Anecdote- a very brief story, usually told to make a point
Antagonist- the character or force in conflict with the main character
Aside- words that are spoken, in a play, to the audience or another character, but are not
supposed to be heard by the other characters on stage
Character- person in a story, poem , or play. A writer can reveal character
(characterization) in five ways: let us hear the character speak, describe how the character
looks and dresses, let us listen to the character’s inner thoughts and feelings, reveal what
other characters think about the character, show how the character acts, or tell us what the
character’s personality is. The first five ways are called indirect characterization, while
the last one is direct. Characters can be static (remain the same), dynamic (changing),
flat (one or two traits), or round (many different traits). Flat and static characters are
called subordinate characters (important roles, but not main characters).
Climax- a moment of great emotional suspense or intensity in a plot
Comedy- a story that end happily
Comic Relief- comic scene or event that breaks up a serious play or narrative
Conflict- struggle or clash between opposing characters or forces. There can be internal
conflict (in the character’s mind) or external conflict (other character’s or nature).
Connotation- all the meanings, associations, or emotions that have come to be attached to
some words in addition to their dictionary definition
Dialogue- the conversation between characters in a story or play
Denotation- the “dictionary” meaning of a word
Diction- a writer or speaker’s choice of words
Drama- story that is written to be acted for an audience
Epic- long story told in elevated language (usually poetry), which relates the great deed
of a larger than life hero who embodies the values of a particular society
Epithet- adjective or descriptive phrase that is used to characterize a person, place, or
thing
Exposition- type of writing that explains, gives information, defines, or clarifies an idea.
OR… the term for the beginning part of a plot that gives information about the characters
and their problems or conflicts
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
Flash-Forward- a scene in a movie, play, short story, novel, or narrative poem that
interrupts the present action of the plot to shift into the future
Foreshadowing- the use of clues to hint at events that will happen in the plot
Genre- the category that a work of literature is classified under. 5 major genres are:
nonfiction, fiction, poetry, drama, and myth.
Imagery- language that appeals to the senses
Irony- contrast between expectation and reality- between what is said and what is really
meant- between what is expected to happen and what really does happen- between what
appears to be true and what is actually true. 3 kinds of irony: verbal irony (a speaker says
one thing, but really means another), situational irony (contrast between what we expect
to happen and what actually happens), and dramatic irony (the audience knows
something important that the character does not).
Lyric Poetry- poetry that does not tell a story, but is aimed only at expressing a speaker’s
emotions or thoughts
Metaphor- figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, in which
one thing becomes another without the use of the words: like, than, as, or resembles. 4
kinds of metaphors: implied metaphor (does not tell us directly that one thing is another),
extended metaphor (developed over several lines of writing or an entire poem), dead
metaphor (metaphor that has been used so often that we no longer realize it is a
metaphor), and mixed metaphor (inconsistent mixture of two or more metaphors).
Mood- a story’s atmosphere or the feeling it evokes
Narration- type of writing or speaking that tells about a series of related events
Narrator- the voice telling a story
Nonfiction- prose writing that deals with real people, things, events, and places
Novel- fictional prose narrative usually consisting of more than fifty thousand words
Parallelism- repetition of words, phrases, or sentences that have the same grammatical
structure or that state a similar idea
Persona- mask or voice assumed by the writer
Plot- series of related events that make up a story or drama
Point of View- vantage point from which a writer tells a story. In broad terms there are
three possible points of view: omniscient (all-knowing narrator), first person (use the
pronoun I), or third person (narrator focuses on one character)
Protagonist- main character in a fiction or drama
Setting- the time and place of a story or play
Short Story- short, concentrated, fictional prose narrative
Soliloquy- long speech in which a character who is onstage alone expresses his or her
thoughts out loud
Speaker- voice that is talking to us in a poem
Style- the particular way that a writer uses language. Created through diction or
figurative language
Theme- central idea of a work of literature
Tone- attitude a writer takes towards a particular subject, character, or the audience
Tragedy- play that depicts serious and important events in which the main character
comes to an unhappy end
Voice- the writer’s or speaker’s distinctive use of language in a text
Poetry:
Alliteration- the repetition of the initial letter or sound in two or more words in a line
Apostrophe- the addressing of someone not present as though they were there
Assonance- similarity or repetition of a vowel sound in two or more words
Ballad Stanza- four lines with a rhyme scheme: a b c b. First and third lines are a
tetrameter and the second and fourth are trimeter
Blank Verse- lines of iambic pentameter without end rhyme
Consonance- the repetition of consonant sounds within a line of verse
Couplet- two line stanza
Double Rhyme/ Feminine Rhyme- the last two syllables of a word rhyme with another
End Rhyme- a rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines in a verse
English/ Shakespearean Sonnet- three quatrains and a couplet with rhyme scheme: a b a b,
c d c d, e f e f, and gg
Figure of Speech- an expression in which the words are used in a non-literal sense
Foot- a unit of meter that usually consists of two or three syllables
Free Verse- lines that do not have a regular meter and do not contain rhyme
Heroic/ Closed Couplet- two successive rhyming verses that contain a complete thought
within the two lines
Hyperbole- exaggeration for the sake of emphasis
Iamb- two syllable foot with the stress on the second syllable. Most common in English
Internal Rhyme- rhyme occurs between two or more words in the same line of verse
Masculine Rhyme- one syllable of a word rhymes with another word
Meter- the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables established in a line of poetry
Metonymy- substitution of a word naming an object for another word closely related to it
Onomatopoeia- the use of a word to represent or imitate natural sounds
Pentameter- five foot line
Personification- the giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects, ideas or animals
Petrarchan/ Italian Sonnet- an octave and a sestet with rhyme scheme: a b b a a b b a and
c d e c d e or c d c d c d. The octave makes a statement and the sestet is a summary
Poetry- patterned form of verbal or written expression of ideas in rhythmical terms
Refrain- repetition of one or more phrases or lines at intervals in a poem
Repetition- the reiterating of a word or phrase in a poem
Rhyme- similarity or likeness of sound existing between two words
Rhyme Scheme- pattern or sequence in which the rhymes occur
Rhyme Verse- verse with end rhymes and usually with a regular meter
Similie- direct or explicit comparison between two unrelated things. Uses like or as
Sonnet- fourteen line stanza form consisting of iambic pentameter lines
Stanza- division of a poem based on thout or form
Symbol- word or image that signifies something other than what is literally represented
Synecdoche- technique of mentioning part of something to represent the whole
Triple Rhymes- the last three syllables of a word or line rhyme
Verse Forms- rhymed verse, blank verse, free verse