New terms will be added as we encounter them.
Below you will find literary terms and their definitions. Throughout the course of the year, we will add to these terms and apply them to the material. They are listed in alphabetical order.
Allegory: a story that serves as an extended metaphor; the story has both a literal and figurative interpretation
Alliteration: the repetition of beginning consonant sounds.
Allusion: a reference to another work, person, or historical event
Character: The people or animals who take part in the action of a literary work. Readers learn about characters from: what they say (dialogue), what they do (action), what they think (interior monologue), what others say about them, and through the author’s direct statements.
Protagonist: The main positive character
Antagonist: The adversary of this character
Flat character: A character that emphasizes a single important trait
Round character: A complex, fully rounded personality, a three dimensional character
Static character: A character that changes little over the course of a narrative. Things happen to these characters, but little happens in them.
Dynamic character: A character that changes in response to the actions through which he/she passes
Chiaroscuro: the contrast of light and dark
Dialect: a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists
Figurative Language: Writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally. It is often used to create vivid impressions by setting up comparisons between dissimilar things.
Framed Narrative: A framing narrative contains a second narrative, or embedded narrative, in order to provide a context or setting for it. Sometimes this framing narrative will begin and end the narrative as a whole, providing book ends, while other times the framing narrative will simply be present in the beginning of the narrative. The framing narrative "sets the scene" for the embedded narrative, giving us a context in which we can read and interpret the text.
Imagery: the collection of images within a literary work used to evoke atmosphere, mood, tension.
Irony: A device that depends on the existence of at least two separate and contrasting levels of meaning embedded in one message. Verbal irony occurs when someone says one thing and means another. It is similar to sarcasm. Situational irony occurs when a character or reader expects one thing to happen and something entirely different occurs. Dramatic irony refers to the contrast between what the reader or the audience and what the character knows.
Juxtaposition: a contrast (while still recognizing the comparison)
Motif: a recurring object or symbol in a work
Narrative Pace: the pace at which the narrative is told; there may be points where the narrative speeds up or slows down for dramatic effect
Paradox: A statement that seems to be self-contradicting but, in fact, is true.
Example: When you increase your knowledge, you see how little you know.
Pathos: an emotional appeal to the reader; arousing a sense of pity
Personification (Pathetic Fallacy): a figure of speech where animals, ideas, or inorganic objects are given human characteristics; pathetic fallacy gives nature (specifically) human quality
Synesthesia:The term is applied in literature to the description of one kind of sensation in terms of another. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter's voice upon entering the Beavers' hiding place is described as being "tired and pale in the darkness" (99). "Pale" is a sight adjective used to describe a sound, "Peter's voice."
Syntax: The ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. Poets often manipulate syntax, changing conventional word order, to place certain emphasis on particular words.
Literary Theories:
Biographical: the lens in which the author's life is applied to the text
Race: applying issues of race and ethnicity to the text
Feminist: a lens which studies the roles of men and women in society
Marxist: focus on the representation of class conflict and identity
Historical: drawing on the time period in which the text takes place
Psychoanalytic: using a Freudian lens to analyze the subconscious of the character
Literary Movements:
Puritanism: religious in nature and reinforces the authority of the Church
Realism: focus on character over plot; reaction to the atrocities of the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution; everyday life
Romanticism: values feeling over reason; sees self reflected in nature
Modernism: life is perception; all things are relative, a reaction to WWI
Post-Modernism: nonlinear thinking; acceptance of chaos
Allegory: a story that serves as an extended metaphor; the story has both a literal and figurative interpretation
Alliteration: the repetition of beginning consonant sounds.
Allusion: a reference to another work, person, or historical event
Character: The people or animals who take part in the action of a literary work. Readers learn about characters from: what they say (dialogue), what they do (action), what they think (interior monologue), what others say about them, and through the author’s direct statements.
Protagonist: The main positive character
Antagonist: The adversary of this character
Flat character: A character that emphasizes a single important trait
Round character: A complex, fully rounded personality, a three dimensional character
Static character: A character that changes little over the course of a narrative. Things happen to these characters, but little happens in them.
Dynamic character: A character that changes in response to the actions through which he/she passes
Chiaroscuro: the contrast of light and dark
Dialect: a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists
Figurative Language: Writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally. It is often used to create vivid impressions by setting up comparisons between dissimilar things.
Framed Narrative: A framing narrative contains a second narrative, or embedded narrative, in order to provide a context or setting for it. Sometimes this framing narrative will begin and end the narrative as a whole, providing book ends, while other times the framing narrative will simply be present in the beginning of the narrative. The framing narrative "sets the scene" for the embedded narrative, giving us a context in which we can read and interpret the text.
Imagery: the collection of images within a literary work used to evoke atmosphere, mood, tension.
Irony: A device that depends on the existence of at least two separate and contrasting levels of meaning embedded in one message. Verbal irony occurs when someone says one thing and means another. It is similar to sarcasm. Situational irony occurs when a character or reader expects one thing to happen and something entirely different occurs. Dramatic irony refers to the contrast between what the reader or the audience and what the character knows.
Juxtaposition: a contrast (while still recognizing the comparison)
Motif: a recurring object or symbol in a work
Narrative Pace: the pace at which the narrative is told; there may be points where the narrative speeds up or slows down for dramatic effect
Paradox: A statement that seems to be self-contradicting but, in fact, is true.
Example: When you increase your knowledge, you see how little you know.
Pathos: an emotional appeal to the reader; arousing a sense of pity
Personification (Pathetic Fallacy): a figure of speech where animals, ideas, or inorganic objects are given human characteristics; pathetic fallacy gives nature (specifically) human quality
Synesthesia:The term is applied in literature to the description of one kind of sensation in terms of another. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter's voice upon entering the Beavers' hiding place is described as being "tired and pale in the darkness" (99). "Pale" is a sight adjective used to describe a sound, "Peter's voice."
Syntax: The ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. Poets often manipulate syntax, changing conventional word order, to place certain emphasis on particular words.
Literary Theories:
Biographical: the lens in which the author's life is applied to the text
Race: applying issues of race and ethnicity to the text
Feminist: a lens which studies the roles of men and women in society
Marxist: focus on the representation of class conflict and identity
Historical: drawing on the time period in which the text takes place
Psychoanalytic: using a Freudian lens to analyze the subconscious of the character
Literary Movements:
Puritanism: religious in nature and reinforces the authority of the Church
Realism: focus on character over plot; reaction to the atrocities of the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution; everyday life
Romanticism: values feeling over reason; sees self reflected in nature
Modernism: life is perception; all things are relative, a reaction to WWI
Post-Modernism: nonlinear thinking; acceptance of chaos
