620 likes | 635 Views
Explore literary terms like Alliteration, Archetypes, and Conflict with examples and explanations. Enhance your understanding of metaphors, imagery, and more!
E N D
Alliteration • The repetition of beginning consonant sounds • She says she sells seashells by the seashore.
Allusion • Allusion is a brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or ficticious, or to a work of art, a famous historical or literary figure or event from history, geography, literature, or religion.
Antagonist • Opposes the Protagonist • Petruchio
Apostrophe • The Apostrophe is a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and was able to reply.
The Sun Rising by John Donne Busy old fool, unruly sun,Why dost thou thus,Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Archetypes • the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype. • Superman
Assonance • The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry or prose • "I rose and told him of my woe."
Character Motivation • The events or feelings that entreat a character to act as he does
Conflict • A struggle between opposing characters or opposing forces • Internal conflict – takes place in the character’s mind • External conflict – a struggle with an outside force (character, society, nature)
Connotation • The associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning • A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.”
Consonance • Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowels, as in assonance. • Example:litter and batter slither and lather
Denotation • The dictionary definition of a word • “Wind” is the denotation for air in natural motion. • “Poodle” is the denotation for a certain breed of dog.
Details • Points that support the main idea
Dialect • The way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain geographical area or a certain group of people
Direct Characterization • When the writer simply tells readers that a character is amusing or evil or dull or brave • Percy was an incredibly boring individual…
Drama • A work of literature meant to be performed for an audience by actors
Dramatic Irony • When the audience or the reader knows something a character doesn’t know • When a character thinks he’s a goner, but we know the rescue attempt will succeed.
Dynamic Characters • They change as a result of a story’s events.
Epiphany (as related to characters) • When a character comprehends or perceives reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization: "I experienced an epiphany, a spiritual flash that would change the way I viewed myself"(Frank Maier).
Expressive Writing • Expressive writing is personal and emotional writing without regard to form or other writing conventions like spelling, punctuation and verb agreement.
Flashback • Interruption in the present action of a plot to show events that happened at an earlier time
Flat Characters • A character who represents only one facet of life or just one value • Example: the wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood”
Foreshadowing • The use of clues or hints to suggest events that will occur later in the plot
Historical Allusion • a brief reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event from history, geography, literature, or religion. • Utopian discord • A Pearl Harbor sneak-attack • All roads lead to Rome (often an idiom)
Hyperbole • Extravagant exaggeration • I’ve a ton of homework tonight.
Idiom • An expression peculiar to a particular language that means something different from the literal meaning of the words. • “Hold your tongue” • “Bury your head in the sand”
Imagery • Language that appeals to the five senses • “…A slow widening of her thin black lips to show even small white teeth then the slow effortless closing.” – Maya Angelou
Indirect Characterization • The writer reveals the personality of a character: • through the words of the character • through the description of the character’s looks and clothing • through description of the character’s thoughts and feelings
Journey of the Hero • One of the favorite themes in literature
Metaphor • A comparison saying something IS something else • Tommy was a bulldozer when he tore through the room.
Meter • English poetry employs different rhythms of varying stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. • The most common is iambic pentameter where a short syllable (u) is followed by a long (/) syllable • u/u/u/u/u/ • I wandered lonely as a newborn babe
Mood • The overall feeling of a work of literature • Scary, happy, sad, nostalgic, eerie
Onomatopoeia • Words that imitate sounds • Bang! Ah-choo! Moo
Oxymoron • A figure of speech in which two words of opposing meanings are used together to express two contrasting qualities in one concept. • cruel kindness; laborious idleness.
Paradox • A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true • the paradox that standing is more tiring than walking.
Personification • Giving something not living, living qualities • The ocean waved to me to come in for a swim.
Poetry • a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.
Point of view • The vantage point from which a story is told • Third-person omniscient – the narrator knows everything about the characters and their problems • Third-person limited – the narrator focuses on the thoughts and feelings of only one character • First-person – one of the characters, using the personal pronoun I tells the story
Protagonist • The main character in a work of literature • Kate in The Taming of the Shrew
Rhyme • Rhyme is a pattern of words that contain similar sounds. • Example:go/show/glow/know/though
Rhythm • The beat • The number of syllables in a line of poetry
Round Characters • A character who has many dimensions • Petruchio – he’s greedy, stubborn, wise, in love, humorous
Setting • The time and the place of a story +
Short Stories • a story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel
Simile • A comparison using “like” or “as” • Tommy was as noisy as a bulldozer when he tore through the room.
Situational Irony • When what happens is totally opposite from what we think should happen • In “The Ransom of Red Chief” one would not expects a kidnapping victim to order his kidnappers around
Songs • a short poem or other set of words set to music or meant to be sung.
Static Characters • They don’t change much in the course of the story. =
Suspense • The uncertainty or anxiety that a reader feels about what will happen next in a story, novel, or drama