LITERARY TERMS
LIST 4
METONOMY
• A figure of speech in which a person,
place or thing, is referred to by
something closely associated with it.
• We requested from the crown… Crown
represents the monarch.
Metonymy
• •The Oval Office
was busy in work.
• •Let me give you a
hand.
• Your future office?
Mood
• An atmosphere created by a writer’s
diction and the details selected.
MOOD
• ://prezi.com/nc79iptxpbed/tone-and-mood/
MOTIF
• A recurring image, word, phrase, action,
idea, object, or situation used
throughout a work (or in several works
by one author) unifying the current
situation to previous ones or new ideas
to the theme.
• Silence motif in Ethan Frome
Motivation
• Reasons for a character’s behavior
• Hamlet’s “antic disposition” was to…
Onomatopoeia
• The use of words whose sounds echo
their sense.
OXYMORON
• a figure of speech that combine
opposite or contradictory terms in a
brief phrase.
PARABLE
• A relatively short story that teaches a
moral or lesson about how to live a good
life.
• The loaves and the fishes
• The Good Samaritan
PARADOX
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A statement that appears self-contradictory, but that it reveals a kind of truth.
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Without going out of my door,
I can know all things of earth.
Without looking out of my window,
I could know the ways of heaven.
The farther one travels, the less one knows
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The less one really knows.
Without going out of your door,
You can know all things on earth.
Without looking out of your window,
You could know the ways of heaven.
The farther one travels, the less one knows
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The less one really knows.
Arrive without traveling; see all without looking.
Do all without doing. George Harrison (The Beatles, “The Inner Light”)
KOAN
• “If all things are reduced to the Unity,
what can the Unity be reduced to?”
• Doctor Lao: Do you know what wisdom is?
• Mike: No, sir.
• Doctor Lao: Wise answer.
• —Seven Faces Of Dr. Lao
Parallel Structure
• The repetition of words or phrases that have
similar grammatical structures.
• Please complete the exercise below. You may
print the exercise, if possible, and simply fill in
the blank. If not, please rewrite the sentences
and submit. Due Feb. 14, 2014
• http://grammar.about.com/od/grammarexercis
es/a/completionparallelism.htm?p=1
Paratactic Sentence
• A sentence that juxtaposes clauses or
sentences.
• I am tired; it is hot.
• None of my friends stayed-they all left
early.
Also known as Parataxis
• Tell me, how are you?.
• Opposite of hypotaxis
PARATACTIC SENTENCE
• "Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses,
scarcely better--splashed to their very
blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one
another's umbrellas, in a general
infection of ill-temper, and losing their
foothold at street corners."
• (Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 18521853)
PARATACTIC SENTENCE
• I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life
insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed
a home in the country.
• (Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely,
1940)
PARATACTIC SENTENCE
• •Toni Morrison's Use of Parataxis
• "Twenty-two years old, weak, hot, frightened,
not daring to acknowledge the fact that he
didn't know who or what he was . . . with no
past, no language, no tribe, no source, no
address book, no comb, no pencil, no clock, no
pocket handkerchief, no rug, no bed, no can
opener, no faded postcard, no soap, no key, no
tobacco pouch. . . he was sure of one thing only:
the unchecked monstrosity of his hands."
• (Toni Morrison, Sula, 1973)
Parody
• A work that makes fun of another work
by imitating some aspect of the writer’s
style.
PARODY
• Please watch as much of the following as
you can stand!
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJ
jMnHoIBIhttps://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI
Periodic
• A sentence that place the main idea or
central complete thought at the end of
the sentence, after all introductory
elements.
PERIODIC
•"In the almost incredibly brief time
which it took the small but sturdy porter
to roll a milk-can across the platform and
bump it, with a clang, against other milkcans similarly treated a moment before,
Ashe fell in love."
• (P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh,
1915)
PERIODIC
• To believe your own thought, to believe
that what is true for you in your private
heart is true for all men, that is genius."
• (Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance,"
1841)
Personification
• A figure of speech in which an object or
an animal is given human feelings,
thoughts, or attitudes.
• The wind stood up and gave a shout.
PATHETIC FALLACY
• Nature’s mimicking a character’s
emotions in the story
• A type of personification
PLOT
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The series of related events in a
story or play, sometimes called
the storyline.
Exposition – introduces
characters, situation, and
setting
Rising Action – complications in
conflict and situations (may
introduce new ones, as well)
Climax – that point in a plot that
creates the greatest intensity.
Also called the turning point
Falling Action- results of actions
characters made
Resolution – conclusion; conflicts
mostly settled; denouement
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Plot or storyline
POINT OF VIEW
• The vantage point form which the
writer tells a story.
FIRST PERSON
• One of the characters tells the story
• Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels
THIRD PERSON LIMITED
• In Third Person Limited Point of View
the reader has access to one person's
head at a time.
OMNISICIENT POINT OF VIEW
• In Omniscient Point of View the reader
has access to everybody's head at the
same time.
OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW
• When you’re using Objective Point of
View, it’s a case of giving just the facts.
The reader is never allowed into any of
the characters’ minds, nor given any of
their feelings or emotions. The reader
has to judge what the character is
thinking or feeling by what they say,
what they do, and their facial
expressions - much like real life, in fact!
OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW
• In Objective Point of View the reader
has access to nobody's head.