Literary Terms Allegory: Narrative form in which characters and actions have meanings outside of themselves; characters are usually personifications of abstract qualities. Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds or any vowel sounds within a formal grouping, such as a poetic line or stanza, or in close proximity in prose. Allusion: a reference within a literary work to something outside of the work. Often, these references are to a historical event, literary figure, or common quote. For example, in John Steinbeck s Of Mice and Men, the name of the protagonist, George Milton, is an allusion to John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, since by the end of the novel, George has lost the dream of having a little ranch of his own to share with his friend Lennie. Ambiguity: Use of language in which multiple meanings are possible. Anachronism: Use of historically inaccurate details in a text; for example, depicting a 1 st century character having an iphone. Anaphora: the regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses. For example, we shall fight in the trenches. We shall fight in the oceans. We shall fight in the sky. Anastrophe: inversion of the natural or usual word order. (Ex. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy, inaugural speech). Anecdote: A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature Antagonist: Opposes the main character; resists the driving action in a work of literature. Antithesis: The juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas is balanced or parallel words and phrases. Aphorism: A concise statement designed to make a point. (Ex. Early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Benjamin Franklin is the aphorism KING). Apostrophe: A figure of speech in which a person, thing, or abstract quality is addressed as if present; for example, the invocation to the muses usually found in epic poetry. Assonance: The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words. Audience: The person(s) reached by a piece of writing. Catharsis: Purification or cleansing of the spirit of the viewer or reader through the emotions of pity and terror as a witness to tragedy. Chiasmus: A figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of parallel clauses is reversed in the second. (Ex. His time is a moment. And a point his space. Alexander Pope, Essay on Man. 1
Cliché: a commonplace expression that reveals a writer s lack of imagination to use fresher, more vivid language. Conceit: A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. A conceit shows intellectual cleverness due to the unusual cleverness being made. (Ex. One of John Donne s poems uses a fly as a conceit for sex watch out, kids, it s racy!) Concrete: Language that presents images that are accessible to the senses: solid, visible, tangible, audible. Colloquial/Colloquialism: Ordinary language; the vernacular. Connotation: The implied meaning of a word. For example, the words sweet, gay, and awesome have connotations that are quite different from their actual definitions (or denotations). Consonance: The repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels, such as pitter-patter, splish splash, and click-clack. Deductive: The reasoning process by which a conclusion is drawn from a set of premises and contains no more facts than these premises. Denotation: The dictionary definition of a word; the direct and specific meaning. Deus ex machina: As in Greek theatre, use of an artificial device or contrived solution to solve a difficult situation, usually introduced suddenly or unexpectedly. Device: A particular word pattern or combination of words used in a literary work to evoke a desired effect or to arouse a desired reaction in the reader. Diction: An author s choice of words to convey a tone or effect. Digression: Movement away from the main story or theme of a piece of writing. An author digresses by temporarily focusing attention on subject or minor character. Discourse: A formal discussion of a subject Dystopia: An imaginary place where people live dehumanized, often fearful lives. The opposite of a utopia. Ellipsis: The deliberate omission of a word or of words which are readily implied by the context. Ex: Shakespeare s Hamlet: and he to England shall along with you. Epigraph: Quote set at the beginning of a literary work or at its divisions to set the tone or to suggest a theme. Epiphany: A sudden or intuitive insight or perception into the reality or essential meaning of something usually brought on by a simple or common occurrence or experience. Epitaph: A piece of writing in praise of a deceased person. 2
Ethos: The use of or appeal to moral elements of right and wrong to determine a character s actions or to persuade to an argument, rather than thought or emotion. (also an appeal to the audience s trust of the speaker) Etymology: Information about the origin and history of words. Most dictionaries provide the etymologies of words in brackets or parentheses located before or after the definitions. In addition to furnishing clues about the current meaning of words, etymologies can show how the definitions have changed over time. Some words flaunt their origin (guy from Guy Fawkes, who tired to blow up the British Parliament). Some have become more general (Kleenex for any facial tissue). Some have taken a turn for the better, and others for the worse (housewife and hussy, no longer sisters under the skin, have the same etymology).please see Ms. Fittz for further etymology fun facts, including (but not limited to) a three-minute explanation of the history of the English language. Eulogy: A speech or writing in praise of a person or thing; an oration in honor of a deceased person. Euphemism: Substitution of a milder or less direct expression for one that is harsh or blunt. For example, using passed away instead of died. Explication: From explication de texte. In literary theory, the close study and exposition of a text, paying attention to content, style, language, symbolism, and the relationships of parts to the whole. It compares to close reading. It is not an opinion, but observation based on what is presented in the text. Also, just one of the many badass things you can do in literature. Evidence: supporting information that explains or proves a point. Exposition: is a mode of discourse that, as its name indicates, exposes information, through explaining, defining, or interpreting the subject. Figurative Language: Language that implies or indicates some other, usually greater, meaning; not literal. Flashback: Retrospection, where an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronology of a narrative. Foreshadow: to hint at a future event; to hint at or present things to come in a story or play. Foil: A person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast. Genre: The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. Genre, however, is a very flexible term. On the AP language exam, expect the majority of the passages to be from the following genres: autobiography, biography, diaries, criticism, essays, and journalistic, political, scientific, and nature writing. Hamartia: Aristotle s term for the main character s tragic flaw or error in judgment. Hyperbole: An overstatement characterized by exaggerated language. Imagery: The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. On a physical level, imagery uses terms related to the five senses; we 3
