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Allegory

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a narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one. A story, fictional or nonfiction, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts. The interaction of these characters, things, events is meant to reveal an abstraction or a truth. These characters etc may be symbolic of the idea referred to.

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Alliteration

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The repetition at close intervals of an initial identical consonant sounds. Or, vowel sounds in successive words or syllables that repeat.

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Allusion

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An indirect reference to something (usually a literary text) with which the reader is expected to be familiar. Allusions are usually literary, historical, biblical or mythological.

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Ambiguity

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An event or situation that may be interpreted in more that one way. ALso, the manner of expression of such an event or situation may be ambiguous. Artful language may be ambiguous. Unintentional ambiguity is usually vagueness.

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Anachronism

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Assignment of something to a time when it was not in existence, e.g. the watch Merlyn wore in The Once and Future King

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Anaphora

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Repetition of a word, phase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This device is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent.

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Angst

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a term used in existential criticism to describe both the individual and the collective anxiety- neurosis of the period following the Second World War. This feeling of anxiety, dread, or anguish is notably present in the works of writers like jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus

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Antithesis

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A balancing of two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses

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Apostrophe

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An address to the dead as if living; to the inanimate as if animate; to the absent as if they were present; to the unborn as if alive. Examples: "O Julius Caesar thou are mighty yet; thy spirit walks abroad." or "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll"

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Archetype

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A term borrowed by psychologist Carl Jung who described archetypes as "primordial images" forged by repeated experiences in the lives of our ancestors, inherited in the "collective unconscious" of the human race and expressed in myths, religions, dreams, fantasies, and literature.

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Aside

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A dramatic convention by which an actor directly address the audience but it is not supposed to be heard by the other actors on the stage.

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Assonance

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Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close Proximity

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Asyndeton

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A series of words separated by commas "I came, I saw, I conquered."

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Balance

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Construction in which both halves of the sentences are about the same length and importance, sometimes used to emphasize contrast

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Catharsis

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The process by which an unhealthy emotional state produced by an imbalance of feelings is corrected and emotional health is restored.

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Characterization

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The method an author uses to develop characters in a work. In direct characterization, the author straightforwardly states the character's traits. With indirect characterization, those traits are implied through what the character says, does, how the character dresses, interacts with other characters, etc.

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Chiasmus

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Arrangement of repeated thoughts in the pattern of X Y Y X. Chiasmus is often short and summarizes a main idea. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

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Comedy of Manners

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Deals with the relations and intrigues of gentlemen and ladies living in a polished and sophisticated society; it evokes laughter mainly at the violations of social conventions and decorum and relies on the wit and humor of the dialogue for its effect.

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Comic relief

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Humorous speeches and incidents in the course of the serious action of a tragedy.

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Conceit

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Usual or surprising comparison between two very different things

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Concrete Language

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Language that describes specific, observable things, people or places, rather than ideas or qualities

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Connotation

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Rather than the dictionary definition, the associations associated by a word. IMplied meaning rather than literal meaning or denotation.

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Consonance

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Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity

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Cumulative

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Sentences which begins with the main idea and then expands on that idea with a series of details or other particulars

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Diction

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Word choice, particularly as an element of style. Different types and arrangements of words have significant effects on meaning. An essay written in academic diction, for example, would be much less colorful, but perhaps more precise, that street slang.

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Didactic

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A term used to describe fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model or correct behavior or thinking.

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Dramatic Irony

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When the reader is aware of an inconsistency between a fictional or nonfiction character's perception of a situation and the truth of that situation.

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Elegy

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A formal sustained poem lamenting the death of a particular person

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Elliptical

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sentence structure which leaves out something in the second half. Usually, there is a subject-verb-object combination in the first half of the sentence and the second half of the sentence will repeat the structure but omit the vern and use a comma to indicate the ellipsed material.

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Ennui

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A persistent feeling of tiredness or weariness which often afflicts existential man, often manifesting as boredom.

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Epigraph

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A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of a theme. One found at the beginning of John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign; that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him."

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Epiphany

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A major character's moment of realization or awareness

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Epithet

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a term used to characterize a person or thing, such as rosy-fingered in rosy-fingered drawn

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Euphemism

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The use of a word or phrase that is less direct but is also considered less distasteful or less offensive than another

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Explication

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the act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text

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Exposition

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Background information provided by a writer to enhance a reader's understanding of the contexts of a fictional or nonfictional story

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Farce

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A type of comedy in which one-dimensional characters are put into ludicrous situations

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Fiction

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A product of a writer's imagination, usually made up of characters, plot, setting, point of view, and theme

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Figurative Language

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A word or words that are inaccurate literally, but describe by calling to mind sensations or responses that the thing described evokes

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Figure of Speech

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A form of expression in which words are used out of the usual sense in order to make the meaning more specific

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Flat Character

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A character constructed around a single idea or quality

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Foil

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A character whose traits are the opposite of another and who thus points up the strengths and weaknesses of the other characters

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Feight-train

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sentence consisting of three or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunctions

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Genre

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French, a literary form or type

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Hubris

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Overwhelming pride or insolence that results in the misfortune of the protagonist of a tragedy

