SORRY FOR THE PERSON I STOLE THIS FROM
abstract
typically complex, discussed intangible qualities like good and evil, and seldom uses examples to support its points.
academic
As an adjective describing style, this word means dry and theoretical writing. When a piece of writing seems to be sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis, the writing is ______
accent
In poetry, the stressed portion of a word.
aesthetic
used as an adjective meaning "appealing to the senses." A phrase synonymous with artistic judgement. As a noun, it is a coherent sense of taste.
Allegory
A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself.
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds
Allusion
A reference to another work of literature, person, or event
anachronism
something out of place in time
Analogy
a symbolic comparison that are employed to clarify an action or a relationship.
anecdote
a short narrative
Antagonist
a character, group, characteristic, or entity that opposes the protagonist.
antecedent
The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.
Anthropomorphism
In literature, when inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena are given human characteristics, behavior, or motivation. Often confused with personification, which requires that the nonhuman quality or thing take on a human shape.
anticlimax
Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. Frequently comic.
Aphorism
A short and usually witty saying, such as: "'Classic'? A book which people praise and don't read."-Mark Twain.
Apostrophe
An address to someone not present or to a personified object or idea.
Archaism
The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. Authors sometimes use this to create a feeling of antiquity.
Archetype
Standard or clichéd character types, such as the drunk, the miser, and the foolish girl.
Aside
A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage.
aspect
A trait or characteristic
Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds
atmosphere
The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene.
attitude
A speaker's, author's, or character's disposition toward or opinion of a subject.
Ballad
a long, narrative poem, usually in very regular meter and rhyme. Typically has a naive folksy quality, a characteristic that distinguishes it from epic poetry.
Bathos
when writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries to elicit tears from every little hiccup
Black humor
The use of disturbing themes in comedy.
Bombast
This is pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language.
Burlesque
Broad parody, one that takes a style or form and exaggerates it into ridiculousness.
Cacophony
using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds.
Cadence
The beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense.
canto
The name for a section division in a long work of poetry, similar to the way chapters divide a novel.
Caricature
A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality.
Catharsis
A term used by Aristotle to describe some sort of emotional release experienced by the audience at the end of a successful tragedy
Chorus
In drama, a chorus is the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it.
Classic
Can mean typical, or an accepted masterpiece.
Classical
Refers to the arts of ancient Greece and Rome and the qualities of those arts.
Coinage (neologism)
A new word, usually one invented on the spot.
collouialism
a word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation.
Complex (Dense)
Suggesting that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words; subtleties and variations; multiple layers of interpretation; meaning both explicit and implicit
Conceit/extended metaphor
Does not mean stuck up in poetry. Refers to a startling or unusual metaphor, or one developed and expanded upon for several lines. When the image dominates and shapes the entire work, it's called a controlling image.
Connotation
what a word suggests beyond its basic definition; a word's overtones of meaning
Consonnance
The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at the beginning, which is alliteration)
Couplet
A pair of lines that end in rhyme
Decorum
In order to observe, a character's speech must be styled according to her social station and in accordance with the occasion.
Denotation
The dictionary definition of a word.
Details
items or parts that make up a larger picture or story
devices of sound
various techniques used by poets to create sound imagery through specific word choice to evoke an emotional response, clarify meaning, enhance the reader's experience, and so on.
Diction
Word choice
dirge
A song for the dead. Typically slow, heavy, and melancholy.
Dissonance
the grating of incompatible sounds.
Doggerel
crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme.
dramatic irony
when an audience perceives something that a character in the literature does not know.
dramatic monologue
when a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience (other characters on stage)
Dystopia
A seemingly ideal world where the actual implementation of perfection is unsuccessful and destructive.
Elegy
A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner. Often use the recent death of a noted person or a loved on as a starting point.
Elements
Basic techniques of each genre of literature
Elements of Fiction
exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, denouement
Enjambment
the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause.
epic
Simply a very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style. Typically deal with glorious or profound subject matter: a great war, a heroic journey, the Fall of Eden, a battle with supernatural forces, a trip to the underworld, etc.
Epitaph
Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. Usually a line or handful of lines, often serious or religious but sometimes witty and even irreverent.
Ethos
The appeal to credibility. Establishing common ground and trust with an audience.
Euphemism
A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality.
euphony
Sounds blend harmoniously.
Explicit
something that is easily expressed or readily observable
Farce
Extremely broad humor; in earlier times, a funny play or a comedy (centuries past, comedy referred to any play, not necessarily humorous)
feminine rhyme
lines rhymed by their final two syllables
figurative language
Writing that uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning.
first person narrator
A narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from his or her point of view. Usually unreliable.
Foil
a secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast
Foot
the basic unit of rhythmic measurement in a line of poetry
Foreshadowing
An event or statement in a narrative that, in miniature, suggests a larger event that comes later.
Free verse
poetry with no regular rhyme or rhythm
Genre
A subcategory of Literature.
Gothic, Gothic novel
the sensibility derived from dark novels. First appeared in the mid 17th century and has wooed audiences ever since.
Hubris
excessive pride that leads to the main characters downfall
Hyperbole
exaggeration or deliberate overstatement.
imagery
An author's use of figurative language, images, or sensory details that appeal to the reader's senses.
Implicit
implied though not plainly expressed
In media res
Latin for "into the middle of things." It usually describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle — usually at some crucial point in the action.
Inversion
Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase.
Juxtaposition
placing two elements side by side to present a comparison or contrast
Lament
a poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss
Logos
Appeal to logic
loose sentence
complete before its end
Lyric
A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world (or the part of the world that his poem is about)
masculine rhyme
A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable (regular rhyme)
Means, meaning
What makes sense, what is important. Can be literal or emotional.
Melodrama
a form of overly-dramatic theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure.
Metaphor
A comparison without using like or as
Metonym
A word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with. For example, a herd of 50 cows could be called 50 head of cattle)
Monologue
A speech given by one character on stage.
Motif
A recurring theme, subject or idea
narrative techniques
the methods involved in telling a story; the procedures used by a writer of stories or accounts
Objectivity
Impersonal or outside view of events
Onomatopoeia
words that imitate sounds
opposition
one of the most useful concepts in analyzing literature. it means that you have a pair of elements that contrast sharply. Not necessarily "conflict" but rather a pairing of images (or settings or appeals, for example) whereby each becomes more striking and informative because it's placed in contrast to the other one.
Oxymoron
A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction.
Parable
A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.
Paradox
A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not.
Parallelism
repeated syntactical similarities used for effect.