Literary Terms
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Literary Terms
Alliteration u The repetition of the same
or very similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.
Example
u Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
u Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore.
Allusion u A reference to a
statement, a person, a place, or an event from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports or science.
Example u The movie Shrek is full of
allusions. When Donkey is sprinkled with fairy dust he begins to fly and the other characters say “He can fly, he can fly, he can fly!” referring to, or making an allusion to the movie Peter Pan.
Autobiography u The story of a person’s
life, written or told by that person.
Example
Biography
u The story of a real person’s life, written or told by a different person.
Example u On VH1’s “Behind the Music,” my favorite is the biography of the band Sublime.
Character
u A person, or an animal in a story, play, or other literary work.
Example u Bella and Edward, Twilight
Conflict
u A struggle or clash of two opposing characters or opposing forces.
Example
u In “The Giver,” Jonas realizes what release is, and how his father participates in this. This knowledge causes a conflict.
Connotations
u The feelings and association that have come to be attached to a word.
Example u The words inexpensive and
cheap have basically the same meaning. However, a DVD manufacturer would never label their DVDs as “cheap” since the word “cheap” is associated with something not made well.
Description
u The kind of word that creates a clear image of something, usually by using details that appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
Example … She wore a faded brown sailor hat and beneath the
hat, extending down her back, were two braids of very thick, decidedly red hair. Her face was small, white and thin, also much freckled; her mouth was large and so were her eyes, that looked green in some lights and some moods and gray in others.
-L.M. Mongomery from Anne of Green Gables
Dialect
u A way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular region group of people.
Example
u Different parts of the United States speak various dialects. In the south, people say “y’all.” In California, people often say the word, “like” after speaking.
Dialogue u Conversation between two or more characters.
Example
v “Where are we going?” she asked with fear.
v “That is for me to know, and you to find out,” he responded.
Drama
u A story written to be acted in front of an audience.
Example
u The play, “Les Miserable” is considered drama because it is acted out in front of an audience.
Essay
u A short piece of nonfiction prose.
Example
u Our mummification paper would be considered an essay.
Fable u A very brief story in prose or verse that teaches a moral, a particular lesson about how to succeed in life. (animals are usually characters)
Example
u Aesop’s “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”
Fantasy
u Imaginative writing that carries the reader into an invented world where the laws of nature as we know it do not operate.
Example:
u The “Harry Potter” series
Fiction
u A prose account that is made up rather than true.
Figurative Language u Language that describes one thing in terms of something else and is not literally true.
Example
u The idiom, “she was the salt of the earth” is also considered figurative language.
Flashback
u A scene that breaks the normal time order of the plot to show a past event.
Example:
u When Jonas in “The Giver” thinks about the memory of Christmas later in the story.
Folktale
u A story with no known author, originally passed on from one generation to another by word of mouth.
Example
u Cinderella was originally an oral story, eventually written down.
Foreshadowing
u The use of clues or hints to suggest events that will occur later in the plot.
Example u In the movie Signs, a quick
glimpse of an alien hidden among the corn fields is shown to build suspense and give the viewer clues as to what occur later in the movie.
Free Verse u Poetry that is “free” of a regular meter and rhyme scene.
Example The City
If flowers want to grow right out of the concrete sidewalk cracks I’m going to bend down to smell them.
-David Ignatow
Imagery
u Language that appeals to the senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
Example The Storm
in fury and terror the tempest broke, it tore up the pine
and shattered the oak, yet the hummingbird hovered
within the hour sipping clear rain
from the trumpet flower. -Elizabeth Coatsworth
Irony
u A contrast between what is expected and what really happens.
Examples u A shoe maker wears shoes with holes
in them. u An elephant is scared of a mouse. u Someone living in a desert keeps a boat
in their yard. u The child of a police officer robs a bank.
Legend
u A story, usually based on some historical fact that has been handed down from one generation to the next. No actions are outside the realm of possibility.
Example
u Robin Hood u Hamlet u King Arthur
Limerick
u A humorous five line verse that has a regular meter and the rhyme scheme aabba.
Example There was an old man of Peru Who dreamt he was eating a
shoe. He awoke in the night With a terrible fright
And found it was perfectly true!
Main Idea
u The most important idea in a piece of writing.
Metaphor
u A comparison between two unlike things in which one thing becomes another thing
Example u Love is a red, red rose.
u Her eyes are the ocean.
u His smile is heaven.
Mood
u The overall emotion created by a work of literature
Myth
u A story that usually explains about the world and involves gods and superheroes
Example u Mudusa u Zeus and the gods of Olympia u Pegasus
Narration
u The kind of writing that relates a series of events to tell, “what happened”
Nonfiction
u Prose writing that deals with real people, events and places without changing any facts
Novel A long fictional story that is usually more than one hundred pages in length
Example u The Devil’s Arithmetic u Touching Spirit Bear u Walk Two Moons u Harry Potter books 1-7 u The Narnia Series
Onomatopoeia
u The use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning
Example u Pow u Gurgle u Meow u Bang u Swoosh
Oral tradition
u A collection of folktales songs and poems that have been passed on orally from generation to generation.
Oral tradition
Example u Ring Around the Rosie u Happy Birthday song u ‘Twas the Night Before
Christmas u All Jump rope songs
Paraphrase
u A restatement of a written work in which the meaning is expressed in other words
u A special kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman or nonliving thing or quality is talked about as if it were human or alive.
Personification
Example u The clock looked down upon me
menacingly as if to say “Hurry, Hurry.”
u My alarm clock screamed at me too early this morning.
u The beautiful fall leaves danced in the autumn breeze.
Plot
u The series of related events that make up a story.
Poetry
u A kind of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery to appeal to emotion and imagination.
Point of view u The vantage point from which a story is told
Example u First person POV is when the main
character is telling the story: I, me, my, we, etc.
u Second person POV is when the events are happening as we are reading the story
u Any writing that is not poetry.
Prose
Example u Narration u Biography u Essay u Autobiography u Fantasy u Historical fiction u Etc.
Refrain
u A repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines in a poem or song or even a speech.
Example u Deck the halls with bows of holly u Fa la la la la la la la la u Tis the season to be jolly u Fa la la la la la la la la u Etc.
Rhyme
u The repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them.
Rhythm
u A musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables or by the repetition of other sound patterns.
Setting
u The time and place of a story, poem, or a play.
Short story
u A fictional prose narrative that is about five to twenty book pages long.
Simile
u A comparison between two unlike things using a word such as like, as than, or resembles.
Speaker
u The voice talking to us in a poem.
Stanza
u In a poem, a group of lines that form a unit.
Suspense
u The anxious curiosity the reader feels about what will happen next in a story.
Symbol
u A person, a place, a thing, or an event that has its own meaning and stands for something beyond itself as well.
Example u Roses mean love u Cross is a religious symbol u Skull and cross bones means danger
Tall tale
u An exaggerated, fanciful story that gets more far-fetched, the more it is told and retold.
Theme u A truth about life revealed in a work of
literature
Tone
u The attitude a writer takes toward an audience, a subject, or a character
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