2005 lhhs ocad lang lit basic
Terms
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- accent
- when a syllable is given a greater amount of force in speaking than is given to another; also called a stress
- alexandrine
- in English verses, a line of iambic hexameter, usually having a caesura after the third foot
- allegory
- a narrative in either verse or prose in which characters, events, and in some cases setting, represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of the story
- alliteration
- the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within them, especially in accented syllables
- allusion
- an indirect reference to a person, place, or thing-fictious, historical, or actual
- analogy
- a comparison made between two objects, situations, or ideas that share something in common but are otherwise totally different
- anapest
- a metrical foot consisting of three syllables, two unaccented followed by one accented
- anaphora
- the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of several successive clauses, verses, or paragraphs
- antagonist
- a character in a story or play that opposes the protagonist
- apostrophe
- a figure of speech in which a character or narrator directly addresses an abstract concept, an inanimate object, or a person who is not present
- assonance
- the repetition of similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables or words; like alliteration, assonance may occur either initially or internally
- ballad
- a narrative song or poem passed on orally
- blank verse
- verse written in unthymed iambic pentameter
- caesura
- a light but definite pause within a line of poetry
- catharsis
- the purification of emotions by vicarious experience, especially through drama
- characterization
- the methods used by an author to develop the personality of a character in a literary work
- chiasmus
- a rhetorical device in which words or phrases initially presented are restated in reverse order; for example, "do not live to eat, but eat to live"
- chorus
- in ancient Greek drama, a group of actors who sang and danced in unison and provided commentary on the actions of the main characters
- Cliche
- a trite or hackneyed expression, idea, plot, character development, etc.
- climax
- a decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot; a point when the action changes course and begins to resolve itself in some manner
- comedy
- a play written primarily to amuse the audience, usually featuring a protagonist whose fortunes take a turn for the better
- comic relief
- an amusing scene, incident, character, or speech introduced into a serious or tragic work to relieve tension
- conceit
- an elaborate, extended, and often surprising comparison made between two very dissimilar things that exhibits the author's ingenuity and cleverness; (from the Italian "concetto," meaning concept, bright idea)
- concrete poem
- a poem in which the visual arrangement of the letters and words suggests its meaning
- conflict
- a struggle between two opposing forces or characters in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem; a conflict can be external or internal; there are four common types of conflicts; a person against another person, a person against nature, a person against society, and a person against him or herself
- connotation
- the emotional associations that surround a word as opposed to its denotation
- consonance
- the repetition of consonant sounds that are preceded by a different vowel
- couplet
- two successive lines of verse that have the same meter and in many cases rhyme
- dactyl
- a three-syllable metrical foot consisting of a stresed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
- declining action
- in a narrative, action that occurs after the climax and directly before the denouement or the resolution of the plot; falling action
- denotation
- the literal meaning of a word--its "dictionary definition" that does not take into account any other emotions or ideas the reader may associate with it
- denouement
- the resolution of the plot of a literary work; the final unravelling of the complications of a plot; the word "denouement" is French for "unknotting" or "untying"
- deus ex machina
- a Latin term meaning "the god from the machine"; in ancient dramas, a god would often descend to the stage to rescue the protagonist from doom; thus, this term is used to refer to any power, event, person, or thing that comes in the nick of time to solve a difficulty; also can refer to providential interposition, espeically in a novel or play
- dialect
- variety of language spoken by a social group or spoken in a certain locality that differs from the standard speech in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical form
- dialogue
- a conversation carried on between two or more people in a literary work; dialogue can serve many purposes, including characterization, advancement of the plot, development of the theme(s), and creation of mood
- diction
- the author's choice of words and phrases; diction involves both connotation and denotation
- didactic poetry
- poetry whose purpose is to teach the reader some kind of lesson
- dramatic irony
- a situation in which the author and the audience share knowledge by which they can recognize that the character's actions are inappropriate or that the character's words have a significance but these things are unknown to the character-the audience or reader has knowledge that the character does not have
- dramatic monologue
- a lyric poem in which the speaker addresses someone whose replies are not recorded; in a dramatic monologue, the poet adopts the voice of a fictive or historical voice or some other persona
- dramatic situation
- a situation that drives the plot of a drama that involves the dynamic relation between a character and a goal or objective and the obstacles that intervene between the character and the objective
- dynamic character
- a character that changes in some way-usually for the better-during the course of a story
- elegy
- a lament or a sadly meditative poem, sometimes written on the occasion of a death; usually formal in language and structure and solemn or melancholy in tone
- end rhyme
- rhyming of words at the ends of lines of poetry
- end-stopped line
- a line of poetry that contains a complete thought, usually ending with a period, colon, or semicolon, and therefore ends in a full pause; the opposite of a run-on line
- English or Shakespearean sonnet
