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Acronym  – Abbreviation for words. (eg. S.W.C)

Alliteration – occurrence of same letter or same particular sound. (eg. Lazy languid Line along)

Allusion- Indirect or passing reference. (eg. In the stock market he met his Harvard)

Analogy- comparing one thing to another

Anecdote – Short interesting story about real situation

Antagonist  – opposes the main character

Antecedent Action  – Character experience that is usually revealed before the story

Archaic Language  – Old language (eg. Thou and Thee0

Archetype  – Original/ Prototype that most modern day storys follow (eg. Romeo and Juliet)

Aside  – Incidental remark or not intended for everyone to understand such as plays where some characters

pretend they can’t hear and some characters can hear. 

Assonance – Resembling of sound between syllables or nearby words.

Ballad – Is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music

Blank Verse  – a verse that does not rhyme. The meter is usually iambic (a pattern of unstressed syllables followed

by stressed), and pentameter (a line consisting of five feet). Eg. Da La

Character Foil  – Foil character is usually someone who contrasts another character, usually the protagonist. (Eg.

has important characteristics in common with another character. usually to bring a character out.)

Cliché - An expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its

original meaning or effect.

Climax  – Point in a story that generates the most interest.

Coherence  – To be clear or make sense

Colloquial – Characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or

writing; informal.

Concrete Poetry - Typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as theconventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme.

Connotation - A connotation is frequently described as either positive or negative, with regards to its pleasing or

displeasing emotional connection.

Consonance - A stylistic device, most commonly used in poetry and songs, characterized by the repetition of the

same consonant two or more times in short succession, as in "pitter patter"

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Context  – Essence of the writing

Controlling Ideas  – The key ideas in a piece of literature

Conventions - a practice or device which is accepted as a necessary, useful, or given feature of a genre, e.g., the

proscenium stage (the "picture-frame" stage of most theaters), a soliloquy, the epithet or boast in the epic (which

those of you who took Core Studies 1 will be familiar with).

Couplet - A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the

same meter. While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if 

they do not rhyme.

Denotation - Allows the reader to know the exact meaning of a word so that he or she will better understand the

work of literature.

Denouement - Literally meaning the action of untying, a denouement is the final outcome of the main

complication in a play or story. Usually the climax (the turning point or "crisis") of the work has already occurred by

the time the denouement occurs. It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that

reveals all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot.

Deus Ex Machina  – A plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with

the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.

Diction - The choice of a particular word as opposed to others. A writer could call a rock formation by many words-

-a stone, a boulder, an outcropping, a pile of rocks, a cairn, a mound, or even an "anomalous geological feature."

Dilemma  – Problem that isn’t easily solved

Direct Characterization  – The narrator or a character in the story tells us what we need to know about a character.

Dramatic Irony - Dramatic irony is the device of giving the spectator an item of information that at least one of the

characters in the narrative is unaware of (at least consciously), thus placing the spectator a step ahead of at least

one of the characters. 

Dynamic Character -a literary or dramatic character who undergoes an important innerchange,

as a change in personality or attitude

Elegy -a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially afuneral song or a lament for the

dead.

Eulogy -a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especiallya set oration in honor of a deceased person.

Euphemism- the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank

expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience.

Exposition - the author's providing of some background information to the audience about the plot,

characters' histories, setting, and/or theme.

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Figurative Language - Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else,

you are using figurative language.

First Person Point of View - First person point of view is a point of view in which an "I" or "we" serves as the narrator of a

piece of fiction.

Flashback- In literature and dramatic media, an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the

current point.

Flat Character - A flat character is a minor character in a work of fiction who does not undergo substantial change or growth

in the course of a story. Foreshadowing - to show or indicate beforehand; prefigure: Political upheavals foreshadowed war.

Free Verse - verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern.

Imagery - the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses ofthings, or of such images

collectively: the dim imagery of adream. 

Indirect Characterization - the process by which the personality of a fictitious character is

revealed through the character's speech, actions, appearance,etc.

In Media Res - In medias res or medias in res (into the middle of things)