Language Arts Literary Terms
Terms
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- Stanza-
- A major subdivision in a poem. A stanza of two lines is called a couplet; a stanza of three lines is called a tercet; a stanza of four lines is called a quatrain.
- Climax-
- The decisive moment in a drama, the climax is the turning point of the play to which the rising action leads. This is the crucial part of the drama, the part which determines the outcome of the conflict
- Aside-
- A piece of dialogue intended for the audience and supposedly not heard by the other actors on stage.
- Symbol-
- people, places, or things used to represent something else in literature
- Suspense-
- Suspense in fiction results primarily from two factors: the reader's identification with and concern for the welfare of a convincing and sympathetic character, and an anticipation of violence.
- Stereotype-
- An author's method of treating a character so that the character is immediately identified with a group. A character may be associated with a group through accent, food choices, style of dress, or any readily identifiable group characteristic. Examples are the rugged cowboy, the bearded psychiatrist, and the scarred villain.
- Stage directions-
- Part of the script of a play that tells the actors how they are to move or to speak their lines. Enter and exit are stage directions.
- Setting-
- The time and place in which a story unfolds
- Connotation-
- The connotation of a word is its emotional content. In Robert Frosts "Mending Wall," two neighbors walk a property line each on his own side of a wall of loose stones. As they walk, they pick up and replace stones that have fallen. Frost thinks it's unnecessary to replace the stones since they have no cows to damage each other's property. The neighbor only says "Good fences make good neighbors." The wall, in this case, is both a boundary (denotation) and a barrier that prevents Frost and his neighbor from getting to know each other, a force prohibiting involvement (connotation).
- Denotation-
- its dictionary definition.
- Personification-
- A figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human characteristics.
- Plot-
- The structure of a story. The sequence in which the author arranges events in a story. The structure of a five-act play often includes the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. The plot may have a protagonist who is opposed by antagonist, creating what is called, conflict. A plot may include flashback or it may include a subplot which is a mirror image of the main plot.
- Resolution-
- The part of a story or drama which occurs after the climax and which establishes a new norm, a new state of affairs-the way things are going to be from then on
- Characterization-
- A narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain.
- Verbal irony-
- the contrast is between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant. A character may refer to a plan as brilliant, while actually meaning that (s)he thinks the plan is foolish. Sarcasm is a form of verbal irony.
- Antagonist-
- The principal character in opposition to the protagonist or hero of a narrative or drama
- Tragedy-
- The story depicts the trouble part of the hero's life in which a total reversal of fortune comes upon a person who formerly stood in high degree, apparently secure, sometimes even happy.
- Compare/Contrast-
- showing similarities and differences
- Ballad-
- A narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain.
- Point of View-
- A piece of literature contains a speaker who is speaking either in the first person, telling things from his or her own perspective, or in the third person, telling things from the perspective of an onlooker. The perspective used is called the Point of View, and is referred to either as first person or third person.
- Conflict-
- In the plot of a drama, conflict occurs when the protagonist is opposed by some person or force in the play.
- Simile-
- A figure of speech which takes the form of a comparison between two unlike quantities for which a basis for comparison can be found, and which uses the words "like" or "as" in the comparison
- Imagery-
- A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell. The use of images serves to intensify the impact of the work.
- Theme-
- An ingredient of a literary work which gives the work unity. The theme provides an answer to the question What is the work about?
- First person-
- writes from the "I" point of view
- Free verse-
- Unrhymed Poetry with lines of varying lengths, and containing no specific metrical pattern
- Irony of situation-
- the result of an action is the reverse of what the actor expected
- Speaker-
- the created narrative voice of the poem (i.e. the person the reader is supposed to imagine is talking).The speaker is NOT necessarily the poet. The poet often invents a speaker for the poem in order to give him/herself more freedom to compose the poem.
- Foreshadowing-
- In drama, a method used to build suspense by providing hints of what is to come
- Flashback-
- A reference to an event which took place prior to the beginning of a story or play.
- Drama-
- A prose or verse composition, especially one telling a serious story, that is intended for representation by actors impersonating the characters and performing the dialogue and action.
- Soliloquy-
- A lyric poem of fourteen lines whose rhyme scheme is fixed. The rhyme scheme in the Italian form as typified in the sonnets of Petrarch is abba abba cdecde. The Petrarchian sonnet has two divisions: the first is of eight lines (the octave), and the second is of six lines (the sestet).
- Assonance-
- A piece of dialogue intended for the audience and supposedly not heard by the other actors on stage.
- Dramatic irony-
- the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not
- Foil-
- A character in a play who sets off the main character or other characters by comparison.
- Tone-
- Tone expresses the author's attitude toward his or her subject. Since there are as many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships, the tone of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or piety-the entire gamut of attitudes toward life's phenomena.
- Rhyme-
- In poetry, a pattern of repeated sounds. In end rhyme, the rhyme is at the end of the line.
- Protagonist-
- The hero or central character of a literary work.
- Rising action-
- The part of a drama which begins with the exposition and sets the stage for the climax. In a five-act play, the exposition provides information about the characters and the events which occurred before the action of the play began. A conflict often develops between the protagonist and an antagonist. The action reaches a high point and results in a climax, the turning point in the play.
- Metaphor-
- A figure of speech wherein a comparison is made between two unlike quantities without the use of the words "like" or "as."
- Paradox-
- A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true
- Third Person-
- writes from the omniscient point of view
- Dialogue-
- In drama, a conversation between characters
- Myth-
- An unverifiable story based on a religious belief. The characters of myths are gods and goddesses, or the offspring of the mating of gods or goddesses and humans. Some myths detail the creation of the earth, while others may be about love, adventure, trickery, or revenge. In all cases, it is the gods and goddesses who control events, while humans may be aided or victimized.
- Parable-
- A brief story, told or written in order to teach a moral lesson
- Hyperbole-
- A figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration
- Omniscient narration-
- If the speaker knows everything including the actions, motives, and thoughts of all the characters, the speaker is referred to as omniscient (all-knowing). If the speaker is unable to know what is in any character's mind but his or her own, this is called limited omniscience
- Alliteration
- repetition of the initial consonant. For example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.