Most Common Literary Terms and Devices – English 11 Allegory – A story in which the characters, actions, objects, or settings represent abstract or symbolic ideas (for e.g. “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment). Alliteration – When the sound at the beginning of successive words repeats. Allusion – A reference to a known person, place, event, or famous literary work or piece of art. Anecdote – A rhetorical device used to appeal to an audience’s emotion. When an author uses a short story in a speech or piece of writing to emphasize a point. Antagonist – The character or force in conflict with the main character in a story. Aphorism – A short statement or saying that expresses a wise saying about life. It is often memorable even when taken out of context. Assonance – Repetition of middle vowel sounds, often in stressed words or syllables (e.g. bricks ripple like fish). Ballad – A song‐like poem that tells a story often dealing with adventure or romance; contains simple language, four or six line stanzas, rhyme, and regular meter. Blank Verse – Poetic lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter. Caricature – A portrayal of characters with exaggerated or distorted physical traits, such as huge noses or squints. Characterization – How an author develops the characters in a story. Could be direct (the author tells the reader directly about a character) or indirect (the reader infers information based on a characters actions, words, or thoughts). Comedy – In general, a literary work that ends happily. Conflict – Two opposing forces. This could be ‘external’ meaning between a character and another character or some outside force. It could also be ‘internal’ where a character has conflict with him(her)self. Connotation – The emotional association or implication that is attached to a word or phrase (e.g. unique has a positive connotation, while strange has a negative connotation). Consonance – Repetition of identical consonant sounds that are preceded by different vowel sounds (e.g. “I met a cat with feet of white). Couplet – A pair of rhymed lines. Denotation – The basic or literal meaning of a word or expression; the dictionary definition. Dialect – The characteristic language of a particular region or social group (e.g. The Adventures of Huck Finn uses several different dialects). Diction – Author’s careful choice of words. Sensory language – Use of strong verbs and descriptive language. Epigraph – Not to be confused with epitaph, this is a short quote at the beginning of a chapter, book, short story, or poem that introduces a theme in the work (e.g. T.S. Eliot uses a quote from Dante’s Inferno to introduce “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock). Epitaph – Short saying or phrase honoring someone who has died. Typically placed on the gravestone. Figurative Language – Language that suggests more than the literal meaning of the words. Flashback – A conversation, an episode, or an event that happened before the beginning of the story. Often a flashback will interrupt the chronological flow of the story to feed the reader information. Foreshadowing – A writer’s use of hints or clues to indicate events and situations that will occur later in a plot; this technique both reveals to the reader a little of what’s to come and creates a sense of suspense. Free Verse – Poetry which is unrhymed and unmetered. Genre – A category or type of literature (e.g. could be poetry, prose, drama or if we want to get even more specific short story, novel, biography or even more specific yet science fiction, fantasy, etc.). Hyperbole – A great or excessive exaggeration Iambic Couplet ‐ Usually the last lines in a poem, when lines are in iambic verse and the last words in each lines rhyme with one another. Iambic verse – Alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. Idiom – An expression peculiar to a language; not literally translatable (e.g. A dime a dozen, A chip on his shoulder, A piece of cake). Imagery – The descriptive or figurative language used in literature to create a vivid picture in the mind of the reader. Inference – A reasonable conclusion about a character or an event drawn from the limited information presented by the author. Irony – The contrast between what is stated and what is meant or between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Metaphor – Comparison of two unlike things, does not use ‘like’ or ‘as.’ “She was a rose among weeds” Mood – How the reader feels when reading the passage. Usually created by the tone. Motif – A recurring feature (like an image, word, name, or phrase) in a literary work that usually contributes to the overall theme (e.g. The recurring blood in Macbeth). Onomatopoeia – The use of words that imitate sounds (e.g. buzz, hiss, tick‐tock). Oxymoron – A figure of speech that combines contradictory statements (e.g. jumbo shrimp). Paradox – The apparently untrue or contradictory statement or circumstance that proves true upon reflection (e.g. Shakespeare writes, “When my love swears that she is made of truth/I believe her, though I know she lies”). Parallelism – The use of phrases or sentences that are similar in structure or wording. Often used for emphasis or effect. Ex) I stand up for my parents. I stand up for my friends. I stand up for myself. Personification – Giving lifelike characteristics to something without life. Point of View – Perspective from which something is told. 1st person – Speaker talking from within…use of pronoun “I.” 2nd person – Addressing the reader directly…talking to “you.” 3rd person limited – An outside narrator who only divulges information from certain characters’ perspective. 3rd person omniscient – An all‐knowing outside narrator. Protagonist – The main character in a work of literature. Quatrain – A stanza of four lines, rhymed or unrhymed. Repetition – Repeating a word, phrase, or concept with the purpose of emphasizing its importance. Rhetoric ‐ The use of language for persuasion. An author’s appeal to reason, intellect, and emotion in an effort to convince an audience. Rhetorical question – A question posed for effect. The answer is usually obvious. Rhyme Scheme – The pattern given to the rhyming pattern at the end of lines in a poem. Usually represented by lowercase letters which each correspond with different sounds. Ex> aabbaabbcc Satire – The technique which employs wit to ridicule a subject, usually some social institution or human foible with the intention to inspire reform. Setting – The time and place where the story takes place. Simile – Comparison using like or as to compare two seemingly unlike things “She was like a rose among weeds.” Soliloquy – A speech made by an actor alone on stage, usually done to reveal a character’s feelings to the audience. Sonnet – A 14 line poem with specific rhyme scheme and structure. Typically abab cdcd efef gg Stanza ‐ A group of lines in a poem that function as one unit; like a paragraph in prose. Symbolism – When an author uses objects or descriptions to represent something else. For example if characters in a story were wearing white, that color white might stand for purity. Syntax – The grammatical structure of a sentence; sentence structure. Theme – The underlying idea, moral, or lesson of a piece of writing. Tragedy – A serious fiction involving the downfall of the hero(es). Tone – Attitude of a writer toward a subject. Typically implied. Vernacular – The everyday spoken language of people in a particular locality, and writing that imitates or suggests such language.