Some Terms to Know
Note: Terms are divided into sections by the type of
literature they are most commonly associated with.
However, many terms can be used across genres, so just
because a term is in the poetry section, does not mean
that it can’t be used in drama, fiction, nonfiction, etc.
Main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has
characters, a setting, as well as other types
of symbols, that have both literal and figurative
meanings.

 a story that serves as an extended metaphor
 Characters, events, objects, locations are symbolic
 Form includes fables, parables, poems, stories, and almost any
other style or genre
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as an allegory for
McCarthyism.

a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or
thing in history or another work of literature

 “I blessed his name that gave and took” (Anne Bradstreet’s
“Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House”;
allusion to Biblical story of Job)
 “We are apt to shut our eyes against the painful truth, and listen
to the song of that siren till she turns us into beasts.“ (Patrick
Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention”; allusion to
mythological sirens who look and sound beautiful, but in reality,
they lead sailors to their deaths)


Comparison of two things, people, etc.
Often expressed like ratio
 Finger : Hand :: Leaf : Tree
 This would be read “Finger is to Hand as Leaf is to Tree.”
 A finger is part of a hand, just as a leaf is part of a tree.
Underqualified : Credentials :: __________ : Enthusiasm
A. Energy
B. Lackluster
C. Coach
D. esprit de corps
The answer is:
B. Lackluster.
Just as “underqualified” suggests a lack of credentials, so
“lackluster” suggests a lack of enthusiasm.
Classical: allusions to events, characters, etc. in
classical works of literature, such as mythology, the
Bible, Homer (Iliad/Odyssey)
 Literary: allusions to events in other literary texts,
such as Shakespeare, a well-known poem (like
Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun alluding to
Langston Hughes’ poem of the same name)
 Historical: allusions to events or people in history,
such as calling someone a Benedict Arnold (traitor) or
referring to someone’s Waterloo (defeat; alluding to
the place Napoleon was defeated)


A universally understood symbol
 Tom Walker’s wife is the archetypal character of the shrew
(nagging, unpleasant woman).
 The story of Tom Walker follows an archetypal plot called the
Faustian legend (selling your soul to the devil).
 In “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls,” the sun’s setting (“darkness
settles on roofs and walls”) is a symbol of death. Night is an
archetype representing death.

External Conflicts
 Man vs. Man
 Man vs. Nature
 Man vs. Society

Internal Conflict
 Man vs. Self
Exposition: Beginning of story; learn the characters,
setting, basic situation
 Conflict: The problem
 Rising Action: Bulk of the story; builds on conflict and
includes complications
 Climax (turning point): highest point of interest of
suspense; after this event, there’s no more “building” of
intensity
 Falling action: events after the climax (wrapping up
loose ends)
 Resolution / Denouement: End of the story; conflict is
resolved

First person: Character
involved in the action tells the
story; Pronouns used: I, we,
us, me
 Third person objective: the
writer tells what happens
without stating more than can
be inferred from the story's
action and dialogue. The
narrator never discloses
anything about what the
characters think or feel,
remaining a detached
observer.

Third person limited: A
narrator whose knowledge is
limited to one character,
either major or minor
 Third person omniscient: A
narrator who knows
everything about all the
characters is all knowing, or
omniscient.

Irony involves a difference or contrast between
appearance and reality - that is a discrepancy between
what appears to be true and what really is true

 Verbal irony : people say the opposite of what they mean
(overstatment/hyperbole; understatement)
 situational irony : the situation is different from what common
sense indicates it is, will be, or ought to be
 Dramatic irony: a character states something that they believe
to be true but that the reader knows is not true.
Foreshadowing: Hints about what may occur later in the
story
 Setting: When/where the story takes place; atmosphere
 Theme: main idea of the story; an idea that can apply to
humankind, not just the characters in the story; insight
offered by literature
 Flashback: narrative technique that allows a writer to
present past events during current events, in order to
provide background for the current narration. By giving
material that occurred prior to the present event, the
writer provides the reader with insight into a character's
motivation and or background to a conflict.

Parable: a brief and often simple narrative that
illustrates a moral or religious lesson

 Hawthorne called “The Minister’s Black Veil” a parable.
Parody: Imitation (usually humorous) of a literary
work or film.

 The Austin Powers movies are parodies of spy films.
Satire: Literary work that attacks or pokes fun at vices
and imperfections; political cartoon that does the same.
Satire may make the reader laugh at or feel disgust for
the person or thing satirized.

 The TV program Saturday Night Live often uses satire to expose
abuses and follies.
a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of
consonant sounds

 “While I nodded, nearly napping . . .” (“The Raven”)
 “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain. Thrilled
me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before” (“The Raven”)
Used to call attention to a phrase and fix it into the
reader's mind (emphasis)
 Used to provide poetry or prose with a unique sound
 Can place emphasis on specific phrases and represent
the action that is taking place (The “s” sound above
imitates the sound of the wind blowing the curtains or the
curtains rustling.)

