Literary Terms and Rhetorical Devices
Act: compiled of scenes in a drama
Aesthetic(s): can be used as an adjective meaning “appealing to the senses”.
Allegory: a story in which people, things, and events have a hidden or symbolic meaning besides the readily seen story.
Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds
Allusion: a reference to other literary works or historical events, etc. that carries its own history of meaning.
Ambiguity: the ability to mean more than one thing. This can be a weakness in some writing (like argumentative essays), but often it is used by writers deliberately to create layers of meaning
Anachronism: the representation of something as existing or occurring at other than its proper historical time.
Analogy: something that shows a similarity in some ways between things otherwise unlike.
Anecdote: a short, brief story about an interesting event
Antagonist: the force against which the protagonist must fight.
Antecedent: the word or phrase to which a pronoun refers. Often it precedes a pronoun
Anthropomorphism: when inanimate objects are given human characteristics, actions, and qualities. Not to be confused with personification.
Anticlimax: Unexpected letdown at the point where the reader usually expects the climax.
Antihero: a protagonist who carries the action of the literary piece but does not embody the classic characteristics of a hero.
Antithesis: a concept that is directly opposed to a previously presented idea (thesis).
Antonym: a word that means the opposite of another word.
Anthem: a song of praise or devotion, as to a higher institution or nation
Aphorism: a short, concise statement of a principle; a short sentence expressing a wise observation.
Apostrophe: words directly addressed to an inanimate object; occurs when a character speaks directly to a force or entity as if it were a person
Apotheosis: elevating someone to the level of a god
Archaism: the deliberate use of old-fashioned language to create a sense of antiquity
Archetype: patterns that exist in literature; recurring themes, character types, and plot patterns.
Aside: a remark made by a character to the audience; not to be “heard” by the other characters.
Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds within two or more words.
Atmosphere: the feeling or tone created by the setting.
Attitude: the speaker or author’s feelings towards the subject. See also tone
Aubade: a morning song/poem usually attempting to wake up a lover.
Autobiography: the true story of a person’s life written by that person.
Ballad: a narrative poem (originally meant to be sung) characterized by repetition and often by a refrain
Bibliography: a list of work by a publisher or writer.
Bildungsroman: a “coming of age” story; a story in which the main character matures and experiences rites of passage into adulthood
Biographical sketch: a brief account of someone’s life focusing on one or two major events; see also profile.
Biography: a true story of a person’s life written by someone else.
Blank Verse: unrhymed poetry in iambic pentameter (unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable five feet)
Black Humor (also known as Dark Humor): the use of disturbing themes in comedy.
Bombast: the attempt to be eloquent by using the largest, most uncommon words; this creates a tone of pretentiousness and exaggerated learning
Cacophony: a harsh and disagreeable sound
Caesura: a conscious break in a line of poetry
Caricature: a representation in literature or art that is exaggerated.
Cast of Characters: a list and sometimes a short description of the characters in a play; usually listed in order of appearance
Catastrophe: the concluding action of a drama, especially a classical tragedy, following the climax and containing a resolution of the plot; a terrible disaster or calamity
Catharsis: purification or purging of the emotions primarily through art.
Chiasmus: the opposite of parallel construction; inverting the second of the two phrases that would otherwise be in parallel form.
Character: a person or animal that takes part in the action or a work of literature.
Characterization: the techniques a writer uses to create and develop a character.
Direct characterization: the writer TELLS the reader about characters.
Indirect characterization: the writer SHOWS the reader about characters
through actions, thoughts, etc.
Chorus: a group of people who recite in one voice; in ancient Greek drama, the chorus was used to represent the thoughts of the average townsperson; in poetry, a chorus may be a stanza that is repeated throughout.
Chronicle: a continuous and detailed historical account of events arranged in order of time.
Classicism: attitudes and principles seen in the art, architecture, and literature of ancient Greece and Rome and characterized by emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, and restraint.
Cliché: an overused phrase or expression (especially inappropriate for formal writing)
Climax: the turning point in the plot; the peak of interest and intensity.
