Literary Terms
Terms
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- Irony
- A mode of expression, through words (verbal irony) or events (irony of situation), conveying a reality different from and usually opposite to appearance or expectation.
- Novella
- A prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel
- Foot
- The basic unit of meter consisting of a group of two or three syllables
- Onomatopoeia
- a word whose sounds seem to duplicate the sounds they describe--hiss, buzz, bang, murmur, meow, growl.
- Trochaic
- a foot consisting of an accented and unaccented syllable
- antagonist
- the foe of the protagonist in the story
- Meter
- The rhythmic pattern produced when words are arranged so that their stressed and unstressed syllables fall into a more or less regular sequence, resulting in repeated patterns of accent (called feet).
- Personification
- treating abstractions or inanimate objects as human, that is, giving them human attributes, powers, or feelings.
- Oxymoron
- a statement with two parts which seem contradictory; examples
- Connotation
- the emotions, values, or images associated with a word
- simile
- a comparison of two dissimilar things using "like" or "as".
- metaphor
- a comparison of two dissimilar things which does not use "like" or "as,".
- Ode
- lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevated style, and an elaborate stanza pattern.
- Theme
- the abstract concept explored in a literary work
- Iambic
- foot consisting of an unaccented and accented syllable
- Lyric Poetry
- a short poem with one speaker, who expresses thought and feeling.
- Parody
- A satiric imitation of a work or of an author with the idea of ridiculing the author, his ideas, or work
- Caesura
- A pause, metrical or rhetorical, occurring somewhere in a line of poetry
- Fiction
- prose narrative based on imagination, usually the novel or the short story
- Denotation
- the literal meaning of a word; there are no emotions, values, or images associated with denotative meaning
- Anapestic
- a foot consisting of two unaccented syllables and an accented syllable
- Point of view
- the perspective from which the story is told
- Allegory
- a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lieoutside the narrative itself
- Genre
- a literary species or form, e.g., tragedy, epic, comedy, novel, essay, biography, lyric poem.
- Subplot.
- A subordinate or minor collection of events in a novel or drama
- Blank Verse
- Unrhymed iambic pentameter
- Novel
- a novel is an extended prose fiction narrative of 50,000 words or more, broadly realistic--concerning the everyday events of ordinary people--and concerned with character.
- Characterization
- the way an author presents characters
- End-stopped
- A line that has a natural pause at the end (period, comma, etc.).
- Versification
- Generally, the structural form of a verse, as revealed by scansion
- Persona
- The person created by the author to tell a story
- Structure
- framework of a work of literature; the organization or over-all design of a work
- Gothic novel
- A novel in which supernatural horrors and an atmosphere of unknown terror pervades the action
- Travesty
- A work that treats a serious subject frivolously-- ridiculing the dignified
- PARADOX
- reveals a kind of truth which at first seems contradictory
- Tone
- The writer's attitude toward his readers and his subject; his mood or moral view
- Verisimilitude.
- How fully the characters and actions in a work of fiction conform to our sense of reality
- Style.
- The manner of expression of a particular writer, produced by choice of words, grammatical structures, use of literary devices, and all the possible parts of language use.
- protagonist
- the main character of a story
- Heroic Couplet
- Two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter
- Rhyme
- the repetition of similar sounds
- Epic.
- An extended narrative poem recounting actions, travels, adventures, and heroic episodes and written in a high style .
- hyperbole
- exaggeration, often extravagant; it may be used for serious or for comic effect.
- Lampoon
- A crude, coarse, often bitter satire ridiculing the personal appearance or character of a person
- Ridicule
- Words intended to belittle a person or idea and arouse contemptuous laughter
- Invective
- Speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or attacks
- Ballad
- a short narrative poem
- Detective novel
- A novel focusing on the solving of a crime, often by a brilliant detective, and usually employing the elements of mystery and suspense.
- Sarcasm
- one kind of irony; it is praise which is really an insult; sarcasm generally invovles malice, the desire to put someone down.
- Apologue
- A moral fable, usually featuring personified animals or inanimate objects which act like people to allow the author to comment on the human condition