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| a word free from limitations or qualifications (best, all, perfect) |
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| when a part of a word, phrase or sentence is spoken with greater force or stronger tone |
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| a familiar proverb or wise saying |
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| to the man; appealing to personal interests, prejudices or emotions rather than to reason; an argument attacking an individual's character rather than his or her position on an issue |
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| a literary work with two or more levels of meaning: one literal level and one or more symbolic levels. The events, settings, objects or characters in alergory stand for ideas of qualities beyond themselves (Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the spiritual journey.) |
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| the repetition of initial consonant sounds of several words in a group. It is often used in poetry to emphasize and to link words as well as to create pleasing, musical sounds. ("Out from the marsh, from the foot of misty/Hills and bogs, bearing God's hatred, Grendel came." Beowulf) |
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| a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work or work of art. Allusions often come from the Bible, classical Greek and Roman myths, plays by Shakespeare, historical or political events and other materials authors expect their readers to know |
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| is the intentional or unintentional expression of a word or idea that implies more than one meaning and usually leaves uncertainty in the reader—a statement that can contain two or more meanings |
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| anything out of its proper time (an airplane in the Odyssey) |
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| repeating the end of a word of a clause as the beginning of the next one ("Pleasure might cause her to read, reading might cause her to know, knowledge might piety win, and piety grace obtain.") |
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| the rearrangement if the letters in a word or phrase to make another word or phrase (Drab is an anagram of bard.) |
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| a comparison made between two objects, situations or ideas that are somewhat alike but unlike in most respects |
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| is the process of studying the whole by examining its parts |
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| the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs |
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| is a brief story about an interesting, amusing or strange event |
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| is a character or force in conflict with the main character (protagonist) in a literary work (In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight is the antagonist, who challenges Sir Gawain.) |
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| means going before or preceding. It is also a word, phrase or clause that a relative pronoun refers to |
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| is often used deliberately for comic effect to create an ironical letdown by descending from a noble tone or image to a trivial or ludicrous one |
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| a protagonist who lacks traditional heroic virtues and noble qualities and is sometimes inept, cowardly, stupid or dishonest—yet sensitive (Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights) |
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| a strong feeling of aversion or opposition |
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| a statement in which two opposing ideas are balanced; a figure of speech in which contrasting or paradoxical ideas are presented in parallel form ("To err is human, to forgive, divine.") |
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| a general truth or observation about life, usually stated concisely and pointedly. It can be witty or wise (Francis Bacon—"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.") |
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| is where a speaker directly addresses an absent person or personified quality, object or idea. It is often used in poetry and in speeches to add emotional intensity. (Percy Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" addresses the wind.) |
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| an image, a descriptive detail, a plot pattern or a character type that occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion or folklore and is, therefore, believed to evoke profound emotions in the reader because it awakens a primordial image in the unconscious memory. Archetypes can be primitive and universal and consist of general themes like birth, death, coming of age, love, guilt, redemption, conflict between free will and destiny, rivalry among family members, fertility rites; of characters like the hero rebel, the wanderer, the devil, the buffoon; and of creatures like the lion, serpent or eagle. |
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| a set of logicall related statements consisting of a conclusion and one or more premises. The premises are the reasons for accepting the conclusion. Argument can also refer to a brief summary, or synopsis, of a literary work. |
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| a brief speech in which a character turns from the person he/she is addressing to speak directly to the audience—a dramatic device for letting the audience know what he/she is really thinking or feeling as opposed to what he/she pretends to think or feel. (Macbeth speaking: "If chance will have me King, why chance may crown me/Without my stir.") |
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| the repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables containing dissimilar consonant sounds (Robert Browning—"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" The long "e" sound is repeated in "reach" and exceed.") |
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| the omission of conjunctions from constructions in which they would normally be used—speeds up the rhythm of the sentence ("I came, I saw, I conquered.") |
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| (French—"advance guard") art and literature that are ahead of their time, that are innovative and that often attack established conventions |
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| a sentence in which words, phrases or clauses are set off against each other to emphasize a contrast (Ex: George is mentally keen and small in body; Lennie is mentally simple and large in body. [from Of Mice and Men].) Basically a specific form of parallelism. |
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| a song-like poem that tells a story, often one dealing with adventure or romance. Ballads often employ repetition of a refrain |
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a four-line stanza rhymed abcb with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four:
"o mother, mother make my bed.
O make it soft and narrow.
