Literary Terms Page 9
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- litotes
- understatement, where a positive is expressed as a negative
- malapropism
- confusion of similar-sounding words which often ends up sounding humorous
- metaphor
- comparison of unlike things without using words "like" or "as"
- moral
- a lesson the literature is teaching; fables usually teach a lesson about life
- motif, literary
- recurrent words or phrases
- mythology
- traditional tales about goddesses, gods, heroes and other characters, often telling about the creation of the universe, talking about death, or otherwise philosophically explaining human existence
- n. b.
- note well
- narration
- telling a story
- narrator
- person telling story or narrative
- nom de plume
- pen name or pseudonym used by author
- novel
- long, fictional prose story
- novel, gothic
- novel with medieval setting suggesting mystery and/or horror
- novel, historical
- full-length fiction book, using historical facts as its basis for plot or setting, but including imaginary characters and dialogue
- novel, picaresque
- novel characterized by young hero of lower-class, unrespectable background, who leaves home and is faced with a harsh, cruel world, and eventually conforms to its realities
- novella
- short novel with fewer characters than novel
- nuance
- slight shade of meaning or detail
- op. cit.
- used in footnotes/bibliographies to refer to work previously cited or quoted
- oxymoron
- use of paradoxical or opposite words for effect
- paradox
- contradictory statement that makes sense
- paraphrase
- restatement of writing, keeping the basic meaning, but telling it in one's own words
- parody, literary
- satire imitating, but mocking an author or work