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| a succession of similiary sounds; occurs in the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of successive words. |
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| to repeat the sound of a vowel - may occur initially or internally |
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| overtones or suggestions of additional meaning that gains from all the contexts in which we have met it in the past. An association - emotional or other wise - which the word evokes. |
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| "literal meaning" defined in the dictionary. |
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| long narratives tracing the adventures of popular heros. |
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| in literary short stories, some moment of insight discovery, or revelation by which a character's life, or view of life, is greatly altered. |
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| French word for "type". Used to classify literature according to form, style, or content. Sonnet, novel, tradegy, and elegy are all examples. |
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| Greek & Romas times, used elegiac meter - alternating hexameter and pentameter lines - lamenting over loss of someone or something. |
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| a short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. |
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| sufficient reason for characters to behave as they do. |
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| a significant element that recurs either in a specific literary work, a group of literary texts, or in literature as a whole. Can be plots, imagery, symbols, themes, ideas, narrative details, or characters. |
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| main purpose is to tell a story. |
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| an attempt to represent a thing or action by a word that imitates the sound associated with it: zoom, whiz, crash, bang, ding-dong, pitter-patter, yakety-yak. |
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| a fictitious character: not the poet, but the poet's creation. |
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| a story's time and place. |
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| a book-length story in pros, whose author tries to create the sense that while we read, we experience actual life. |
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| from Latin fictio, "a shaping, a counterfeiting". A name for stories not entirely factual, but at least partically shaped, made up, imagined. |
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| the author presents actual people and events in story form. |
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| the kind of novel in which a youth struggles toward maturity, seeking, perhaps, some consistent worldview or philosophy of life. |
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| a long, formal narrative poen with elevated style. Narrate a story of national importance based on the life and actions of a hero; frequently the fate. |
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| early novels told in the form of letter. Contain only one character, often contained letter by several of the characters in the book. |
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| a likable scoundrel wanders through adventures, living by his wits, duping the straight citizenry. |
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| a term for short novel, mainly describes the size of a narrative; it refers to a narrative midway in length between a short story and a novel. |
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| (double plot), a secondary arrangement of incidents, involving not the protagonist but someone less important. |
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| the opening portion of a tale that sets the scene (if any), introduces the main characters, tells us what happened before the story opened, and provides any other background info that we neeed in order to understand and care about the events to follow. |
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| an indication of events to come. |
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| struggles between two forces in literary work that constitutes the foundation of plot, or arrangements of events, actions, and situations in a narrative work. Can be other characters, situations, events, and fate. |
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| the revelation of some fact not known before or some person's true identity. |
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| the part of the story (including the exposition) in which events start moving toward a climax. |
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| a moment of high tension. |
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| the moment of greates tension at which the outcome is to be decided. |
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| occurs after the climax, the subsequent events, including a resolution. |
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| (resolution), the outcome or conclusion - "the untying of the knot". |
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| a leading character, a word usebly saved for the primary figure in a larger and more eventful play. |
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| the most significant character or force that opposes the protagonist in a narrative. |
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| it may apply equally well to a central character who is not especially brave or virteous. |
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| a protagonist conspiciously lacking in one or more of the usual attributes of a traditional hero (bravery, skill, idealism, sense of purpose). |
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| a character whose qualities or actions are in stark contrast with those of another character, usually the protagonist; often used to convey or develop the protagonist's character. |
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| specific types of characters, or fictional or imagined people in a narrative or literary text, so commonly seen in literature that they are seen as stereotypical types. Most recognizable in fairy tales...godmothers, cruel stepmothers, price charming. Westerns contain strong silent, solitary heros. Occasional sidekicks who may assist the hero or offer comic relief; and cruel villains with black hats who ultimately lose to the hero. |
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| fictional or imagined character, typically minor character with single outstanding trait and is often based on a stock character or a common stereotypical character. This character does not change in text, distinguishing it from round (dynamic) character, usually one of the main characters, presented in a complex and detailed manner, and usually undergoes a significant change in response to the events or circumstances described in the plot. |
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| also called the dynamic character - usually one of the main characters, preented in complex and detailed manner, and usually undergoes a significant change in response to events or circumstances described in plot. Distinct from flat or static characters, who are usually minor characters, identified by a single outstanding trait, who does not change in the text. |
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| story told from perspective of a persona who uses "I" or "me" to recount the story's events. Usually involved in the plot, but not always. |
