| A | B |
|---|
| Alliteration | the repetition of sounds in words that are close to each other |
| Anachronism | an event or detail in a literary work that is placed outside its proper historical time period |
| Antagonist | the character or force that blocks the protagonist |
| Aside | ”private words that a character in a play speaks to the audience or to another character |
| Assonance | a repetition of vowel sounds |
| Blank Verse | Poetry written in un-rhymed iambic pentameter |
| Conflict | ”a struggle or clash between opposing characters |
| Drama | a story that is written to be acted out in front of an audience |
| Elegy | a poem that mourns the death of a person or laments something lost |
| Essay | a short piece of nonfiction prose that examines a single subject from a limited point of view |
| Exposition | ”a kind of writing that explains a subject |
| Fiction | Prose writing that includes invented material and that does not claim to be factually true |
| Foreshadowing | The use of clues to hint at what is going to happen later in the plot |
| Free Verse | poetry that has no regular meter or rhyme scheme |
| Hyperbole | A figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated or overstated for emphasis. It may be used to express strong feelings or to create a strong impression and is not meant to be taken literally |
| Iamb | a metrical foot, or unit of measure, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable |
| Iambic Pentameter | a line of poetry made up of five iambs |
| Imagery | language that appeals to the senses |
| Irony | ”a contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality |
| Kenning | ”a compound poetic phrase |
| Metaphor | ”a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things without using the connective words like |
| Meter | a generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry |
| Nonfiction | ”prose writing that deals with real people |
| Novel | ”a long fictional prose narrative |
| Onomatopoeia | the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning |
| Personification | a kind of metaphor in which a non-human thing or quality is talked about as if it were human |
| Plot | the series of related events that make up a story or drama |
| Point of View | the vantage point from which a writer tells a story |
| Protagonist | the main character in fiction or drama |
| Pun | ”a play on the multiple meanings of a word |
| Rhymed Couplet | two successive lines of verse of which the final words rhyme |
| Satire | ”a kind of writing that ridicules human weakness |
| Setting | the time and place of a story or play |
| Simile | ”a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things by using a connective word such as like |
| Soliloquy | a long speech in which a character who is alone onstage expresses private thoughts or feelings |
| Sonnet | ”a fourteen-line lyric poem |
| Symbol | a person, place, thing, or event that stands both for itself and for something beyond itself |
| Synecdoche | when one uses a part to represent the whole |
| Theme | the central idea or insight of a work of literature |
| Tone | ”the attitude the writer takes toward the reader |
| Tragedy | a play, novel, or other narrative depicting serious and important events, in which the main character comes to an unhappy end |
