English 11 Literary Terms

1. English 11 Literary Terms

2. Voice • Voice has two meanings. First, voice is how you, as the reader, hear the author speaking. It is the combination of qualities that conveys the author's unique attitude, personality, and character. • In the second meaning, voice is the characteristic speech and thought patterns of narrator that may be a creation, or persona, of the writer. • Because voice has so much to do with the reader's experience of a work of literature, it is one of the most important elements of a piece of writing.

3. Dramatic Irony • When readers know more about the situation than the characters do • Example: In a murder mystery novel, we see the murderer’s movements but the detective doesn’t.

4. Situational Irony • Contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen Example: A police station is burglarized.

5. Diction • Choice of words in a piece of work; the kind of vocabulary that is used • Diction affects tone! • For example: • To a friend "a screw-up" • To a child "a mistake" • To the police "an accident" • To an employer "an oversight"

6. Symbolism • A person thing or action that represents more than itself; typically something concrete that represents abstract concepts like faith or courage. Example: • Conch shell in The Lord of the Flies

7. Hyperbole An exaggeration for effect. I am so hungry I could eat a horse! You’re killing me with all that talking! When they started making excuses for why they couldn’t do it, she knocked them out with all the reasons why they could.

8. Foil (Character) • A minor character whose qualities and actions tend to contrast with those of a major character so that the audience can better appreciate the major character. • In Macbeth, Banquo’s qualities, and his death, show us just how horrible Macbeth is by in contrast.

9. Stage Directions • Written notes within plays which explain the movements, appearance and inner feelings of actors at specific points in a play. MERCY: Oh, Jesus! (Falls back on bed. Enter Mary Warren, breathless. She is seventeen, a subservient, naïve girl.) MARY: I just come from the farm, the whole country’s talking witchcraft!

10. Irony • Contrast between what is generally expected and what actually happens; contrast between appearance and actuality • It is said that when Mary, Queen of Scots, was to be beheaded, a special French executioner was hired for the job. When she greeted him, she pressed a coin into his hand saying, “Do it quickly, as I have but a thin neck.” But the man was so distraught at her polite resignation that he botched the job. It took three chops to sever her head from her body.

11. Metaphor • Comparison of two UNLIKE things —not using like or as • Usually linked by is/are or was/were Examples: She is a cow! He’s a criminal behind the wheel. He was a madman on the football field

12. Understatement A statement which lessens the importance of what is meant. Example: It’s 125 degrees in the desert and you say, "It's a little warm today." Your friend is in the Intensive Care Unit and you say “He’s a little under the weather.”

13. Paradox • A statement or situation that seems contradictory but nevertheless expresses some truth. • The money for a music video can feed people and provide lots of resources for others. • Al Capone gave money to poor people.

14. Pun • A play on words. You use the word in a way that plays on its different meanings. Ex. “The hungry gorilla went ape.” “Shift happens” “She got the gold mine and I got the shaft.”

15. Simile • Comparison using like or as • Examples: As graceful as a three-legged elephant. Dance like nobody’s looking. As busy as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.

16. Personification • You give something human traits. Example: The clouds were crying. The brakes screamed as she slammed the pedal to the floor. Hell is gaping and waiting for sinners.

17. Cliché An overused phrase. • Keep ahead of the pack. • Never give up. • Give 110 percent. • She’s so phat! • It’s a rat race. • __________like there’s no tomorrow. • All's fair in love and war • bats in the belfry • It goes without saying • moment of glory • stubborn as a mule • what comes around, goes around

18. Theme • The central or overarching idea in a piece of literature. Some big themes are: • Our relationship with nature (Man vs. Nature) • Our relationship with society (Man vs. Society) • alienation and isolation • disillusionment • rebellion and protest • loss of innocence • coming of age • the American Dream

19. Dialogue The exact words exchanged among characters. Jesus, you startled me. I wasn’t expecting you here. It’s been a real day for expectations. Where were you? I’ve been waiting here for an hour. You didn’t leave a note or— I wasn’t planning on going anywhere— I can see that. Where’s your coat? I left the house in a hurry. I… um… my mother… The hospital reached you? God, I’m sorry. That’s why— The hospital? They called me when they couldn’t get you. I don’t understand. Your mother. You said — I ran out to buy some flowers for her. She’s been so down. For three hours you’ve been buying flowers? http://hollylisle.com/dialogue-examples/

20. Imagery Words which appeal to the senses and so invoke sensory impressions in the mind of the reader. MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains      My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk…

21. Tone Tone is the author’s attitude toward the writing (his characters, the situation) and the readers. A work of writing can have more than one tone. An example of tone could be both serious and humorous. Tone is set by the setting, choice of vocabulary and other details. (Mood, on the other hand, is the general atmosphere created by the author’s words and the feeling the reader gets from reading those words.)

22. Archetypes • Pre-existent personality patterns that lie behind all the major characters, whether in fiction or in real life. There are many examples. Some are: queen, heroine, faithful companion, trickster, warrior, rebel, rugged individualist, hero, mentor, victim.

23. Hero/Heroine • The chief character in a work of literature.

24. Trickster

25. Faithful Companion

26. Outsider/Outcast

27. Rugged Individualist

28. Innocent

29. Villain

30. Caretaker

31. Earth Mother

32. Rebel

33. Misfit

34. Conflict • A problem in literature Example:

35. Allusion • A passing reference in a work of literature to something outside itself. Example: “Speak to my gossip VENUS one fair word.”

36. Satire • Literature which represents something in a comical sense, making it appear ridiculous

37. Soliloquy • A character speaks directly to the audience (thinking aloud about motives, feelings, and decisions) Example:

38. Monologue • A single person speaking, with or without an audience Example: Saturday Night Live episode

39. Verbal Irony • When someone states one thing and means another

40. Tragedy • Traces the career and downfall of an individual

41. Sarcasm • An ironical statement intended to hurt or insult (ex. “Brilliant,” stated to a student who is clearly wrong.)

42. Figurative & Literal Language • Figurative Language-an exaggeration • Literal Language-literally true

43. Free Verse • Poetry that does not have regular patterns of rhyme and meter

44. Alliteration A sequence of repeated consonantal sounds in a stretch of language Example: Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.” (from “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe)

45. Rhyme Similarity of sound between two words

46. End Rhyme Poetry that rhymes at the end of the line

47. Slant Rhyme Words that sounds similar with a hint of a rhyme (inexact rhyme) Example:

48. Internal Rhyme Poetry that rhymes in the middle of the line

49. Couplets • Two lines by two lines that rhyme Example:

50. Blank Verse • A poem written in blank verse consists of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.