Lit Cards
Terms
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- denotation (DEE-no-TAE-shuhn):
- the exact meaning of a word, without the feelings or suggestions that the word may imply
- alliteration(a-LIT-uh-RAY-shuhn)
- a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds.
- allusion (a-LOO-zhuhn)
- a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature
- antagonist (an-TAG-uh-nist
- a character in a story or poem who deceives, frustrates, or works again the main character, or protagonist, in some way
- aside (uh-SIDE)
- an actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage.
- ballad (BAL-uhd)
- a narrative folk song
- character
- a person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions within a story, poem, or other literature
- connotation (KAH-nuh-TAE-shun)
- relate to the ideas or qualities that are implied by that word
- couplet (KUP-let)
- a style of poetry defined as a complete thought written in two lines with rhyming ends
- denouement (day-noo-mon):
- literally meaning the action of untying, a denouement is the final outcome of the main complication in a play or story.
- dialogue (di-UH-log):
- The conversation between characters in a drama or narrative.
- didactic (di-DAK-tik):
- refers to literature or other types of art that are instructional or informative.
- dramatic monologue (dra-MA-tik mon\'-O-lôg):
- when a character reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings, those that are hidden throughout the course of the story line, through a poem or a speech.
- elegy (EL-e-je):
- a type of literature defined as a song or poem, written in elegiac couplets, that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died.
- epigram (ep-e-gram):
- a short poem or verse that seeks to ridicule a thought or event, usually with witticism or sarcasm.
- figurative language (fig-YOOR-a-tive LAN-gwije):
- a type of language that varies from the norms of literal language, in which words mean exactly what they say.
- flashback (flash-BAK):
- an interruption of the chronological sequence (as of a film or literary work) of an event of earlier occurrence
- genre (ZHAHN-ruh):
- a type of literature
- Gothic (goth-IK):
- a literary style dealing with horror, despair, the grotesque and other “dark†subjects
- hyperbole (hi-per-bo-lee):
- an extravagant exaggeration.
- irony (i-RAH-nee):
- a literary term referring to how a person, situation, statement, or circumstance is not as it would actually seem.
- lyric (LEER-ick):
- a lyric is a song-like poem written mainly to express the feelings of emotions or thought from a particular person, thus separating it from narrative poems.
- metaphor (met-AH-for)
- a type of figurative language in which a statement is made that says that one thing is something else but, literally, it is not
- metonymy (me-TAH-nah-me):
- a figure of speech which substitutes one term with another that is being associated with the that term.
- motif (moh-TEEF):
- a recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature
- myth (mith):
- any story that attempts to explain how the world was created or why the world is the way that it is.
- narrative (na-RAH-tiv):
- a collection of events that tells a story, which may be true or not, placed in a particular order and recounted through either telling or writing.
- narrative poem (nar-RAH-tiv po-EM):
- a poem that tells a story.
- narrator (nar-RAY-ter):
- one who tells a story, the speaker or the “voice†of an oral or written work.
- parable (PAIR-uh-buhl):
- a brief and often simple narrative that illustrates a moral or religious lesson
- persona (per-SO-na)
- author’s creation--the voice
- personification {PER-son-E-fih-ka-shEn):
- A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human characteristics.
- point of view (point ov veww):
- a way the events of a story are conveyed to the reader, it is the “vantage point†from which the narrative is passed from author to the reader.
- protagonist (pro-TAG-eh-nist)
- A protagonist is considered to be the main character or lead figure in a novel, play, story, or poem.
- rhyme (rime):
- repetition of an identical or similarly accented sound or sounds in a work.
- rhyme scheme (rime skeem):
- the pattern of rhyme used in a poem, generally indicated by matching lowercase letters to show which lines rhyme.
- setting (set-ting):
- the time, place, physical details, and circumstances in which a situation occurs.
- simile (sim-EH-lee):
- a simile is a type of figurative language, language that does not mean exactly what it says, that makes a comparison between two otherwise unalike objects or ideas by connecting them with the words \"like\" or \"as.\"
- short story (short store-ey):
- a prose narrative that is brief in nature.
- slant rhyme (slänt rime)
- is also known as near rhyme, half rhyme, off rhyme, imperfect rhyme, oblique rhyme, or pararhyme.
- sonnet (sonn-IT):
- a sonnet is a distinctive poetic style that uses system or pattern of metrical structure and verse composition usually consisting of fourteen lines, arranged in a set rhyme scheme or pattern.
- symbol (sim-bol):
- a symbol is a word or object that stands for another word or object
- theme (theem):
- a common thread or repeated idea that is incorporated throughout a literary work.
- unreliable narrator (un-re-LIE-ah-bel nar-ra-AY-tor):
- one who gives his or her own understanding of a story, instead of the explanation and interpretation the author wishes the audience to obtain.