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Literary Terms Defined

Drama Terms

1. Aside—line or two spoken by the character to himself, so that no other character on stage

hears. Usually, the character turns aside to portray this to the audience

2. Antagonist—Any force in a story that is in conflict with the protagonist. An antagonist

may be another person, an aspect of the physical or social environment, or a destructive

element in the protagonist's own nature.

3. Act— major division in the action of a play, typically indicating by lowering the curtain

or raising the houselights. Playwrights frequently employ acts to accommodate changes

in time, setting, mood, etc. In longer plays, acts are frequently subdivided into scenes,

which mark the point where new characters enter or a location changes.

4. dynamic character—A character who during the course of a story undergoes a permanent

change in some aspect of his personality or outlook.

5. flat character--A character who has only one outstanding trait or feature, or at the most a

few distinguishing marks.

6. round character--A character who is complex, multi-dimensional, and convincing.

7. static character--A character who is the same sort of person at the end of a story as s/he

was at the beginning.

8. stock character-- stereotyped character: one whose nature is familiar from prototypes in

previous fiction

9. comedy--A type of drama, opposed to tragedy, usually having a happy ending, and

emphasizing human limitation rather than human greatness.

10. comic relief--A humorous scene or incident that alleviates tension in an otherwise

serious work. In many instances these moments enhance the thematic significance of the

story in addition to providing laughter

11. farce--A type of drama related to comedy but emphasizing improbable situations, violent

conflicts, physical action, and coarse wit over characterization or articulated plot.

12. foil character—characters who, when presented on stage together, bring out one another’s

differences

13. epilogue—statement at the end of a novel or play that tells what occurred following the

conclusion of it

14. hubris—Greek word for pride (often the downfall of a character)

15. monologue—a long speech spoken by one character to other characters on the stage

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16. prologue—opening section of a play that sets up the plot

17. protagonist--The central character in a story who is trying to accomplish something

18. scene—divisions within the act of a play, broken apart by location but still related to the

overall purpose of the act

19. soliloquy—A speech in which a character, alone on the stage, addresses himself; a

soliloquy is a "thinking out loud," a dramatic means of letting an audience know a

character's thoughts and feelings.

20. Tragedy--A type of drama, opposed to comedy, in which the protagonist, a person of

unusual moral or intellectual stature or outstanding abilities, suffers a fall in fortune

because of some error of judgment, excessive virtue, or flaw in her/his nature. A tragedy

often ends with one or more deaths.

21. tragic flaw—the downfall of the protagonist (who is often noble or of elevated status);

pride is a common tragic flaw.

22. tragic hero—protagonist whose downfall is his tragic flaw

23. villain—an inherently evil character

Fiction Terms

1. antithesis—establishing a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by

joining them together in parallel structure

Ex: That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind—Neil Armstrong

Ex: Success makes men proud; failure makes them wise

2. anecdote—a short, simple story to illustrate a point

3. allegory—the representation of abstract ideas and principles by characters and

events (Pilgrim’s Progress)

4. allusion—well known reference to something in mythology, history, literature, the

Bible

5. ambiguity—being unclear

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6. analogy—a comparison of 2 things that are slightly similar for the purpose of

explaining an unfamiliar or difficult idea

a. Ex: It is not the health who need a physician but those who are sick; I

didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners. Mark 2:17

7. epigraph—a quotation at the beginning of a book that sets forth the theme

8. epiphany—moment of awakening or realization for a character

9. euphemism—the substitution of a milder or less negative phrase for a harsh or

blunt one (Ex: passed away for death or restroom for toilet/bathroom)

10. epigram—a witty saying briefly expressed or a short, satirical poem

11. fable—a short tale used to teach a moral lesson usually using animals

12. figurative language—non literal language

13. flashback—when a character moves back to an earlier memory or scene that is

usually important to the plot (usually the flashback interrupts)

14. hyperbole—extreme exaggeration

15. jargon—the language familiar to a particular trade, profession or group. (medical

jargon)

16. irony

a. dramatic—audience or another character knows something that a character

does not

b. situational—surprise twist at the end (Fight Club)

c. verbal—play on words; pun

17. metaphor--

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18. metaphysical—deals with the spiritual or non-material world

19. Modernism—literary movement from early 1900’s (see Catch-22 intro ppt)

20. narrative voice—the speaker or ―voice‖ telling you the story (personality)

21. oxymoron—a paradox reduced to two words (usually adj.-noun) "jumbo shrimp"

22. paradox-- a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in

reality expresses a possible truth

23. pathos—the quality in writing that evokes pity or compassion

24. parable-- a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth,

religious principle, or moral lesson.

25. personification

26. point of view

a. first person—narrator is referred to as ―I‖ and we see only his or her

perspective

b. third person objective – outside narrator only; we only see what a camera

would capture and no thoughts revealed. The only things revealed are

what the reader can "see" (such as imagery) or "hear" (such as dialogue).

We don’t go inside any character’s head/thoughts.

c. third person omniscient—third person narrator who is able to see into

more than one character’s mind and understands all the action (we get into

two or more characters’ heads/thoughts)

d. third person limited—third person narrator who only gives the thoughts of

one character (only get inside one character’s thoughts)

27. prose—opposite of poetry

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28. satire --A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony,

derision, or wit

29. sarcasm—criticism in the form of praise or flattery; to mean the opposite of what

you say

30. setting—time and place where a narrative occurs; usually affects the plot line

31. simile—comparison of two things that uses like or as (the snow glittered like

diamonds in the sun)

32. stream-of-consciousness—form of writing in which a character or narrator’s

thoughts flow together as they go through the character’s mind; can be confusing

33. subplot—smaller plots within the story that help to develop the main plot

34. symbol—common or every day object or person which represents some abstract

idea; something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else. Ex:

winter and darkness may represent death or a sad mood

35. theme—the main lesson or moral the author wants to teach

36. tone—author’s attitude towards the subject matter of the book or towards a

character in the novel

37. understatement—opposite of exaggeration; a kind of irony that deliberately

represents something as being much less than it really is. Ex: From Macbeth, ―It

was a rough night‖ after the murder

38. grotesque -- imagery or characters that inspire fear, disgust, empathy, and curiosity.

