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| language describing qualities that pertain broadly to many things rather than to on or a few ("good" or "interesting") |
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| the sequence of happenings in a story or play |
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| a story that may be applied to another, parallel, set of situations while maintaining its own narrative integrity. |
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| the repetition of initial, identical consonant sounds in different words in close proximity |
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| references to literary works, persons, sayings and other elements of our cultural heritage |
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| both positive and negative feelings about the same thing |
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| false assignment of an even, a person, a scene, language - in fact anything - to a time when that event or thing or person was not in existence |
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| a method by which one unfamiliar objects or ideas more familiar in certain of its similarities with other obe |
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| a method by which one unfamiliar objects or ideas more familiar in certain of its similarities with other objects or ideas more familiar |
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| three-syllable foot consisting of two light stresses climaxed by a heavy stress |
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| the force which opposes the protagonist - person, society, nature, self, fate |
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| a rhetorical device of opposition - one word or idea is established; then opposite is expressed (I burn and freeze) |
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| addressing a real or imagined person (or object) who is not present |
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| a symbol, usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature tobe recognizable as an element of one's literary experience (hero's journey/quest) |
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| a short speech delivered by one character to another or to the audience without the rest of the characters on stage being able to hear |
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| the repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words in close proximity |
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| the mood that is established in part by setting; the emotional aura |
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| a narrative poem composed of quatrains in which lines of iambic tetrameter alternate with iambic trimeter, rhyming abcb |
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| unrhymed iambic pentameter |
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| the fourth stage of dramatic plot structure; the single moment of revelation or realization when everything falls into place |
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| the stimulation and subsequent purgation of fear and pity that, according to Aristotle, occurs as one watches or reads an effective tragedy |
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| the creation of images of imaginary persons so credible that they exist for the outcome is determined |
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| the third stage of a dramatic plot structure in which the conflict and the consequential tension are brought out to the fullest extent; the turning point at which the outcome is determined |
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| poetry written in specific and traditional patterns and produced through rhyme, meter, line length, and line groupings |
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| informal usage of conversation; not accepted as good usage in formal speech or writing slang; dialects |
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| a literary work, beginning in adversity and ending in prosperity, that describes the regeneration and success of a group or society |
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| words that describe specific qualities or properties , such as an ice cream soda being "cold" "sweet" and "creamy" (as opposed to the abstract "good") |
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| opposition; the essence of plot; the struggle which grows out of the interplay of the two opposing forces in a plot |
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| the emotional, psychological or social overtones or implications that words carry in addition to their standard dictionary meaning |
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| situational irony that is connected to a pessimistic or fatalistic view of life (existentialism) |
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| a three-syllable foot consisting of a heavy stress followed by two lights ("This is the") |
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| the standard dictionary definition of a word |
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| the final unraveling; the solution of the mystery; the explanation or outcome |
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| a rhetorical figure or a verbal strategy |
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| word choice, types of words, and the level of language; a simple list of words make up a vocabulary; the accurate, careful use of these words in discourse makes diction. |
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| two choices facing a protagonist, with either one being unacceptable or damaging |
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| audience or reader knows something that the character does not know |
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| type of poem derived from the theater, in which a speaker addresses an internal listener |
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| a long narrative poem that features heroic characters, momentous events and highly elevated diction (the Iliad; The Odyssey; Beowulf) |
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| a line ending in a full pause, usually indicated with a period or semi-colon |
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| a line having no end punctuation but running over to the next line |
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| the laying out or putting forth of the materials necesseary for an understanding of a work; supplies background and introduces characters and conflicts |
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| a short pointed story illustrating a moral truth, most often associated with the ancient Greek writer Aesop |
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| the second half or resolution of a dramatic plot; follows the climax; often begins with a tragic force; exhibits the falling fortunes of the protagonist. |
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| expressions that conform to a particular pattern or form such as metaphor, simile |
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| a method of organization by which the writer presents scenes or incidents that occurred prior to the opening scene of the work. |
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| a character who sets off or highlights aspects of the protagonists |
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| basic building block of a line of poetry, usually consisting of one heavily stressed syllable and one or more lightly stressed syllables; unit of rhythm |
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| a glimpse or hint of what will happen later in the work |
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| (open verse) nonmetrical poetry that depends on natural rhythyms or phrases and normal pauses |
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| the types of categories into which literary works are grouped |
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| two successive lines of iambic pentameter |
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| (overstatement) a figure of speech in which emphasis is achieved through exaggeration. |
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| a two-syllable foot consisting of a light stress followed by a heavy stress ("the winds") |
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| a line consisting of five iambic feet |
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| sensory impressions which make a literary work more vivid; figures of speech |
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| the use of language and situations that are widely inappropriate or opposite from what might be ordinarily expected |
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| placing two contrasting ideas side by side |
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| a narrative or tradition handed down form the past; distinguished from a myth in that the legend has more of historical truth and perhapsless supernatural |
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| a straightforward sentence, usually in subject-verb-object order, with no climax and no surprises. |
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| a brief subjective poem marked by imagination, melody, and emotion, and creating a single, unified impression; emphasizes the thoughts and/or feelings of the speaker |
