Essential Terms

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Allegory: The presentation of an
abstract idea through more concrete
means.
John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress p. 9
Pi Patel
Protagonist

The most important or leading character
in a piece of work; often the hero or the
heroine.
Setting

The combination of place, historical
time, and social status, which
provides the general background
for the characters and plot of a
literary work.
Simile

A figure of speech comparing two
distinct things by using words such
as like, or as, seems, etc. subtle
difference from metaphor, no
linking word
theme

Not simply the subject of a literary
work, but rather a statement that
the text seems to be making about
that subject. The statement can be
moral, a moral or lesson, etc.
Tone

The attitude of the author toward
the reader or the subject matter of
a literary work.
Syntax

The arrangement—the ordering,
grouping, and placement—of words
within a sentence.
Symbol

Something that stands for or
suggests something larger and
more complex.
Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar
vowel sounds usually in stressed
syllables, followed by different
consonant sounds in proximate
(nearby) words.
Consonance

The repetition of a final consonant
sound or sounds following different
vowel sounds in proximate words.
Mood

Often refers to the atmosphere; the
general feeling created in the
reader by the work at a given
point.
Motivation

The mixture of situation and
personality that impels a character
to behave the way he or she does.
Plot

The arrangement and interrelation of
events in a narrative work chosen and
designed to engage the reader’s
attention to; while also providing a
framework for the exposition of the
author’s message, or theme, and for
other elements such as,
characterization, symbol, and conflict.
Essential Terms
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Alliteration: The repetition of sounds in
a sequence of words, usually at the
initial sound.
Wallace Stevens’s “Of Mere Being” p. 10
Essential Terms
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Allusion: An indirect reference to a
person, event, statement, or theme
found in literature, the other arts,
history, myths, religion, or popular
culture. The author’s use presupposes
that the reader will have some general
knowledge to recognize the allusion.
Snoopy and Winnie the Pooh p. 11
Essential Terms
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Ambiguity: The result of something
being stated in such a way that its
meaning cannot be definitely
determined.
Examples p. 12
Essential Terms
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Antagonist: The character pitted against
the protagonist-the main character- of a
work. The antagonist is not necessarily
a villain.
Darth Vador p. 19
Essential Terms
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Apostrophe: A figure of speech in which
the speaker directly and often
emotionally addresses a person who is
dead or otherwise not physically
present
Lord Byron p. 26
Essential Terms
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Archetype: Generally, the original model from
which something is developed or made; in
literary criticisms, those images, or figures,
character types, settings, story patterns that,
according to Swiss analytical psychologist Carl
Jung, are universally shared by people across
cultures. Archetypes according to Jung, are
embedded deep in humanity’s collective
unconscious situations, events, and relations
that have been part of the human experience
from the beginning.
Ex. the snake p. 29
Essential Terms
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Cacophony: A mixture of harsh,
unpleasant or discordant sounds.
Opposite is Euphony.
Ex. The Bridge p. 46
Essential Terms
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Caricature: An exaggeration or other
distortion of an individuals prominent
features or characteristics to the point
of making that individual appear
ridiculous.
Ex. Doonesbury p. 47
Essential Terms
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carpe diem: Latin for “seize the day” a
phrase referring to the age-old literary
theme that we should enjoy the
moment before it is gone, before youth
passes away.
Ex. Dead Poet Society p. 49
Essential Terms

Characterization: Is unavoidably
intertwined with the plot. In order for a
work to be believable, the reader must
find the characters convincing; in order
to find the characters convincing, the
reader must be able to visualize them.
Essential Terms
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
comic relief: A humorous scene or passage
inserted into an otherwise serious work.
Comic relief is intended to provide an
emotional outlet and change of pace for the
audience as well as to create a contrast that
further emphasizes the seriousness of the
work.
Shakespeare p. 69
Essential Terms
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Connotation: The association(s) evoked
by a word beyond its denotation, or
literal meaning.
Ex. “Boys and Girls” p. 75
Essential Terms

Couplet: Two successive lines of
rhyming verse, often the same meter
and generally octosyllabic or
decasyllabic. Ex. “My Last Duchess” p.
76
Essential Terms
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Denotation: A word’s literal and primary
meaning
p. 100
Essential Terms
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Diction: A speaker’s or author’s choice
of words.
P. 108
Essential Terms
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Epiphany: The insight or revelation gained
when one suddenly understands the essence
of a generally commonplace object, gesture,
statement, situation, moment, or mentality—
that is, when one sees that commonplace for
what it really is beneath the surface perceives
its inner workings. A real A-HA moment.
Page 138
Essential Terms
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Euphemism: A nice, less threatening or
rude way to say something.
It is like saying Big-boned rather than
FAT.
Essential Terms