Ballad: a narrative (tells a story) folk song (steady
rhythm and rhyme)
 Dramatic poetry: the action seems to unfold as it is
read (like a play)
 Epic: a very long poem about the heroic deeds of a
superhuman character
 Lyric: Expresses the thoughts and feelings of the
speaker
 *Sonnet: 14 line poem with a set rhyme scheme and
meter


Blank verse: unrhymed, iambic pentameter
 “Thanatopsis” is blank verse
“To HIM who IN the LOVE of NA-ture HOLDS
Co-MUN-ion WITH her VIS-ible FORMS, she SPEAKS”

Free verse: No regular meter or rhyme
 Walt Whitman typically wrote in free verse.
 I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall
assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
Rhyme scheme: pattern of rhyme in a poem (e.g.,
“ABAB” means that the 1st & 3rd lines rhyme and the 2nd &
4th lines rhyme.)

 The rhyme scheme of “The Raven” is ABCBBB.

Internal rhyme: rhyming words in a single line of poetry
 “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary”
(Poe’s “The Raven”)
Metaphor: comparison made between two
dissimilar things

 A conceit is one type of metaphor.
Simile: comparison using a connective, such as “like
or as”

 “Toss it yonder like a rind” (Dickinson’s “If You Were Coming in
the Fall”)
Personification: giving human characteristics to
something that is not human

 “Content to let the north-wind roar / In baffled rage at pane and
door” (Whittier’s “Snowbound”; the wind is personified as
being angry)
Oxymoron: Combining
contradictory words to reveal
a truth. Oxymoron is a form of
paradox. However, unlike
paradox, oxymoron places
opposing words side by side.
Examples: (1) Parting is
such sweet sorrow.–
Shakespeare. (2) Working in a
coal mine is living death. (3)
The hurricane turned the lush
island retreat into a hellish
paradise.

Paradox: Contradictory
statement that may actually
be true. Paradox is similar to
oxymoron in that both figures
of speech use contradictions
to state a truth. However,
paradox does not place
opposing words side by side,
as oxymoron does. Examples:
(1) They called him a lion. But
in the boxing ring, the lion was
a lamb. (2) For slaves, life was
death, and death was life.

Onomatopoeia: The use of words to imitate the
sounds they describe (e.g., buzz, crack)
 Pun: play on words; using a word that sounds like
another word but has a different meaning.

 Marriage is a wife sentence.
 They went and told the sexton and the sexton tolled the bell.–
Thomas Hood.
Denotation – dictionary meaning of a word
Connotation – emotional associations we make with
words


 Skinny and slender have similar denotations; however, slender
suggests gracefulness and femininity, which are connotations of
the word.
Stage directions: often set off in parentheses or
brackets; indicates how characters move; how dialogue
should be spoken; description of setting; offstage sounds;
etc.
 Dialogue: conversation between characters (in any type
of literature, not just drama)
 Soliloquy: long speech made by a character who is alone
on stage; reveals inner thoughts
 Monologue: A speech by a single character without
another character's response
 Aside: Words spoken by an actor directly to the
audience, which are not "heard" by the other characters
on stage during a play.

A summary will:
 restate what you read in
 your own words
 present only the main,
or
 important, details
 maintain a neutral and
objective stance
A critique will:
 move beyond summary
 assess or analyze what
you read
 offer interpretations
and judgments about
what you read
 give evidence to
support your evaluation
Paraphrasing
 Re-writing another
writer’s words or ideas in
your own words without
altering the meaning.
 Is about the same length
as the original since the
purpose is to rephrase
without leaving out
anything, and not to
shorten.
Summarizing
 Writing down the main
ideas of someone else’s
work in your own words
 Is always shorter than the
original since the idea is to
include only the main points
of the original work and to
leave out the irrelevant. A
summary is usually about
one-third the size of the
original.
Primary
 Original, first-hand
account of an event or
time period
 Usually written or made
during or close to the
event or time period
 Original, creative
writing or works of art
 Factual, not interpretive
Secondary
 Analyzes and interprets
primary sources
 Second-hand account of
an historical event
 Interprets creative work
Diaries, journals, and letters
Newspaper and magazine
articles (factual accounts)
 Government records
(census, marriage, military)
 Photographs, maps,
postcards, posters
 Recorded or transcribed
speeches
 Interviews with participants
or witnesses (e.g., The Civil
Right Movement)
 Interviews with people who
lived during a particular time
(e.g., genocide in Rwanda)


Biographies
Histories
Literary Criticism
Book, Art, and Theater
Reviews
 Newspaper articles that
interpret




Example: The poem “Song of
Myself” by Walt Whitman
would be a primary source,
whereas an article about the
poem’s historical significance
would be a secondary source.
Premise: minor or major
propositions or assertions
that serve as the bases for
an argument
 Deductive Reasoning: go
from general case to
specific case.

 Doctors make a lot of
money. (in general)
 Tom is a doctor.
 Tom makes a lot of money.
(specific conclusion)
Inductive Reasoning: (go
from several specific cases
to the general case)

 I did not win the lottery two
weeks ago. (specific
incident)
 I did not win the lottery last
week.
 Therefore I will not win the
lottery this week. (general
conclusion)