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LCT1
Lit Terms
78
Literature
Undergraduate 1
09/26/2011

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Term
METAPHOR
Definition
A LITERARY DEVICE IN WHICH A DIRECT COMPARISON IS MADE BETWEEN TWO THINGS ESSENTIALLY UNLIKE.
Term
ANTAGONIST
Definition
A CHARACTER IN A STORY OR POEM WHO DECEIVES, FRUSTRATES, OR WORKS AGAINST THE MAIN CHARACTER, OR PROTAGONIST, IN SOME WAY.
Term
ALLITERATION
Definition
REPETITION OF THE SAME SOUND IN A SEQUENCE OF WORDS, USUALLY AT THE BEGINNING OF A WORD.
Term
EXPOSITION
Definition
The opening portion os a narrative or drama.
Term
Assonance
Definition
Repeating identical or similar vowels (especially in stressed syllables) in nearby words.
Term
Connotation
Definition
The extra tinge or taint of meaning each word carries beyond the minimal, strict definition found in a dictionary. Associations and implications that go beyond the written word.
Term
Denotation
Definition
The minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation. dictionary definition of a word
Term
Epic
Definition
An epic in its most specific sense is a genre of classical poetry
Term
Epiphany
Definition
Christian thinkers used this term to signify a manifestation of God's presence in the world.
Term
Genre
Definition
A type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions.
Term
Lyric
Definition
(1) A short poem (usually no more than 50-60 lines, and often only a dozen lines long) written in a repeating stanzaic form, often designed to be set to music. (2) Any poem having the form and musical quality of a song. (3) As an adjective, lyric can also be applied to any prose or verse characterized by direct, spontaneous outpouring of intense feeling.
Term
Monologue
Definition
Monologue can also be used to refer to a character speaking aloud to himself, or narrating an account to an audience with no other character on stage.
Term
Motivation
Definition
The driving force by which humans achieve their goals.
Term
Motif
Definition
A conspicuous recurring element, such as a type of incident, a device, a reference, or verbal formula, which appears frequently in works of literature.
Term
Narrative
Definition
the act of telling a sequence of events, often in chronological order.
Term
Onomatopoeia
Definition
The use of sounds that are similar to the noise they represent for a rhetorical or artistic effect. use of words that imitate sounds.
Term
Persona
Definition
An external representation of oneself which might or might not accurately reflect one's inner self, or an external representation of oneself that might be largely accurate, but involves exaggerating certain characteristics and minimizing others.
Term
Setting
Definition
The general locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which the action of a fictional or dramatic work occurs; the setting of an episode or scene within a work is the particular physical location in which it takes place.
Term
Sub-genres
Definition
A subcategory within a particular genre.
Term
Novel
Definition
In its broadest sense, a novel is any extended fictional prose narrative focusing on a few primary characters but often involving scores of secondary characters.
Term
Fiction
Definition
Prose literature, esp. short stories and novels, about imaginary events and people.
Term
Nonfiction
Definition
Prose writing based on facts, such as biography or history.
Term
Apprenticeship Novel
Definition
biographical novel that concentrates on an individual’s youth and his social and moral initiation into adulthood.
Term
Epistolary Novel
Definition
Any novel that takes the form of a series of letters--either written by one character or several characters.
Term
Picaresque Novel
Definition
~ A humorous novel in which the plot consists of a young knave's misadventures and escapades narrated in comic or satiric scenes.
Term
Novella
Definition
An extended fictional prose narrative that is longer than a short story, but not quite as long as a novel.
Term
Subplot
Definition
A minor or subordinate secondary plot, often involving a deuteragonist's struggles, which takes place simultaneously with a larger plot, usually involving the protagonist.
Term
Plot
Definition
sequence of events in a story, usually involves characters and a conflict
Term
Exposition
Definition
a form of discourse that explains, defines, and interprets.
Term
Foreshadowing
Definition
use of hints and clues to suggest what Will happen later in the story, often used to build suspense or tension in a story
Term
Recognition
Definition
The point at which a character understands his or her situation as it really is.
Term
Rising Action
Definition
A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's or story's plot leading up to the climax.
Term
Crisis
Definition
Crisis or Turning Point- A point of great tension in a narrative that determines how the action will come out.
Term
Climax
Definition
The point in the plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest. After this point, nothing can remain the same; greatest turning point in the story.
Term
Falling Action
Definition
In the plot of a story or play, the action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its denouement or resolution.
