| |
Through the evolution of the written word, from quill and ink to ballpoint pens to printer ink cartridges, literature has always had certain elements remain constant, such as the exposition, climax, and denouement.
- Adjective: Any member of a class of words that functions as modifiers of nouns.
- Adverb: Any member of a class of words that functions as modifiers of verbs, clauses, adjectives, or other adverbs or adverbial phrases. Adverbs usually end in “-ly”.
- Allegory: A symbolic narrative, such as a fable or parable.
- Alliteration: Two or more words of a word group with the same letter, such as “the art of alliteration is advanced.”
- Antagonist: The adversary of the protagonist, or the hero, of the literary work.
- Archetype: The model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based. For example, the typical best friend or the typical villain.
- Aside: A line that is not heard by the other characters but only intended for the audience.
- Assonance: A rhyme in which the same different consonants form the same vowel sound, such as “penitent” and “reticence.” Also known as vowel rhyme.
- Ballad: A simple narrative poem of folk origin that is composed of short stanzas. It can be adapted for singing.
- Blank verse: An unrhymed verse, especially in the iambic pentameter.
- Character: A person represented in a work of literature.
- Chorus: A group of actors that performed the chorus and served as participants, commentators, or supplements to the main action. The chorus originated in ancient Greek theater.
- Clause: A syntactic construction containing a subject and predicate and forming part of a sentence or constituting a whole simple sentence.
- Climax: The decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or the major turning point in a plot.
- Conjunction: A member of a small class of words that act as connectors between words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.
- Couplet: A pair of consecutive lines of verse that are the same length and rhyme.
- Denouement: The outcome or the resolution of a literary work. It follows the climax.
- Dialogue: The conversation between two or more characters.
- Diction: The style of writing as dependent upon the choice of words.
- Direct object: A word or group of words representing the person or thing upon which the action of a verb is performed or toward which it is directed.
- Elegy: A mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem.
- Enjambment: The running on of the thought from one line couplet, or stanza to the next without a syntactical break.
- Exposition: Expositions give the audience the background of the characters and of the present situation.
- Figurative language: Speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning, such as metaphors, similes, and hyperboles.
- Flashback: A device in the narrative by which an event or scene taking place before the present time in the narrative is inserted into the chronological structure of the work.
- Foil: A character that serves as a contrast and underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of another.
- Foreshadow: A device that hints at what is to come.
- Free verse: A verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern.
- Genre: A class or category having particular form, content, technique, or the like, such as the genre of epic poems or the genre of tragedies.
- Hubris: In Greek plays, excessive pride or self-confidence.
- Hyperbole: A figure of speech that utilizes obvious and intentional exaggeration.
- Iambic pentameter: A common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable.
- Indirect object: A word or a group of words representing the person or thing in reference to which the action of a verb is performed, usually appearing after the verb but before the direct object.
- Irony: A technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.
- Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a term or a phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.
- Meter: Words arranged in a work of poetry by a measured rhythm, number of syllables, or syllabic quantity
- Motif: A recurring subject, theme, idea, etc. in a literary work.
- Narrative poem: A poem that tells a story and has a plot.
- Narrator: The voice that an author takes on to tell a story.
- Noun: Any member of a class of words that function as the main or only elements of subjects or objects. Nouns are often persons, places, things, states, or qualities.
- Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates the sound made by or associated with its referent, such as “cuckoo” or “boom.”
- Oxymoron: A figure of speech by which a locution produces incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, such as “deafening silence.”
- Paradox: A person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.
- Participle: A verb used as an adjective, such as “a burning candle” or “his devoted friend.”
- Personification: A device that is the representation of a thing or abstraction in the form of a person.
- Plot: The plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work. Also known as a storyline.
- Point of View: The position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator’s outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters.
- Preposition: Any member of a class of words that are used before nouns, pronouns, or other substantives to form phrases functioning as modifiers of verbs, nouns, or adjectives.
- Pronoun: Any member of a small class of words that are used as replacements for nouns and noun phrases and that have very general reference.
- Protagonist: The leading character, hero, or heroine of a literary work.
- Refrain: Repetition of a phrase or verse at specific intervals, particularly at the end of stanzas
- Rhyme: A word agreeing with another in terminal sound, such as “spout,” “clout,” and “doubt.”
- Rhyme scheme: The pattern of rhymes used in a poem, usually marked by letters to symbolize correspondences.
- Satire: A composition of literature in which human folly is held up to ridicule.
- Setting: The locale or period in which the action of a literary work takes place.
- Simile: A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared using the words “like” or “as.”
- Soliloquy: A speech by a person who is talking to himself or herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any audience.
- Sonnet: A poem, properly expressive of a single, complete though, idea, or sentiment, of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to one of certain definite schemes, being in the strict or Italian form divided into major groups of eight lines (the octave) followed by a minor group of six lines (the sestet), and a common English form into three quatrains followed by a couplet.
- Symbol: Something used for or regarded as representing something else.
- Syntax: The study of the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences.
- Theme: A unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc.
- Tone: A particular style or manner the author employs.
- Verb: Any member of a class of words that function as the main elements of predicates, that typically express action, state, or a relation between the two things, and that may be inflected for tense, aspect, voice, mood, and to show agreement with their subject or object.
- Verse: A metrical composition, such as a poem.
|
|