LITERARY TERMS
Allegory
- its purpose is to make an idea more interesting, persuasive or more easily
understandable by turning it into a story in which the characters or setting represent general
concepts, moral qualities, political or religious beliefs, real persons from history, etc.
Allusion
- a reference, either explicit or indirect, to a person, place or event, or to another
literary work. Common allusions in literature are biblical, mythological, cultural or popular.
Alliteration - the repetition of consonants at the beginning of words or stressed syllables: "The
blazing brightness of her beauties beam."
Anaphora
- the repetition of the same word or phrase in several successive clauses (Clauses
always following the pattern subject + verb, for example: Lazy students whine.)
Atmosphere - also referred to as mood or ambience, it establishes a feeling or "setting" in that
it sets up readers' expectations as to what will happen in the text.
Assonance - the close repetition of identical or related vowel sounds, especially in stressed
syllables: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure dome decree."
Consonance
- close repetition of identical consonant sounds which occur after different
vowel sounds: “I heard a creak and the track broke.”
Diction
- refers to the selection of words, the "vocabulary" used in a text. The
arrangement of these words into sentences, paragraphs and larger units in part constitutes a
writer's particular style.
Euphony and cacophony
- if a passage is euphonious, the speech sounds are pleasant
and musical to the ear: "murmur," "lull." Long vowels and soft consonants (e.g., l, m, r, s) are
sometimes considered euphonious. If words are cacophonous, speech sounds are harsh and
unmusical: "vomit," “clanging." Hard consonants are sometimes considered cacophonous
(hard c, d, hard g, k, t). Cacophony and euphony depend on context, so particular vowel
and consonant sounds are by no means automatically cacophonous or euphonious.
Foreshadowing
- a sign that suggests something that is to happen in the future; an
indication or suggestion beforehand.
Imagery
- descriptions/figures of speech that create not only mental pictures in readers'
minds (produced by memory/imagination), but which appeal to any of the five senses: sight,
sound, touch, taste, smell in its description.
Irony - cosmic irony: texts in which gods or destiny or the workings of the universe are
represented as manipulating events so as to lead to false hopes, which frustrates and even
mocks the protagonist(s).
- dramatic irony: when the readers/audience and narrator knows information that the
characters within the text do not. The character usually acts in a way that is completely
inappropriate to the actual circumstances, expects the opposite of what actually happens
to him, or says something "ironic" that anticipates the actual outcome, but not in the way he
means it.
- situational irony: actions/events that involve coincidence (e.g., a man laughs
uproariously at another person’s misfortune while, unbeknownst to him, he is the victim of the
same misfortune).
- structural irony: when a work shows sustained irony in order to sustain duplicity of
meaning.
- verbal irony: a mode of speech in which the literal meaning is the opposite of the
implied meaning, (saying the opposite of what one really means). For example, your friend
has just bought a sweater you think looks awful and you say “That was a GREAT purchase.”
- sarcasm (a form of verbal irony): the use of words which say the opposite of what you
mean, as a way of hurting or mocking someone.
Juxtaposition
- to place two words or ideas in close proximity, often ones which would
not normally be seen together, to create a particular effect.
Metaphor
- a form of figurative language; a comparison without using "like" or "as:" "You
are the sunshine of my life."
Onomatopoeia
- the use of words whose actual sounds resemble the sounds they
describe: e.g., "buzz" and "hiss."
Oxymoron - a two-word paradox that combines two terms which in ordinary usage are
opposites, but when put together have one overall meaning: e.g., "jumbo shrimp."
Pathos
- the quality in a work of art which evokes feelings of tenderness, pity or sorrow.
Pathetic fallacy
- when inanimate nature appears to possess or to be in sympathy with
human emotions. For example, characters have a huge argument while a storm is raging
outside. Generally, pathetic fallacy refers to an ascription of human traits to inanimate
nature which is less strictly managed than in personification.
Personification
- giving/ascribing human qualities to an inanimate object, as if it had
human-like capacities or feelings. For example, Sylvia Plath’s “The Moon and the Yew Tree”
describes the moon as having “a face in its own right, / White as a knuckle and terribly
upset.”
Protagonist and antagonist
- the protagonist is the main character/hero around which the
action of a literary work centres; the antagonist is the adversarial character who
opposes/competes with the protagonist and is another one of the leading characters.
Pun
- a play on words which are either identical or similar in sound or spelling, but which
have very different meanings: in Romeo and Juliet, the mortally wounded Mercutio says, "Ask
for me in the morning and you shall find me a grave man."
Rhyme
- repetition of an identical or similarly accented sound or sounds in a work. Lyricists
may find multiple ways to rhyme within a verse. End rhymes have words that rhyme at the
end of a line. Internal rhymes have words placed within the line that rhyme with each other.
Satire - a satiric writing style is the literary art of diminishing a subject by making it look
ridiculous and evoking an attitude in readers of amusement, contempt or scorn. Satire does
not attempt to evoke laughter only, but rather it derides, using comedy as a "weapon" to
criticise something.
Setting
- the general physical location and historical time in which the text is set.
Simile - a form of figurative language; a comparison using "like" or "as:" for example, in T. S.
Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the opening lines “When the evening is spread
out against the sky / Like a patient etherised upon a table.”
Symbol
- an object which stands for/represents something outside the text which is
universally recognised, or which is suggested by the text. A symbol may thus be public or
private. A cross is an example of a public symbol, signifying the Christian god or Jesus Christ.
But in a poet’s private symbolism, a rose might suggest love. The word symbolism is not to be
confused with symbolism (sometimes written Symbolism), which was a late nineteenth century
European movement in art. A character cannot be a symbol (but it may be a paradigm or a
figure in an allegory).
Synecdoche
- a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to signify the
whole: calling a clever student a "brain" or a car your “wheels.”
Theme
- a main idea/argument/point/subject in a text. It may be the moral,
message, thesis, meaning, or dominant idea of the text.
Tone - the general attitude of the narrator to his/her subject.