Term
Denouement (Resolution)
Definition
The exact meaning of a word, without the feelings or suggestions that the word may imply.
Term
Protagonist
Definition
A protagonist is considered to be the main character or lead figure in a novel, play, story, or poem.
Term
Antagonist
Definition
a character in a story or poem who deceives, frustrates, or works again the main character, or protagonist, in some way.
Term
Hero
Definition
A character whose actions are inspiring or noble. Tragic heroes are noble and inspiring but have a fault or make a mistake which leads to their downfall.
Term
Foil
Definition
A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story.
Term
Point of View
Definition
the perspective or vantage point from which a story or poem is told. Three common points of view include: first-person, omniscient, and third person limited.
Term
First Person
Definition
the story is relayed by a narrator who is also a character within the story, so that the narrator reveals the plot by referring to this viewpoint character as "I" (or, when plural, "we").
Term
Third Person Objective
Definition
employs a narrator who tells a story without describing any character's thoughts, opinions, or feelings; instead it gives an objective, unbiased point of view.
Term
Third Person Limited
Definition
the reader is "limited" to the thoughts of some particular character (often the protagonist) as in the first-person mode (though still giving personal descriptions using "he", "she", "it", and "they", but not "I").
Term
Third Person Omniscient
Definition
This is a tale told from the point of view of a storyteller who plays no part in the story but knows all the facts, including the characters' thoughts.
Term
Irony
Definition
a literary term referring to how a person, situation, statement, or circumstance is not as it would actually seem.
Term
Verbal irony
Definition
is a trope in which the intended meaning of a statement differs from the meaning that the words appear to express.
Term
Irony of Situation
Definition
actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.
Term
Dramatic Irony
Definition
irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play.
Term
Figurative Language
Definition
a type of language that varies from the norms of literal language, in which words mean exactly what they say.
Term
Apostrophe
Definition
a figure of speech that addresses (talks to) a dead or non present person, or an object.
Term
Conceit
Definition
is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem.
Term
Hyperbole (Overstatement)
Definition
boldly exaggerated statement that adds emphasis without intending to be literally true.
Term
Metaphor
Definition
a literary device in which a direct comparison is made between two things essentially unlike
Term
Metonymy
Definition
a figure of speech which substitutes one term with another that is being associated with the that term.
Term
Paradox
Definition
~ A statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.
Term
Personification
Definition
a literary device in which human attributes are given to a non-human such as an animal, object, or concept
Term
Simile
Definition
a literary device in which a direct comparison is made between two things essentially unlike using the words “like” or “as.”
Term
Synecdoche
Definition
A figure of speech in which a part is substituted for the whole.
Term
Transferred Epithet
Definition
is a literary device that is the reversal of the syntactic relation of two words.
Term
Understatement
Definition
literary device that says less than intended. Oppositive of hyperbole. Usually has an ironic effect, and sometimes may be used for comic purposes.
Term
Diction
Definition
The selection of words in a literary work.
Term
Tone/Mood
Definition
the writer’s attitude toward the story, poem, characters, or audience. A writer’s tone may be formal or informal, friendly or anxious, personal, or arrogant.
Term
Symbolism
Definition
The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.
Term
Theme
Definition
an insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work
Term
Imagery
Definition
The pattern of related comparative aspects of language, particularly of images, in a literary work.
Term
Allegory
Definition
story or poem in which the characters, setting, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities. Can be read for a literal meaning and on a second, symbolic meaning.
Term
Allusion
Definition
a brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature.
Term
Aside
Definition
~ an actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage.
Term
Convention
Definition
A customary feature of a literary work, such as the use of a chorus in Greek tragedy, the inclusion of an explicit moral in a fable, or the use of a particular rhyme scheme in a villanelle.
Term
Dialogue
Definition
The conversation between characters in a drama or narrative. A dialogue occurs in most works of literature.
Term
Deus ex machina
Definition
A god who resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention.
Term
Flashback
Definition
scene that interrupts the normal chronological flow of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time
Term
In media res
Definition
~ is a literary technique where the narrative starts in the middle of the story instead of from its beginning.
Term
Satire
Definition
A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.
Term
Soliloquy
Definition
A long speech made by a character who is onstage alone and who reveals his/her private thoughts and feelings to the audience.
Term
Sonnet
Definition
a sonnet is a distinctive poetic style that uses system or pattern of metrical structure and verse composition usually consisting of fourteen lines, arranged in a set rhyme scheme or pattern
Term
Truism
Definition
A self-evident truth.
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