LITERARY TERMS STUDY GUIDE

 

GENERAL LITERARY TERMS

• Plot: The sequence of events in a story.  Generally built around a conflict, the plot tells what happens, when, and to whom.  A story’s plot usually includes FOUR STAGES:

 

• Theme/Author’s Message/Main Idea/Moral (of the story): An underlying message about life or human nature inside a piece of literature.  A theme is NOT the same thing as a subject.  A subject can be “war”, but it cannot be a theme.  “War is bad because it leads to additional conflict, death and destruction” IS a theme.  A theme is what an author wants the reader to LEARN from his or her story.

• Mood: How the AUDIENCE feels.  The feeling or atmosphere that an author creates FOR THE READER. Mood is intended to shape the audience’s emotional response to the story. Example: Think about a scary movie in which there is no moon . . . having no moon, no light is intended to make the audience scared.  Or a story where there’s a lot of light . . . it’s usually happy.

 

• Tone/Author’s Perspective: The attitude a WRITER OR AUTHOR takes toward the SUBJECT he or she is writing about. Tone reflects the feelings of the writer towards the subject of the story. Example: A writer might make you laugh really hard AT someone or something because they actually hate that person or thing. So, the tone would be hatred, even though you are actually laughing in the story. Or an author might make you cry for someone or something because they want you to feel sympathy for that person or thing. The tone, then, would be sympathetic, NOT sad; sadness would be the mood.

• Diction: A writer’s or speaker’s choice of words and way of arranging the words in sentences.  Example: Calling a fat person “cuddly”, instead of fat.  Using “fancy”/“SAT-type” words instead of slang words to make yourself sound more intelligent.  It’s whenever an author is very careful about what he/she says—either with the word choice or the way he arranges the words in a sentence—in order to achieve some sort of special effect.

 

• Dialect: A form of language spoken in a specific geographical area OR by a specific social or ethnic group.  A dialect is reflected in the way a certain group of people pronounces words, uses special vocabulary, expressions and grammatical structures.  Example: In the American south, people speak a dialect of English.  They SOUND different, pronounce words differently than the rest of the country (potato in California=’tater in the south), use special vocabulary (“biddy”=baby chicken, “coot”=an old person) and expression (“bless your heart!”=thank you!, “if that don’t beat all!”=that’s wonderful!).  It is still English, but unique to THAT area.  Just like in southern California we have “rapper” English; think Snoop Dog.

• Point of View: The way in which a work of literature is narrated.  Example: FIRST PERSON is when the narrator IS a character IN the story, as in “The Cask of Amontillado”, where Montresor is the antagonist and narrator; uses “I”.  THIRD PERSON is when the narrative voice is NOT one of the characters and is outside the action of the story; uses “they”, “them”, “people”, “he”, “she”.  THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT, or the “All-Knowing” point of view, is when the narrator can see into the minds of all the characters; uses “they”, “them”, “people”, “he”, “she”.  THIRD PERSON LIMITED is when the narrator can see ONLY in to the mind of ONE character; uses “they”, “them”, “people”, “he”, “she”.

 

• Autobiography: A writer’s lengthy, TRUE story about his or her own personal life and experiences, told in FIRST PERSON POV (“I was twelve years old when I decided I would become a writer.”).  Usually these stories focus on significant events in the author’s life.

• Biography: The true story of a person’s life, written BY SOMEONE ELSE.  It is usually long and told from the third person point-of-view; “they”, “he”, “she”.

 

• Personal Narrative: A short form of autobiographical writing that can be true OR fictional and told in FIRST PERSON POV.  Like autobiography, personal narratives also focus on significant experiences in the author’s life.  Sometimes a story can have an element of personal narrative and NOT actually be a personal narrative.  Personal narrative and autobiography are not the same thing.  An autobiography is always REAL and typically long.  A personal narrative is usually real, but it can also be fictional.  Personal narratives are short.  Both are told from the first person point of view.

• Novel: An extended (long) work of FICTION.  It’s always made up, not real, fake.  If it’s a short piece of fiction, it’s not called a novel, it’s called a short story.  If the work is long and REAL, then it’s NOT a novel, it’s an autobiography.

 

• Motives/Motivation: The reasons why characters do things.  Example: A male character might help a female character fix her car because he wants a date.  So, he’s not motivated by kindness, but by lust/love.  Or a character might kill another character to save other characters, in which case he’s motivated by justice or goodness . . . or he might kill another character because that character insulted him, in which case he’s motivated by revenge.

