Lit Terms Project!
Colette Hernandez
Chelsea Skubal
Anaphora
The repetition of a word or phrase
at the start of successive clauses.
 "I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life
insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a
home in the country. What I had was a
coat, a hat and a gun." - Raymond
Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely
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Foot (poetic)
A metrical unit composed of
stressed and unstressed syllables in
poetry. An iamb or iambic foot is
represented by ˘', that is, an
unaccented syllable followed by an
accented one.
 "Whose woods these are I think I know“
–Robert Frost
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Paradox
A statement that appears to be
contradictory but then, on closer
inspection, turns out to make sense.
 "I must be cruel to be kind". - Hamlet
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Elegy
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A mournful, contemplative lyric poem
written to commemorate someone
who is dead, often ending in a
consolation.
“Sundays too my father got up early
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked
him.”- “Those Winter Sundays”, Robert
Hayden
Metonymy
A type of metaphor in which
something closely associated with a
subject is substituted for it.
 “As he swung toward them holding up
the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling.” – “Out, Out” by
Robert Frost
(Life being blood)
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Character
A person presented in dramatic or
narrative work. (Stock, round, and
flat)
 “Whoever said orange was the new pink was
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seriously disturbed.” -Elle Woods Legally Blonde.
Stock characters embody stereotypes such as
“dumb blondes.”
 Flat Character- Elle’s Mother
 Static Character-Emmett
 Dynamic Character- Elle Woods
Foil
A character in a work whose
behavior and values contrast with
those of another character in order
to highlight the distinctive
temperament of that character.
 “Look, my lord, it comes!” –Hamlet
Horatio acts as Hamlet's confidant and
therefore lets the audience know what
Hamlet is thinking and makes it seem like
Hamlet is not mad because he sees it too.
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Litotes
A Figure of speech consisting of an
understatement in which an
affirmative is expressed by negative
its opposite.
 “I'm really glad that you have come to
visit,” said the spider to the fly. –The
Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt
(The fly did not come to visit, he became stuck
and is now his next meal.)
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Tone
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The author’s implicit attitude toward the
reader or the people, places, and events in
a work as revealed by the elements of the
author’s style.
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“It dartingly darkened in spots,
paled, pulsed, compressed, distended, yet
held an identity firm: a flock
of starlings, as much one thing as a rock.” –The
Great Scarf of Birds, John Updike
Using the word, “distended”, made it “painfully”
stick out.
Rising Action
A set of conflicts and crises that
constitute the part of a play's or
story's plot leading up to the climax.
 One night the big bad wolf, who dearly
loved to eat fat little piggies, came along
and saw the first little pig in his house of
straw. He said "Let me in, Let me in, little
pig or I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow
your house in!” –The Three Little Pigs
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Vernacular
Literature written in the vernacular-the speech of the "common
people".
 “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” - A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
(for the time it was written, (The
Renaissance ) it was the speech of the
“common people”)
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Anecdote
Short free-standing tale narrating an
interesting or amusing biographical
incident.
 “Vince Lombardi never wore a watch.
When he showed up you knew it was
time for practice. If you’re 15 minutes
early you’re on time, if you’re on time
you’re late, and if you’re late don’t even
show up.”-Matt Nicolo
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