| A | B |
|---|
| Alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sounds |
| Allusion | reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art. |
| Anecdote | a brief story about an interesting, amusing, or strange event |
| anticlimax | turning point in a story (always a let down) |
| aside | a short speech delivered by an actor in a play, expressing a character's thoughts |
| assonance | repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables |
| autobiography | form on nonfiction in which a person tells his or her own life story |
| biography | form on nonfiction in which a writer tellst he life story of another person |
| blank verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines |
| character | a person or an animal who takes part in the action of a literary work |
| characterization | the act of creating and developing a character |
| direct characterization | the author directly states a character's traits |
| indirect characterization | an author tells what a character looks like, does, and says, and how other characters react to him |
| round character | shows many different traits--faults as well as virtues |
| flat character | we see only one side of a character |
| dynamic character | develops and grows during the course of the story |
| static character | does not change or grow |
| climax | the high point of interest or supsense in a story, novel, or play |
| conflict | a sturggle between opposing forces |
| external conflict | main character struggles against and outside force |
| internal conflict | involves a character in conflict with himself or herself |
| connotation | the set of ideas associeated with a word in addition to its explicit meaning |
| couplet | a pair of rhyming lines usually of the sme lenght and meter |
| denotation | a words dictionary meaning, independent of other associations that the word may have |
| dialcect | from of language spoken by people in a particular region or group |
| dialogue | a conversaation between characters |
| diction | word choice |
| drama | a story written to be performed by actors |
| dramatic poetry | poetry that utilizes the techniques of drama |
| epic | a long narrative poem about the deeds of gods or heroes |
| epic simile (Homeric simile) | an elaborate comparison of unlike subjects |
| essay | a short nongiction work about a particular subject |
| exposition | the part of the work that introduces the cahracters, the setting, and the basic situation |
| fantasy | a highly imaginative writing that contains elements not found in real life |
| fiction | prose writing that tells about imagninary charactes and events |
| figurative language | writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally |
| foreshadowing | the use in a literary work of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur |
| free verse | poetry not written in a regular rhythmical pattern, or meter |
| genre | category or type of literature |
| haiku | a three-line verse form. 5-7-5 syllables |
| image | a word or phrase that appeals to one or more of the five senses |
| imagery | the descriptive or figurative language used in literature to create word pictures for the reader |
| verbal irony | words are used to suggest the opposite of what is meant |
| dramatic irony | there is a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience knows to be true |
| irony of situation | an event occurs that directly contradicts the expectations of the characters |
| lyric poem | a highly musical verse that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker |
| metaphor | a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else |
| meter | a poem's rhythmical patter |
| monologue | a speech by one character in a play, story, or poem |
| mood | the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage |
| moral | a lesson taught by a literary work |
| motivation | a reason that explains or partially explains why a character thinks, feels, acts, or behaves in a certain way |
| myth | a fictional tale that explains the actions of gods or the causes of natural phenomena |
| narration | writing that tells a story |
| narrative | a story told in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama |
| narrative poem | a poem that tells a story |
| narrator | a speaker or character who tells a story |
| nonfiction | prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about real people, places, objects, or events |
| novel | a long work of fiction |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds |
| oral tradition | passing of songs, stories, and poems from generation to generation by word of mouth |
| personification | a type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics |
| persuasion | writing or speech that attempts to convice the reader to adopt a particular opinion or course of action |
| plot | the sequence of events in a literary work |
| poetry | one of the three major types of literature, the others being prose and drama |
| prose | the ordinary form of written language |
| quatrain | a stanza or poem made up of four lines, usually with a definite rhythm and rhyme scheme |
| repetition | the use of any element of language--a sound, a word, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence--more than once |
| rhyme | the repetition of sounds at the ends of words |
| rhyme scheme | a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem |
| rhythm | the patter of beats, or stresses, in spoken or written language |
| science fiction | writing that tells about imagninary events that involve science or technology |
| setting | the timeand place of the action |
| short story | a brief work of fiction |
| simile | a figure of speech in which like or as is used to make a comparison between two basically unlike ideas |
| soliloquy | a long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage |
| sonnet | a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter |
| speaker | the imaginary voice assumed by the writer of a poem |
| stage directions | notes included in a drama to describe how the work is to be performed or staged |
| stanza | a formal division of lines ina poem, considered as a unit |
| suspense | a feeling of curiosity or uncertainty about eh outcome of events in a literary work |
| symbol | anything that stands for or represents something else |
| theme | a central message or insight into life revealed through the literary work |
| tone | the writer's attitude toward his or her audience and subject of a literary work |
| tragedy | a work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophe for the main character |