Since my love died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow." |
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| a propaganda technique that encourages people to think or act in some way simply because other people are doing so |
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| a figure of speech which descends from the sublime to the ridiculous in an attempt to create a grandiose or pathetic effect (an unintentional anticlimax) (found in Lord Byron's mocking epic Don Juan). When an artist tries too hard to be profound or affecting, things become absurd and embarrassing. (Example: Oronte's poem in the Misanthrope). |
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| a tale or collection of tales written in mock epic, allegorical style, in which the central characters are animals and tone is often satirical and purpose is to teach a moral or social truth (Aesop's fables, Orwell's Animal Farm and Kipling's The Jungle Book) |
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| (a fallacy) This fallacy occurs when someone assumes the truth of the statement to be proved without providing any evidence to support the statement. ("Everyone knows that contemporary poetry is obscure." No evidence is given to support the claim.) |
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| a substantial aspect of the Theatre (Drama) of the Absurd and of much modern fiction. The term describes sardonically humorous effects derived from mordant wit or grotesque situations that deal with anxiety, suffering or death. The tone is often one of resignation, anger or bitterness. (Kafka's The Metamorphosis) |
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| a form of comedy, generally associated with stage performances, that achieves its effects through distortion, exaggeration and imitation |
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| an antihero who is a romanticized but wicked character, usually a young, attractive male with a bad reputation. He defies authority and conventional morality and become paradoxically ennobled by his peculiar rejection of virtue. Byronic heroes are associated with destructive passions, selfish brooding, loneliness, intense introspection and fiery rebellion. (James Dean in Revel Without a Cause, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, and Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost.) |
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| a natural pause or break in the middle of a line of poetry |
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| a distorted or exaggerated portrayal of a person. It is used to ridicule personal flaws and general social failings. Althought one thinks of caricatures as distorted drawings, caricature of characters appears in literature. (Charles dickens—Ebenezer Scrooge in The Christmas Carol and Miss Havisham in Great Expectations) |
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| a Latin phrase meaning "Seize the day." Many great literary works have been written with the carpe diem theme, urging people to live for the moment. (Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.") |
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| a list of people, things or attributes included in a literary work basically to overwhelm the reader with the number of items mentioned. The epic uses the catalog of heroes, or ships, of armor and such. The Bible has many catalogs, the most notable example being the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, chapter 1. In the Renaissance, the sonnet and the lyric cataloged the charms of the beloved. |
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| in classical dramatic structure, a term for the final unwinding of the plot in which dramatic conflict comes to an end |
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| (means a purging or a cleansing) the process by which an unhealthy emotional state produced by an imbalance of feelings is corrected and emotional health is restored. In literature, it refers to the audience's emotional response to a tragic work. Catharsis is an emotional cleansing or expurgation |
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| a person or animal that tajes aprt in the action of a literary work. Major characters are those who play important roles in a work; minor characters are those who play lesser roles. A complex character is considered a "round" character will a simple character is "flat." A dynamic character changes throughout the work, but a static character remains the same |
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| the reversal of syntax or word order for effect ("Empty his bottle, and his girlfriend gone.") |
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| (a fallacy) This fallacy occurs when the evidence given to support a claim is simply a restatement of the claim in other words. ("Wordsworth should be considered a nature poet because he wrote poems about nature." The second part of the statement simply restates the claim made in the first part.) |
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| usually a term referring to the classics or to 5th and 4th centuries B.C. in Greece and to the 1st centuries B.C. and A.D. in Rome, when each culture reached its artistic culmination. In literature and art, it is a term used to express dominance of form over content; technical precision over emotional expressiveness; clarity, restraint and rationality over ambiguity; extravagance and free play of the imagination. |
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| a group of words containing a subject and its verb that may or may not be a complete sentence |
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| a trite phrase that has become overused. Cliches are considered bad writing and bad literature. ("There's no place like home." "The check is in the mail." "As easy as pie.") |
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| the high point of interest of suspense in a literary work. It is usually the crisis in the plot, the point at which the protagonist changes his or her understanding of the situation. Sometimes the climax coincides with the resolution, the point at which the central conflict is resolved. |
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| Latin phrase meaning "I think, therefore I exist." This was an axiom (a statement which is regarded as being established, accepted or self-evidently true) of Descartes and his philosophy. |
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| a word or phrase used every day in plain and relaxed speech but rarely found in formal writing, usually pertinent to a given area ("I hear tell that Jake got a new truck."—southern slang) |
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| a work of literature, especially a play, that has a happy ending. Comedies often show ordinary characters in conflict with their societies. Comedy is often contrasted with tragedy. |