- a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter having a rhyme scheme of abab/cdcd/efef/gg; is usually presented in a four-part structure in which a theme or idea is developed in the first three quatrains and then is brought to a conclusion in the couplet
- enjambment
- the employment of run-on lines of poetry, whereby the meaning of the statement is carried from one line to the next without a pause
- epic
- a long narrative poem describing the deeds of a great hero, great adventures, and matters of national or global significance and sometimes featuring supernatural forces
- epigram
- a short poem that ends in a witty or ingenious turn of thought, to which the rest of the composition is intended to lead up
- epigraph
- a motto or quotation at the beginning of a book, poem, or chapter that usually indicates its theme
- epiphany
- a moment of enlightenment in which the underlying truth or essential nature of something is sudenly revealed or made clear to a character
- epistolary
- associated with letters or the writing of letters; for example, an dpistolary poem is a letter written in verse
- eye rhyme
- rhyme in which two or more words look the same and are spelled similarly but have different pronunciations, for example, "have" and "grave"; also called sight rhyme
- exposition
- in fiction, the narrative passages that establish the basic details of the story, including setting, time, and characters; in drama, scenes that introduce the main characters and introduce the dramatic situation; in some cases, the exposition will provide the audience with information on events that occurred prior to the point in time at which the work begins
- falling action
- in a narrative, action that occurs after the climax and directly before the denouement or the resolution of the plot
- farce
- a highly comic, light-hearted drama, usually involving stock situations and characters and based on a far-fetched humorous situation
- feminine ending
- an unaccented syllable at the end of a line of poetry
- feminine rhyme
- a rhyme in which the similarity of sound is in both of the last two syllables; for example, "weary" and "dreary"
- figurative of language
- language used in a nonliteral way; figurative language uses figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, synecdoche, etc.
- figure of speech
- an expression in which words are used in a nonliteral way to achieve an effect beyond the range of ordinary language
- flashback
- an interruption in the continuity of a story by the portrayal of some earlier episode
- flat character
- a character that has a single distinguishing trait and is not developed into a whole personality
- foil
- a person or thing that highlights the traits of a character by contrast
- foot
- a division of verse consisting of a number of syllables, one of which has the principal stress; the basic unit of meter in poetry
- foreshadowing
- the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem
- framed story
- a narrative device whereby a story or group of stories is presented (often told by one of the characters) within the framework of a larger narrative; Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is an example of a framed story
- free verse
- poetry that does not have a fixed meter or rhyme scheme
- haiku
- a Japanese poetic form that is comprised of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively
- half-rhyme
- slant rhyme
- hero/heroine
- the central character in a work of fiction
- heroic couplet
- two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter
- high comedy
- a comedy that appeals to the intellect using verbal wit, a clever plot, and visual elegance, usually having upper-class characters
- hyperbole
- a figure of speech in which exaggeration or overstatement is used for special effect
- iamb
- a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, the first unaccented, the second accented
- iambic pentameter
- poetry consisting of a line of five iambs; the most common verse line in English poetry; a meter especially familiar because it occurs in all blank verse, heroic couplets, and sonnets
- imagery
- the details in a work of literature that appeals to the senses of the reader, lend the work vividness, and tend to arouse an emotional response in the reader
- In medias res
- a Latin phrase meaning "in the middle of things"; used in reference to narratives that begin in the middle of the action
- internal rhyme
- rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry
- irony
- the contrast between what appears to be and reality; see dramatic irony, situational irony, and verbal irony
- Italian or Petrarchan sonnet
- a fourteen-line poem in two parts, an initial octet (eight lines) followed by a sestet (six lines), usually having a rhyme scheme of abbaabba/cdecde; the octet and the sestet are usually played off of one another in some way
- limerick
- a five-line comic verse form with a rhyme scheme of aabba, with the first, second, and fifth lines in trimeter and the third and fourth in dimeter
- litotes
- a type of understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negation of its opposite; for example, "this is no small problem."
- low comedy
- comic actions based on broad physical humor, scatology, crude punning, and the argumentative behavior of ignorant and often lower-class characters
- lyric
- a poem that expresses an emotion or state of mind, creating a single, highly personal impression upon the reader
- masculine ending
- an accented syllable that ends a line of verse
- masculine rhyme
- a rhyme of one-syllable words (ex: "jail" and "bail" ) or of stressed final syllables (ex: "divorce" and "remorse")
- melodrama
- a sensational nineteenth-century play that featured a suspenseful, plot-oriented drama with all-good heroes, all-bad villains, simplistic dialogue, and soaring moral conclusions
- metaphor
- a frigure of speech that makes direct comparison (without the use of a qualifier such as "like" or "as") between two things which are basically dissimilar but share something in common
- meter
- a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry
- metonymy
- a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated; for example, the use of the word "Washington" to mean the U.S. government
- microcosm
- in literature, refers to a model in which events on a miniature scale parallel those occurring on a larger scale; for example, conflict within a family might be a microcosm of a world at war; the word literally means "small world"