allegory – a story in which people, things, and events have a hidden meaning.
alliteration – repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.
allusion – reference to a statement, a person, a place, or an event from literature, history, religion, mythology, sports, science, or pop culture.
anachronism- an event or detail that is inappropriate from the time period.
anecdote – a very brief account of a particular incident. Like a parable, (story in the bible that teaches a lesson), anecdotes are often used by philosophers and teachers to point out truths about life.
apostrophe – words addressed to a person or thing
aside - words that are spoken by a character in a play to the audience or to another character but that are not supposed to be overheard by the others onstage.
assonance – repetition of a similar vowels sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together.
balled – song or song-like poem that tells a story. They often tell stories that have tragic endings. Most ballads have regular rhythm and rhyme. Generally they have a refrain –lines that are repeated at regular intervals.
character – a static one does not change as much in the course of the story whereas a dynamic one changes in some important ways as a result of the story’s actions. A flat character has only one or two personality traits whereas a round character is complex and has many different traits.
conflict – struggle between opposing characters, forces, or emotions. External conflict is when a character struggles against an outside force, which may be another character, society, or something in nature. Internal is a struggle between opposing needs, desires, or emotions within a single character.
connotation – all the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests.
denotation: dictionary definition of a word
description – type of writing intended to create a mood or emotion or to recreate a person, place, thing, or event. Uses images that appeal to the senses.
dialect – way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular region or a particular group of people.
diction – a writer’s or speaker’s choice of words. Diction is an element of a writer’s style. The connotations of words are an important aspect of diction.
exposition - type of writing that explains, gives information, or clarifies an idea.
fable – short story in prose or verse that teaches a moral, or a practical lesson about life. The characters are usually animals.
figure of a speech – words or phrases that describe one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be taken literally. Figurative language (same as figure of speech (always involve some sort of imaginative comparison between seemingly unlike things.
flashback – a technique used that interrupts the present action of the plot in a movie, book, or play to flash backward or tell what happened in at an earlier time.
foil – character who is used as a contrast to another character.
foreshadowing – using clues to hint at events that will happen in the future or later in the plot.
idiom – expression peculiar to a particular language that means something different from the literal meaning of the word.
imagery – language that appeals to the senses.
irony – a contrast or contradiction between expectation and reality –between what is said and what is meant, between what is expected to happen and what really does happen, or between what appears to be true and what is really true.
magic realism - style of fiction that, commonly associated with contemporary Latin American writers, in which fantasy and reality are casually combined, producing humorous and thought provoking results.
metonymy – the name of one thing is used in place of that of another associated with or suggested by it.
myth – traditional story that is rooted in a particular culture, (Greek, Roman), is basically religious, and usually serves to explain a belief, a ritual, or a natural phenomenon.
oxymoron- contradiction of terms
paradox – statement or situation that seems to be a contradiction but reveals a truth.
parody – imitation of a work of literature, art, or music for amusement or satirical purposes.
plot – the sequence of events in a story or drama.
poetry – type of rhythmic compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery to appeal to the reader’s emotions and imagination. Types of poetry are lyric, epic, and ballad.
point of view – vantage point from which a story is told.
satire – type of writing that ridicules something – a person, a group of people, humanity at large, an attitude or failing, a social institution – in order to reveal a weakness.
setting – the time and place of a story or play. It can create mood, (strong feeling/emotion).
soliloquy – an unusually long speech in which a character reveals his or her inner thoughts aloud to the audience.
suspense – the uncertainty or anxiety we feel about what is going to happen next in a story.
symbol – person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself as well.
theme – central idea of a work of literature; it is the idea that the writer wants to reveal about a subject, (love, childhood, death).
tone – attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character.
tragedy – play, novel, or other narrative, depicting or showing serious and important events, in which the main character comes to an unhappy end. In a tragedy, the main character is usually dignified and courageous and often high ranking. This character’s downfall may be caused by a tragic flaw, (a serious character weakness), or by forces beyond the hero’s control. The character usually wins self-knowledge and wisdom even though he or she suffers defeat, possibly even death.