English 11 Literary Terms
Voice
• Voice has two meanings. First, voice is how you, as the
reader, hear the author speaking. It is the combination of
qualities that conveys the author's unique attitude, personality,
and character.
• In the second meaning, voice is the characteristic speech and
thought patterns of narrator that may be a creation, or persona,
of the writer.
• Because voice has so much to do with the reader's experience
of a work of literature, it is one of the most important elements
of a piece of writing.
Dramatic Irony
• When readers know more about
the situation than the characters do
• Example: In a murder mystery
novel, we see the murderer’s
movements but the detective
doesn’t.
Situational Irony
• Contrast between what is
expected to happen and what
actually does happen
Example: A police station is
burglarized.
Diction
• Choice of words in a piece of work; the
kind of vocabulary that is used
Diction affects tone!
For example:
To a friend "a screw-up"
To a child "a mistake"
To the police "an accident"
To an employer "an oversight"
Symbolism
• A person thing or action that represents
more than itself; typically something
concrete that represents abstract concepts
like faith or courage.
Example:
• Conch shell in The Lord of the Flies
Hyperbole
An exaggeration for effect.
I am so hungry I could eat a horse!
You’re killing me with all that talking!
When they started making excuses for why
they couldn’t do it, she knocked them out
with all the reasons why they could.
Foil (Character)
• A minor character whose qualities and
actions tend to contrast with those of a
major character so that the audience
can better appreciate the major
character.
• In Macbeth, Banquo’s qualities, and his
death, show us just how horrible Macbeth
is by in contrast.
Stage Directions
• Written notes within plays which explain the
movements, appearance and inner feelings of
actors at specific points in a play.
MERCY: Oh, Jesus! (Falls back on bed. Enter
Mary Warren, breathless. She is seventeen, a
subservient, naïve girl.)
MARY: I just come from the farm, the whole
country’s talking witchcraft!
Irony
• Contrast between what is generally
expected and what actually happens;
contrast between appearance and actuality
• It is said that when Mary, Queen of Scots, was to
be beheaded, a special French executioner was
hired for the job. When she greeted him, she
pressed a coin into his hand saying, “Do it
quickly, as I have but a thin neck.” But the man
was so distraught at her polite resignation that he
botched the job. It took three chops to sever her
head from her body.
Metaphor
• Comparison of two UNLIKE things —not
using like or as
• Usually linked by is/are or was/were
Examples:
She is a cow!
He’s a criminal behind the wheel.
He was a madman on the football field
Understatement
A statement which lessens the importance of
what is meant.
Example: It’s 125 degrees in the desert and
you say, "It's a little warm today."
Your friend is in the Intensive Care Unit and
you say “He’s a little under the weather.”
Paradox
• A statement or situation that seems
contradictory but nevertheless expresses
some truth.
• The money for a music video can feed
people and provide lots of resources for
others.
• Al Capone gave money to poor people.
Pun
• A play on words. You use the
word in a way that plays on its
different meanings.
Ex. “The hungry gorilla went ape.”
“Shift happens”
“She got the gold mine and I got the shaft.”
Simile
• Comparison using like or as
• Examples:
As graceful as a three-legged elephant.
Dance like nobody’s looking.
As busy as a one-legged man in a buttkicking contest.
Personification
• You give something human traits.
Example:
The clouds were crying.
The brakes screamed as she slammed the
pedal to the floor.
Hell is gaping and waiting for sinners.
Cliché
An overused phrase.
• Keep ahead of the
pack.
• Never give up.
• Give 110 percent.
• She’s so phat!
• It’s a rat race.
• __________like
there’s no tomorrow.
•All's fair in love and
war
•bats in the belfry
•It goes without saying
•moment of glory
•stubborn as a mule
•what comes around,
goes around
Theme
• The central or overarching idea in a piece
of literature. Some big themes are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Our relationship with nature (Man vs. Nature)
Our relationship with society (Man vs. Society)
alienation and isolation
disillusionment
rebellion and protest
loss of innocence
coming of age
the American Dream
Dialogue
The exact words exchanged among characters.
Jesus, you startled me. I wasn’t expecting you here.
It’s been a real day for expectations. Where were you? I’ve been waiting here for
an hour. You didn’t leave a note or—
I wasn’t planning on going anywhere—
I can see that. Where’s your coat?
I left the house in a hurry. I… um… my mother…
The hospital reached you? God, I’m sorry. That’s why—
The hospital?
They called me when they couldn’t get you.
I don’t understand.
Your mother. You said —
I ran out to buy some flowers for her. She’s been so down.
For three hours you’ve been buying flowers?
http://hollylisle.com/dialogue-examples/
Imagery
Words which appeal to the senses and
so invoke sensory impressions in the
mind of the reader.
MY heart aches, and a drowsy
numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had
drunk…
Tone
Tone is the author’s attitude toward the
writing (his characters, the situation) and the
readers. A work of writing can have more than
one tone. An example of tone could be both
serious and humorous. Tone is set by the
setting, choice of vocabulary and other details.
(Mood, on the other hand, is the general
atmosphere created by the author’s words and the
feeling the reader gets from reading those words.)
Archetypes
• Pre-existent personality patterns that lie
behind all the major characters, whether in
fiction or in real life.
There are many examples. Some are: queen,
heroine, faithful companion, trickster,
warrior, rebel, rugged individualist, hero,
mentor, victim.
Hero/Heroine
• The chief character in a
work of literature.
Trickster
Faithful Companion
Outsider/Outcast
Rugged Individualist
Innocent
Villain
Caretaker
Earth Mother
Rebel
Misfit
Conflict
• A problem in literature
Example:
Allusion
• A passing reference in a work
of literature to something
outside itself.
Example: “Speak to my gossip
VENUS one fair word.”
Satire
• Literature which represents
something in a comical sense,
making it appear ridiculous
Soliloquy
• A character speaks directly
to the audience (thinking
aloud about motives,
feelings, and decisions)
Example:
Monologue
• A single person
speaking, with or
without an audience
Example: Saturday Night
Live episode
Verbal Irony
•When someone states
one thing and means
another
Tragedy
•Traces the career and
downfall of an
individual
Sarcasm
• An ironical statement intended to
hurt or insult
(ex. “Brilliant,” stated to a student
who is clearly wrong.)
Figurative & Literal Language
•Figurative Languagean exaggeration
•Literal Languageliterally true
Free Verse
•Poetry that does not
have regular patterns
of rhyme and meter
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)
Rhyme
Similarity of sound
between two words
End Rhyme
Poetry that rhymes at the end
of the line
Slant Rhyme
Words that sounds similar with a hint
of a rhyme (inexact rhyme)
Example:
Internal Rhyme
Poetry that rhymes in
the middle of the line
Couplets
• Two lines by two lines that rhyme
Example:
Blank Verse
•A poem written in
blank verse consists of
unrhymed lines of
iambic pentameter.
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)
Refrain
Repeating a Stanza
Example: “Nevermore” from “The
Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
Aside
• A character speaks in
such a way that some of
the characters on stage do
not hear what is said
(while others 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
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
Rhetorical Question
Not requiring a response
Dialect
• The style and manner of
speaking from one particular
area
(Ex.New Yorkers are from
“New Yark”)
Elevated Language/Style
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
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
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.
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
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