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Zarah's Literary Terms
Terms for literature
88
English
12th Grade
05/07/2012

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Term
Absurdist Drama
Definition
Play which depicts life as meaningless
Term
Act
Definition
A major division in a play
Term
Adage
Definition
A short and memorable saying expressing a general truth; The early bird gets the worm
Term
Allegory
Definition
Any writing with double meaning: literal and symbolic; Orwell’s Animal Farm, farm politics and Stalin-era politics
Term
Alliteration
Definition
Repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words; She sells sea-shells by the sea shore
Term
Allusion
Definition
Reference in literature to well known person, event, or place drawn from religion, literature, or history; Achilles’ heel- a person’s one weakness
Term
Anachronism
Definition
An event, person, item, or expression which appears in the wrong historical period
Term
Anagnorisis
Definition
The point in a plot where the hero makes a critical discovery; In Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, when Oedipus realizes his true identity
Term
Anapest and Anapestic
Definition
In poetry, three syllables
unstressed+unstressed+stressed
Term
Anaphora
Definition
Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of each line; “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall...” -Churchill
Term
Anastrophe
Definition
Altered order of events or words
Term
Anecdote
Definition
Short, simple story within a literary work
Term
Antagonist
Definition
Character who opposes the protagonist/ main character
Term
Antonomasia
Definition
Substitution of a title or descriptive phrase for a proper name
Term
Antithesis
Definition
Placement of opposing or contrasting phrases side by side
Term
Aphorism
Definition
Brief, witty statement or observation
Term
Apostrophe
Definition
Speaking to an abstract or imaginary thing as if it could hear and understand
Term
Assonance
Definition
Repetition of vowel sound
Term
Asyndeton
Definition
Series of related words or clauses forming a sentence without linking conjunctions
Term
Ballad
Definition
Short, narrative folk song focusing on the climax of a story
Term
Bard
Definition
Term used to refer to professional poet, composer, singer, or harpist
Term
Bildungsroman
Definition
Genre of novel which centers around the development of a young protagonist
Term
Caesura
Definition
Dramatic pause to add theatrical or emotional depth to phrase
Term
Canon
Definition
Generally accepted and approved collection of work
Term
Canto
Definition
Major division of a long poem or epic
Term
Caricature
Definition
Descriptive writing of a subject which greatly exaggerates certain features for comedic effect
Term
Catalexis
Definition
Truncation of poetry line, final syllables are left out of lines
Term
Catharsis
Definition
Purging of emotions or relieving of emotional tensions
Term
Character
Definition
Static/ Flat- minor role, do not change or grow a substantial amount
Round/ Dynamic- complex major character who encounters conflict and if changed by it
Term
Chivalric Romance
Definition
Plot dealing with the adventures of knights courting fair maidens and overcoming epic challenges
Term
Chiasmus
Definition
Words in a second phrase which are in the inverted form of the order of the preceding phrase
Term
Chorus
Definition
Group of singers separate from the principal performers
Term
Climax
Definition
Moment in plot where the crisis reaches its highest point of intensity
Term
Comedy of Manners
Definition
Five or three acts satirizing the attitudes and customs of society through high standards of intellect and morality
Term
Concrete Poetry
Definition
Poetry in which the lines of the text creates an actual shape
Term
Conflict
Definition
An opposition which drives forward the plot
Term
Consonance
Definition
Repetition of consonant sounds
Term
Couplet
Definition
Two lines of poetry with matching end-rhymes
Term
Denouement
Definition
After the plot’s climax, the final sequence of events
Term
Deus Ex Machina
Definition
Unrealistic resolution of the story’s conflict
Term
Diction
Definition
An author’s word choice
Term
Dimeter
Definition
A line of verse containing two feet
Term
Dramatis Personae
Definition
List of main characters in a play or story- cast list
Term
Elegy
Definition
Sad, mournful, lamenting poem
Term
Enjambment
Definition
The continuation of a line of poetry onto the next line
Term
Epic
Definition
Long, narrative poem which records the adventures of a hero
Term
Epigram
Definition
Brief, witty poem
Term
Epigraph
Definition
Quotation at the beginning of a piece of literature
Term
Epitaph
Definition
An inscription on a person’s tomb in memory of their life
Term
Epithet
Definition
A term used in place of a name to characterize it. In Huxley’s Brave New World, “the Savage”
Term
Eulogy
Definition
Written or spoken tribute or praise to someone who has died
Term
Euphemism
Definition
The use of a neutral word or phrase in substitution of an offensive or harsh one
Term
Euphuism
Definition
Literary style of alliteration, antitheses and similes; an ornate and elegant use of language
Term
Exposition
Definition
Beginning portion of the plot which sets background info and introduces the situation
Term
Fable
Definition
Short, simple story designed to teach a moral truth
Term
Farce
Definition
A humorous play with the plot centered around an exploited situation rather than character development
Term
Figure of Speech
Definition
The use of words in other ways than their literal sense to produce images or give emphasis in the reader’s mind
Term
Flashback
Definition
Non-chronological transition to an earlier event
Term
Foil
Definition
A character who serves as a contrast to another character to bring emphasis to specific traits
Term
Folklore
Definition
The traditional aspects of any culture preserved from generation to generation
Term
Frame Tale
Definition
A secondary story within the main one
Term
Free Verse
Definition
Verse lacking fixed metrical patterns
Term
Genre
Definition
Category or class of an art form with a particular form, technique, style, or content
Term
Hamartia
Definition
Tragic flaw
Term
Heptameter
Definition
A line of verse containing seven feet
Term
Heroic Couplet
Definition
Two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter
Term
Hexameter
Definition
A line of verse containing six feet
Term
Hubris or Hybris
Definition
Extreme pride and arrogance, indicates a loss of contact with reality
Term
Hyperbole
Definition
An obvious exaggeration
Term
Iamb and Iambic
Definition
Two syllables, one unstressed and one stressed
Term
In Media Res
Definition
“In the middle of things” beginning a narrative in the middle of a sequence of events to attract the reader’s immediate attention
Term
Irony
Definition
The literal meaning of a word or phrase is the opposite of that intended
Term
Jargon
Definition
The terminology of a specific group
Term
Kenning
Definition
Metaphorical name or something
Term
Lexis
Definition
All the words in a language
Term
Litotes
Definition
Ironic understatement “I’m not happy” to say “I am mad”
Term
Lyric Poetry
Definition
Brief poem expressing feeling and emotion
Term
Macrocosm
Definition
The world as a whole
Term
Magnum Opus
Definition
Masterpiece; and author;s most distinguished work
Term
Malapropism
Definition
The misuse of words for comic effect
Term
Melodrama
Definition
Play which exaggerates emotions and intensifies tensions
Term
Memoir
Definition
Autobiography in which the author focuses on the people of whom they were in contact with
Term
Metaphor
Definition
A comparison of two things
Term
Meter
Definition
Rhythmic pattern or arranged words
Term
Metonymy
Definition
Substitution of a word or phrase to stand for a similar meaning word or phrase
Term
Microcosm
Definition
A tiny world within the macrocosm
Term
Monometer
Definition
A line of verse containing one foot
Term
Motif
Definition
A reoccurring theme in a literary work
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