Literature Terms
These are terms that all students will be expected to know, understand, and use in both spoken and written literary dialogue.
Students will be expected to know both the terms and how they apply to literature. There will be quizzes over these terms
various times over the first semester. This this list will need to be the first thing in the literature notebook behind the syllabus.
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Audience – an author’s listener or readership; those to whom a speech or piece of writing is addressed
Alliteration- use of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of poetry or
literature. Example: Three grey geese in a green field grazing
Allusion- a reference to another work of literature, person, event, mythology, or pop-culture
Example:
a. Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.”
– “Romeo” is a reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in “Romeo and Juliet”.
b. The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s box of crimes.
– This is an allusion to one of Greek Mythology’s origin myth, “Pandora’s box”.
c. “This place is like a Garden of Eden.”
–This is a biblical allusion to the “garden of God” in the Book of Genesis.
Ambiguity – the multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage,
Antagonist- a character or force in conflict with the main character
Aside- In drama, a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on
stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker’s words.
Assonance – Repeating identical or similar vowels (especially in stressed syllables) in nearby words. Example:
Romeo (aside) Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
Cacophony – literary version of sound, discordant and difficult to pronounce.
Example: “ Lick, crack, sick, hack. The beggar harried her open back.
Crash, bang, clang!! We want no parlay with you and your grisly gang who work your wicked will.” -- Winston
Churchill
Character – any individual being in a dramatic or narrative work
Round – a complex character with inconsistencies and internal conflict. A character in which the reader sees multiple
sides of the characters personality
Example: Pip in, Great Expectations
Flat – a character that embodies or two qualities, personality traits, or ideas
Example: Ivan , The Most Dangerous Game’
Dynamic – a character that changes throughout the work
Example: Katniss, The Hunger Games
Static – a character that does not change
Example: Effie Trinket, The Hunger Games
Climax – the moment of greatest emotional tension in a narrative
Connotation – the deeper meaning of a word, i.e., the personal connection, images, and experiences that an individual
associates with a word. Author’s choose words based off of specific connotations in order to create tone, and
ultimately mood for the reader.
Detonation – the strict, dictionary definition of a given word
Couplet – two lines that are the same length and end in rhyme to create one complete unit
Example: As long as men can breath and eyes can see
So long lives this and this gives life to thee
“Sonnet 18” William Shakespeare
Diction – the choice of a particular word as opposed to others
Example: Mimic vs imitate ,
Colloquial – everyday, plain, relaxed speech. Colloquial expressions vary from region to region. Below is a list of
some colloquialism examples of American origin:
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a bunch of numpties – a group of idiots
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to bamboozle – to deceive
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go bananas – go insane or be very angry
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wanna – want to
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gonna – going to
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y’all – you all
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go nuts – go insane or be very angry
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look blue -look sad
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buzz off – go away
21. Dialect – language of a particular district, class, or group of people
Example:
Walter: Reckon I have. Almost died first year I come to school and et them pecans — folks say he pizened ‘em and put ‘em
over on the school side of the fence.
(To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)
22. Dialect writing- when an author actually writes the phonetic dialect of a district, group, or class of people.
Example: “Listen, Sam, if it was nature, nobody wouldn’t have tuh look out for babies touchin’ stoves, would they? ’Cause
dey just naturally wouldn’t touch it. But dey sho will. So it’s caution.” “Naw it ain’t, it’s nature, cause nature makes
caution. It’s de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it’s de onliest thing God every made. He made nature and
nature made everything else.” -Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neil Hurston
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Archaic diction – words, expression, spelling, or phrases that are old or have fallen out of use.
Formal diction – elaborate, technical, or polysyllabic vocabulary
Slang – vocabulary that is considered inconsistency with preferred formal or elevated diction
Dramatic monologue – a poem in which a speaker addresses the audience or an internal listener at length
Ellipsis – omission or suppression of parts of words or sentences
a. Example: In the novel Lee illustrates Scout’s stubbornness when she writes, “But Aunt Alexandra. . .Why I
gotta wear a dress. I don’t like ‘em” (29).
Falling Action – follows the climax and shows the effects of the climax
Figurative language – when an author deviates from ordinary or standard use of words in order to achieve special
meaning or effect.
Flashback – interrupts present action temporarily and lets the reader witness past events such as memories, dreams,
narration, or authorial, commentary.
Foil – a character that serves by contrast (being the opposite of another character) in order to highlight or emphasize
opposing traits in another character
Example: Romeo/Mercutio, Lady Capulet/Nurse
Foreshadowing - suggestions, hints, or indications of what will come later
Form – the ‘shape’ or organizational mode or pattern of a short story, poem, novel, article, or essay
Hyperbole – extreme exaggeration or overstatement. Example: I am so hungry I could eat a horse.
Idiom – the construction or expression in one language and cannot be matched or directly translated word-for-word
in another. Example: Sick as a dog. High as a kite. Rub someone the wrong way. Jump the gun, Pay the piper.
Imagery – the ability to form mental images of things or events. Imagery can include auditory (hearing) imagery,
visual (seeing) imagery, tactile (touch) imagery, etc.
Irony – a contrast between what might be expected and what actually occurs
Juxtaposition – and act or an instance of placing two things close together, or side by side, especially for comparison
and contrast.
Example: When looking at the juxtaposition of Romeo and Mercutio, what do you notice about their characters?
Verbal Irony – the speaker makes a statement which its meaning differs sharply from the meaning the word or
phrase expresses
Dramatic irony – the reader knows something the characters do not
Situational irony – accidental events seem oddly appropriate
Metaphor – a comparison in which something is denotated to be implicity something else.
Example: ‘A Mighty Fortress is our God’, ‘He is a pig’,
Direct characterization – author directly describes a character
Indirect character – author uses other methods to characterize and allow the reader to make inferences about what a
character is like
45. Mood – the overall emotion created within the reader by a work of literature
46. Motif - a recurrent thematic element in a literary work
47. Onomatopoeia – using words that imitate the sounds they denote
Example: ‘buzz’ ‘crack’ ‘splat’
48. Oxymoron – conjoining contradictory terms. Example: ‘Jumbo Shrimp’, ‘Deafening Silence’
49. Paradox – a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or assured but in reality expresses possible truth.
Example: ‘It’s a pity that youth is wasted on the young.’ ‘I am nobody’
50. Parallelism – phrases or sentence of a similar construction
Example: ‘Like father, like son.’ ‘The escaped prisoner was wanted dead or alive.’ ‘To ere is human, but to forgive is
divine.’
51. Personification – a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, attitudes
52. Point of View – the perspective from which the story is told
53. Omniscient – al knowing narrator
54. Protagonist – the main character of the literary work
Example: Pip, Great Expectations
55. Pun – a play on words
56. Simile – a comparison using like or as
57. Sonnet – a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
58. Soliloquy – a unusually long dramatic speech intended to give the illusion of unspoken inner thoughts and true
feeling of a character. The character delivers this alone on stage.