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| a form of narrative, either prose or verse, in which the characters and often the setting represent moral qualities, general concepts, or other abstractions |
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| repetition of consonants (generally initial consonants) in words that are close together |
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| reference to a person or place with which the reader is presumed to be familiar |
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| the expression of an idea to suggest more than one meaning. Deliberate and effective, ambiguity enriches the meaning of the passage in which it occurs; accidental or ineffective, it blurs the meaning |
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| a comparison made between two, frequently dissimilar, items or situations in order to provide insight into the nature of one or both of them |
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| the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive phrases of sentences |
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| the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in a parallel structure |
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| exaggeration of prominent features of appearance or character |
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| the emotional associations surrounding a word, as opposed to its literal meaning. Associated meanings that cluster around the literal meaning of a word |
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| any artful TECHNIQUE widely accepted as appropriate to a given type of literature |
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| the process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premise; inference by reasoning from general to specific. Example- "If all men are mortal, then some men are mortal" |
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| the strict, literal meaning of a word |
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| the imitation of regional speech in writing, using altered, phonetic spelling |
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| the particular choice of words made in a literary work. This choice considers both the connotative and the denotative meanings of a word and the level or type of language |
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| a brief piece of nonfiction which presents a personal point of view either through informal discourse or formal analysis and argument |
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| the explanation of a literary text derived from close reading and careful internal analysis |
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| a comparison that is used throughout an entire work or a large portion of it. Also called a conceit |
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| words used apart from their ordinary, literal meanings in such a way as to add freshness, conciseness, and vitality to them. The more common figures of speech include hyperbole, simile, metaphor, personification, apostrophe, synecdoche, and metonymy |
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| an interruption of the narrative to show an episode that happened before that particular point in the story. A flashback can shed light on characters and events of the present by providing background information |
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| a hint given to the reader of what is to come. Foreshadowing helps create suspense and convince the reader of the inevitability of the story's outcome |
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| a figure of speech involving great exaggeration. The effect may be serious or comic |
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| the sensory details in a literary work. Whether literal or figurative, an image provides vividness and immediacy, evoking in the reader a complex of emotional suggestions |
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| a reasonable conclusion drawn by a reader from clues provided by a writer |
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| a contrast between what appears to be and what really is. In verbal irony, words imply the opposite of what they literally mean. Irony of situation presents a state of affairs that is the opposite of what is expected. Dramatic irony occurs in fiction or drama when the reader (or viewer) knows more than the characters do. Understatement is a form of irony. In "The Open Boat," it occurred to the correspondent just before leaping into the sea "that if he should drown it would be a shame," to call such a disaster a "shame" is understatement |
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a figure of speech involving an implied comparison. (Compare simile.) An implied comparison between two dissimilar objects. Metaphors abound in everyday speech. "He's an old buzzard." "She has a sunny disposition." In each case, the meaning intended is not the literal one. Metaphors occur in the following lines:
A pity beyond all telling
Is hid in the heart of love. (Yeats, "The Pity of Love")
Love is compared to something with a vital center, or heart, and pity is compared to something that can be hidden. A figure of speech that uses "like" or "as" to state a comparison is called a simile:
Life, like a dome of many-colored glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity. (Shelly, Adonais)
Both metaphor (implied comparison) and simile (state comparison) involve relating something to something else, frequently an abstraction to something concrete in order that meaning may be expressed vividly.
Metaphorical language includes personification, symbol and apostrophe, as well as simile and metaphor in the strict sense; in each instance, a comparison is involved - in personification, for example, between an inanimate object or idea and a living person |
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| a traditional tale of unknown authorship involving gods or other supernatural beings; often attempts to express some interpretation or an aspect of phenomenon of the natural world |
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| writing that depicts events as rigidly determined by the forces of heredity and environment. The world described tends to be a bleak and hopeless place |
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| the yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory |
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| a short narrative that illustrates a moral or insight. The Gospels contain many parables, by means of which Jesus made his teachings vivd. Like fables, parables are brief stories that convey advice; but fables frequently use animals as characters, and their wisdom is less profound than that of parables. Allegories are narratives that are designed to convey wisdom, but allegorical narratives are usually longer than either fables or parables, and the characters in allegories are usually personifications of abstractions - evil, virtue, universal man, etc. |
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| an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless true. A paradox shocks a reader into paying attention to a truth hidden in a seemingly contradictory statement. It is another form of irony. In "Friendship" Emerson writes, "Thou art to me a delicious torment," and the remark seems paradoxical: a friend should not be a torment - and yet in a sense (we realize on reflection and understand in the context of the essay) he should. |
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| a likeness, usually in pattern or structure (of a sentence, character, situation, etc.) |
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two or more balancing statements, with phrases, clauses, or paragraphs of similar length and grammatical structure. The phrases in the following comment are parallel:
Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it,
Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it,
Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther
preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt
mechanizes it. (Emerson, "Civilization")
Often whole stanzas of poems are parallel, and the ideas that are balanced may be similar or contrasting. In the following example, two parallel ideas contrast:
Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good. (Emerson, "Compensation") |
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| a kind of burlesque aimed at making the style of an author ridiculous |
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| Parenthesis (Parenthetical phrase) |
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| insertion of a phrase or clause that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of a sentence |
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| the quality of literature which evokes pity |
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| the mask or voice which a writer assumes in a particular work |
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a special kind of metaphor in which abstractions or inanimate objects are given human characteristics. In the following example the abstract idea of time is personified as a thief, stealing youth away.