refer to visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, or olfactory imagery. On a broader and deeper level, however, one image can represent more than one thing. For example, a rose may present visual imagery while also representing the color in a woman s cheeks. In medias res: Refers to opening a story in the middle of the action, requiring filing in past details by exposition or flashback. Inductive: Conclusion or type of reasoning whereby observation or information about a part of a class is applied to the class as a whole. Contrast with deductive. [Ex. One girl was rude to me; therefore, all girls are rude] Inference: The process of arriving at a conclusion from a hint, implication, or suggestion. Irony: A situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. Types of irony include: verbal, dramatic, situational, and cosmic). Juxtaposition: Placing of two items side by side to create a certain effect, reveal in attitude, or accomplish some other purpose. Litotes: the deliberate use of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis and intensity. For example, she is not a bad cook. Logical Fallacies: Errors in reasoning and often occur in arguments. *see Fittz for logical fallacy fun! Logos: The use of or appeal to reason to determine a character s actions or persuade to an argument rather than ethics or emotions. Metaphor: A comparison between two things NOT using like or as. Metonymy: A figure of speech that used the name of one thing to name or designate something, as in, the White House announced today Mood: The feeling or ambience resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writer/narrator s attitude and point of view. The effect is created through descriptions of feelings or objects that establish a particular feeling such as gloom, fear, or hope. Motif: Recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event. Narrative: a form of writing that tells a story. Narrator: the character who tells the story. Onomatopoeia: A word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes. Ex: buzz, hiss. Oxymoron: A figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements, as in jumbo shrimp or deafening silence. 4
Paradox: A statement that seems contradictory, but is actually true. (Ex. quiet strength ) Paraphrase: putting someone else s ideas into your own words. Parallelism: Recurrent syntactical similarity where several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed alike to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. It also adds balance, rhythm, and clarity to the sentence. For example, I have always searched for, but never found, the perfect painting for that wall. Parody: A satirical imitation of a work of art for purpose of ridiculing its style or subject. (ex: Saturday Night Live) Pathos: The use of or appeal to emotional or sentimental elements to determine a character s actions or persuade to an argument, rather than reason or ethics. Personification: Giving an inanimate object human characteristics. (Ex: the sun smiled at me on my way to school today.) Point of View: The view the reader gets of the action and characters in a story. Plot: The order of events in a story. The sequence of how a story unfolds. Protagonist: The main character; driving the action of the story. Propaganda: Information or rumor deliberately spread to help or harm a person, group, or institution. Repetition: repeated action or phrase Rhetoric: First named by Aristotle, and informed by *********Tuterilian, rhetoric is the art of using language effectively to serve the writer s purpose. Rhetoric is divided into rhetorical modes such as exposition, narrative, description, and argumentation. Rhetorical Device: Particular use of word patterns and styles used to clarify, make associations, and focus the writing in a piece of literature. Some rhetorical devices are expletives, parallelism, metaphor, analogy, assonance, etc. Rhetorical Question: asking a question, not for the purpose of soliciting an answer, but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely. Sarcasm: A sharp caustic remark. A form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually bitterly or harhly critical. For example, a coach saying to player who misses the ball, nice cash. Kind guy. Satire: humorous, witty criticism of people s foolish, thoughtless, or evil behavior. The satirist ridicules some aspect of human nature or life in general that should be changed. Ex. Jonathan Swift s A Modest Proposal. Usually, the satirist seeks to bring about reform though criticism. Semantics: The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another. 5
Setting: The time and location in which a story take place. Simile: a comparison using like or as to draw the connection of one thing to another. Summary: a condensation of the main ideas from a given work that is usually much shorter than the original. Unlike a paraphrase, a summary seeks to reveal only the major points an author has made in a piece of writing. Symbol: A person, place, thing, or event that represents something else. The use of one object to suggest another hidden object or idea. Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole, such as head of cattle or hands on desk. Syntax: The way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. It is sentence structure and how it influences the way a reader perceives a piece of writing. Tone: The attitude a literary work takes towards its subject and theme. It reflects the author s attitude. Theme: The central or dominant idea or concern of a work; the main idea or meaning. Thesis Statement: Focus statement of an essay; precise statement upon which the point of view or discussion in the essay is based Utopia: An imaginary place of ideal perfection. The opposite of dystopia. Voice: The acknowledged or unacknowledged source of words of the story; the speaker, a person telling the story or poem. Additional Terms 6