LangLit Basic guide
Terms
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- Internal Rhyme
- A rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry.
- Irony
- The contrast between what appears to be and reality
- 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 the fifth lines in trimeter, and teh third and fourth in dimeter.
- Litotes
- A type of understatement in which and affirmative in 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 arugmentative behavior of ignorant and often lower-class characters.
- Lyric
- A poem that expresses an emotion or state of mind, creating a single, highly personal impresion upon the reader.
- Masculine Ending
- In accented syllable that ends a line of verse.
- Masculine Rhyme
- A rhyme of one syllable words(jail and bail)or of stressed final syllables( divorse and remorse)
- Melodrama
- A sensational 19th century play that featured a suspenseful, plot-oriented drama with all good heroes, all bad villains, simplistic dialogue, and soraring 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
- matonymy
- 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 US gov't
- 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"
- mood
- the overall atmosphere or prevealing emotional aura of a literary work
- narrative
- a story or an account of an event or series of events: narratives can be told in either prose or poety, and they may be either fiction or non-fiction
- narrative poem
- a poem that tells a story or provides an account of an event or events
- near rhyme
- slant rhyme
- novel
- the lengthy work of prose fiction that depicts a number of characters in various settings and covers a relatively long period of time: the characters, settings, and situations of novels usually immitAte those in real life
- novella
- a story that is longer than a short story but is shorter than a novel: Joseph Conrad's The Secret Sharer is an example of a novella
- ode
- a formal, ceremonious, and complexly organized form of lyric poety: odes are usually rather long and often commemorate an important event or celebrATIon such as a marriage or public cermony
- off rhyme
- slant rhyme
- onomatopoeia
- a word or words that immitate the sound of the thing spoken of: for example, "zoom" "whiz" "crash"
- oxymoron
- a phrase that combines two seemingly contradictory elements: for example, "living death", "dear enemy, "wise fool"
- paradox
- a statement that appears to be self-contradictory but nonetheless has valid meaning
- 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
- 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
- iamb
- a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, the first unaccented, the second accented
- hyperbole
- a figure of speech in which exaggeration or overstatement is used for special effect
- high comedy
- a comedy that appeals to the intellect using verbal wit, a clever plot, and visual elegance, usually having upper-class characters
- heroic couplet
- two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter
- Alliteration
-
the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within them, especially in
accented syllables - 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)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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"
- 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
- 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
- synecdoche
- a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole; the whole of something is used to represent a part; the specific is used for the general; the general is used for the specific; or the material of an object is used in place of the object; for example, "hired hands"
- synthesia
- the manner of speaking about one sense in terms of another; for example, "she wore a SCREAMING RED skirt"
- theme
- the underlying meaning of a literary work
- tone
- the author's attitude, whether stated or implied, about his or her subject matter and toward the audience
- tragic flaw
- in a tragedy, the flaw in the protagonist that leads to his or her own downfall.
- tragic irony
- refers to instanecs in a tragedy when the protagonist experiences a misfortune that is contrary to what he or she expected to happen
- tragicomedy
- a drama that combines elements of tragedy and comedy
- trochee
- a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
- understatement
- a figure of speech in which restraint or lack of emphasis is used purposefully for effect
- unreliable narrator
- a narrator whose account of events or characters is recognized by the reader as being faulty, dishonest, or distorted
- verbal irony
- when the intended meaning of a statement or a work is different from what is literally said
- villain
- an antagonist who is deliberately evil
- villanelle
- a poetic form that usually is comprised of five tercets, each rhyming aba, and a concluding quatrain, rhyming abaa, with the first and third lines of the first tercet alternating as refrains throughout the poem
- slight rhyme
- slant rhyme
- simile
- a figure of speech that compares two essentially unlike things to highlight something they have in common; this comparison is indicated bya c onnective, such as "like," "as," or "than"
- situational irony
- an occurrence that is contrary to what is expected or intended
- slant rhyme
- two words or syllables that have approximately the same vowel sounds but not exactly; also called near, off, half or partial rhyme
- Soliloquy
- a dramtic convention whereby a character speaks his or her thoughts aloud; a speech to oneself
- spondee
- a metrical foot consisting of two accented syllables
- stanza
- a group of lines that are set off and for a division in a pom; a sequence of lines that form a metrical, tonal, or topical unit
- stereotype
- a conventional character, plot, or setting that possesses no individuality but may be used by the author to acheive particular purpose
- static character
- a character that does not change during the course of a narrative
- stock character
- a character that is of little consequence to the dramatic situatiohn and its ultimate resoultion, but who nonetheless may serve to advance the plot, provide himor, or provide contrast with the main character
- stress
- accent
- style
- the distinctive use of language by an author
- suppporting character
- a character in a drama who helps to foward the plot but is neither a major cause nor a major victim of the play's events
- symbol
- an object, person, place, or action that has a meaning in itself but also stands for something larger that itself, such as a quality, an attitude, a belief, or a value
- symbolist drama
- one product of a late nineteenth-century school of French poets/ playwrights who aimed to reveal ideas and emotions by indirect suggestion rather than by direct suggestion and attached a symbolic meaning to a particlar objects. words, sonnets, etc.
- quatrain
- a stanza of four lines of verse
- realism
- a quality in fiction and drama in which the events and people are depicted without idealization or sentimentalization; emphazies ordinary people in everyday situations
- return
- falling action
- Rhyme
- the exact repitition of sounds in at least the last accented syllable of two or more words
- Rhyme scheme
- the ordered patterning of end-rhymes in a metrical composition
- Rhythm
- the recurrence of stresses and pauses in the language of a literary work or speech; when rhythm falls int a regular indentifiable pattern, we refer to it as meter
- Rising action
- action in a narritave that occurs after the exposition including crisis and complication but before the climax
- Romance
- a narritive form that originated in the middle ages that can be written in prose or poetry; romances generally feature elements such as adventure magic and love
- Run-On Line
- a line of verse that does not express a complete thought but rather the thought continues on to the next line and there is no pause at the end of the run-on line; a run-on line is the opposite of an end stopped line
- Satire
- a literary work in which prevailing vices or follies of a character or characters are severely critisized or humoursly held up to ridicule through the use of irony, wit, or sarcasm
- Scansion
- the processof demarking the metrical feet of a poem and marking the accented and unaccented symbols to indicate the meter of the poem
- Setting
- the place time or circumstance in which the action of the story takes place