English 11 Literary Terms
Archetypes=Type
Hero/Heroine
• The chief character in a
work of literature.
Trickster
Faithful Companion
Outsider/Outcast
Rugged Individualist
Innocent
Villain
Caretaker
Earth Mother
Rebel
Misfit
English 11 Literary Terms
Dramatic Conventions
Stage Directions
• Written notes within plays which
explain movements, gestures, and
appearance of actors or actresses
in a play
Soliloquy
• A character speaks directly
to the audience (thinking
aloud about motives,
feelings, and decisions)
Monologue
•A single person
speaking, with or
without an audience
Aside
• A character speaks in
such a way that some of
the characters on stage do
not hear what is said
(while others do)
Verbal Irony
•When someone states
one thing and means
another
Situational Irony
• Contrast between what is
expected to happen and what
actually does happen
Ex. Someone who is loved
commits suicide
Dramatic Irony
•When readers know
more about the
situation than the
characters do
Catharsis
•Explains the effects of
tragic drama on an
audience
English 11 Literary Terms Cont.
Caricature
• A grotesque or foolish
image of a character,
achieved through the
exaggeration of
personality traits
Foil
• A minor character introduced in
order to represent the abilities of a
more significant character
(Ex.Millhouse serves as a foil to
Bart Simpson.)
Tragedy
•Traces the career and
downfall of an
individual
Voice
•Clarifies the persona
of the narrative
Figurative & Literal Language
•Figurative Languagean exaggeration
•Literal Languageliterally true
Imagery
• All of the words which
refer to the objects or
qualities which appeal to
the senses and feelings
Apostrophe
• A rhetorical (not requiring a
response) term for a speech
addresses to someone or
something in the beginning of a
poem or essay
Clue: When your parents ask, “Who do you
think you are?” You are not supposed to respond.
Metonymy
• The substitution of the name of
a thing by the name of an
attribute of it,
(Ex.the “crown” =monarchy)
Synecdoche
• A part is used to describe the
whole.
• Ex: all hands on deck=sailors
• All aboard=boarding a train
Language English 11
Literary Terms
Devices
Rhetorical Question
Not requiring a response
Tone
The manner or mood
of a passage
Diction
• Choice of words in a piece of
work; the kind of vocabulary
that is used
i.e. Shakespearean language in a Shakespeare play
Slang is used in an Eminem movie
Dialect
• The style and manner of
speaking from one particular
area
(Ex.New Yorkers are from
“New Yark”)
Sarcasm
• An ironical statement intended to
hurt or insult
(ex. “Brilliant,” stated to a student
who is clearly wrong.)
Elevated Language/Style
Satire
• Literature which represents
something in a comical sense,
making it appear ridiculous
Parallelism
• The building up of sentence
or statement using repeated
syntactic units (repeated
words and sounds)
Colloquialism/Vernacular
• The use of the kinds of
expression and grammar
associated with ordinary,
everyday speech rather than
formal language Ex. Cool, Phat!
Connotation/Denotation
• Connotation-emotional response evoked by
a word
Ex. Kitten=soft, warm, cuddly
• Denotation-literal meaning
Ex. Kitten=young cat
Pun
•The use of a word in a
way that plays on its
different meanings.
Ex. “The hungry gorilla went ape.”
Irony
•Contrast between
appearance and
actuality
Stream of Consciousness
• Present the flow of a
character’s seemingly
unconnected thoughts,
responses, and sensations.
English 11 Literary Terms
Literary Forms
Gothic
Grotesque characters,
bizarre situations, and
violent events
Historical Fiction
•Fiction that is loosely
based on some
historical period
Proverb
• Short popular saying
embodying a general
truth
Ex. “Look before you
leap”
Aphorism
• A generally accepted
principle or truth
expressed in a short, witty
manner
Ex. “A rolling stone gathers no
moss.”
Epigram
• Originally an inscription on a
monument…now used to
describe a witty saying or poem
with a sharp, satiric, or amusing
ending
Ex: “In God We Trust”
Tall Tale
• Humorous story
characterized by
exaggeration
• Ex: Jack and the
Beanstalk
English 11 Literary Terms
Poetry
Rhyme
Similarity of sound
between two words
Meter
• The repetition of a regular
rhythmic unit in a line of
poetry.
Foot
•One stressed syllable
indicated by a `
•Two stressed syllables
indicated by a
Iamb
•An unstressed syllable
followed by a stressed
syllable
Pentameter
•Five feet
Stress
•The accent is on a
specific part of the
word
Masculine Rhyme
•The accent is on a
specific part of the
word, and stressed in a
deep voice.
Blank Verse
•A poem written in
blank verse consists of
unrhymed lines of
iambic pentameter.
Free Verse
•Poetry that does not
have regular patterns
of rhyme and meter
Scansion
• The process of determining
meter; when you scan a line
of poetry, you mark its
stressed and unstressed
syllables to identify the
rhythm
Inversion
•Departure from normal
word order, common
in poetry
Alliteration
A sequence of repeated
consonantal sounds in a
stretch of language
Example: Some late visitor
entreating entrance at my chamber
door.” (from “The Raven” by
Edgar Allen Poe)
Allusion
• A passing reference in a work
of literature to something
outside itself.
Example: “Speak to my gossip
VENUS one fair word.”
Assonance
• The correspondence, or nearcorrespondence, in two words of the
stressed vowel, and sometimes those
which follow, but not of the consonants
(unlike rhyme).
Example: Can and fat
food and droop
Child and silence
nation and traitor
Ballad
A poem or song which
tells a story in simple,
colloquial language.
Example: “O What is That Sound” by W. H.
Auden
Feminine Rhyme
• A rhyme in which two differing sounds in
two words are followed by stressed
rhyming syllables and unstressed rhyming
syllables
• Example: revival, survival, arrival
End Rhyme
Poetry that rhymes at the end
of the line
Internal Rhyme
Poetry that rhymes in
the middle of the line
Slant Rhyme
Words that sounds similar with a hint
of a rhyme (inexact rhyme)
Example:
Refrain
Repeating a Stanza
Example: “Nevermore” from “The
Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
Repetition
• Repeating of words or sounds in
poetry
• Example: “May the warp be…/May the
weft be…/May the border be…” (from the
“Song of the Sky Loom,” a Navajo song)
Hyperbole