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| a play satirizing the fashions, manners and outlook on life of an artificial, highly sophisticated society (Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Jane Austen's novels—Pride and Prejudice) |
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| is the feeling created by a humorous action or speech that appears within a serious work of literature. It is often used to emphasize, by contrast, the seriousness of the main action. (the drunken Porter in Macbeth; the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet) |
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| an unusual and surprising comparison between two very different things. This special kind of metaphor or complicated analogy is often the basis for a whole poem. It is also a whimsical, ingenious, extended metaphor in which an object scene, person, situation or emotion is presented in terms of a simpler analogue, usually from nature or a context familiar to author and reader alike. The metaphysical poets used conceit to startle the reader by showing a very exact correspondence between a thought or emotion and some particular aspect of a seemingly alien and inappropriate object. (John Donne used a drawing compass to describe the bond between the soul of him and his mistress.) |
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| anything that follows reasonably from something else. In a literary work, the conclusion is the final part, or ending, of the work. |
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| a struggle between opposing forces. The struggle can be internal, within the character. The struggle can be external—between the character and some outside force. The four types of conflict in literature are as follows: (1) man against man, (2) man against self, (3) man against nature and (4) man against society. |
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| an association that a word calls to mind in addition to its dictionary meaning (Home and domicile have the same dictionary meaning, but home has positive and warm connotations while domicile does not.) |
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| the repetition of consonant sounds in stressed syllables containing dissimilar vowel sounds ("On a hot, hot day, and I in pajamas for the heat..." Note that the consonants are the same, bu the vowels are different.) |
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| the process of observing and pointing out differences |
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| any device or style or subject matter which has become, in its time and by reason of its habitual use, a recognized means of literary expression, an accepted element in technique. (soliloquy associated with drama, simile with poetry, and catalog with the epic) |
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| a pair of rhyming lines written in the same meter. Shakespeare ended his sonnets with couplets. ("So long as men can breathe or eyes can see / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." Sonnet XVIII—Shakespeare) |
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| in the plot of a story or play is the turning point for the protagonist and often coincides with the climax of the story |
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| is a cynical attitude or character. Cynical means being contemptuous of the motives or virtues of others–mocking and sneering. (Heathcliff in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights) |
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| a metrical foot of three syllables, an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables |
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| damning with faint praise |
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| (fallacy) attacking a person by formally praising him/her, but for an achievement that should not be praised |
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| is a metaphor that has been overused to the point that its original impact has been lost ("the foot of the bed" and "toe the line") |
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| a term used in literature or art history for the decline that marks the end of a great artistic period. The general characteristics of decadence are often self-consciousness, artificiality, over-refinement and perversity |
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| deals with the ideal of propriety. It stemmed from the classical authors and was used widely by the 17th and 18th century writers. It stressed that literary works had to be polished, dignified, clear, rational and elevated |
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| is a form of argument in which the conclusion has to be true if the premises are true. (EX. People living in the 18th century had no experience with cars. Dr. Johnson lived in the 18th century. Dr. Johnson had no experience with cars.) |
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| a belief in the existence of a personal God who is manifested neither supernaturally in history nor in nature |
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| French for "already seen"—an experience involving a feeling of familiarity in a place where one has never been before in in a situation one has not before experienced |
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| a word's actual dictionary meaning as opposed to a word's connotative meaning |
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| in a literary work, it is anything that happens after the resolution of the plot. At this point the central conflict is resolved, and teh consequences for the protagonist are already decided. It is the tying up of loose ends. |
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| a belief that all apparent acts of the will are actually the result of causes which determine them. In classical literature, it may be fate. In Calvinistic teachings, it may be the predestined will of God. (Hardy's Tess of the D'ubervilles) |
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| one who deliberately takes the opposite in an argument to prove a point; a destructive critic who searches for flaws to bring out the whole truth |
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| a variety of speech characterized by its own particular grammar or pronunciation, often associated with a particular geographical region |
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| is word choice. Diction can be formal or informal, abstract or concrete, plain or ornate, ordinary or technical. A writer's choice of words has great impact in a literary work. Hemingway stated that he had to rewrite the ending to A Farewell to Arms 39 times. when asked why, he answered, "Getting the words right." (Archaic diction refers to words that are no longer in everyday use.) |