• Foreshadowing: A writer’s use of hints or clues to indicate events and situations that will occur LATER in a plot.  The use of this technique creates suspense while preparing the reader for what is to come.

 

• Flashback: An account of something that happened BEFORE the beginning of the story.  The purpose of a flashback is to interrupt the chronological flow of a story to help readers understand a character’s current situation.

• Allusion: An INDIRECT reference to another literary work or to a famous person, place, or event. Example: If something was REALLY hard to do and you did it . . . and then I said, “Great job! That was a Herculean effort.” . . . I’d be alluding to the mythological strongman, Hercules, in order to emphasize how hard your task was.  If I said, “Wow, Noah would have been impressed with that storm!” . . . I am alluding to the Bible story of Noah’s ark in order to show how severe the storm was.  If I said, “Oooh, my new boyfriend is a total Romeo.” . . . I am alluding to William Shakespeare’s protagonist, Romeo, in the play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet in order to show how attractive and charming is my new boyfriend.

 

• Symbol/Symbolism: A symbol is a person, a place, an activity, or an object that stands for something beyond itself. Example: The red on the US flag symbolizes courage, the white symbolizes peace and the blue symbolizes loyalty. The stars represent the states and the thirteen horizontal stripes represent the thirteen original colonies.

• Irony/Situational Irony: The difference between what you expect to happen and what actually happens.  It is a special kind of contrast between appearance and reality—usually one in which reality is the opposite from what it seems. Example: In Alanis Morissette’s song “Ironic”, she gives perfect examples of irony . . . “It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late. It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid.” Other examples of irony: a fire station burns down; a lifeguard drowns; a boxer being helped out by an old lady during a street fight. 

 

• Verbal Irony: When someone KNOWINGLY exaggerates when they speak or says one thing and really means another.  Example: In The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor says to Fortunato (ironic name!) that he, Fortunato, will NOT die of a cough.  Well, that’s verbal irony because Fortunato DOESN’T die of a cough, Montresor kills him!

• Dramatic Irony: When the audience knows something that the characters or a character in the story does NOT.  Example: We’re watching a scary movie and there’s a girl inside a house, alone.  Outside of the house, we can see Mike Myers is waiting to kill her.  The girl does NOT know Mike Myers is out there.  She hears a noise.  She decides to go outside to investigate the noise, which she thinks is her cat.  As the audience, we’re screaming at the screen, “No!  No!  Don’t go outside!”  She goes outside anyway.  She dies.  We totally saw it coming, even though she didn’t.

 

• Figurative Language: Creative language or language that communicates ideas beyond the ordinary, literal meanings of words.  Types of figurative language include, but are not limited to: simile, metaphor and personification.  Think of figurative language like a bucket.  Everything in that bucket is creative writing, like smiles, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia and sensory details.

• Sensory Details/Imagery: Details that appeal to the FIVE (5) senses: SMELL, TOUCH, SIGHT, TASTE, and SOUND.  These are details that really help you to imagine what is happening by being very descriptive about smells (sweet, pungent, rotting meat), textures (gooey, thick, pungent rotting meat), the way things look (maggots crawled slowly over the gooey, thick, pungent rotting meat), taste (maggots crawled slowly over the gooey, thick, pungent rotting meat making it taste like a pus-filled hot pocket) and sound (maggots crawled slowly over the gooey, thick, pungent rotting meat making it taste like a pus-filled hot pocket crunching and crackling in my mouth).

 

• Metaphor: A figure of speech that makes a DIRECT COMPARISON between two VERY DIFFERENT things that have something in common, NOT using “like” or “as”. Example: Ms. Smith IS a rose. That is, she always looks good and smells pretty. It is a very strong comparison between two very different things: a human being and a flower.

• Simile: A figure of speech that makes an INDIRECT COMPARISON between two VERY DIFFERENT things that have something in common, using “like” or “as”. Example: Ms. Smith is LIKE or AS a rose. That is, SOMETIMES she looks good and smells pretty, but sometimes not. It is mild or soft comparison between two very different things: a human being and a flower.

 

• Alliteration: The repetition of CONSONANT (any letter that is NOT a vowel) sounds at the beginning of words. Example: She sells seashells by the seashore.  Peter piper picked a peck of pickles.

