English HL

Alienation-The concept of being estranged from our true human natures,

Allegory--A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one.

Alliteration-The repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words.

Allusion-A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history.

Ambiguity--The use (usually intentional) of language and tone that is unclear or vague and may have two or more interpretations or meanings.

Ambivalence-The writer's attitude toward a character or event is not clear-cut but may hold at least two possible responses.

Antithesis-Contrasting ideas by balancing words of opposite meaning.

Apostrophe-A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed alive, present and capable of reply.

Assonance-Repetition of similar vowel sounds close to one another.

Aside A brief speech in which a character turns from the person he or she is addressing to speak directly to the audience. Asides let the audience know a character's true thoughts or feelings.

Atmosphere. A reference to the appearance of a place, setting or surrounding. Not to be confused with mood, which refers to the emotions of persons or a group.

Authorial Intervention-During a narrative, the author inserts his or her own opinion, belief, outlook or argument into the story, revealing more than the characters do.

Bathos-A sudden descent forin the sublime or serious to the ridiculous or trivial.

Bildungsroman-German term for a novel focusing on the development of a character from youth to maturity.

Blank verse-Unrhymed iambic pentameter in poetry or drama.

Caesura--A break or pause within a line of poetry by comma, full stop or unmarked pause. Used for emphasis or to change direction or pace.

Caricature-An exaggerated representation of a character, often by emphasizing a small number of features, usually for comic or satiric purposes.

Character-An individual in a story, poeni or play. Four major types:

• Round A character is complex, with many traits.

• Flat-A character has only one or two traits.

• Dynamic- A character changes significantly during the course of the story.

• Static- A character stays essentially the same throughout the story.

Characterization-The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character, The standard methods are:

• Direct--what the author says about a character and

• Indirect--what the character says, thinks or does, what other characters say about a character, and physical descriptions of a character.

• Colloquial Everyday speech and language, as opposed to literary or formal register. Often used to create a contrasting or striking effect,

• Conceit--A thought, idea, or image that establishes a deliberately far-fetched comparison. Often, this comparison is extended.

• Conflict--A struggle between opposing forces in a story. Conflict is usually divided into four types: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. society, man vs. self.

Connotation-What a word suggests beyond its basic definition; a word's overtones.

Consonance—The final consonants are the same in two or more words that are close together.

Contradiction-Stating or implying the opposite of what has been said or suggested.

Couplet-Two consecutive lines of rhyming verse. A heroic couplet uses iambic pentameter.

Defamiliarization-Making the familiar seem new and strange, thus rendering it more vivid in detail, appearance or effect.

Denotation-The basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word.

Denouement--How the ending of a story turns out.

Diction—The choice of words, phrases, sentence structures and figurative language in a literary work; the manner or mode of verbal expression, particularly with regard to clarity and accuracy.

Didactic-Tone or language that is preachy, usually regarding a moral, ethical, political or religious point.

Dilemma-A situation in which a character must choose between two courses of action, each of which has an undesirable.

Elegy-A mournful lament for times past or for the dead. “Elegiac" describes a mournful or reflective mood or tone.

End-stopped line--A line of poetry where the meaning pauses or stops at the end.

Enjambment-In poetry, the flow of a thought or feeling from one line to the next.

Epic (Epic Poem) - A long narrative poem about the adventures about the adventures of a god or hero.

Epigram-A concise, pointed, witty statement.

Form—The shape, arrangement, structure, organization of a work.

Free verse-Poetry that is unrhymed and without a set meter or rhythm.

Genre A specific type or kind of literature: poetry, drama, short story, novel.

Grain-The assumptions and inherent values within a text.

Hyperbole (Overstatement)-A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth

Idyll-A simple, innocent life in an idealized rural setting. Implies peace and happiness.

Imagery-The representation through language of sense experience; language that appeals to the senses. The seven types of imagery are:

• Visual-sight

• Auditory-hearing

• Olfactory—smell

• Gustatory-taste Tactile-touch

• Organic-internal sensations

• Kinesthetic-motion sensations

Internal rhyme- Words within a line that rhyme.

Irony--A situation, or a Lise of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy. The three kinds of irony are:

• Verbal-What is said is the opposite of what is meant.

• Dramatic-A incongruity or discrepancy between what a character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true,

• Situational-A situation in which there is an incongruity between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would seem appropriate.

Lyric-A Songlike poem.