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| instructiveness in literary work, one of the purposes of which appears to be to give guidance, particularly in moral, ethical, or religious matters Didactic literature (especially poetry) teaches moral lesson. (Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale") |
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| to stray from the main subject in speaking or writing |
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| a situation that requires a person to decide between two equally attractive or equally unattractive alternatives |
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| a cheaply made, often sensational and melodramatic paperback novel of history, crime or adventure, printed in America in the latter half of the 19th century. These novels were priced at ten cents each. |
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| a lamentation sung or recited at a funeral or composed in commemoration of a death; a sad song |
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| digressing from subject to subject; relating to discourse or modes of discourse |
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| harsh and inharmonious sounds that are discordant with the words and the rhythms surrounding them in a line or sentence |
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| a type of drama allied to comedy, radically nonrealistic in both content and presentation, that emphasizes the absurdity, emptiness or meaninglessness of life (Kafka's The Metamorphosis where Gregor, whose life seems empty, morphs into a gigantic beetle—and R&G Are Dead) |
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| when there is a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience knows to be true (Oedipus in unaware that he killed his own father and married his mother.) |
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| a lyric poem in which a speaker addresses a silent or absent listener in a moment of high intensity or deep emotion, as if engaged in private conversation. The speaker proceeds without interruption or argument and the effect on the reader is that of hearing just one side of a conversation. This takes the reader inside the speakers' mind. (Robert Browning's "The Last Duchess") |
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| a character who is different at the end of the book than he/she was at the ebginning of the book. The character has undergone changes and has matured greatly, usually learning harsh lessons along the way. (Pip in Great Expectations or Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird) |
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| a solemn and formal lyric poem about death—often in tribute to a person who has died recently. Most elegies are written in formal, dignified language and are serious in tone. (Tennyson's In Memoriam and Gray's "Elegy Written in Country Churchyard") (elegiac is the adjective form) |
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| English comic and tragic plays produced during the Renaissance—during the last years of and the few years after Queen Elizabeth's reign. Thus, Shakespeare is an Elizabethan dramatist, although more than one-third of his active career lies in the reign of James I who succeeded Queen Elizabeth I to the throne. Modern English drama developed so rapidly and brilliantly that the Elizabethan Era is the golden age of English drama. |
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| the omission of a word or phrase which is grammatically necessary but can be deduced from the context ("Some people prefer cats; others, dogs.")—A series of marks used in writing to show omission of words ("To be...that is the question.") |
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| a philsophical movement of the 18th century, particularly in France but effectively over much of Europe and America. The Enlightenment celebrated reason, the scientific method and human beings' ability to perfect themselves and society. In England, Swift (Gulliver's Travels), Pope and others responded to the elements of Enlightenment thought. |
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| a line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark are end-stopped lines. |
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| a long, narrative poem about the adventures of gods or of a hero. The epic usually presents an encyclopedic portrait of the culture in which it was produced (The Odyssey and Beowulf) |
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| a brief, pointed statement in prose or in verse. It developed from simple inscriptions on monuments into a literary genre—short poems or sayings characterized by conciseness, balance, clarity and wit. Epigrams are used for many purposes, including the expression of friendship, grief, criticism, praise and philosophy. (from Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism—"Good nature and good sense must ever join; To err is human, to forgive, divine.") |
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| is a quotation that appears at the beginning of a literary work. It usually introduces a motif or theme that is developed in the work itself. |
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| the final part of a work of literature (except a play) completing and rounding it off; the opposite of preface |
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| a moment of sudden revelation or insight |
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| theoretically, an epistle is any letter, but in practice the term is limited to formal compositions written by an individual or group to a distant individual or group |
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| is an inscription on a tomb or monument to honor the memory of a deceased person. It is also used to describe any verse commemorating someone who has died. It may be serious or humorous. |
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| in a brief phrase that points out traits associated with a particular person or thing. Homer's Iliad contains many examples of epithets, such as the references to Achilles as "the great runner" and to Hector a "killer of men." |
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| s short, nonfiction work about a particular subject. It can be formal or informal. it may be classified as descriptive, narrative, expository, argumentative or persuasive. |
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| a formal piece of writing or an oration in praise of a person or thing; it has come to mean any general expression of praise |
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| a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing ("downsizing" is a euphemism for cutting jobs) |