Euphony: Pleasing or harmonious
sounds
Essential Terms


figurative language: Language that
employs one or more figures of speech
to supplement and even modify the
literal, denotative meanings of words
with additional connotations and
richness.
Example The Far Side p. 166 see fig. of
speech.
Foreshadowing:
The technique of introducing into a
narrative material that prepares the
reader or audience for future events,
actions, or revelations.
Essential Terms
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Genre: A word meaning “kind” or “type”
used to classify literary works based on
their content, form, or technique.
Example p. 189
Essential Terms
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Hubris: Greek for “Insolence” excessive
pride that leads to the protagonists
tragic flaw and leads to a downfall.
Oedipus
Michael Vick
Essential Terms
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Hyperbole: A figure of speech that uses
deliberate exaggeration to achieve an
effect. Sometimes referred to as an
overstatement.
Modern examples p. 205
Your Momma is so fat…
Essential Terms
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Imagery: A term used to refer to the
language a writer uses to convey a
visual picture. Is also uses figures of
speech and to express abstract ideas.
Ex. p. 210-211
Essential Terms
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Irony: A contradiction or incongruity
between appearance or expectation and
reality. Easily put the discrepancy
between what someone says and what
they really mean.
Example on pages 220-227.
Verbal Irony or Rhetorical Irony

This is the most common. It is
characterized by a discrepancy between
what the speaker or writer says and
what he or she believes to be true.
More specifically a speaker or writer
using verbal irony will say the opposite
of what he or she actually means.
Situational Irony

Derives primarily from events or
situations themselves, as opposed to
statements made by an individual,
whether or not that individual
understands the situation as ironic.
Essential Terms

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Metaphor: A figure of speech that
associates two things…the
representation of one thing by another.
Examples and further explanation on p.
260
Simon and Garfunkle = I am a rock I
am an island
Essential Terms

Narration: The act or process
recounting a story or other narrative
Essential Terms

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Onomatopoeia: Words or the creation
of words that seem to signify word
meaning through sound effects.
Bat Man p. 317
Essential Terms
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Oxymoron: A figure of speech that
juxtaposes (puts words right next to
each other) two words to create a
dramatic paradox for a rhetorical
purpose or effect.
P. 322 Jumbo Shrimp, Passive
aggressive
Essential Terms
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Paradox: A statement that seems selfcontradictory or nonsensical on the
surface but that, upon closer
examination, may be seen to contain an
underlying truth.
“…die to live…” p. 325
“Barbie Doll” …consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending.
Essential Terms
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Parallelism: A rhetorical figure used in written
and oral communication to emphasize ideas
or images by using grammatically similar
constructions. Words, phrases, clauses,
sentences, paragraphs, and even larger
structural units may be organized into a
parallel structure.
Examples p. 327
Essential Terms
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Parody: A literary term that imitates a
specific work or style of an author for
comic effect, usually to ridicule or
criticize that work, author, or style.
Ex. p. 328
Not another Teen Movie…
Essential Terms
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Pathos: “passion” “emotion” or
“suffering” a quality in a work or a
portion of a work that makes the reader
experience pity, sorrow, or tenderness.
P. 333
Essential Terms
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Persona: Often serves as the voice of
the author. It has also been used to
refer to the public face an individual
presents to others.
Ex. p. 338
Essential Terms
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Personification: Attributing human
characteristics to anything not human.
Ex. p. 340
Essential Terms
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point of view: The vantage point from
which a narrative is told. usually from
the first person or the third person.
point of view.
352
Essential Terms
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Protagonist: The most important or
leading character in a piece of work;
often the hero or the heroine.
P. 375
Essential Terms
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Pun: A play on words that capitalizes on
a similarity in spelling and/or
pronunciation between words that have
different meanings. Puns also use
words that have more than one
meaning.
AC/DC p. 383 Have you ever heard
someone say, “No pun intended”?
Essential Terms
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Rhetoric: The art of persuasion through
speaking and writing
p. 409
Essential Terms
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Satire: A literary genre that sometimes uses
irony, wit, and sarcasm to expose humanity’s
vices (foolishness/shortcomings) in an
attempt to create change or recognition of
our faults. Satire differs from pure comedy
because it ultimately has a moral purpose.
SNL and South Park p. 426
Essential Terms
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
Setting: The combination of place,
historical time, and social status, that
provides the general background for the
characters and plot of a literary work.
p. 443
Essential Terms


Simile: A figure of speech comparing
two distinct things by using words such
as like, or as, seems, etc. subtle
difference from metaphor, no linking
word
p. 447
Rhyme
1.
The repetition of identical vowel
sounds in the stressed syllables of two
or more words, as well as all the
subsequent sounds after this vowel
sound.
Structure
1.
A term that refers to the arrangement
of material in a work, that is, the
ordering of its component parts or the
design devised by the author to convey
content and meaning.
Essential Terms
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
Soliloquy: In a play, a monologue
delivered by a character while alone on
stage that reveals inner thought,
emotions, or some other information
that the audience needs to know. Soap
operas…
p. 450 “To be or not to be…”
Essential Terms
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
Sonnet: A lyric poem that always
consists of fourteen lines, usually
printed as a single stanza.
p. 450
Essential Terms
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Stanza: A grouped set of lines in a
poem usually physically set off from
other such clusters by a blank line.
p. 455
Essential Terms
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Style: In general, the way in which a
literary work is written. The message,
manner, and tools or devices used by
an author to communicate their ideas.
p. 463
Essential Terms
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
Symbolism: (symbol = something that stands
for or suggests something larger and more
complex) In literature symbolism uses
symbols to suggest other things or ideas. In
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird a
mockingbird is symbolic of taking the life of
something nonviolent; more importantly it is
linked to the character Tom Robinson’s
senseless death.
p. 472
Essential Terms
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
Syntax: The arrangement—the
ordering, grouping, and placement—of
words within a sentence.
p. 474
Essential Terms


theme: Not simply the subject of a
literary work, but rather a statement
that the text seems to be making about
that subject. The statement can be
moral, a moral or lesson, i.e.
p. 479
Essential Terms


Tone: The attitude of the author toward
the reader or the subject matter of a
literary work. An author’s tone may be
serious, playful, mocking, angry,
demanding, apologetic, and so forth.
i.e. 482
Essential Terms

Voice: Similar to tone, but more
accurately described as the author’s
presence that exists in a literary work.
10th grade terms:

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
Antithesis
a rhetorical figure in which two ideas are
directly opposed. For a statement to be truly
antithetical, the opposing ideas must be
presented in a grammatically parallel way,
thus creating the perfect rhetorical balance.
Page 22
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Apostrophe
A figure of speech in which the speaker
directly and often emotionally addresses
a person who is dead or otherwise not
physically present
26
Flashback
A scene that interrupts the present action of a
narrative work to depict some earlier event—
that occurred before the opening scene of the
work—via daydream, remembrance, dreaming,
or some other mechanism. The term may be
used to refer to the scene itself or to its
presentation.
Page 167
Verbal Irony 220-227

This is the most common. It is
characterized by a discrepancy between
what the speaker or writer says and
what he or she believes to be true.
More specifically a speaker or writer
using verbal irony will say the opposite
of what he or she actually means.
Situational irony



Derives primarily from events or situations
themselves, as opposed to statements made
by an individual, what happens is the
opposite of what is expected to happen.
whether or not that individual understands
the situation as ironic.
Dramatic Irony
Reader or audience is aware of events and/or
information the characters are not aware of.
Sarcasm

Intentional derision, generally directed at
another person and intended to hurt. The
term comes from the Greek term “to tear
flesh like dogs” and signifies a cutting
remark. Sarcasm usually involves obvious,
even exaggerated verbal irony, achieving its
effect by jeeringly stating the opposite of
what is meant (for instance false praise) so
as to heighten the insult. Pg. 425



Paradox
A statement that seems selfcontradictory or nonsensical on the
surface but that, upon closer
examination, may be seen to contain an
underlying truth.
325-326



Style
In general, the way in which a literary
work is written. The message, manner,
and tools or devices used by an author
to communicate their ideas.
463



Suspense
Popular fictional narratives with plots
revolving around puzzling or frightening
situations that create and even exploit a
sense of uncertainty, suspense, or fear
in the reader or audience.
Pg. 280
Synecdoche

A figure of speech (more specifically a
trope) in which a part or something is used
to represent the whole or, occasionally, the
whole is used to represent a part. In
synecdoche the vehicle (the image used to
represent something else) of the figure of
speech is part of the tenor (the thing being
represented). 474
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
Understatement
It is the opposite of hyperbole; it is a
deliberate minimizing done to provide
emphasis of humor.