|
Below are a few
of the important literary terms that we will discuss this year.
A much more comprehensive literary term glossary can be found at
many college level resource websites. Click here to access one
that I love:
Dr.
Wheeler's Literary Terms.
1. alliteration:
the repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of
words, usually at the beginning of the words;
for example:
descending dew drops, luscious
lemons, She sells seashells by the seashore
2. allusion:
a brief, casual reference to a
presumably familiar person, historical event, place, literary
work, or object.
Authors assume that the readers
will recognize the original sources and relate their meaning to
the new context, therefore they do not explicitly explain the
reference and assume the reader will understand the comparison
3. cliché:
overused expressions that have lost
their original strength and vitality; examples:
“as white as snow”, “busy as bees”, “scared to death”
4. conflict:
opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or
fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the
action of the plot. for example:
Jonas
faced an internal conflict, or conflict within himself,
in The Giver when he had to decide whether or not to
leave his community
5. connotation:
associations and implications that go beyond the written word;
the associated or
secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its
main, or primary meaning; connotation can be negative, positive
or neutral; examples: “statesman”
vs. “politician” / “lavish and extravagant” vs. “fancy-schmancy
and hoity-toity”
denotation: (included here to help explain connotation) it is the dictionary
definition of a word;
direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression
6. foreshadowing:
use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in the
story, often used to build suspense or tension in a story
7.
hyperbole:
a bold exaggerated statement that adds emphasis without
intending to be literally true;
example:
“He ate everything in the house.”
8. imagery:
a common term for the "mental pictures" writers paint; imagery
is made up of all the sensory perceptions referred to in a
writing – including visual (what you could see),
auditory (what you could hear), tactile (what
you could touch), thermal (heat and
cold), olfactory (what you could smell),
gustatory (what you could taste), and kinesthetic
sensation (movement) ;
examples:
“the
iced branches shed ‘crystal shells’
”
“the
roar of trees, the crack of branches, beating on a box”
“the
black bats tumble and dart”
9. irony:
simply stated, is the opposite of what's expected...there are
three main ways irony is used in literature:
a discrepancy or difference between words and their meaning,
between what we as readers expect to happen and what does
happen, or between appearances and reality in a piece of
writing; example:
The
average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil
spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the
most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild
amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they
were both eaten by a killer whale.
Jeff
Frolio, 45, a television cameraman for KETV in "Omaha, [NE]" was
shooting a story about a very dangerous intersection where two
teens died [the previous] month. While running back to the van
to grab another tape, [as] terrible luck would have it, he ran
into on-coming traffic and was struck by a car--whose diver was
neither drunk nor speeding. He died [later] that night in the
hospital.
10. metaphor:
a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike
things, without using the word like or as; example:
Macbeth saying that
life is a “brief candle”, “He was a bear, tearing through his
dinner without pause.”
11. onomatopoeia:
the formation or use of words such
as buzz or
murmur or
crash that imitate the
sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to;
words that sound like what they describe or name
12. oxymoron:
a shortened form of paradox (see next term) in which two
contradictory or opposite words are used together;
example:
“sweet sorrow”, “original copy”,
“thunderous silence”, “jumbo shrimp”
paradox:
(included here to help explain
oxymoron) a statement of opposites, contrary to common belief
that seems contradictory, unbelievable or absurd, but upon
closer inspection, may contain a truth;
example:
“Water, water
everywhere, nor any drop to drink”,
“I must be
cruel only to be kind”
13. personification:
writing that gives inanimate objects, animals, natural forces
(like weather), or abstract ideas are given human qualities,
characteristics, personalities or actions;
example:
“Time, the subtle thief of
youth” – John Milton
“On dark nights the houses had mean
expressions on their faces”
“The angry wind yelled and scolded
us with its vicious fingers”
14. point of view:
the position or perspective from which the story is seen and
told
15. pun:
word play when two meanings appear in one word, or in two words
of identical sound but different spelling, or in words of
similar sound but different meaning;
example:
“Fang,
you very much,” said the vampire to his victim.
“I want some friends to hang
around with,” said the little bat to his mother.
16. satire:
criticizing mankind or society or institutions with sarcasm, wit
and humor for the purpose of showing their absurdity and need of
improvement; examples: “The Daily Show” on Comedy
Central and the weekly mock newspaper The Onion
17. simile:
a very common figure of speech that makes a comparison between
two things that aren’t often associated by using the words “like”,“as”,“than”,“appears”,
or “seems”;
example:
“Mrs. Smith’s coffee is like a
punch in the stomach”
“He laughed like a hyena”
“mad as a
hornet”
18. symbol:
any person, object or action that has additional meaning beyond
itself to represent or stand for a more abstract emotion or
idea; example: an owl
described as “the bird of night” (owl is a symbol of death),
or rain accompanying a sorrowful scene in a movie to symbolize
tears and sadness and loss
19. theme:
the underlying meaning or truth about life or humanity as
revealed in a story’s plot and characters, fundamental and
universal idea, there can be more than one; examples:
bridging the gap between rich and poor was a theme in The
Outsiders and knowledge and education are the key to
independence and power is one of the themes in the book
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry
20. tone:
the attitude of a writer toward a literary work’s subject and
its audience as revealed by choice of words and details;
example: “Afoot and
light-hearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world
before me.”
– Walt Whitman
|