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| a term that denotes sounds pleasing to the ear; it is the opposite of cacophony |
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| Greek meaning "I have found it"—an exclamation of delight at having made a discovery |
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| short tale or anecdote with a moral, especially one used in a medieval sermon (Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale" illustrates the moral that "love of wealth is the root of all evil.") |
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| an interjection to lend emphasis; sometimes, a profanity |
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| 1) lays the groundwork for the plot and provides the reader with essential background information. Characters are introduced, the setting is described, and the major conflict is identified. Although the exposition generally appears at the opening of a work, it may also occur later in the narrative. 2) Exposition is writing or speech that explains, informs or presents information. Types of exposition include analysis, classification, comparison and contrast, definition and exemplification. |
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| a brief story, usua;; with animal characters, that teaches a lesson or moral. Aesop, a Greek writer of the 6th century, wrote the earliest fables. |
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| a statement that can be proved true or false by evidence |
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| a logical falalcy is an error in reasoning. In an attempt to make persuasive arguments, people often fall into such errors |
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| is all of the action that takes place after the climax in a literary work. During this time, the conflict is resolved, and the suspense decreases |
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| (fallacy) Thi is an argument that forces an opponent to choose between two alternatives both unfavorable to him/her. |
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| is highly imaginative writing that contains elements not found in real life. Some fantasies include extreme or grotesque characters. Others portray realistic characters in a realistic world who only marginally overstep the bounds of reality. |
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| a kind of comedy that features physical horseplay, stereotypical characters and absurd plots, often ones involving mistaken identities and recognition scenes. The writer of farce uses exaggeration, irony and witty dialogue to move hi or her audience to laughter. (Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew) |
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| is writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally. It creates vivid word pictures and makes writing emotionally intense and concentrated (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, apostrophe, etc.). |
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| a section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to realte an event from an earlier time |
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| a character who embodies a single quality and who does nor develop in the course of the story |
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| a character who provides a contrast to another character, thus intensifying the impact of that other character (Laertes is a foil to Hamlet). |
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| includes the stories, legends, myths, ballads, riddles, sayings and other traditional works produced orally by illiterate or semi-literate peoples |
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| is the use, in a literary work, of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur. Writers use this to create suspense or to prepare the audience for the eventual outcome of events |
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| of a literary work is its structure, shape, pattern, organization or style—the way it is made. Form is different from content, which is what it is about. When applied to poetry, form refers to all the principles of arrangement in a poem—the ways in which the words and images are organized and patterned to produce a pleasing whole, including the length and placement of lines and the grouping of lines into stanzas. Elements of form—such as the sound devices o rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, consonance, and assonance—work together with elements such as figurative language and imagery to shape a poem, convey meaning and create a total experience for the reader. |
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Term
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Definition
| are the main types of writing: description, narration, exposition and persuasion |
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| framework story or frame device |
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Definition
| a story withing a narrative setting or framework, a story within a story. This is a convention frewuently used in classical and modern writing (Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Frankenstein, and Wuthering Heights). |
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Definition
| poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical (Walt Whitman's poetry) |
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| is a statement that applies to more than one thing. (Elizabethan poetry often praise Queen Elizabeth. This is ageneralization because it applies to more than one Elizabethan poem. To avoid over-generalizations, use qualifiers such as: few, some, many, most, etc.). |
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| a term used in literary criticism to designate the distinct types or categories into which literary works are grouped according to form or technique or, sometimes, subject matter (tragedy, comedy, epic, lyric, pastoral, novel, short story, essay, plays, television, movie) |
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| is a term used to describe literary works that make extensive use of primitive, Medieval, wild, mysterious, or natural elements. Gothic novels like Frankenstein are often set in gloomy castles where horrifying, supernatural events occur. |
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| characterized by distortions or incongruities. The fiction of Poe is often described as grotesque. |
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iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs. The favorite meter of Chaucer, this verse form did not come into its greatest popularity, however, until the middle of the 17th century, after which time it was for several years the dominant mode for the poetic drama.
