Honors English II Literary Terms
Honors English 9 & 10 literary Terms
Terms
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- Epic Simile
- An elaborate comparison of unlike objects using like or as
- Tragedy
- A serious play in which the chief figures, by some peculiarity of character, pass through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe
- Idiom
- A specialized vocabulary used by a group of people, jargon.
- Speaker
- The voice, often a created identity and not automatically equated with the author's self, used by an author to tell a story or speak a poem.
- Trochee
- A metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable (noted by "/") and an unaccented (noted by "x").
- Irony
- A device that depends on the existence of at least two separate and contrasting levels of meaning embedded in one message. Verbal irony occurs when someone says one thing and means another. It is similar to sarcasm. Situational irony occurs when a character or reader expects one thing to happen and something entirely different occurs. Dramatic irony refers to the contrast between what the reader or the audience and what the character knows.
- Couplet
- A pair of rhyming lines, usually of the same length and meter. It generally expresses a single idea.
- Iamb
- A metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable (noted by "x") and an accented or stressed one (noted by "/").
- Foreshadowing
- The use in a literary work of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur. Use of this technique helps to create suspense.
- Personification
- A figure of speech where animals, ideas, or inorganic objects are given human characteristics.
- Scansion
- The analysis of a poem's meter - usually done by marking stressed and unstressed syllables in each line and then, based on the pattern of the stresses, dividing the line into feet.
- Pun
- A play on words based on different meanings of words that sound alike.
- Enjambment
- "To straddle or bestride" -- a linguistic unit moves into or "straddles" the next line before its meaning is completed.
- Epithet
- In literature a word or phrase preceding or following a name which serves to describe the character. "Horse-taming Hector"
- Figurative Language
- Writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally. It is often used to create vivid impressions by setting up comparisons between dissimilar things.
- Protagonist
- The central character in a literary work.
- Antagonist
- The character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that opposes the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict in the story.
- Monologue
- Thoughts of a single person, directed outward.
- Onomatopoeia
- A term referring to the use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes. Examples are buzz, rattle, sizzle, and bang.
- Rhyme
- The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words most often at the ends of lines.
- Hyperbole
- A figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration is used for deliberate effect.
- Symbol
- Roughly defined as something that means more than what is said. Something that stands in the place of another thing
- Aside
- A device in which a character in a drama makes a short speech which is heard by the audience but not by the other characters in the play.
- Soliloquy
- A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his/her thoughts without addressing a listener.
- Free Verse
- Refers to poems characterized by their non-conformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza. Usually does not rhyme.
- Tragic flaw
- The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall or error; also means any disproportion in the character's makeup that leads to downfall; also known as hamartia
- Oxymoron
- A phrase consisting of words that seem the opposite in meaning, such as "sweet sorrow".
- Malapropism
- An incorrect usage of a word, usually with comic effect.
- Hubris
- A common theme in Greek tragedies and mythology -- excessive pride or arrogance.
- Stanza
- A group of lines within a poem (functions like a paragraph in prose)
- Archetype
- A term used to describe universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes unconscious responses in a reader.
- Metaphor
- A type of figurative language in which, for the purposes of exploring a common, shared quality, a statement is made that says that one thing is something else, but literally, it is not.
- Internal Rhyme
- Rhyme that occurs within a line or passage, whether randomly or in some kind of pattern
- Apostrophe
- A figure of speech where the speaker speaks directly to something nonhuman. This term gives the character the opportunity to think aloud.
- In media res
- In or into the middle of a sequence of events.
- Point of view
- The way the events of a story are conveyed to a reader -- the vantage point from which the narrative is passed from author to reader.
- Catharsis
- Meaning "purgation," this term describes the release of the emotions of pity and fear by the audience at the end of a tragedy.
- Comedy
- A literary work which is amusing and ends happily.
- Tone
- The writer's attitude toward the material and/or the reader.
- Genre
- A recognizable and established category of written work employing such common conventions as will prevent readers or audiences from mistaking it [with] another kind.
- Comic Relief
- The inclusion of humorous scenes or characters in a serious drama. Writers use it to ease the building emotional intensity.
- Blank Verse
- Unrhymed iambic pentameter. The English verse form closest to the natural rhythms of English speech.
- Imagery
- The collection of images within a literary work used to evoke atmosphere, mood, tension.
- Allusion
- An indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader's familiarity with what is thus mentioned.
- Slant Rhyme
- The words are similar but lack perfect correspondence. Example: found and kind, grime and game.
- Alliteration
- Repetition of the same sound beginning several words in a sequence
- Simile
- A figure of speech in which like or as is used to make a comparison between two basically unlike ideas. "Claire is as flighty as a sparrow"
- Climax
- The decisive moment in a drama -- the turning point to which the rising action leads.
- Theme
- The abstract concept explored in a literary work, or frequently recurring ideas, or repetition of a meaningful element in a work.
- Meter
- In English poetry -- rhythms of stressed and unstressed syllables-- iambic, trochaic, spondaic, anapestic, dactylic --