Coherence: organized and orderly connection
Colloquial Writing (or Language): writing that approximates the sound of speech; writing that is written the way it would sound; uses dialect in words and slang speech
Comedy: a play that begins with trouble but ends in peace; a play that ends happily for the characters, often with a marriage.
Comic Relief: humor intended to relieve tension usually in tragedies
Complications: events that create problems for the main characters in a work.
Conceit: an elaborate metaphor: usually it is a far-fetched comparison between two seemingly unlike things that gains appeal from the unusual or extraordinary comparison.
Conflict: a struggle between opposing forces.
Internal conflict occurs within a character; person vs. self
External conflict occurs with an outside force: person vs. person, person
vs. society, and person vs. nature/fate.
Connotation: what is suggested by a word apart from what it explicitly describes; the hidden meaning.
Consonance: the same consonant sound in words with different vowel sounds.
Conventional character: a character with traits that are expected or traditional.
Couplet: two lines that end in a rhyme; Shakespeare used this as part of stage directions in his plays.
Dark Humor (also known as Black Humor): the use of disturbing themes in comedy.
Denotation: the direct and specific meaning of a word; the “dictionary” meaning.
Denouement: the final outcome of the main dramatic complication in a literary work; the clarification and winding down of a story.
Deus ex machina: literally “gods in the machine”; when the gods/God/fate intervene in the story’s end to resolve a seemingly impossible conflict; refers to an unlikely or improbably coincidence; a “cop-out” ending
Dialect: the form of a language as it is spoken by a certain group of people
Dialogue: a conversation between characters (especially related to drama)
Diction: word choice and arrangement of words in speaking and writing
Didactic: intended to teach a lesson
Dirge: a song or hymn of grief.
Distortion: an exaggeration or stretching of the truth to achieve a desired effect.
Drama: literature that is meant to be performed for an audience.
Dramatic Irony: a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader knows is true (soap operas and horror films).
Dramatic monologue: a literary work in which a character reveals him/herself
Dynamic Character: a character who changes
Editorial: a newspaper or magazine article that gives the opinions of its editors or publishers
Elaboration: explanation; giving details; development
Elegy: a meditative song or poem usually sad and reflective; many times expressing sorrow for one who is dead, but not always is death a theme
Empathy: when the reader shares the feelings on part with a character or speaker
End-stopped: a verse line (of poetry) with a pause or a stop at the end of the line.
English Sonnet: (also known as Shakespearean sonnet) a sonnet pattern established by William Shakespeare which uses iambic pentameter (heartbeat rhythm) with a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, employing the heroic couplet
Enjambment: in poetry, the running over of a sentence from one verse or stanza into the next without stopping at the end of the first.
Epic: a long narrative poem that tells the deeds and adventures of a hero important to a race or culture.
Epic Hero: a figure of great national importance, actions involve superhuman deeds, takes a long journey, the gods interfere with destiny, and has god-like features.
Epigram: a short, usually witty verse with a quick turn at the end.
Epigraph: brief quotation at the beginning of a literary work, reflective of the theme.
Epilogue: a concluding section that rounds out a literary work
Epiphany: moment of insight when a character recognizes some truth.
Episode: a brief unit of action in a dramatic or literary work.
Epistle: a letter; at times a novel is written in epistolary style (series of letters); a writer can use this to include various perspectives of characters.
Epitaph: the writing on a tombstone; a short prose or verse written in tribute of a dead person
Epithet: a word or phrase used in place of a person’s name (also known as a kenning), much like an appositive or appositive phrase in grammar
Essay: a short, usually nonfiction work that deals with one subject; the author may give an opinion, attempt to persuade, or narrate a true event, or give an interpretation
Eulogy: a formal speech of praise, usually for someone who has died.
Euphemism: a word or phrase that is used instead of a more direct but distasteful or offensive word or phrase. (Example: We say someone has “passed away” instead of “died”.)
Euphony: the quality of a pleasant or harmonious sound of a word or group of words as an intended effect; often achieved through long vowel sounds and soft consonants.