"But when to mischief mortals bend their will,
How soon they find fit instruments of ill." |
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| a line containing six feet |
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| a sermon or a moralistic lecture |
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| Greek—extreme pride. Hubris is a tragic flaw of pride, ambition or overconfidence that leads a hero to ignore warnings of the gods or to disregard established moral codes, resulting in the hero's downfall. (Macbeth in Macbeth) |
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| is a deliberate exaggeration or overstatement (I could sleep for a year. This book weighs a ton.) Macbeth after murdering King Duncan, "Will all great Neptune's ocean was this blood/Clean from my hand?" |
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| a question that raises a hypothesis, conjecture, or supposition |
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| the mistaken substitution of one word for another word that sounds similar ("The doctor wrote a subscription." |
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| a form of dramatic entertainment. The masque, like drama, probably found its roots in primitive fertility rites. It appears in many societies in many forms. Usually it ends with a dance where both spectator and performer dance. |
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| a concise statement, often offering advice; an adage |
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| a play spoken with musical accompaniment. At one time it meant an opera, but today it indicates a play, with or without music, with a romantic plot and appealing to the emotions of the spectators |
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| is a comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "As." "Time's winged chariot" is a metaphor is which the swift passage of time is compared to a speeding chariot. An extended metaphor is one that is developed at length and involves several points of comparison. A mixed metaphor occurs when two are jumbled together (thorns and rain as in "thorns of life rained down on him." A dead metaphor is one that is overused. |
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| is a style of poetry written by a group of 17th century poets, of whom John Donne was the first. These poets were intellectuals who, like the ideal Renaissance man, were well-read in a broad spectrum of subjects. Although their poems often used simplistic words, their meaning was obscure or confusing due to the poets' use of paradox. |
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| is the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in poetry. Each unit of measure is known as a foot, consisting of one stressed syllable and one or two unstressed syllables |
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| a figure of speech that substitutes something closely related for the thing actually meant ("Just for a handful of silver he left us," refers to money. The crown can be the king, the White House can be the government. "The pen [writing] is mightier than the sword [war/fighting]".) |
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| a romantic tale in verse. The term is applied both to such medieval verse romances as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and to the type of verse romances produced by Lord Byron |
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| an early form of comedy, probably originating in Italy, where players combined dialogue with dancing and suggestive gestures. Today no dialogue is heard. |
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| is a poem about a trivial matter written in the style of a serious epic. The incongruity of style and subject matter produces comic effects (Pope's The Rape of the Lock.) |
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| is a speech or performance given entirely by one person or by one character |
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| or atmosphere, is the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage. The mood is YOUR reaction and feeling to a work; the tone is the WRITER's attitude. Writers create mood through the following: connotation, details, dialogue, imagery, figurative language, foreshadowing, setting and rhythm. |
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| These plays were allegorical dramas of the late Middle Ages. Characters are always abstract personifications. The most famous morality play is Everyman with its abstract characters. |
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| is a recurring literary convention or element that is repeated within a literary work. It ould be synonymous with theme, but usually motif unifies a work and adds to its theme. (In Macbeth, references to blood, sleep and water form motifs in the play.) |
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| is a reason that explains or partially explains a character's thoughts, feelings, actions or speech |
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Nine goddesses represented as presiding over song, the various departments of literature and the liberal arts. They are generally considered to be the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (memory). In literature, their traditional significance is that of inspiring and helping poets.
(1) Calliope— Muse of epic poetry (symbols are tablet and stylus, sometimes a scroll)
(2) Clio— Muse of heroic poetry or history (symbol is a scroll or an open chest of books
(3) Erato— Muse of love poetry (symbol is a lyre)
(4) Euterpe— Muse of music, particularly wind instruments (symbol is flute)
(5) Melpomene— Muse of tragedy (symbols are a tragic mask, club of Hercules and a sword)
(6) Polyhymnia— Muse of sacred poetry and hymns (no symbol but sits in a pensive posture)
(7)Terpsichore— Muse of choral song and dance (symbol is a lyre)
(8) Thalia— Muse of comedy (symbols are a comic mask, a shepherd's crook and a wreath of ivy)
(9) Urania— Muse of astronomy (symbol is a staff pointing to a globe) |
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| a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typicall involving supernatural beings or events (Ancient Celtic myths of the heroes of Greek myths) |
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| describes a neurotic obsession with one's own person. (Narcissus was loved by the nymph Echo, but when he failed to return her love, she caused him to fall in love with his reflection in a pool of water. He pined away and was turned into the flowers that bears his name.) Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, where Dorian's narcissistic behavior destroys him) |
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| is writing that tells a story and is one of the major forms of discourse |
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| the one who tells the story; may be first-or third-person, limited or omniscient |
