Literary Terms: Prose

ANTITHESIS

Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure. Example "Be not the first by whom the new is tried; Nor yet the last to lay the old aside." can also refer to opposite concepts, ideas.

ANECDOTE

Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often shows character of an individual

ANTIHERO

Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes. may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples.

ANTAGONIST

Character who creates the story's conflict. Opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a story.

ASYNDETON

Commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus emphasizing the parts equally: instead of X, Y, and Z... the writer uses X,Y,Z....

DENOTATION

Commonly agreed upon, officially accepted meaning of a word or phrase

ANALOGY

Comparison made between two things to show how they are alike

BALANCE

Constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length and importance. Sentences can be unbalanced to serve a special effect as well.

EPISTROPHE

Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite of anaphora).

APPOSITION

Placing in immediately succeeding order of two or more coordinate elements, the latter of which is an explanation, qualification, or modification of the first (often set off by a colon). Paine: "These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it Now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

COMEDY OF MANNERS

Pokes fun at social patterns of ideas. ( see The Important of Being Earnest , Oscar Wilde)

COLLOQUIALISM

a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations. Example: "He's out of his head if he thinks I'm gonna go for such a stupid idea.

EXPLICATION

act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text, usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language.

EPITHET

an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. "Father of our country" and "the great Emancipator" are examples. A Homeric epithet is a compound adjective used with a person or thing: "swift-footed Achilles"; "rosy-fingered dawn."

CONCEIT

an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM

attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object (Personification)

APHORISM

brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth. Also called maxim, epigram.

APOSTROPHE

calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation

EXTERNAL CONFLICT

can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society.

INTERNAL CONFLICT

conflict involving opposing forces within a person's mind.

AMBIGUITY

deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way- - this is done on purpose by the author, when it is not done on purpose, it is vagueness, and detracts from the work.

DRAMATIC IRONY

is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better.

VERBAL IRONY

occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else.

LOOSE SENTENCE

one in which the main clause comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units. Hawthorne: "Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half-fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath him, and show the wavering track of this footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful verdure."

ARGUMENTATION

one of the four forms of discourse which uses logic, ethics, and emotional appeals (logos, ethos, pathos) to develop an effective means to convince the reader to think or act in a certain way.

EXPOSITION

one of the four major forms of discourse, in which something is explained or "set forth."

INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character's private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action. Common in modern literature

DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. Romantic style literature relied more heavily on this form.

NARRATIVE

the form of discourse that tells about a series of events.

CHARACTERIZATION

the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character.

ASSONANCE

the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together.

INVERSION

the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase.

CONFLICT

the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story.

FORESHADOWING

the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot.

IMAGERY

the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person , a thing, a place, or an experience.

COUPLET

two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry.

ARCHETYPE

Patterns in plot, character , theme, etc. born of common human experience. Joseph Campbell, Carl Yung

LOCAL COLOR

a term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect and landscape.

CONFESSIONAL POETRY

a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet's life.

FARCE

a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations.

FABLE

a very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in life.

DIALECT

a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area.

DUALISM

Opposing ideas or concepts, dependent on one another for validation. Presumes only two options... Good cannot exist without evil.

INVOCATION

A "calling upon" God or the gods or a muse usually at the beginning of an epic.

FOIL

A character who acts as contrast to another character. Often a funny side kick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero.

EPILOGUE

A farewell speech spoken by an actor at the end of a drama.

KENNING

A metaphorical compound of two terms in place of an ordinary noun. Usually captures some quality or essence of person of thing. "Whale Road = Sea."

EXEMPLUM

A short Medieval narrative designed to illustrate a moral or a church doctrine. You encountered this term in reading The pardoner's Tale.

DEUS EX MACHINA

A sudden and unconvincing "solving" of the conflict in a story or drama; translates "God in the machine" as though God stepped in and resolved the conflict.

ARCHAIC

A word or phrase no longer in use.

BLACK COMEDY

Disturbing material usually presented in a humorous or absurd manner , usually with the intention of confronting uncomfortable truths. Example: Catch 22

CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP

Form of argumentation in which the writer claims that one thing results from another, often used as part of a logical argument.

CHIASMUS

In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed. Coleridge: "Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike." In prose this is called antimetabole.

ANASTROPHE

Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy word for inversion.

CARPE DIEM

Literally translated "Seize the Day." Familiar poetic theme.

ABSTRACT

Refers to language that describes concepts rather than concrete images

ANAPHORA

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent.

ANTIMETABOLE

Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order. Moliere: "One should eat to live, not live to eat." In poetry, this is called chiasmus.

ATMOSPHERE

The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work. Often established through setting detail, weather or other description. Can foreshadow events of a work.

CATHARSIS

The experience of being emotionally purified vicariously through the experiences of a character - usually in Tragedy - see Aristotle's Poetics.

COMIC RELIEF

The inclusion of a humorous character or scene to contrast and intensify the tragic elements of a work.

DENOUEMENT

The point in a story or drama when the outcome of the plot is clarified and the story comes to an end.

ATTITUDE

The relationship an author has with his or her subject and/or his or her audience.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe. Similes and metaphors are common forms.

EPISTLE/EPISTOLARY

Written in the form of letters.

IRONY

a discrepancy between appearances and reality.

METAPHOR

a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles.

HYPERBOLE

a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. "If I told you once, I've told you a million times...."

DESCRIPTION

a form of discourse that uses language to create a mood or emotion.

CHORUS

a group of singers or dancers in the background (usually of Greek Drama) who set a tone, narrate events, moralize upon the action.

EPIC

a long narrative poem, written in heightened language , which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society.

ELEGY

a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died.

LYRIC POEM

a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker. A ballad tells a story.

EPIGRAPH

a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.

FLASHBACK

a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time.

ESSAY

a short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject.

DICTION

a speaker or writer's choice of words.

EPANALEPSIS

device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence. Voltaire: "Common sense is not so common."

IMPLIED METAPHOR

does not state explicitly the two terms of the comparison: "I like to see it lap the miles" is one in which the verb lap implies a comparison between "it" and some animal that "laps" up water.

DIDACTIC

form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.

ROUND CHARACTER

has more dimensions to their personalities---they are complex, just a real people are.

FLAT CHARACTER

has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase.

COMEDY

in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters.

LITOTES

is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form: Hawthorne--- "...the wearers of petticoat and farthingale...stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial persons, if occasion were, into the throng..."

DEAD METAPHOR

is a metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid: "The head of the house", "the seat of the government", "a knotty problem"

MIXED METAPHOR

is a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible. "The President is a lame duck who is running out of gas."

EXTENDED METAPHOR

is a metaphor that is developed as far as the writer wants to take it. (conceit if it is quite elaborate).

CLICHE

is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse

EULOGY

is great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died.

DYNAMIC CHARACTER

is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story's action.

STATIC CHARACTER

is one who does not change much in the course of a story.

JUXTAPOSITION

poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit. Ezra Pound: "The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough." Also a form of contrast by which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas or images or metaphors. Martin Luther King: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

FREE VERSE

poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme.

ALLUSION

reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something (usually from literature, etc.).

PERSUASION

relies more on emotional appeals than on facts

ALLITERATION

repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together. EXAMPLE: "When the two youths turned with the flag they saw that much of the regiment had crumbled away, and the dejected remnant was coming slowly back."

HYPOTACTIC

sentence marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them. (Use of such syntactic subordination of just one clause to another is known as hypotaxis). I am tired because it is hot.

ALLEGORY

story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities. EXAMPLE: Animal Farm; Dante's Inferno; Lord of the Flies

SITUATIONAL IRONY

takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.

CONNOTATION

the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.