TPS ENGLISH LIT TERMS
Terms
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- Catharsis
-
A purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially
pity and fear - Chorus
-
The group in a classical Greek drama whose songs and dances present
an exposition of or, in later tradition, a disengaged commentary on the
action. - Episode
-
An incident or event that is part of a progression or a larger
sequence - Stasimon
-
a song of the chorus, continued without the interruption of
dialogue - Hamartia
- Tragic flaw
- Peripetia
-
A sudden change of events or reversal of circumstances,
especially in a literary work - Anagnorisis
- recognition
- Hubris
- arrogance
- In medias res
- In the middle of a sequence of events
- Epithet
- A term used to characterize a person or thing
- Xenia
- hospitality
- Epic poetry
-
An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language,
celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero - Allusion
- indirect reference
- Aside
-
A piece of dialogue intended for the audience and supposedly not
heard by the other actors on stage - Blank verse
-
Verse consisting of unrhymed lines, usually of iambic
pentameter - Denotation
- The most specific or direct meaning of a word
- Couplet
-
A unit of verse consisting of two successive lines, usually rhyming
and having the same meter and often forming a complete thought or syntactic
unit - Foreshadowing
- To present an indication or a suggestion of beforehand
- Imagery
-
The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects,
actions, or ideas - Metaphor
- Comparison that is not using the words like or as
- Mood
- A state of mind or emotion
- Tone
- Manner of expression
- Tragedy
-
A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to
ruin or suffers extreme sorrow - Oxymoron
- combination of 2 opposite words in a phrase (jumbo shrimp)
- Pun
- play on words
- Rhythm
- The patterned, recurring alternations of contrasting elements
- Simile
- Comparison using like or as
- Soliloquy
-
A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character
talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without
addressing a listener - Symbol
- Something that represents something else
- Theme
- An implicit or recurrent idea; a motif
- Personification
- giving an inanimate object human characteristics
- Hyperbole
-
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or
effect (This book weighs a ton) - Motif
- A recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work
- Exposition
-
The part of a play that provides the background information
needed to understand the characters and the action - Climax
- point of greatest intensity or force
- Conflict
- disharmony
- Iambic pentameter
-
Consists of one short syllable followed by one long
syllable - Hero (tragic vs. epic)
- A person noted for special achievement
- Connotation
- A defintion of a word other than its dictionary defintion