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| a term that is sometimes applied to writing that demonstrates a deep interest in nature, such as Wordsworth and other Romantic writers had and sometimes used to describe any form of extreme realism. In its simplest sense, naturalism is the application of the principles of scientific determinism to fiction and drama |
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| a revival in the 17th and 18th centuries of classical standards of order, balance and harmony in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major exponents of the neoclassical school. |
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| prose writing that is about real people, places and events. It is largely concerned with factual information, although the writer selects and interprets the information according to his or her purpose and viewpoint. Nonfiction includes autobiographies, biographies, letters, essays, diaries, journals, memoirs and speeches. |
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| a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement |
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| a long work of fiction. It usually has a complicated plot, many major and minor characters, a significant theme and several settings. |
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| is a serious fictional form that is somewhere between the novel and the short story in length (Conrad's The Secret Sharer and Heart of Darkness are novellas.) |
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| a quality in a literary work of impersonality, of freedom from the expression of personal sentiments, attitudes, or emotions by the author (subjectivity is the opposite and is based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes or opinions) |
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| first 8 lines of a sonnet |
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| a formal lyric poem with a serious theme. Odes often honor people, commemorate events, respond to natural scenes or consider serious human problems. (Percy Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" and Mrs. Hill's "Ode to a Flip Flop" using SAT words) |
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| when the storyteller's knowledge extends to the internal states of all the characters. This all-knowing point of view gives the writer greater flexibility and provides the reader with access to all the characters' motivations and responses to events that may be occurring simultaneously. (D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner") |
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| use of words whose sounds echo their meanings, such as buzz, whisper, gargle and murmur |
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| the passing of songs, stories and poems from generation to generation by word of mouth (Beowulf) |
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| synonymous with hyperbole; an exaggeration |
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| a combination of contradictory terms or ideas ("loving hate" in Romeo and Juliet) |
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| a word or line reads the same backward as it does forward (Madam, I'm Adam.) |
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| is a brief story that is meant to teach a lesson or to illustrate a moral truth. It is more than a simple story. Each detail of the parable corresponds to some aspect of the problem or moral dilemma to which it is direct. (The prodigal son in the Bible is a parable.) |
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| a statement that seems to be contradictory but that actually reveals some element of truth. |
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| the repetition of a grammatical pattern to express ideas that are related or equal in importance. The parallel elements may be words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs. ("Is it wise/To hug misery/To make a song?" Infinitives are repeated here.) |
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| is a restatement in different words. One is not to alter the meaning of the words, merely translate what the writer has said into equivalent words of one's own. |
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| a comment that interrupts the immediate subject, often to quality or explain |
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| imitates or mocks another work or type of literature. The purpose of a parody may be to ridicule through broad humor, or it may broaden understanding of or add insight to the original work. (Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a parody on Hamlet.) (Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130" is a parody of love poetry.) |
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| a poem presenting shepherds in rural settings, usually in an idealized manner. The language and form are artificial, using formal, courtly speech. Pastoral can also be any literary work that deals with the pleasures of as simple, rural life or with escape to a simpler place and time—typically in a romanticized or idealized form. (Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love") |
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| is the quality in a literary work that arouses feelings of pity, sorrow or compassion in a reader or the audience (the murdering of Macduff's family in Macbeth) |
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| characterized by an excessive display of learning or scholarship |
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| a line of poetry containing five feet. The iambic pentameter is the most common line in English verse written before 1950 |
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| the concluding part of a speech, typically intended to inspire enthusiasm in the audience (Martin Luther King's speeches, sermons) |
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| is the "I" created by an author and through whom the author unravels his perceptions of characters and events (Narrator, Marlowe, is Conrad's persona in Heart of Darkness.) |
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| is when a nonhuman object is given human characteristics (Gray's "Elgy...Churchyard" where "Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth"—the earth is personified.) |
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| is a technique used by speakers and writers to convince an audience to adopt a particular opinion, perform an action or both (Churchill's speech of May 19, 1940) |
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| a strong verbal denunciation |
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| is used to describe a genre of literature in which the life and adventures of a rogue ar chronicled (Defoe's Moll Flanders and Cervantes' Don Quixote) |
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| is sequence of events in a literary work. Two primary elements are character and a conflict. A plot includes the following: exposition, rising action, climax, and falling action. |
