literary terms
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An Overview of Literary TermsTRANSCRIPT
Literary Terms
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Allegory:
A story which has meaning on both the literal and
figurative or moral level.
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Allegory:
A story which has meaning on both the literal and
figurative or moral level.
e.g. The Matrix Star Wars
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Alliteration:
The repetition of sounds in a group of words as in
“Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.”
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Allusion:A reference to a person, place, or
thing--often literary, mythological, or historical. The infinitive of allusion is to allude.
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Allusion:A reference to a person, place, or
thing--often literary, mythological, or historical. The infinitive of allusion is to allude.
e.g. “Neo” means “New, Recent, Revived or Modified.” Neo in the Matrix is often
referred to as “The One” or “Savior.” These are all allusions to Christ in the
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Neo is Resurrected After Dying - Allusion to Christ
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Neo is Resurrected After Dying - Allusion to Christ
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Antagonist:
A major character who opposes the protagonist in a
story or play.
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Antagonist:
A major character who opposes the protagonist in a
story or play.
e.g. Mr. Smith in the MatrixDarth Vader in Star Wars
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Mr. Smith
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Mr. Smith
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Darth Vader
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Darth Vader
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Archetype:
A character who represents a certain type of person.
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Archetype:
A character who represents a certain type of person.
e.g. mother/father figurehero/heroine
the know-it-allWednesday, September 29, 2010
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Atmosphere:
The overall feeling of a work, which is related to
tone and mood.
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Audience:The audience for a piece of literature may be a single
person or a group of people. To what person or group is the
text directed?
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Characterization: The means by which an
author establishes character. An author may
directly describe the appearance and personality
of character or show it through action or dialogue.
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Climax:
The point at which the action in a story or play
reaches its emotional peak.
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Conflict:
The struggle in the story. Traditionally, there are four main
conflicts:person vs. self (internal)
person vs. person (external)person vs. society (external)person vs. nature (external)
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Contrast:
To explain how two things differ. To compare and
contrast is to explain how two things are alike and how
they are different.
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Denouement:
The resolution of the conflict in a plot after the climax. It also
refers to the resolution of the action in a story or play after the
principal drama is resolved.
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Denouement:
The resolution of the conflict in a plot after the climax. It also
refers to the resolution of the action in a story or play after the
principal drama is resolved.
e.g. After Neo deletes (kills) Mr. Smith, he dies but peace is made between humans and
the machines.Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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Diction
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Diction1)Word choice.
2) The author’s choice of words. An author has the option of choosing any word from our language, why
does he/she choose to use certain words and not others? In order to
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Denotation
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Denotation1)The definition of a word found in
the dictionary.2)Literal meaning of a word.
3) The verb form is “to denote” which means “to mean.”
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Denotation1)The definition of a word found in
the dictionary.2)Literal meaning of a word.
3) The verb form is “to denote” which means “to mean.”
e.g. The word “indolence” denotes “laziness.”
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Connotation
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Connotation1)The definition of a word found outside
of the dictionary.2)Figurative meaning of a word.
3) The verb form is “to connote” which means “to suggest or imply a meaning beyond the literal meaning of a word.”
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Connotation1)The definition of a word found outside
of the dictionary.2)Figurative meaning of a word.
3) The verb form is “to connote” which means “to suggest or imply a meaning beyond the literal meaning of a word.”
e.g. The word “cool” connotes “an awesome or exciting thing.”
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ClaimWhat the writer wants to
prove. Also called an assertion, position, or thesis.
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Counter-claim orCounter-argument
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Counter-claim orCounter-argument
An opinion that challenges the reasoning behind a position and shows that
there are grounds for having an opposite view.
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Figurative Language:
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Figurative language is also called figures of speech. The most common figures of speech are these:
• A simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole• Apostrophe: a direct address to a person, thing, or abstraction,
such as "O Western Wind," or "Ah, Sorrow, you consume us." Apostrophes are generally capitalized.
• Onomatopoeia• Oxymoron: a statement with two parts which seem
contradictory; examples: sad joy, a wise fool, the sound of silence, or Hamlet's saying, "I must be cruel only to be kind"
Figurative Language:
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Foreshadowing:
A technique in which an author gives clues about
something that will happen later in the story.
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Hyperbole:
An extreme exaggeration.
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Hyperbole:
An extreme exaggeration.
e.g. To say that it took you hours to walk home when in
reality it was only 10 mins would be a hyperbole.
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Imagery:
The use of description that helps the reader imagine how something looks, sounds, feels, smells, or tastes. Most of the time, it refers to appearance.
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Imagery:
The use of description that helps the reader imagine how something looks, sounds, feels, smells, or tastes. Most of the time, it refers to appearance.
e.g. “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark
near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. [pause] Time to die.”
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Imagery:
The use of description that helps the reader imagine how something looks, sounds, feels, smells, or tastes. Most of the time, it refers to appearance.
e.g. “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark
near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. [pause] Time to die.”
In Blade Runner, the dying replicant, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), introspectively says this phrase, during a rain downpour, regarding his own death.
