LITERARY TERMS

• Abstract – Pertaining to the nonrepresentational art styles of the 20th century.

• Alliteration – Repetition of the same sound in a sequence of words, usually at the beginning of a word. Ex: descending dew drops

• Allusion – a brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature.

• Character – a person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions within a story, poem, or other literature. Characters are the medium through which a reader interacts with a piece of literature. Every character has his or her own personality, which is used to help form the plot of a story or create a mood.

• 1. Antagonist – deceives, frustrates, or works against the main character or protagonist, in some way. Could be a person or death, the devil, an illness, or any challenge.

• 2. Caricature – a picture or imitation of a person’s habits, physical appearance or mannerisms exaggerated in a comic or absurd way.

• 3. Foil- character who serves as a contrast to another character• 4. Hero/heroine – character whose actions are noble or

inspiring• 5. Main characters – central to the plot of the story; dynamic

and round• 6. Minor characters – less important to plot; static and flat

• Collage - A technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a surface different materials not normally associated with one another: such as, newspaper ads, envelopes, theater tickets, etc.

• Concrete - a type of poetry that uses its physical or visual form to present its message.

• Diction – The accent, inflection, intonation, and speech-sound quality manifested by an individual speaker, usually judged by majority standards of acceptability; enunciation

• Dramatic Dialogue – The conversation between characters in a drama or narrative.

• Dramatic Monologue – A literary device that is used when a character revels his/her private, hidden thoughts and feelings, through a poem or speech. This speech, where only one character speaks,a monologue, is recited while other characters are present. It usually comes during a climactic moment and reveals hidden truths about a character, their history and their relationships.

• Characterization: All of the techniques writers use to create characters:

• Dynamic Character – A changing character.

• Static Character- A character who does not change or who changes very little in the course of a story.

• Flat Character – A character we know little about.

• Round Character – A character that is fully described by the author; several character traits, background information, etc.

• Character Trait – a character’s personality; a trait is not a physical description of a character

• Direct Characterization – the author directly states a character’s traits or makes direct comments about a character’s nature

• Indirect Characterization – the author does not directly state a character’s traits; instead the reader discovers a character’s traits based upon clues provided by the author.

• Imagery - Writing that describes something in detail, words create sensory stimulation: visual and sound imagery. Specific or recurring images or sounds. Specify the type to make sure you are not just identifying descriptive writing but actually imagery.

• Imagist Poetry - Poems written using imagery and clear and sharp language.

• Inversion- Reversing the normal order of words; such as putting the subject before the verb: came the dawn or the adjective before the noun it modifies: the form divine. Used mostly in poetry to achieve meter or for emphasis.

• Irony- When an event occurs that is unexpected; in mocking opposition to what would be expected or sometimes desired. Not coincidences, random events or surprises.

• Dramatic Irony - The reader or audience is aware of something that the character is not.

• Verbal Irony - When the speaker means the exact opposite of what they are saying.

• Metaphor - When you substitute one idea or thing for another, but you do not use like or as.

• Meter - a rhythm of accented and unaccented syllables which are organized into patterns in poetry called, feet.

• Narrator - The voice that speaks or tells the story. 1st person: A character speaks using I. Tells thoughts and feelings.

• 3rd Person:The narrator is not a character in the story, but may make comments about what is going on by talking to the reader.

• Omniscient: Knows all characters thoughts and feelings, can go everywhere in the story at all times.

Limited: Knows one character or a few characters, goes some places, some times

Unreliable Narrator: Does not always understand the facts of the story or report them correctly.

• New Criticism - Movement away from trying to figure out literature based on the background or biography of the author. 1920’2 -1960’s

• Parallelism - Use of similar or identical language, structures, events or ideas in different parts of a text. If you start out using one structure, you should stick to it.

PERSONIFICATION - Where inanimate objects or abstract concepts are given human self-awareness; where human thoughts, actions, perceptions and emotions are directly attributed to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. My car is so old and tired it wanted to stay home and rest last night.

• Not anthropomorphism - Where animals or inanimate objects are portrayed in a story as people, such as by walking, talking, or being given arms, legs, facial features, or other anthropoid form. This technique is often incorrectly called personification.

• Pathetic Fallacy - Giving inanimate objects or forces of nature human qualities

• Repetition- Using a word, phrase or structure several times, usually in close proximity.

• Regionalist Writer - Writer that focuses on the characters, customs, dialect and style of a particular region.