Literary Terms

9 th Grade English

Scott Carneal & Clare MacKenzie / Sandy Spring Friends School

Accent The emphasis, or stress, given a syllable in pronunciation. (In the words "syllable" and "emphasis", the accent falls on the first syllable: unlike Mike Myers, we don't put the "em phasis" on the wrong ”sy llable"). See also meter.

Act A major division in the action of a play. The ends of acts are typically indicated by lowering the curtain or turning up the houselights. Playwrights often use act divisions to show changes in time, setting, characters onstage, or mood. In many full-length plays, acts are further divided into scenes, which often mark a point in the action when the location changes or when a new character enters. See also scene.

Allegory A narration or description usually restricted to a single meaning because its events, characters, settings, and objects represent specific abstractions or ideas. The emphasis in allegory tends to be on what these elements ultimately mean. Characters may be given names such as Hope, Pride, Youth, and Charity. They have few, if any, personal qualities beyond their abstract meanings.

Alliteration The repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of words, usually at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable: "descending dew drops"; "lovely lollipops". Alliteration is based on the sounds of letters, rather than on the spelling of words: for example, "keen" and "car" alliterate, but "car" and "circus" do not. Used sparingly, alliteration can intensify ideas by emphasizing key words, but when used too self-consciously, it can be distracting.

Allusion A brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature. Allusions conjure up biblical authority, scenes from Shakespeare's plays, historic figures, wars, great love stories, and anything else that might enrich an author's work. Allusions imply reading and cultural experiences shared by the writer and the reader, so an allusion can function as a kind of shorthand that lets the author imply a specific emotional or intellectual context. For example, a poem about current racial struggles might call up the memory of Abraham Lincoln.

Ambiguity Allows for two or more simultaneous interpretations of a word, phrase, action, or situation, all of which can be supported by the context of a work. Deliberate ambiguity can contribute to the effectiveness and richness of a work. For example, the open-ended conclusion of The Catcher in the Rye raises intriguing questions about Holden’s chances for success. However, unintentional ambiguity obscures meaning and can confuse readers.

Antagonist The character or force in fiction or drama that opposes the protagonist and gives rise to conflict in the story.

Aside In drama, speech directed to the audience that is supposedly not audible to the other characters onstage. When Hamlet first appears onstage, his aside, "A little more than kin, and less than kind!" gives the audience a strong sense of his alienation from King Claudius. See also soliloquy.

Blank verse Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is the English verse form closest to the natural rhythms of English speech and therefore is the most common pattern found in traditional English narrative and dramatic poetry from Shakespeare to the early twentieth century. Shakespeare's plays use blank verse extensively. See also iambic pentameter.

Canon The literary works generally considered by scholars, critics, and teachers to be the most important to read and study. The canon consists of "masterpieces" of literature. Until the 1960's, the traditional English and American literary canon primarily included works by white male writers; since that time, however, it has expanded to include many female writers and writers of varying ethnic backgrounds.

Character A person presented in a literary work. Characterization is the process by which a writer makes that character seem real to the reader. The protagonist is the central character who engages the reader's interest and empathy, while the antagonist is the character or force that stands directly opposed to the protagonist and creates conflict in the story.

• specific types of character include static characters, who do not change throughout the work, dynamic characters, who do change because of the action of the plot, flat characters, who have only one or two defining traits and are not psychologically or emotionally complex (often stereotypical characters like the "dumb jock" or the "mean stepmother"), and round characters, who are more complex than flat characters and are more fully developed, demonstrating the internal conflicts found in real people.

Chorus A group of people who serve as commentators on the characters and events in a dramatic work (play) . The chorus comments on the events in Romeo and Juliet several times throughout the play.

Cliché An idea or expression that has become tired and trite from overuse . An example of a cliché in film would be the romantic interest character sprinting through the airport to catch the protagonist before s/he gets on the plane to leave forever.

Climax The point of highest emotional tension in the plot. The climax is preceded by the rising action and followed by the resolution or dénouement.

Comedy A work intended to interest and amuse the reader or audience, in which no terrible disaster occurs and that ends happily for the main characters. High comedy refers to verbal wit, such as puns, while low comedy is generally associated with physical action (slipping on a banana peel) and is less intellectual.

Comic relief A humorous scene that alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work.

Conflict The struggle within the plot between opposing forces . The protagonist engages in the conflict with the antagonist, which might take the form of another character, society, nature, or even an aspect of the protagonist's own personality.

Connotation The implications and associations that go beyond the literal meaning of a word . For example, the word hearth connotes safety and comfort and the word dove connotes peace and gentleness. These connotations, however, have little to do with the words' literal meanings.

Convention A characteristic of a literary genre that is understood and accepted by audiences because it is recognized as a familiar technique. The use of asides and soliloquies is an example of a dramatic convention (because we see them in plays), while foreshadowing and flashbacks are examples of literary conventions.