Metaphor.A figure of speech in which an inplicit comparison is inade between two things essentially unlike for the purpose of giving one thing the characteristics of the other. All metaphors contain a figurative element and a literal element. The figurative element is what the writer uses to help the reader appreciate or understand what he or she is actually describing. The literal element is what is actually being described. Example: "Juliet is the sun." Sun is figurative, Juliet is literal. Five common types of metaphor;

• Direct--the comparison is explicit and openly stated.

• Implied--one or both elements are not openly stated but only suggested. . Extended--the metaphor is stretched over a substantial length.

• Dead -A too-common metaphor that is no longer vivid or original.

• Mixed.A metaphor that mixes elements that are incompatible.

Meter-A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry. The most common forms are:

• Iambic unstressed, stressed afraid

• Trochaic stressed, unstressed heather

• Anapest unstressed, unstressed, stressed disembark

• Dactyl stressed, unstressed, unstressed solitude

• Spondee stressed, stressed workday, spotlight

Metonymy-The use of something closely related to the thing meant instead of using the thing actually meant. Example: "A watched pot never boils." "Pot" replaces "water."

Mimesis. The use of words that suggest movement, shape, size, texture. Consider "feeding frenzy."

Mood-Refers to the emotional statement of a person or group. Do not confuse with atmosphere or tone.

Monologue.A speech, usually lengthy, by a single speaker to a silent but attentive audience, Often reveals key traits of the speaker, Contrast with soliloquy.

Motif A recurring object, symbol, concept or image which helps illuminate the theme.

Onomatopoeia-Words which imitate the sounds they are describing: sizzle, crack, pop,

Oxymoron—Two words of opposite meaning that are joined. Consider "civil war."

Paradox-_- A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements that at first makes little sense but that, on reflection, does.

Parody-A work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer's style.

Pastiche-A literary work in the style of a well-known author.

Person The identity or character assumed by an author in a literary work.

Personification—A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, object or concept.

Plot—The series of related events in a story or play as the author chooses to present thern. A plot is not necessarily chronological in sequence. Key points in a standard plot:

• Exposition–The setting is established and key characters introduced.

• Rising action-Key conflicts begin and characters are developed.

• Turning point (crisis)-The hero experiences a significant reversal of fortune.

• Falling action Conflict resolution begins, leading to a

• Climax. The action reaches its highest point of suspense and excitement,

• Resolution (denouement)-The conflicts are resolved; the story ends.

Point of view--The angle of vision from which a story is told

• Omniscient-The author tells the story using the third person; he or she knows all and is free to tell us anything, including what the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act as they do.

• Limited. The author tells the story using the third person, but limits hiin or herself to a complete knowledge of one character in the story and tells us only what that one character thinks, feels, sees or hears.:

• First person - The story is told by one of its characters, using the first person reference. This point of view often exposes the reader to narrator bias.

• Objective (dramatic)-The author tells the story using the third person, but limits him or herself to reporting what the characters say or do: he or she does not interpret their behavior or tell us their private thoughts or feelings.

Pun-A 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: Eve was nigh Adam Adam was naïve. Mark A. Neville

Rhyme-The repetition of vowel sounds in accented syllables and all succeeding syllables.

Satire-Ridiculing humans and their institutions for the purpose of inspiring reform.

Setting—The time and place of a story,

Simile—A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike for the purpose of giving one thing the characteristics of the other. The comparison is made explicit by the use of such words or phrases as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems

Skaz -Oral narration that mirrors normal speech with its hesitations, interjections, corrections, grammatical mistakes.

Soliloquy- A speech in which a character, alone on the stage, addresses him or herself; a soliloquy is a "thinking out loud," a dramatic means of letting the audience know a character's thoughts and feelings.

Stream of consciousness-A narrative technique in which action and external events are conveyed indirectly through a fictional character's mental soliloquy of thoughts and associations. Also called interior monologue.

Style—The distinctive traits and patterns in an author's works, the author's modus operandi.

Symbol-Something that means more than what it is; an object, person, situation, or action that in addition to its literal meaning suggests other meanings as well.

Synecdoche-A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole thing or the whole for a part: "Wheels" is used when "car" is meant.

Theme-The central idea of a literary work.

Tone—The writer's attitude toward his or her subject, audience, or self.

Understatement (Litote)—A figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants.

Verisimilitude - The practice of making the unreal seem real, the unbelievable believable. Art mimics life.