| A | B |
|---|
| Alliteration | repetition of the initial consonant sounds of words: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” |
| Allegory | a story that has a deeper or more general meaning in addition to the simple surface story. It has a political, historic, or religious connection and often has animal characters. (Animal Farm by George Orwell or Aesop's Fables) |
| Allusion | a reference to a well-known person, character, place, event, concept, or literary work |
| Anaphora | the repetition of a phrase or word at the beginning of subsequent clauses or sentences (Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?) |
| Analogy | explaining an idea by comparing it to something that may be simpler to understand, but is parallel in meaning. (Austin is to Texas as Sacramento is to California) |
| Antagonist | a person or a force in society or nature that opposes the protagonist, or central character, in a story or drama |
| Archetype | an idea,, a character, a story, or an image that is common to human experience across cultures and throughout the world (can include colors, themes, familiar characters such as the villain in a black cape, or the young star-crossed lovers, or recurring images such as a snake or a rose) |
| Aside | in drama, a character's comment or short speech is directed to the audience or another character but is not heard by any other characters on the stage |
| Assonance | repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds: “Anna’s apples,” “the pond is long gone” |
| Apostrophe | a speaker addresses an inanimate object, an idea, or an absent person (Juliet addresses the night) |
| Consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds at the end of nonrhyming words or stressed syllables (•He struck a streak of bad luck) |
| Conflict | the central struggle between opposing forces in a story or drama (person vs. person; person vs. nature; person vs. society; person vs. self; person vs. fate/God) |
| Dialogue | conversation between characters in a literary work |
| Diction | a writer's choice of words to create a particular meaning or feeling |
| Epistrophe | the repetition of a phrase or word at the end of subsequent clauses or sentences (When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.) |
| Epistolary Novel | a novel told through a series of letters written by one or more of the characters |
| Extended Metaphor | a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem |
| Ethos | a moral or ethical based argument (the speaker's credibility; is he/she trushworthy,m knowledgeable or dependable) |
| Euphemism | a pleasant phrase that is used to replace one that is unpleasant or offensive. (“He passed away” instead of “he kicked the bucket” or “died.” or "plus size" for overweight) |
| Figurative Language | language used for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly (non-literal language) Includes simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, symbol,etc) |
| Flashback | an interruption in a narrative that tells about something that happened before that point in the story or before the story began for the purpose of making the present clearer |
| Foreshadowing | a clue or hint to prepare readers for events that will happen later in a story |
| Foil | a character who provides a strong contrast to another character and their differences help characterize them |
| Framed Narrative | a secondary story imbedded in a main story (Frankenstein) |
| Genre | a type or category to which a literary work belongs |
| Hamartia | the flaw in a character that leads to the downfall |
| Hubris | excessive pride or arrogance |
| Hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor (you've asked me a million times) |
| Iambic Pentameter | a specific poetic meter in which each line has five metric units, or feet, and each foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (I am a priate with a wooden leg and Romeo and Juliet) |
| Imagery | descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell (the crimson liquid spilled from the neck of the white dove, staining and matting its pure, white feathers) |
| Irony | a contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality, or between what is expected and what actually happens. |
| Dramatic Irony | the audience or reader knows information that characters do not (Juliet drinks the potion but is really not going to die) |
| Situational Irony | the actual outcome of a situation is the opposite of what is expected (The Gift of the Magi) |
| Verbal Irony | a person says one thing and means another (you get drenched in rain and scoff at yur wet clothes while your friends say, "lucky you") |
| Logos | an argument that appeals to a sense of logic by using facts and logic |
| Metaphor | an implied comparison between two unlike things (her talents blossomed) |
| Mood | the emotions the reader feels while reading (gloomy, suspense, mysterious) |
| Monologue | a long speech by a character in a drama |
| Motif | a significant word, phrase, image, description, idea, or other element repeated throughout a literary work and related to the theme (night and day in Romeo and Juliet) |
| Onomatopoeia | the use of a word or phrase that imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes (mew, hiss, crack, swish, murmur, buzz) |
| Oxymoron | a figure of speech in which opposite ideas are combined (wise fool, hateful love, jumbo shrimp) |
| Pathos | an emotional argument used to prove your point/plead your case |
| Pathetic Fallacy | a form of personification where inanimate objects or nature respons with human emotions |
| Parallelism | the use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical form. (And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you --- ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy) |
| Paradox | a statement that appears contradictory, but is accurate and true (water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink - Rime of the Ancient Mariner) |
| Personification | a figure of speech in which an animal, an object, a force of nature, or an idea is given human form or characteristics ( |
| Plot | the sequence of events in a story, play, or narrative |
| 1st Person Narrator | the narrator is a character in the story (uses I) |
| 2nd Person Narrator | story told from the perspective of "you" |
| 3rd Person Narrator | the narrator is someone who stands outside the story and describes the characters and action |
| Pun | a play on words often humorous, usually relying on multiple meanings of a single word or of similar sounding words |
| Protagonist | the central character in a narrative literary work, around whom the main conflict revolves |
| Rhyme | repetition of similar or identical sounds: "look and crook" |
| Rhyme Scheme | pattern of rhyme among lines of poetry (denoted using letters, as in ABAB CDCED EE) |
| Setting | the time and place in which the events of a literary work occur. (includes not only the physical surroundings, but also the ideas, customs, values, and beliefs of a time and place) |
| Simile | a figure of speech that uses like or as to compare two seeminly unlike things (She is small and sprightly, like a bantam hen) |
| Soliloquy | in a drama, a long speech by a character who is alone on stage (or is under the impression of being alone) |
| Speaker | the voice speaking in a poem, similar to the narrator in a work of prose |
| Stanza | a group of lines forming a unit in a poem |
| Stereotype | a generalization about a group of people that is made without regard for individual differences (the rebellious teenager is a stereotype) |
| Suspense | technique that keeps the reader guessing what will happen next |
| Symbol/Symbolism | any object, person, place, or experience that exists on a literal level but also respresents something else, usually something abstract ("The Gift of the Magi", Della's hair is the symbol of her beauty) |
| Theme | the central message of a work of literature, often expresses as a general statement about life. |
| Tone | the author's particular attitude, either stated or implied in the writing; it is found through the use of diction (word choice), syntax (sentence structure) and style |