Couplet Two consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme and have the same meter . A heroic couplet (common in Shakespeare's plays) is a couplet written in rhymed iambic pentameter.

Denotation The literal, dictionary meaning of a word.

Dénouement A French word that means "unraveling" or "unknotting," used to describe the resolution of the plot following the climax.

Dialect A type of diction. Dialects are spoken by specific groups of people from a particular geographic region, economic group, or social class. Writers can use dialect to show differences in the backgrounds of their characters.

Diction A writer's choice of words, phrases, and figurative language. Formal diction consists of a dignified and elevated use of language; it is often characterized by complex words and a lofty tone. Middle diction reflects the way most educated people speak. Informal diction represents the plain language of everyday use and often includes slang, contractions and simple, common words.

Drama The term drama refers to the genre in literature of works designed for performance in a theater (plays).

Dramatic irony see irony

Enjambment In poetry, when one line ends without a pause (provided by punctuation) and the meaning of the line continues into the next line.

In these lines from the beginning of T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the transitions between lines 2 and 3 and between lines 5 and 6 are good examples of enjambment, while the punctuation at the end of the others makes them end-stopped lines.

Let us go then, you and I, 1

When the evening is spread out against the sky 2

Like a patient etherised upon a table; 3

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, 4

The muttering retreats 5

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels… 6

(See if you can find the enjambment in this example:

"My dad went to Montana,

and I got a car.

My mom went to Iowa,

and all I got was this lousy

enjambment." )

Figurative language Ways of using language that depart from the literal, denotative meanings of words. Figurative language often describes one thing in terms of something else (for example, if my advisees all grab for the donuts at once, I might call them "a pack of hyenas," suggesting that they are greedy). Metaphors and similes are examples of figurative language, as is personification.

Flashback A scene that marks a break in the narrative in order to inform the reader or audience about events that took place before the opening scene of a work.

Foil A character in a work whose behavior and values contrast with those of another character in order to highlight the distinctive traits of that character (usually the protagonist).

Foot The metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured. A foot usually consists of one stressed and one or two unstressed syllables. An iamb (as in iambic pentameter) is one type of foot.

Foreshadowing The introduction early on in a story of verbal and dramatic hints that suggest what will come later.

Genre A French word that means type or kind. The major genres in literature are poetry, fiction, drama, and essays.

Hyperbole Exaggeration used for literary effect . The opposite of hyperbole is understatement.

Iambic Pentameter A metrical pattern in poetry which consists of five iambic feet per line. (an iamb, or iambic foot, consists of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable: today)

Image A word, phrase, or figure of speech (especially a simile or a metaphor) that triggers the senses and suggests a mental picture through sight, sound, smell, taste, or feeling.

Irony A literary device that uses contradictory statements or situations to reveal a reality that is different from what is expected to be true. (It is ironic for a firehouse to burn down or for a police station to be burglarized). Verbal irony occurs when a person says one thing but means the opposite. Dramatic irony creates a gap between what a character believes and what the audience or readers know to be true. Situational irony exists when there is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.

Line A sequence of words printed as a separated entity on the page. In poetry, lines are measured by the number of feet they contain (monometer=one foot; dimeter=two feet, trimeter=three feet, tetrameter=four feet, pentameter=five feet, etc.)

Metaphor A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, without using the word like or as.

Meter A recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.

Narrator The voice of the person telling the story (NOT necessarily the author’s voice). With a first-person narrator, the "I" in the story presents the point of view of only one character. An omniscient narrator is an all-knowing narrator who is not a character in the story and who can report the thoughts and feelings of all of the story's characters.

Onomatopoeia Refers to the use of a word that resembles the sound it describes . Buzz, bang, rattle, and sizzle are all examples of onomatopoeia.

Oxymoron A condensed form of paradox in which two contradictory words are used together, as in "sweet sorrow" or "deafening silence" .

Paradox A statement that initially appears to be contradictory but then, on closer inspection, turns out to make sense.

Paraphrase To restate the central ideas, usually of a poem, in your own words.

Personification A form of metaphor in which human characteristics are attributed to nonhuman beings.

Point of view The perspective from which a story is told (see also narrator).

Prologue The introduction to any literary work, it sets the scene for the action to follow.

Protagonist The main character of a narrative, who engages the reader's interest and empathy.

Quatrain A four-line stanza.

Scene In drama, a subdivision of an act.

Simile A figure or speech that makes an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like and as.

Stanza In poetry, a stanza refers to a grouping of lines, set off by a space, that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme .

Syntax The ordering of words into patterns of phrases, clauses, and sentences. (Yoda’s speaking style is distinctive because of his unusual syntax: “When nine hundred years you reach, look so good you will not.”) Poets often manipulate syntax by changing conventional word order in order to emphasize certain words or create a surprising effect.

Tone The author’s implicit attitude toward the subject of his/her work. Tone may be characterized as serious or ironic, happy or sad, angry or affectionate, bitter or nostalgic, or any other attitude or feeling that human beings experience.