing our understanding of it, or extraneous to the
main plot, to provide relief from it.
Symbolism:
The use of one thing to represent another.
Something that stands for something else.
e.g. A dove is a symbol of peace.
Tone:
The author’s attitude toward the subject of the work.
Usually positive or negative.
e.g. The tone of a piece of literature could be
pessimistic, optimistic, angry, or sarcastic.