• Assonance: The repetition of VOWEL (any letter that is NOT a consonant) sounds. Example: Laura Mora, daughter of Dora, lives in Bora Bora.  The “aura” and “ora” sounds are assonance.

 

• Personification: A figure of speech in which human qualities are attributed to an inanimate object(s), animal(s), forces of nature, or abstract idea(s). Example: I was swimming in the ocean and a wave jumped up and slapped me! The hurricane stole my house. His love carried me away.  Waves can’t slap, hurricanes can’t steal and love can’t carry people.

• Onomatopoeia: The use of words such as POW, BUZZ and CRUNCH whose sounds suggest their meanings.

 

• Hyperbole: An exaggeration of the truth, usually made to make an audience laugh.  Example: “He’s 1,000 years old!”  “I waited in line for centuries!”  “I could eat a horse!”  “Her smile is a mile wide!”

• Idiom: A figure of speech, similar to a metaphor, in which the meaning is different from what is actually said (the literal meaning).  Example: “It’s raining cats and dogs!” is an idiom for “It’s raining hard.”  “I feel blue,” is an idiom for “I feel sad.”

 

INFORMATIONAL TERMS

• Draw Conclusions: To make a decision or judgment or arrive at a belief based on evidence, experience and reasoning.

 

• Synthesize: To take individual pieces of information and combine them with other pieces of information, as well as with what you already know and/or experiences you have already had to create NEW IDEAS or information.

• Infer/Inference: A logical ASSUMPTION based on observed facts, experiences and prior knowledge.  To make an inference, then, would be to assume something based on what you already know.  You might not have all the facts, but you can guess at what is true given the limited information you DO have.

 

• Paraphrase: To put things into your OWN words.  To REphrase.

• Summarize/Summary: To explain who, what, when, where, why and how; relay accurate information; give critical, factual, UNBIASED reporting of what you’ve read; use NEUTRAL word choices; NOT distort the author’s meaning.

 

• Opinion/Editorial/Commentary: To explain how you FEEL about something; give your REACTION, thoughts.

• Analogy: Drawing a point-by-point comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect.  This is very much like a simile or metaphor!  Example: The operation of a computer presents an interesting analogy to the working of the brain in that both things—computers and brains—build and store information.

 

• Denotation: The literal meaning of a word.  This is what a dictionary would say the word means.  Example: “HOT” in the dictionary means that something has a high thermal temperature.  A “RAT” in the dictionary is a furry pest.

• Connotation: The CREATIVE meanings society places on certain words.  Example: “HOT” in the connotative sense means that something or someone is amazing, good-looking, or otherwise wonderful.  The connotative meaning of “RAT” is a snitch, or someone who tattle-tells on someone, getting the other person into trouble, usually so they can save themselves from harm.

 

SHAKESPEAREAN LITERARY TERMS

• Drama: Literature in play form.  ANY literature that is performed, either on a stage or in a movie or on TV, etc.

 

• Tragedy: A drama that ends in catastrophe—most often death—for the main character and often for several other important characters, too.  Although the events in a tragedy are often set in motion by an action of the tragic hero, fate may also seem to play a role in the course that the events take.  Example: William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, in which both the main characters die because they rush into “love”.

• Tragic Hero/Heroine: The main character, usually someone who is of royal or noble blood and who may have a great influence on his or her society.  This character also has, however, one or more fatal flaws—a weakness or a serious error in their judgment—that leads to their downfall and/or death.  Example: Romeo, Juliet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Antigone, Hamlet, Doctor Faustus, Achilles.

 

• Chorus: A single character who, as developed in Greek drama, functions as a NARRATOR, offering commentary on the play’s plot and theme(s).

• Syllable: A unit of sound or group of letters made up of a vowel sound or a vowel and consonant combination.  Syllables contain only one vowel.  Example: The word “intelligent” has four syllables IN=1, TEL=2, LI=3, GENT=4.

 

• Iambic Meter: An UNstressed syllable (denoted by the symbol “u” above the syllable) followed by a stressed syllable (denoted by the symbol “/” above the syllable).

• Iambic Pentameter: Lines that ideally have five (“penta” means 5; “meter” means a unit of measurement, like a foot) PAIRS of UNstressed/stressed syllables.  Shakespeare’s plays are written in iambic pentameter because iambic pentameter mimics the sound of spoken English very, very well.  Iambic pentameter can rhyme or not rhyme.

 

• Blank Verse: A form of poetry that uses UNRHYMED lines of iambic pentameter.  The pattern is not always perfect, though, and sometimes there are breaks in the lines.