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| story is told from the perspective of a persona who uses "he" or "she" to recount the story |
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| third person onmiscient narrator |
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| narrator that is all-knowing and has complete knowledge of all characters' thought and histories, as well as the story's events, settings, and contexts. Can move freely between any number of characters. |
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| third person limited-omniscient narrator |
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| narrator that has access to one or more (not all) characters' thoughts and some of the story's events and contexts. |
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| third person intrusive narrator |
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| narrator who offers comments, critiques, interpretation, or additioanl information to readers about characters or events as he/she recounts events. Relates events with a minimum of commentary, observation, or inerpretation. |
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| third person unreliable or fallible narrators |
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| narrators whose readers are given reasons to question or doubt validity of their perspective. Readers doubt reliability or accruacy based on his/her age, intelligence, sanity, or relationship to events. |
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| third person self-conscious narrator |
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| narrator who draws attention to the fact that he/she is narrating a work of fiction, often the case in metafiction. |
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| rhetorical - when there is a discrepancy between either what a character says and what that character believes to be true, or when a character says the opposite of what he/she means. |
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| features a discrepancy between expectation and reality and appears in two forms - dramatic or tragic. |
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| discrepancy between what a character sees or perceives and what the audience knows is true. |
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| involves an imperfect interpretation of information or a situation resulting in a character's tragic downfall. |
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| a way of addressing someone or something invisible or not ordinarily spoken to. |
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| a figure of speech which uses exaggeration for comic, ironic, or serious effect. Its opposite is understatement or meiosis. |
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| a figure of speech where one thing is described in terms of another. Does not use the words such as "like" or "as". |
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| a figure of speech that replaces the name of one thing with the name of another closely related. Example: "the crown" is used to signify the monarchy. |
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| a statemetn that, on the surface, appears to be self-contradictory, but upon analysis, reveeals an underlying truth, significance, or meaning. An oxymoron, or two opposite or contradictory words juxtaposed for effect or emphasis. |
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| a figure of speech through which inanimate objects, ideas, concepts, or animals are given human characteristics, or are referred to as if human. |
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| a figure of speech that is a comparison of two different thngs or ideas using "like" or "as". Are used to illustrate or enhance an idea or an imaage - less definite than metaphors. |
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| a figure of speech where a part of something is used to represent the whole (ex: "hands" to refer to manual labor) or where the whole is used to represent the part (ex: "Montreal" is used to refer to Montreal Canadians). A kind of metonymy. |
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| an adjective or adjectival phrase used to defin a person or a things. It can also refer to a characteristic attribute or quality of a person or thing. |
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| either (a) author's choice or words or vocabulary in a literary work, or (b) performer's manner or style of speaking, including phrasing and punctuation. |
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| refers specifically to the choice and phrasing of words suitable to verse. |
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| the author's attitude in a literary text toward the audience or reader (familiar, formal) or toward the subject itself (saturic, celebratory, ironic). |
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| the feeling or emotion created specifically through elements of the setting. Is more specific than tone. |
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| use of symbols or set of related symbols or a sustained use of symbols. A literary movement in late 19th century France as a reaction to realist impulses in literature. |
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| a significant abstract idea emerging from a literary work or the statement the work appears to make about its subject. Usually are indirectly suggested and are generally conveyed through figurative language, imagery, symbols, or motifs. |
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| themes that are overt or explicitly stated. |
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| abstract concepts are represented as something concrete, typically minor elements in the story, such as characters, objects, actions, or events. Possesses two parallel levels of meaning/understanding; literal - where a surface level story is recounted, and symbolic - which addresses abstract ides. This is often considered extended metaphors; the surface level story helps to convey moral, religious, political philosophical ideas. |
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| indirect reference in a literary text to a well-known person or place, or to a historical, political, or cultural event. Reference can also be to a literary, religious, or mythological text - not usually identified, it is assumed the reader will make the connection. |
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| a short remark or speech spoken by a character to the audience or to another character (it is assumed that this is not heard by the other characters). Tends to reveal insight into plot, character, or emotion. |
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| (a) the parts of a text that either precede or floow a given passage, or (b)the social, cultural, biographical, and literary circumstances that exist outside a text. |
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| either (a) the parts of a text that either precede or follow a given passage, or (b) the social, cultural, biographical, and literary circumstances that exist outside a text. In both cases, context works against looking at a text in isolation. |
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| either (a) representation of spoken exchanges between or among characters, or (b) literary work where characters discuss or debate a particular subject. |
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| Latin for "god out of a machine". Refers to: (a) practice in Greek drama of god descending into the play from a crane-like machine in order to solve a problem in a plot and thus enable the play to end, or (b) an unexpected, contrived, or improbable ending or solution in a literary text. |
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