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| is the perspective from which a story is told. (1)First-person point of view is when the narrator is character in the work and narrates the action as he/she perceives and understands it. (2) Third-person point of view is when the events and characters are described by a narrator outside the action. Third person omniscient point of view has the narrator all-knowing, seeing into the minds of more than one character. (3) Third-person limited point of view is when the narrator tells the story from the perspective of only one of the characters, so the reader learns only what the character thinks, feels, observes and experiences. |
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| a strong verbal or written attack on someone or something (his polemic against the cultural relativism of the Sixties) |
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| the repetition of connectives or conjunctions in close succession for rhetorical effect (here and there and everywhere) |
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| having or using the style or diction of prose as opposed to poetry; lacking imaginativeness or originality |
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| is the ordinary form of written language and one of the three major types of literature. Most writing that is not poetry, drama or song is considered prose, and prose is found in two major forms: fiction and nonfiction |
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| is the central character in a story, novel, or play. The protagonist is always involved in the main conflict of the plot and often changes during the course of the work. The force or person who opposes the protagonist is the antagonist. |
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| is a play on words used to convey two meanings at the same time. (Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet—"Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man." He has just been stabbed, and the pun is on the word "grave"—a serious person or a corpse in his grave.) |
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| is a four-line stanza, or unit, of poetry. |
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| refers to any effort to offer an accurate and detailed portrayal of actual life. Chaucer is praised for his realistic descriptions of people from all social classes of the 14th century. Shakespeare is praised for his realistic portrayals of character. Realism also refers to a literary method developed in the 19th century. These realists based their writing on careful observations of ordinary life, often focusing on the middle or lower classes. They attempted to present life objectively and honestly, without the sentimentality or idealism that had characterized earlier literature. |
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| is a regularly repeated line or group of lines in a poem or song |
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| a quality of some fictional narrators whose word the reader can trust. There are both reliable and unreliable narrators, that is tellers of a story who should or should not be trusted. Most narrators are reliable (Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway or Conrad's Marlow), but some are clearly not to be trusted (Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart"). |
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| is a technique in which a sound, word, phrase or line is repeated for emphasis or unity (Blake's poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger") |
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| is when the conflict of a plot is ended |
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| the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques; language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect, but which is often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content (All we get from politicians is empty rhetoric.) |
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| literary techniques used to heighten the effectiveness of expression |
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| It implies that the answer is obvious—the kind of question that does not need to be answered. It is used for rhetorically persuading someone of a truth without argument or to give emphasis to a supposed truth by stating its opposite ironically. Rhetorical questions are often used for comic effect as in Henry IV when Falstaff lies about fighting off eleven men single-handedly, then responds to the prince's doubts, "Art thou mad? Is not the truth the truth?" On the other hand, Iago in Othello uses rhetorical question for sinister ends, persuading Othello that his loving wife is a whore. Iago hints with questions ("Honest, my lord?" "Is't possible, my lord?") |
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| Words rhyme when the sounds of their accented vowels and all succeeding sounds are identical, as in amuse and confuse. For true rhyme, the consonants that preceded the vowels must be different. Rhyme that occurs at the end of lines of poetry is called end rhyme, as in Thomas Hardy's rhyming of face and place in "The Man He Killed." End rhymes that are not exact but approximate are called off rhyme, or slant rhyme, as in the words come and doom. Rhyme that occurs within a single line is called internal rhyme: "Give the crowns and pounds and guineas," A.E. Housman. |
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| in the plot is where complications usually arise, causing difficulties for the main characters and making the conflict more difficult to resolve. As the characters struggle to find solutions to the conflict, suspense builds. |
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| has been a popular narrative form since the Middle Ages. Generally, the term refers to any imagintive adventure concerned with noble heroes, gallant love, chivalric code of honor, daring deeds and supernatural events. Romances usually have faraway settings, depict events unlike those of ordinary life and idealize their heroes as well as the eras in which the heroes lived. Medieval romances are often lighthearted in tone, usually consist of a number of episodes and often involve one of more characters in a quest. Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur is an example of a medieval romance with its stories of kings, knights and ladies |
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| refers to a literary movement that flourished in Britain and Europe throughout much of the 19th century. Romantic writers looked to nature for inspiration, idealized the distant past and celebrated and individual. In reaction against neoclassicism, their treatment of subjects was emotional rather than ration, imaginative rather analytical. The romance period in English Literature is generally viewed as beginning with the publication of Lyrical Ballads, poems by Wordsworth and Coleridge |
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| a character who demonstrates some complexity and who develops or changes in the course of a work |
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