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! (Milton, Sonnet VII) |
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| the vantage point from which an author presents the characters and events in a story. This vantage point is established through an author's choice of narrator. The story may be related by a character (first-person point of view) or by a narrator who does not participate in the action (third-person point of view). Further, the third-person narrator may present a point of view that omniscient - able to see into the minds of all characters, limited - confined to a single character's perceptions, or objective - describing only what can be seen, like a camera. Also, a narrator's attitude toward his subject is also capable of much variation; it can range from one of apparent indifference to one of extreme conviction and feeling. |
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| writing which directly advocates a certain doctrine as the solution to some social or political problem |
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| a play on words; a humorous use of a word where it can have different meanings, or of two or more words with the same or nearly the same sound but different meanings |
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| a way of representing life as it seems to the common reader. Material selected tends to deal with ordinary people in everyday experiences |
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| the art or the discipline that deals with the use of discourse, either spoken or written, to inform or persuade or move an audience, whether that audience is made up of a single person or a group of persons. Rhetoric is the use of language for persuasive purposes and implies that manipulation of words. There are three kinds of rhetorical arguments - the appeal to reason; the appeal to emotions; and the appeal of the speaker or writer;s character or personality |
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| asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something directly |
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| usually refers to sound patterns in poetry but also often to patterns found in both poetry and prose, produced by a recurrence of source, images, themes, types of sentence structure, and feelings |
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| unlike realism, stresses man's glory and freedom rather than his limitations, Generally speaking, romantic writers take an optimistic view of individuals; they prefer to stress the past over the present, and to dwell on the exciting, the exotic, and the beautiful |
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| the use of exaggerated praise to imply dispraise, Similar to irony, but more specific in intent, and heavier, less subtle in tone. |
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| verse or prose that makes fun or popular institutions, customs, or beliefs. Generally satire is humorous; its tone may be gentle or scornful or bitter. Like a cartoon, it depends for its effect more on exaggeration than on accuracy. |
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| the time and place in which the action of a narrative occurs. Setting helps establish mood and reveal character. It may directly affect the development of the plot and provide important clues about events and motivation |
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| a figure of speech involving a comparison made explicit by the use of the word like or as |
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| the recording of a character's flow of thought without any apparent attempt at clarification |
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| the manner in which writers use language to express their ideas. Style involves an author's choice and arrangement of words, as well as the tone, mood, imagery, sound effects and other literary devices that may or may not appear in a work |
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| in fiction or drama, a character who lacks individuality, having no traits except the most obvious and expected of the group to which he belongs. In literature, the touch cop is a stereotype; so are the fluttery old maid and the sullen teenager |
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| something used to represent something else. In literature the term symbol usually refers to a concrete image use to designate an abstract quality or concept |
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| a form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise and a conclusion. ( example - all men are foolish. Smith is a man. Therefore, Smith if foolish.) Also, reasoning from the general to the specific; deduction |
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| the craftsmanship used by an author to give his work form and meaning. Also, a specific literary device, such as symbolism, such as symbolism or satire, may be referred to as a technique |
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| the main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work. A theme may be directly stated but is more often implied. theme differs from the subject of a literary work in that it usually makes an observation about the subject. Some literary works have no theme; others have more than one |
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| in a literary work, the attitude the author takes toward his subject. That attitude is revealed through choice of details, through diction and style and through the emphasis and comments that are made. Like theme and style, tone is sometimes difficult to describe with a single word or phrase and often it varies in the same literary work. Tone may be stated directly or implied, and it conveys the emotional meaning of a work |
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| the quality achieved by an artistic work when all its elements are so interrelated as to form a complete whole |
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| that which is common to all men and capable of being recognized and understood by all; jealousy, fear, love, ambition are universal qualities |
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