(An archetypal villain would only inspire fear and disgust.) Examples of grotesque

characters: Hunchback of Notre Dame, Phantom of the Opera, Beast (of Beauty and the

Beast)

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Style Terms

1. atmosphere—feelings of the environment

2. colloquial—conversational, everyday speech, usually regional in nature ("pop" or

"soda" for carbonated beverage; "wanna" or "ain't"; sayings such as "there's more

than one way to skin a cat")

3. connotation—implication of a word (to associate a secondary meaning with it)

4. denotation—the explicit, "dictionary" meaning of a word

5. dialect—local language used by the people of a particular region

6. diction—word choice

7. invective—harsh, scathing words or criticism

8. litotes -- understatement usually combined with double negatives for rhetorical

effect. (Examples: not unattractive, not bad, not as young, not wrong, no ordinary)

9. mood—the emotional feeling that the story gives the reader

10. paradox—a statement that appears contradictory but has truth ―I always lie‖ is a

paradox b/c if it is true it must also be false

11. pun—the humorous use of a word or phrase to suggest its different meanings

12. sarcasm— SEE FICTION

13. satire—SEE FICTION

14. slang—words that come about in society and eventually turn into a socially

acceptable word; informal diction not considered "correct" among the educated

and elite.

15. syntax—sentence structure (telegraphic vs. long and flowing, parallelism, etc.)

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Poetry Terms

1. alliteration—repetition of consonant sounds at beginning of words

2. allusion—well known reference to the Bible, mythology, literature, history

3. apostrophe—a figure of speech in which someone (usually dead), some abstract

quality, or some idea in nature is addressed by the poet/speaker: "O death!" "Is

this a dagger....."

4. assonance—repetition of vowel sounds, usually in the middle or end of words: ―a

land laid waste with all its young men slain‖

5. blank verse—unrhymed iambic pentameter

6. cacophony—the harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or words

7. caesura—a pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse: ―To err is human, to

forgive divine‖

8. conceit—an elaborate metaphor or analogy that points to a striking parallel

between two seemingly dissimilar things. Ex: John Donne’s poem where he

compares his and his wife’s souls to the legs of a math compass

9. consonance—repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words, usually

at end (bill and ball, barn and burn)

10. couplet—a two line stanza, usually ending with the same rhymes

11. didactic poem—a poem intended primarily to teach a lesson

12. elegy—a formal poem that meditates on death or some other solemn theme

13. dramatic monologue/poem—poem that takes on the form of a monologue

14. enjambment—the continuation of one line of poetry to the next (no pauses or

commas)

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15. extended metaphor—an implied analogy or comparison that is carried throughout

a stanza or entire poem. Donne compares a beautiful woman to fish bait and men

to fish who want to be caught by the woman.

16. euphony—style in which the combination of words is pleasant sounding. Keats: a

thing of beauty is a joy for ever/Its loveliness increases, it will never/pass into

nothingness, but still will keep/ a bower quiet for us and a sleep/full of sweet

dreams and health and quiet breathing.

17. figurative language--writing that uses a figure of speech as opposed to literal

language. Examples include similes and metaphors.

18. free verse—poetry that has no specific meter but is still rhythmical

19. heroic couplet—entire poem made of couplets, where each pair are end stopped

iambic pentameter lines that rhyme. Example from Pope: "But when to mischief

mortals bend their will / How soon they find instruments of ill‖ (from The Rape

of the Lock, canto III, lines 125-126)

20. imagery—the sensory details of a work (visual or auditory descriptions)

21. lyric poem—any short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses

thoughts and feelings

22. meter—rhythmic quality in poetry; each unit of meter is known as a foot

23. metonymy—a figure of speech—the substitution of a term naming an object

closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. Ex: ―The Pen is

mightier than the sword‖ (pen stands for publishing, sword for the military), or

the ―crown‖ is an object closely associated with royalty. Ask, "Is A closely

associated with B but not part of its whole?"

24. narrative poem—a non dramatic poem which presents a narrative or tells a story.

Epics and ballads are examples of narrative poems

25. onomatopoeia—use of sound words

26. poetic foot

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a. iambic—u /

b. trochaic--/ u

27. quatrain—four line stanza

28. scansion -- metrical analysis of a line of verse

a. monometer—one foot per line

b. dimeter--2

c. trimeter--3

d. tetrameter—4 feet per line

e. pentameter—5 feet per line

29. sonnet—14 line iambic pentameter poem; petrarchan, spenserian, shakespearian

30. stanza—a repeated grouping of 3 or more lines with the same meter and rhyme

scheme

31. synecdoche—figurative language where mentioning a part signifies the whole.

For example: Foot soldiers for infantry and field hands for manual labor. Ask, "Is

A a component of B?"

32. terza rima -- rhyming verse stanza with interlocking three line scheme, such as

ABA, BCB, CDC, DED. Example: Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind."

33. ballad (or common) meter -- four lines that alternate between iambic tetrameter

(four metrical feet, u/s) and iambic trimeter (three metrical feet, u/s). Example:

"Amazing Grace." ("Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound / that saved a wretch

like me! / I once was lost, but now I'm found / Was blind, but now I see.")

Other Terms not on the list: