Literary Terms

Occurs when a word, phrase, situation, or event can be interpreted in more than one way

a stereotyped character

a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept

A clash of actions, desires, ideas, or goals in the plot of a story or dram

A character whose character is summed up in one or two traits.

The part of a play that provides the background information

Monologue

The sequence of incidents or events of which a story is composed.

Rhetorical device of opposition in which one idea or word is established and then the opposite

An introduction or a preface, esp. a poem recited to introduce a pla

Round Character

A reference, explicit, or implicit, to something in previous literature or history

Denotation

Any force in a story that is in conflict with the protagonis

imaginative pattern that appears in literature across cultures and is repeated through the ages

The writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, or herself or himself;

A repeated word, phrase, line, normally at some fixed position in a poem written in stanza form

Subplot

The distinctive style or manner of expression of an author or a character in a book.

Hubris

any way of saying something other than the ordinary way .

A type of drama related to comedy but emphasizing improbable situations, violent conflicts.

What a word suggests beyond its basic definitio

Prose

Explication

A kind of fiction that pictures creature or events beyond the boundaries of known reality.

minor character whose situation or actions parallel those of a major character,

A regional variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary.

Simile

Theme

describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively

A short, pithy saying that expresses a basic truth or practical precep

Figurative Language

Cliche

A situation in which a character must choose between two courses of action, both undesirable.

Any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound.

literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the purpose of bringing about reform

Genre

sometimes on different senses of the same word;

Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive lines

figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike.

A character who is the same sort of person at the end of a story as at the beginning.

Diction

The repetition at close intervals of the initial sounds

A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one

Irony

A short narrative making an edifying .. employing animal characters that act like human being

Point of view

A rule of conduct or maxim for living expressed or implied as the “point” of a literary work.

A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle

A simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.

Colloquial/Colloquialism

Positioning opposites next to each other to heighten the contras

Imagery

The central character in a story.

A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept

A short poem or speech spoken directly to the audience at the end of a play.

Something that means more than what it is; an object

A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements.

A short account of an interesting or humorous incident.