LITERARY TERMS Allegory: story or poem in which the characters, setting, and events stand for other people

or events or for abstract ideas or qualities. Example: Animal Farm is a tale of animals who take over a farm and an allegory of the Russian Revolution. Alliteration: repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words. Example: wide-eyed and wondering while we wait for others to waken. Alliteration of w Allusion: a reference to a well-known person, historical event, saying, sentence, etc. Example: the narrator of a book you are reading describes a male character by saying he is just a Romeo This is an allusion to Romeo and Juliet Anaphora: repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of neighboring sentences, lines, stanzas, etc. Example: I have a dream that one day this nation I have a dream that one day down in Alabama (Martin L. King, Jr.) Anecdote: brief story about an interesting, amusing, or strange event. Its told to entertain or make a point. Appeal to Ethos: persuasive method that uses the authors credibility/reputation to convince the audience. Example: Acme, the company you've trusted for over 100 years, has entered the Web! Now you can purchase our quality gizmos and widgets online. They all come with the famous lifetime guarantee that makes Acme the company that the world depends on for its gizmo needs. Appeal to Logos: persuasive method that uses logic or reasons/evidence to convince the audience. Example: By combining cesium and dihydro-oxide, and capturing the released energy, ACME has promised to lead the way into the future. Our energy source is clean, safe, and powerful. No pollutants are released into the atmosphere. The world will soon have an excellent source of clean energy. Appeal to Pathos: persuasive method that uses emotions and feelings to convince the audience. Example: A new American automobile from an old American classic. The 2011 Ford Escalade Made in America, for the American people. Connotation: connections that go beyond the dictionary meaning of a word. Example: the word eagle connotes liberty and freedom. (See denotation) Denotation: the dictionary meaning of a word. (See connotation) Example: the word eagle denotes a large bird with a massive hooked bill and long broad wings. Dialogue: the conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names. Dramatic monologue: when a character reveals his or her thoughts and feelings through a poem or a speech. Unlike soliloquy, the dramatic monologue is recited while other characters are present onstage and its intended to be heard by the audience. Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is one of the best-known examples of dramatic monologues. Epic: long poem that narrates the adventures of gods or heroes. Example: The Odyssey (by Homer) Epic hero: the central figure of an epic poetry. The epic hero is a larger-than-life figure that undertakes a dangerous voyage, demonstrating traits-such as courage, loyalty, and honor. Example: Odysseus is the epic hero in Homers Odyssey. Fact: statement that can be proven. Example: Washington, D.C. is the capital of the U.S. (see opinion) Figurative language: a form of language use in which writers and speakers convey something other than the literal meaning of their words. Flashback: scene that interrupts the normal flow of events in a story to describe something that happened at an earlier time Foreshadowing: hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in the story.
Juan D. Liebana-Mena

Hyperbole: exaggerated statement that adds emphasis. Example: I called you a thousand times. Hypothesis: a supposition made to help imagine how a situation or event would be like. Image: a word or phrase that appeals to one or more of the five sensessight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell. Irony: a contrast between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen. Irony can be of three types: - In verbal irony, characters say the opposite of what they mean. - In irony of circumstance or situation, the opposite of what is expected occurs. - In dramatic irony, a character speaks in ignorance of a situation or event known to the audience or to the other characters. Metaphor: comparison without using the words like or as. Example: America has given us a bad check. (Martin L. King, Jr.) promise of equal rights to a bad check. Onomatopoeia: words that imitate sounds. Example: buzz, hiss, rustle. Opinion: someones view, or belief, or way of thinking about something. (see fact) Example: Twilight is the best book sagas ever written. Parallelism: repetition of grammatical structures like phrases and clauses. Examples: Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. He enjoys candy, video games, and good music. I like eating rich deserts, playing fast card-games, and solving difficult riddles. Personification: device by which human characteristics are given to a non-human, such as to a thing, animal, or idea. Example: my cell phone died. a cell phone cant die because its not a person. Proverb: short, traditional saying that expresses an obvious truth or experience. Repetition: repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line in order to emphasize. Example: We will work together, pray together, struggle together, and go to jail together. (MLK) Rhyme: repetition of an identical or similarly accented sound or sounds in a work. Rhyme Scheme: pattern of rhyme used in a poem. It uses matching letters to show which lines rhyme. The letter "a" is used for the first line. The first line not rhyming with the first line becomes the letter "b"; then the first line not rhyming with either a or b becomes the c line, and so on. Example: Roses are red a Violets are blue b Sugar is sweet a And so are you b Satire: a literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies. Swift's Gulliver's Travels is a famous example. Simile: a comparison between to unlike things using either like or as. Example: her hair was as red as a robins breast. Soliloquy: a speech by which a character reveals his thoughts and feelings to the audience while he is alone on stage. Its a kind of talking to himself and its not intended to be heard by others. Example: when Romeo reveals that he is about to kill himself to his audience in Romeo and Juliet. Stanza: group of lines in a poem that are considered to be a unit. Symbol: Anything in literature that stands for or represents something else. Example: The sun symbolizing hope; night symbolizing fear; the tides symbolizing change. Tragic hero: a privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering. Sophocles' Oedipus is an example. He compares the unfulfilled