English 11 Literary Terms Voice Voice has two

English 11 Literary Terms

Voice • Voice has two meanings. First, voice is how you, as the reader, hear the author speaking. It is the combination of qualities that conveys the author's unique attitude, personality, and character. • In the second meaning, voice is the characteristic speech and thought patterns of narrator that may be a creation, or persona, of the writer. • Because voice has so much to do with the reader's experience of a work of literature, it is one of the most important elements of a piece of writing.

Dramatic Irony • When readers know more about the situation than the characters do • Example: In a murder mystery novel, we see the murderer’s movements but the detective doesn’t.

Situational Irony • Contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen Example: A police station is burglarized.

Diction • Choice of words in a piece of work; the kind of vocabulary that is used Diction affects tone! For example: To a friend "a screw-up" To a child "a mistake" To the police "an accident" To an employer "an oversight"

Symbolism • A person thing or action that represents more than itself; typically something concrete that represents abstract concepts like faith or courage. Example: • Conch shell in The Lord of the Flies

Hyperbole An exaggeration for effect. I am so hungry I could eat a horse! You’re killing me with all that talking! When they started making excuses for why they couldn’t do it, she knocked them out with all the reasons why they could.

Foil (Character) • A minor character whose qualities and actions tend to contrast with those of a major character so that the audience can better appreciate the major character. • In Macbeth, Banquo’s qualities, and his death, show us just how horrible Macbeth is by in contrast.

Stage Directions • Written notes within plays which explain the movements, appearance and inner feelings of actors at specific points in a play. MERCY: Oh, Jesus! (Falls back on bed. Enter Mary Warren, breathless. She is seventeen, a subservient, naïve girl. ) MARY: I just come from the farm, the whole country’s talking witchcraft!

Irony • Contrast between what is generally expected and what actually happens; contrast between appearance and actuality • It is said that when Mary, Queen of Scots, was to be beheaded, a special French executioner was hired for the job. When she greeted him, she pressed a coin into his hand saying, “Do it quickly, as I have but a thin neck. ” But the man was so distraught at her polite resignation that he botched the job. It took three chops to sever head from her body.

Metaphor • Comparison of two UNLIKE things —not using like or as • Usually linked by is/are or was/were Examples: She is a cow! He’s a criminal behind the wheel. He was a madman on the football field

Understatement A statement which lessens the importance of what is meant. Example: It’s 125 degrees in the desert and you say, "It's a little warm today. " Your friend is in the Intensive Care Unit and you say “He’s a little under the weather. ”

Paradox • A statement or situation that seems contradictory but nevertheless expresses some truth. • The money for a music video can feed people and provide lots of resources for others. • Al Capone gave money to poor people.

Pun • A play on words. You use the word in a way that plays on its different meanings. Ex. “The hungry gorilla went ape. ” “Shift happens” “She got the gold mine and I got the shaft. ”

Simile • Comparison using like or as • Examples: As graceful as a three-legged elephant. Dance like nobody’s looking. As busy as a one-legged man in a buttkicking contest.

Personification • You give something human traits. Example: The clouds were crying. The brakes screamed as she slammed the pedal to the floor. Hell is gaping and waiting for sinners.

Cliché An overused phrase. • • • Keep ahead of the pack. Never give up. Give 110 percent. She’s so phat! It’s a rat race. _____like there’s no tomorrow. • All's fair in love and war • bats in the belfry • It goes without saying • moment of glory • stubborn as a mule • what comes around, goes around

Theme • The central or overarching idea in a piece of literature. Some big themes are: • • Our relationship with nature (Man vs. Nature) Our relationship with society (Man vs. Society) alienation and isolation disillusionment rebellion and protest loss of innocence coming of age the American Dream

Dialogue The exact words exchanged among characters. Jesus, you startled me. I wasn’t expecting you here. It’s been a real day for expectations. Where were you? I’ve been waiting here for an hour. You didn’t leave a note or— I wasn’t planning on going anywhere— I can see that. Where’s your coat? I left the house in a hurry. I… um… my mother… The hospital reached you? God, I’m sorry. That’s why— The hospital? They called me when they couldn’t get you. I don’t understand. Your mother. You said — I ran out to buy some flowers for her. She’s been so down. For three hours you’ve been buying flowers? http: //hollylisle. com/dialogue-examples/

Imagery Words which appeal to the senses and so invoke sensory impressions in the mind of the reader. MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk…

Tone is the author’s attitude toward the writing (his characters, the situation) and the readers. A work of writing can have more than one tone. An example of tone could be both serious and humorous. Tone is set by the setting, choice of vocabulary and other details. (Mood, on the other hand, is the general atmosphere created by the author’s words and the feeling the reader gets from reading those words. )

Archetypes • Pre-existent personality patterns that lie behind all the major characters, whether in fiction or in real life. There are many examples. Some are: queen, heroine, faithful companion, trickster, warrior, rebel, rugged individualist, hero, mentor, victim.

Hero/Heroine • The chief character in a work of literature.

Trickster

Faithful Companion

Outsider/Outcast

Rugged Individualist

Innocent

Villain

Caretaker

Earth Mother

Rebel

Misfit

Conflict • A problem in literature Example:

Allusion • A passing reference in a work of literature to something outside itself. Example: “Speak to my gossip VENUS one fair word. ”

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

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

Monologue • A single person speaking, with or without an audience Example: Saturday Night Live episode

Verbal Irony • When someone states one thing and means another

Tragedy • Traces the career and downfall of an individual

Sarcasm • An ironical statement intended to hurt or insult (ex. “Brilliant, ” stated to a student who is clearly wrong. )

Figurative & Literal Language • Figurative Languagean exaggeration • Literal Languageliterally true

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

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)

Rhyme Similarity of sound between two words

End Rhyme Poetry that rhymes at the end of the line

Slant Rhyme Words that sounds similar with a hint of a rhyme (inexact rhyme) Example:

Internal Rhyme Poetry that rhymes in the middle of the line

Couplets • Two lines by two lines that rhyme Example:

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

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)

Refrain Repeating a Stanza Example: “Nevermore” from “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

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

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

Rhetorical Question Not requiring a response

Dialect • The style and manner of speaking from one particular area (Ex. New Yorkers are from “New Yark”)

Elevated Language/Style

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

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

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.

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

Assonance • The correspondence, or nearcorrespondence, 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