Exaggeration: a type of irony in which something is represented as more than it really is
Exposition: the part of a plot that provides (exposes) background information; introduces the story’s setting, conflict(s), and main characters.
Fable: a brief story that is written to teach a lesson about human nature.
Fairy Tale: a simple narrative that deals with supernatural beings; a made-up story that initially taught lessons to children.
Falling Action: occurs after the climax in a work of fiction or drama; shows the effects of the climax; leads to the denouement and resolution.
Fantasy: a type of fiction that is highly imaginative and could not really happen
Farce: literature based on a highly humorous and highly improbable plot: the kind of comedy that depends on exaggerated or improbably situations, physical disasters, and sexual innuendoes to amuse the audience.
Fiction: fantasy or literature that is not true
Figurative Language/Figure of Speech: language that is NOT literal; uses comparisons to describe; the opposite of literal language, figures of speech are used (metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, hyperbole, etc.)
Flashback: interruption of the plot to present a conversation, a scene, or an event that happened before the beginning of a story.
Flat Character: a simple, one-sided character with a few noticeable traits
Foil Characters: two characters (usually a major and a minor) whose opposite traits contrast each other.
Folklore: traditional customs, tales, or sayings preserved orally among a certain group of people.
Foreshadowing: giving hints and clues as to what will come in a story
Free Verse: poetry with no regular meter and no pattern.
Genre: type of literature (fiction, nonfiction, drama, novel, short story, fantasy, science-fiction, etc.)
Haiku: an unrhymed Japanese poem of three lines containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables; most of the time the subject of the poem is nature.
Heroic couplet: in poetry, a rhymed couplet written in iambic pentameter (heart-beat).
Hubris: overwhelming arrogance or pride that usually serves as the tragic flaw of a tragic hero; in Greek tragedies, this almost always leads to the tragic hero’s downfall.
Humor: an amusing description, an exaggeration or sarcastic remark; anything used to incite laughter through literature.
Hymn: a song of praise or joy
Hyperbole: an extreme exaggeration usually used to be humorous or to make a point.
Idiom: slang expressions used in everyday speech.
Image: a picture created in the reader’s mind through the use of words and descriptions by the writer
Imagery: words and phrases that appeal to the reader’s senses.
In medias res: a work that begins in the middle of the story and employs flashbacks as a part of the retelling.
Interior Monologue: a technique used in poetry and prose that reveals a character’s unspoken thoughts and feelings; may be presented directly by the character or through a narrator; often utilizes the technique of stream of consciousness writing
Interlude: a performance between the acts of a play.
Internal Rhyme: rhyme within a line (or within two lines) of poetry rather than the end
Intrigue: something used to arouse the interest, desire, or curiosity of the reader.
Inversion: a switch in the normal word order, often used for emphasis, to maintain rhythm, and/or for rhyme scheme.
Italian sonnet: (also known as the Petrarchan sonnet) fourteen-line poem divided into two parts; the first is eight lines with the rhyme scheme abbaabba; the second is six lines with the rhyme scheme cdcdcd.
Itotes: affirmation of an idea by using a negative understatement; the opposite of hyperbole.
Lament: to mourn or regret
Lampoon: a satire usually directed against an individual or group of people; can be harsh or light in nature.
Limerick: a light, humorous verse form of 5 chiefly anapestic verses of which lines 1,2, and 5, and lines 3 and 4 are of 2 feet with a rhyme scheme of AABBA.
Literal language: words used in their ordinary, denotative senses
Literary tradition: written tradition of literature, distinguished from oral tradition
Local Color: the use of regional detail in a literary work.
Lyric: a category of poetry that expresses thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style or form.
Lyric Poem: a fairly short, emotionally expressive poem that shares the feelings and observations of a single speaker
Malapropism: exchanging words for other words that sound alike.
Masque: a short allegorical dramatic performance of the 16th and 17th century performed by masked actors.
Melodrama: an extravagantly theatrical play in which action and plot predominate over characterization.
Memoir: a narrative account of something noteworthy composed from personal experience; a short piece in which the author focuses on one event in his/her life rather than the development of the author over a long period of time.