English 11 Regents Literary Terms
Alliteration: repetition of the same consonant sounds in words that are close
together in a poem, or repetition of consonant sounds that are very similar.
Ex. “the sound of steel on stones”
Allusion: reference to a statement, a person, a place, or an event from literature,
history, religion, myth, politics, sports, science, or pop culture.
Ex. Holden’s allusion to Gatsby in The Catcher in the Rye.
Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds that are followed by different
consonant sounds, especially in words that are close together in a poem.
Autobiography: an account of the writer’s own life.
Character/Characterization: the process of revealing the personality of a
character in a story.
Climax: the high point of interest or suspense in a literary work. It generally
appears near the end of a story, play, or narrative poem.
Conflict: struggle or clash between opposing characters or between opposing
forces. Two kinds—external—character vs. outside forces or characters
--internal—character vs. him or herself
Diction: a writer’s or speaker’s choice of words. Consider the vocabulary used,
appropriateness of the words, and vividness of the language. Example: The
diction used by the author is formal, or informal and conversational.
Figurative Language: writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal
meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid. Examples include:
simile, metaphor, hyperbole, irony, oxymoron, paradox, and personification.
Flashback: scene in a movie, play, short story, novel, or narrative poem that
interrupts the present action of the plot to “flash” backward and tell what
happened at an earlier time.
Foreshadowing: the use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot.
Example: In Of Mice and Men the deaths of both the mouse and puppy
foreshadow the death of Curly’s wife.
Genre: denotes a type of literature
Ballad: a song that tells a story
Short story: short, concentrated, fictional prose narrative
Historical novel: makes use of events from the historical past to add
interest to the narrative
Hyperbole: extreme exaggeration for effect
Imagery: descriptive or figurative language used in literature to create word
pictures for the reader. These pictures or images are created by details of sight,
sound, taste, touch, smell, or movement.
Irony(three kinds):
situational irony—contrast or discrepancy between expectancy and
reality—between what is said and what is really meant, between what is
expected to happen and what really does happen, or between what
appears to be true and what is really true
dramatic irony—occurs when the audience or the reader knows
something important that a character in a play or story does not know.
Example: The audience knows that the sword in the duel scene in
Hamlet is poisoned.
verbal irony—a writer or speaker says one thing but really means
something completely different (sarcasm).
Metaphor: comparison of two unlike things without using “like” or “as”
Example: My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.
—Naomi Shihah Nye
Motif: the repetition or variations of an image or idea in a work used to develop
theme or characters
Narrator: a speaker or character who tells a story. The omniscient narrator is allknowing, while the limited narrator knows only what one character does.
Oxymoron: a figure of speech wherein the author groups contradictory terms to
suggest a paradox (a paradox is something that seems to oppose common
sense, but contains some truth) Example: “cruel kindness”
Personification: special kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing or quality is
talked about as if it were human—that is, it is described as behaving and feeling
the way people do. Example: Emily Dickinson describes the wind as
tapping like a tired man.
Plot: series of related events that make up a story or drama
Point of view: vantage point from which the writer tells the story.
three kinds—omniscient (all knowing)—person telling the story knows
everything there is to know about the characters and their
problems.
--first-person—one of the characters is actually the narrator
telling the story, using the pronoun I.
--third-person limited—the narrator, who plays no part in the
story, zooms in on the thoughts and feelings of just one
character.
Protagonist/Antagonist: main character/character that opposes the main
character
Resolution: the moment when all the problems are resolved one way or another
and the story is closed
Rhetorical question: one that does not expect an explicit answer; it is used to
pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience
Sarcasm: a comic technique that ridicules through caustic language; tone and
attitude may both be described as sarcastic in a given text if the writer employs
language, irony and wit to mock or scorn
Setting: time and place of a literary work. The description of it often establishes
the mood of the story.
Simile: indirect comparison that uses like or as to link the differing items in the
comparison. Example: “Alexandra is as bright as a bulb.”
Stanza: a group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit
Stream of consciousness: presents thoughts as if they were coming directly from
a character’s mind. Instead of being arranged in chronological order, the events
of the story are presented from the character’s point of view, mixed in with the
character’s feelings and memories just as they might spontaneously occur in the
mind of a real person.
Structure: the shape of the work
Example: The authors use more dialogue than narration.
Symbol: a person, a place, a thing, or an event that stands for itself and for
something beyond itself as well
Theme: the central idea about people or about life in a work of literature
Tone: the attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character.
It can be described by a single adjective i.e. serious, playful, bitter…