| A | B |
|---|
| Bias | an inclination towards a particular 'reading' or perspective in a text |
| ethos | how a speaker can convince an audience through a demonstration of their character |
| pathos | the creation of or appeal to emotion |
| logos | an appeal through the use of the word; logical; facts; statistics, etc. |
| rhetoric | the ability to see what is persuasive in an act of communication |
| syntax | the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language |
| colloquial language | refers to words or expressions used in ordinary language by common people |
| wordplay | the witty exploitation of the meanings and ambiguities of words, especially in puns |
| narration | a recital of events, especially in chronological order, as the story narrated in a poem or the exposition in a drama |
| point of view | perspective from which the story in narrated |
| accent | refers to the pronunciation of a language |
| dialect | refers to a unique variety of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation |
| motif | a motif can be seen as an image, sound, action or other figures that have a symbolic significance and contributes toward the development of theme |
| symbol | images, ideas, sounds or words that represent something else and help to understand an idea or a thing |
| theme | a central idea or message |
| figurative language | used to mean something other than what is written, something symbolic, suggested, or implied |
| connotation | the association or set of associations that a word usually brings to mind |
| tone | the feeling of the author toward the subject |
| mood | the feeling a text creates in the reader |
| imagery | to use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses |
| persona | the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others |
| 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) |
| 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 tells the 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 suspense in a story, novel, or play |
| conflict | a struggle between opposing forces |
| external conflict | main character struggles against and outside force |
| internal conflict | involves a character in conflict with himself or herself |
| couplet | a pair of rhyming lines usually of the same length and meter |
| denotation | a words dictionary meaning, independent of other associations that the word may have |
| dialogue | a conversation between characters |
| diction | word choice |
| drama | intended to portray life or character or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue and typically designed for theatrical performance |
| dramatic poetry | poetry that utilizes the techniques of drama |
| essay | a short nonfiction work about a particular subject |
| exposition | the part of the work that introduces the characters, the setting, and the basic situation |
| fiction | prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| situational irony | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| setting | the time and 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 speech given by a character alone on stage, used to reveal his or her private thoughts and feelings |
| 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 in a poem, considered as a unit |
| suspense | a feeling of curiosity or uncertainty about eh outcome of events in a literary work |
| theme | a central message or insight into life revealed through the literary work |
| tragedy | a work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophe for the main character |
| extended metaphor | a comparison that does not use like or as and is longer than just a phrase |
| paradox | a statement that appears to contradict itself, yet might be true |
| slant rhyme | imperfect rhyme |
| parallelism | matching sentence structure |
| internal rhyme | rhyme between words within a line of poetry |
| pun | a play on words, usually involving more than one meaning of a word |
| euphemism | an indirect way of saying something harsh, off-color, or uncomfortable |
| epiphany | a moment of sudden revelation or insight |
| catastrophe | a disastrous final outcome |
| catharsis | a cleansing; the unfolding of a tragedy produces this |
| hubris | excessive pride that leads the tragic hero to challenge the gods |
| comic relief | a light, mildly humorous scene preceding or following a serious one |
| tragic hero | the main character in a tragedy and has a tragic flaw |
| tragic flaw | an error in judgment or a character defect |
| aside | a character's remark, either to the audience or to another character, that no one else on state is supposed to hear |
| acts and scenes | a play is divided into these |
| comedy | a dramatic work with a happy ending |
| antagonist | a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary |
| protagonist | the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text |
| iambic pentameter | a line of poetry which contains 5 iambs which are 10 syllables (unstressed/stressed) |
| trigger | to set off a chain of events |
| restrain | to hold back or control |
| mediate | to settle differences between two individuals or groups |
| integrity | quality of being ethically or morally upright |
| rhetorical question | a figure of speech in the form of a question that is asked to make a point rather than to elicit an answer |
| Oedipus complex | refers to a child's unconscious sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent and hatred for the same-sex parent |
| verse drama | a play in which the dialogue consists almost entirely of poetry with a fixed pattern of rhythm or meter |
| apostrophe | A direct address to an inanimate object or idea or to an absent person |
| foil | a character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight various features of the main character's personality |