• Couplet: Two rhymed lines in a row.  Example: "You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen,//Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men."

 

• Sonnet: A 14-line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with a varied rhyme scheme.  The Shakespearean Sonnet is divided into four sections: 3 quatrains (a set of 4 lines all together) and a couplet (2 lines together).  In a Shakespearean Sonnet, the couplet introduces an unexpected sharp thematic or imaginative “turn” called the volta (Italian for “turn”).  The most common rhyme scheme (the pattern of rhyming) is: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (each letter represents a different rhyme scheme). Example: Shoe (A), Pond (B), Glue (A), Frond (B)     Shiny (C), Fall (D), Spiny (C), Ball (D)     Pin (E), Back (F), Fin (E), Shack (F)     Dish (G), Fish (G).

• Oxymoron: A combination of contradictory words or terms, also called a paradox.  Example: From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, “Why then, O brawling love!  O loving hate!  O heavy lightness, serious vanity . . . Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!”

 

• Pun: Word play suggesting, with humorous intent, the different meanings of one word, or the use of two or more words similar in sound, but different in meaning.  Example: A woman gets paid for being in a sleep clinic’s research project.  Afterwards she says it was her, “Dream job.”  This is funny because she got paid for sleeping/dreaming, which means it literally was a job where she dreams, but it’s also the perfect job (or “dream job”).

• Epithet: A phrase (an adjective—a word that describes a noun—followed by a noun, which is a person, place, or thing) that helps readers see a noun in a clearer or sharper light.  It is both exact and creative.  Example: Lazy road, tired landscape, anxious apples, smirking billboards. 

 

• Dramatic Conventions: Devices, which theater audiences accept as realistic, even though they don’t necessarily reflect the way real people behave.  Example: In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet sits on her balcony and reveals ALL of the intimate details about how she feels about Romeo, while Romeo hides in the bushes and listens to her talk.  The point is that Juliet saying that, in that way, at that moment, gives Romeo the chance to reveal HIS feelings!  But let’s face it, NO-ONE EVER DOES STUFF LIKE THAT, but it happens in plays and movies and TV in order to make the stories work.  All of us just accept that it’s “real”, even when it really isn’t.

• Monologue: A long, uninterrupted speech (in a narrative or drama) that is spoken IN THE PRESENCE OF OTHER CHARACTERS.  UNLIKE a soliloquy and most asides, a monologue IS heard by other characters.

 

• Soliloquy: A speech a character gives when he or she is ALONE on stage, in effect talking to him or herself and expressing their inner thoughts and ideas out loud.  Its purpose is to let the audience, BUT NOT the other characters, know what he or she is thinking.

• Aside: A character’s remark, either to the audience or to another character, WHICH OTHER CHARACTERS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO HEAR.  Its purpose is to reveal the character’s own private thoughts.  A stage direction, usually in brackets or parentheses, indicates when an aside is being made.  Asides are spoken to the audience, unless the stage directions say otherwise.  Example: When a character in a movie talks DIRECTLY TO THE CAMERA and it feels like they are talking directly to you, it’s because they ARE speaking directly to you, the audience.  This is an aside.

 

• Comic Relief: A humorous scene, incident, or speech that relieves the overall emotional intensity of the story or a given scene.  By providing contrast, comic relief helps the audience absorb or process the earlier events in the plot and get ready for the upcoming events.  Example: Do you ever notice that if two or more people are arguing about a problem and someone cracks a joke and everyone laughs, usually that break from the tension allows the people who were upset to find a solution?

• Prologue: An introduction that tells the audience about the story’s lesson or moral.

 

• Epilogue: A speech at the end of a literary work that deals with the character’s futures.  Tells you what happens to the people after the story concludes.

LITERARY TERMS FOR THE ODYSSEY

• Epic: A long narrative poem on a serious subject, presented in formal or elevated style.  Epics trace the adventures of a great hero whose actions reflect the values and ideals of an entire nation or race.  These stories address universal concerns, such as good and evil, life and death, and sin and redemption.

 

• Epic Hero: A larger-than-life figure who embodies the values and ideals of his or her entire nation or race.  Epic heroes take part in dangerous adventures and accomplish great things.  Many go on long, difficult journeys and display amazing courage and superhuman strength.

• Epic Simile/Homeric Simile/Extended Simile: A long, elaborate comparison that continues for several lines.