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| a figure of speech, in which one thing is directly equated with another |
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| the recurrence in poetry of a rhythmic pattern; the number of feet within a line traditional verse |
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| a rhetorical figure in which one thing is used as a substitute for another with which it is closely associated (white house - policies of president) |
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| a long speech, written or oral, spoken by a single character to himmself or herself, the audience, or an off-stage character. |
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| the emotional feeling evoked by a work; the feeling created in the reader or audience |
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| an often repeated situation, deice, interest, or incident. (a single element) which serves as a basis for a narrative |
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| an anonymous story presenting supernatural episodes as a means of interpreting natural events; based on religion, philosophy, and collective psychology of the culture |
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| recounts an event or series of events; story; one of four types of composition; narration, argumentation, description, expostion |
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| a long lyric, formal in style and complex in form, often written for a special occasion |
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| words used in such a way that the sound of the words imitates the sound of the thing being spoken about |
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| the arrangement of the elements of plot; chronological, flashback; stream of consciousness, etc. |
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| figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas are combined (sweet sorrow) |
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| an illustrative story which detail for detail answers a question or points a moral or lesson; often associated with the Biblical parables of Jesus |
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| a statement that is self-contradictory on the surface but which reveals a truth |
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| a composition imitating another usually serious piece of work; designed to ridicule in nonsensical fashion or to criticize an original piece of work or its author |
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| a rhetorical structure in which the same grammatical forms are repeated |
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| a sentence arranged to build toward a climactic and sometimes surprising idea |
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| the narrator or speaker of a story or poem |
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| a figure of speech which endows animals, ideas, abstractions and inanimate objects with human form, character or sensibilities |
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| a planned series of interrelated actions progressing, because of the interplay of one force upon another, through a struggle to a climax and a denouement. |
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| the relation (focus; angle of vision) assumed between an author and the characters; includes the extent to which the narrator shows himself to be aware of what the character thinks and feels (1st person, 3rd person omniscient, 2nd person limited) |
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| a preface or introduction |
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| the principal character in a work the human center of interest, who is involved in some sort of conflict |
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| a play on words based on the similarity of sound between two words with different meanings |
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| the change in fortune for the protagonist in a dramatic or fictional plot |
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| broadly, the art of all effective writing |
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| the conventional techniques used in prose to heighten an effect: repetition, parallelism, simile, metaphor, irony, etc. |
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| the repetition of identical concluding syllables in different words, most often at the end of lines |
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| the varying speed, intensity elevation, pitch, loudness, and expressiveness of speech, especially poetry |
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| the section of most narratives during which the tension between opposing characters or forces builds toward a climax |
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| a literary technique which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit to the end that human institutions or humanity may be ridiculed/improved |
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| the dividing of verse into feet by indicating accents and continuing syllables to determine the meter of a poem |
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| the represented place and time of a literary work; the sum total of references to physical and temporal objects and artifacts |
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| figurative language in which words such as "like" or "as" are used to draw similarities between two apparently unlike things. |
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| a type of irony emphasizing that human beings are enmeshed in forces beyond their comprehension and control; when events turn out opposite of what you expect |
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| a speech delivered by a character to himself or directly to the audience that is often used to reveal thought or feeling |
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| a closed poetic form of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter with a particular rhyme scheme |
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| the planned framework of a piece of literature; the arrangement and placement of materials in a work; the actual assemblage of an entire work or part of a work |
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| the distinctive handling of the language by a given author; the way an author writes; manipulation of language |
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| use of a specific thing that may stand for ideas, values, persons or ways of life; a symbol always points beyond its own meaning toward greater or more complex meaning |
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| a rhetorical figure in which a part stands for a whole, or a whole for a part (all hands on board - ship's crew) |
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| sentence structure; the arrangement of words as elements in a sentence |
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| the method of presenting an artistic work |
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| the central or dominating idea or ideas that a literary work explores or asserts |
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| the attitude toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work |
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| a literary work beginning in prosperity and ending in adversity, that recounts the fall of an individual |
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| (hamartia) error or frailty that causes the downfall of a tragic protagonist |
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| two-syllable foot in which a heavy accent is followed by a light (flower) |
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| the deliberate underplaying or undervaluing of a thing to create emphasis |
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| the quality achieved by an artistic work when all its elements are so interrelated as to form a complete whole |
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| language stating the opposite of what is meant |
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| a characteristic whereby the setting, circumstances, characters, dialogue, actions, and outcomes in a work are designed to seem true, lifelike, real, plausible and probable |
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| to call attention to the similarities between two aspects of literature |
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| to call attention to the difference between two aspects of literature |
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| the description, justification, analysis or judgment of literature; the passing of judgment on the value and quality of literary works |
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| to explain the meaning; often includes the general class to which the object belongs and the specific ways in which the object differs from other objects |
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| a fully developed set of interconnected paragraphs that grow systematically out of a central idea |
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