English 11 Literary Terms

Archetypes=Type

Hero/Heroine

• The chief character in a work of literature.

Trickster

Faithful Companion

Outsider/Outcast

Rugged Individualist

Innocent

Villain

Caretaker

Earth Mother

Rebel

Misfit

English 11 Literary Terms

Dramatic Conventions

Stage Directions

• Written notes within plays which explain movements, gestures, and appearance of actors or actresses in a play

Soliloquy

• A character speaks directly to the audience (thinking aloud about motives, feelings, and decisions)

Monologue

•A single person speaking, with or without an audience

Aside

• A character speaks in such a way that some of the characters on stage do not hear what is said (while others do)

Verbal Irony

•When someone states one thing and means another

Situational Irony

• Contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen

Ex. Someone who is loved commits suicide

Dramatic Irony

•When readers know more about the situation than the characters do

Catharsis

•Explains the effects of tragic drama on an audience

English 11 Literary Terms Cont.

Caricature

• A grotesque or foolish image of a character, achieved through the exaggeration of personality traits

Foil• A minor character introduced in

order to represent the abilities of a more significant character

(Ex.Millhouse serves as a foil to Bart Simpson.)

Tragedy

•Traces the career and downfall of an individual

Voice

•Clarifies the persona of the narrative

Figurative & Literal Language

•Figurative Language-an exaggeration

•Literal Language-literally true

Imagery

• All of the words which refer to the objects or qualities which appeal to the senses and feelings

Apostrophe

• A rhetorical (not requiring a response) term for a speech addresses to someone or something in the beginning of a poem or essay

Clue: When your parents ask, “Who do you think you are?” You are not supposed to respond.

Metonymy

• The substitution of the name of a thing by the name of an attribute of it,

(Ex.the “crown” =monarchy)

Synecdoche• A part is used to describe the

whole.

• Ex: all hands on deck=sailors

• All aboard=boarding a train

Language English 11 Literary Terms

Devices

Rhetorical Question

Not requiring a response

Tone

The manner or mood of a passage

Diction

• Choice of words in a piece of work; the kind of vocabulary that is used

i.e. Shakespearean language in a Shakespeare play

Slang is used in an Eminem movie

Dialect

• The style and manner of speaking from one particular area

(Ex.New Yorkers are from “New Yark”)

Sarcasm• An ironical statement intended to

hurt or insult

(ex. “Brilliant,” stated to a student who is clearly wrong.)

Elevated Language/Style

Satire

• Literature which represents something in a comical sense, making it appear ridiculous

Parallelism

• The building up of sentence or statement using repeated syntactic units (repeated words and sounds)

Colloquialism/Vernacular

• The use of the kinds of expression and grammar associated with ordinary, everyday speech rather than formal language

Ex. Cool, Phat!

Connotation/Denotation

• Connotation-emotional response evoked by a word

Ex. Kitten=soft, warm, cuddly

• Denotation-literal meaning

Ex. Kitten=young cat

Pun

•The use of a word in a way that plays on its different meanings.

Ex. “The hungry gorilla went ape.”

Irony

•Contrast between appearance and actuality

Stream of Consciousness

• Present the flow of a character’s seemingly unconnected thoughts, responses, and sensations.

English 11 Literary Terms

Literary Forms

Gothic

Grotesque characters, bizarre situations, and

violent events

Historical Fiction

•Fiction that is loosely based on some historical period

Proverb

• Short popular saying embodying a general truth

Ex. “Look before you leap”

Aphorism• A generally accepted

principle or truth expressed in a short, witty manner

Ex. “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”

Epigram• Originally an inscription on a

monument…now used to describe a witty saying or poem with a sharp, satiric, or amusing ending

Ex: “In God We Trust”

Tall Tale

• Humorous story characterized by exaggeration

• Ex: Jack and the Beanstalk

English 11 Literary Terms

Poetry

Rhyme

Similarity of sound between two words

Meter

• The repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry.

Foot•One stressed syllable indicated by a `•Two stressed syllables indicated by a

Iamb

•An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

Pentameter

•Five feet

Stress

•The accent is on a specific part of the word

Masculine Rhyme

•The accent is on a specific part of the word, and stressed in a deep voice.

Blank Verse

•A poem written in blank verse consists of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.

Free Verse

•Poetry that does not have regular patterns of rhyme and meter

Scansion• The process of determining

meter; when you scan a line of poetry, you mark its stressed and unstressed syllables to identify the rhythm

Inversion

•Departure from normal word order, common in poetry

Alliteration

A sequence of repeated consonantal sounds in a stretch of language

Example: Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.” (from “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe)

Allusion

• A passing reference in a work of literature to something outside itself.

Example: “Speak to my gossip VENUS one fair word.”

Assonance• The correspondence, or near-

correspondence, in two words of the stressed vowel, and sometimes those which follow, but not of the consonants (unlike rhyme).

Example: Can and fat food and droop

Child and silence nation and traitor

Ballad

A poem or song which tells a story in simple, colloquial language.

Example: “O What is That Sound” by W. H. Auden

Feminine Rhyme

• A rhyme in which two differing sounds in two words are followed by stressed rhyming syllables and unstressed rhyming syllables

• Example: revival, survival, arrival

End Rhyme

Poetry that rhymes at the end of the line

Internal Rhyme

Poetry that rhymes in the middle of the line

Slant Rhyme

Words that sounds similar with a hint of a rhyme (inexact rhyme)

Example:

Refrain

Repeating a Stanza

Example: “Nevermore” from “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

Repetition

• Repeating of words or sounds in poetry

• Example: “May the warp be…/May the weft be…/May the border be…” (from the “Song of the Sky Loom,” a Navajo song)

Hyperbole