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Hyperbole

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Conscious exaggeration used to heighten effect

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Image

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A word or group of word, either figurative or literal, use to describe a sensory experience or an object perceived by the senses/

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Imagery

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The use of images, especially in a pattern of related images, often figurative, to create a strong unified sensory impression

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Induction

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A form or reasoning which works from a body of facts to the formulation of a generalization

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Inversion

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Variation of the normal word order (Yoda)

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Irony

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When a reader is aware of a reality that differs from a character's perception of reality

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Litotes

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Opposite of hyperbole, understatement

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Metaphor

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a comparison of two unrelated things

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Metonym

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Designation of one thing with something closely associated with it

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Mood

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An atmosphere created by a writer's word choice and the details selected

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Moral

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The lesson drawn from a fictional or nonfictional story

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Motif

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A frequently recurrent character, incident, or concept in literature

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novel

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an extended piece of prose fiction

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sociological novel

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emphasizes the influence of economic and social conditions

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historic novel

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takes its setting and a number of its characters and events from history

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regional novel

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emphasizes setting and mores of a particular locality as these affect character and action

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epistolary novel

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tells narrative through letters

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Onomatopoeia

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The use of a word whose pronunciation suggests its meaing

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Oxymoron

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a rhetorical antithesis

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Parable

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A short story from which a lesson may be drawn

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Paradox

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A seemingly contradictory statement or situation which is actually true. Used for emphasis or to draw attraction.

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Parallelism

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Sentence construction which places in close proximity two or more equal grammatical constructions. Two or three modifiers in a row to describe the same noun or verb; it may take the form of two or more of the same type of phrases (prepositional, participial, gerund, appositive) that modify the same nun or verb; it may also take the form of two or more subordinate clauses that modify the same noun or verb. Or, parallel structure may be a complex blend of single-word, phrases, and clause parallelism all in the same sentence.

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Parody

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An exaggerated imitation of usually more serious work for humorous purposes.

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Pathos

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Qualities of a fictional or nonfictional word that evoke sorrow or pity

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Periodic Sentence

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Sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after all introductory elements

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Peripety

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Reversal in the hero's fortunes

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Persona

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A writer often adopts a fictional voice to tell a story

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Personification

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Figurative language in which inanimate objects, animals, idea or abstractions are endowed with human traits or human form

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Plot

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System of actions represented in a dramatic or narrative work

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Point of View

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The perspective from which a fictional or nonfictional story is told.

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Polysyndeton

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Sentences which uses and or another conjunction, with no commas, to separate the items in a series, usually appearing in the form X and Y and Z stressing equally each member of the series.

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Protagonist

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Chief character in a dramatic or narrative work, usually trying to accomplish some objective or working toward a goal

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Pun

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A play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings

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Repetition

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Word or phrase used to or more times in close proximity

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Round Character

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A character drawn with sufficient complexity to be able to surprise the reader without losing credibility.

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Satire

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A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. Doesn't simply abuse or get personal. Targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals; to inspire change.

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Setting

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Locale and period in which the action takes place.

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Simile

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A figurative comparison of two things, often dissimilar, using the connecting words: "like" "as" or "then"

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Situational Irony

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Applies to works which contain elaborate expressions of the ironic spirit.

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Soliloquy

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When a character in a play speaks his thoughts aloud- usually by him or herself.

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Stock Character

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Conventional character types that recur repeatedly in various literary genres. E.g. wicked stepmother or prince charming etc

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Stream of Consciousness

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technique of writing that undertakes to reproduces the raw flow of consciousness, with the perceptions, thoughts, judgements, feelings, associations, and memories presented just as they occur without being tidied into grammatical sentences or given logical and narrative order.

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Style

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The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes.

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Symbol

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A thing, event, or person that represents or stands for some idea or event.

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Synecdoche

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Part of something is used to stand for the whole. E.G. "threads" for clothes "wheels" for cars.

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Syntax

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In grammar, the arrangement of words as elements in a sentence to show their relationship.

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Theme

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A central idea of a work of fiction or nonfiction, revealed and developed in the course of a story or explored through argument.

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Tone

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A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization of the sentence and global levels.

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Tragedy

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Representation of serious actions which turn out disastrously

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Tragic Flaw

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Tragic error in judgement; a mistaken act which changes the fortune of the tragic hero from happiness to misery; also known as hamartia.

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Understatement

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Deliberately representing something as much less that it really is.

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Unity

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A work of fiction or nonfiction is said to be unified is all the parts are related to one central idea or organizing principle. Thus, unity is dependent upon coherence.

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Verbal Irony

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When the reader is aware of a discrepancy between the real meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the writer's words.

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Zeugma

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The writer uses one word to govern several successive words are clauses -e.g. she discovered New York and her world.

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Dead Metaphor

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So overused that its original impact has been lost

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Extended Metaphor

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One developed at length and involved several points of comparison.

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Mixed Metaphor

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When two metaphors are jumped together, often illogically.

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Sarcasm

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A type of verbal irony in which under the guise of praise a caustic and bitter expression of strong and personal disapproval is given. Sarcasm is personal, jeering, and intended to hurt.

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