Literary Terms
Terms
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- falling action
- the falling action (or resolution) is characterized by diminishing tensions and the resolution of the plot's conflicts and complications
- ballad
- a narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain
- connotation
- The emotions and feelings that surround a word; they may be negative, neutral, or positive, depending on their content, the deeper meaning
- dramatic poetry
- poetry that involves the techniques of drama; one or more characters speak to other characters who may or may not be present in the poem
- couplet
- A pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme
- dramatic irony
- discrepancy between what the character knows, and what the reader knows to be true, when the reader knows something that the character doesn't
- elegy
- A lyric poem lamenting the dead.
- denotation
- the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression, dictionary meaning
- iambic pentameter
- A metrical pattern in poetry which consists of five iambic feet per line. (an iamb, or iambic foot, consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.)
- exposition
- A narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work, that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances. Exposition explains what has gone on before, the relationships between characters, the development of a theme, and the introduction of a conflict.
- alliteration
- the repitition of sounds, most often consonat sounds, at the begining of words. Alliteration gives emphasis to words.
- climax
- the moment of greatest emotional tension in a narrative, usually marking a turning point in the plot at which the rising action reverses to become the falling action
- lyric poetry
- highly musical verse that expresses the emotions of a speaker
- dramatic monologue
- A type of poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener. As readers, we overhear the speaker in a dramatic monologue.
- flashback
- the scene in a movie, play, short story, novel, or narrative poem that interrupts the present action of the plot to flash backward and tell what happened at an earlier time
- hperbole
- extreme exaggeration
- literal language
- A form of language in which writers and speakers mean exactly what their words denote.
- conflict
- opposition in a work of drama or fiction between characters or forces (especially an opposition that motivates the development of the plot)
- metaphor
- a comparsion between two unlike things without using like or as.
- diction
- A writer's choice or words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning.
- assonance
- The repitition of similar vowel sounds within the stressed syllables of a series of words to create a particular effect.
- charcterization
- Is the process of presenting the differnet aspects of character and personality of someone in a novel or short storyor any other narratove depiction of humen being.
- epic
- A long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero. Epics typically chronicle the origins of a civilization and embody its central values
- forshadowing
- the use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot
- blank verse
- poetry written in unrhymed iambic pantameter.
- figurative language
- Writing or speech that is used to create vivid impressions by setting up comparisons between dissimilar things, [examples are metaphor, simile, and personification.