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Irony:
The discrepancy between what is said and what is meant, what is said and what is done, what is expected or intended and what happens, what is meant or said and what others understand. Sometimes irony is classified into types: in
situational irony, expectations aroused by a situation are reversed; in cosmic irony or the irony of fate, misfortune is
the result of fate, chance, or God; in dramatic irony. the audience knows more than the characters in the play, so that words and action have additional meaning for the audience.
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Some dramatic, extreme examples of Irony
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Some dramatic, extreme examples of Irony
1. The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer whale.
2. In 1992, Frank Perkins of Los Angeles made an attempt on the world flagpole-sitting record. Suffering from the flu, he came down eight hours short of the 400-day record, to find that his sponsor had gone bankrupt, his girlfriend had left him and his phone and electricity had been cut off.
3. Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits.
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Literal Language:
Language that means exactly what it says.
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Logos:
An appeal to the audience’s logic—common sense—in
rhetoric.
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Ethos:
An appeal to the audience’s ethics—knowing right from
wrong—in rhetoric.
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Pathos:
An appeal to the audience’s emotions in rhetoric.
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Metaphor:
A comparison of two unlike things using any form of the verb “to be”–-i.e. am, are, is,
was, were.
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Metaphor:
A comparison of two unlike things using any form of the verb “to be”–-i.e. am, are, is,
was, were.
e.g.: “This chair is a rock,” or “I am an island.”
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Mood:
The feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage. The mood may be suggested by the writer's
choice of words, by events in the work, or by the physical
setting. Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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Motif:
A recurrent image, word, phrase, or action that tends to unify the literary work or that forms the theme in a work of
literature.
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Myth:
A legend that embodies the beliefs of people and offers some explanation for natural
and social phenomena.
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Onomatopoeia:
The use of words that sound like what they mean such as “buzz,” “bang,” or “tic-tock.”
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Paradox:
a statement that is apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really contains a possible
truth.
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Paradox:
a statement that is apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really contains a possible
truth.
e.g. Cowards die many times before their deaths.
--Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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Parallelism:
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Parallelism:The use of similar grammatical structure for
effect.
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Parallelism:The use of similar grammatical structure for
effect.
e.g. I came,I saw,
I conquered.
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Parallelism:The use of similar grammatical structure for
effect.
Also, a requirement in grammar to use the same grammatical form for cojoined ideas.
e.g. We went biking, sailing, and hiking on our trip, not We went biking, sailing, and hiked on our trip.
e.g. I came,I saw,
I conquered.
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Parody:
A humorous, exaggerated imitation of a work of
literature, movie, radio-show, etc.
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Spaceballs: A Parody on Star Wars and Star Trek
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Spaceballs: A Parody on Star Wars and Star Trek
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Personification:
Giving inanimate objects human thought, ideas or
intentions
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Personification:
Giving inanimate objects human thought, ideas or
intentions
e.g. “The wind howled through the night.”
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Anthropomorphism
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Anthropomorphism
takes personification one step further and acribes human gesture, movements, as well as thought, intentions, etc.
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Plot:
The series of events that form the story.
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Point of View (P.O.V):
The perspective from which the story is told. Narrators of stories can take on three
points of view: 1st person= “I/we”2nd person= “you”
3rd person= “he/she, they/them”Omniscient Point of view
The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of all of the
characters. Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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Protagonist:
The main character of a novel, play, or story.
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Sarcasm:
is one kind of irony; it is praise which is really an insult; sarcasm generally invovles malice,
the desire to put someone down.
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Sarcasm:
is one kind of irony; it is praise which is really an insult; sarcasm generally invovles malice,
the desire to put someone down.
e.g., "This is my brilliant son, who failed out of college."
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Satire:
A work that makes fun of something or someone,
particularly important or famous people.
e.g. The SimpsonsSouth Park
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A Literary SatireCobert Report Style
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A Literary SatireCobert Report Style
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Simile:
Comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as.”
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Simile:
Comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as.”
e.g. As agile as a monkeyAs alike as two peas in a pod
As annoying as nails scratching against a chalkboard.
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Subplot: The secondary action of a story, complete and interesting in its own right, that reinforces or
contrasts with the main plot. There may be more than one subplot, and sometimes as many as three, four, or even more, running through a piece of fiction. Subplots are generally either analogous to the main plot, thereby enhancing our understanding of it, or extraneous to the
main plot, to provide relief from it. Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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Theme:
The central idea of a work.
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Tone:
The author’s attitude toward the subject of the work.
Usually positive or negative.
e.g. The tone of a piece of literature could be pessimistic, optimistic, angry, or sarcastic.
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Narrator/Speaker:
The narrator of a work of fiction or the speaker of a poem is a creation of the author, just as the
characters in the work are. It's easy to confuse the author and the narrator because, in fact, some
narrators do speak in a voice that may closely echo that of the writer (for example, in interviews with the writer that you have read). This confusion can
also occur easily when a work is autobiographical and has a first-person narrator. Nevertheless, the
narrator is a construction---not the same person as the author.
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