List of Literary Terms😍👳
❤Abstract Language- Language describing ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places. The observable or "physical" is usually described in concrete language.
❤Ad homonym-Latin for "against the man." When a writer personally attacks his or her opponents instead of their arguments
❤Ad populum- Latin for "to the crowd." A fallacy of logic in which the widespread occurrence of something is assumed to make it true.
❤Allegory-A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one. A story, fictional or nonfiction, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts. The interaction of these characters, things, events is meant to reveal an abstraction or a truth. These characters, etc. may be symbolic of the ideas referred to.
❤Alliteration-The repetition at close intervals of initial identical consonant sounds. Or, vowel sounds in successive words or syllables that repeat.
❤Allusion-An indirect reference to something (usually a literary text) with which the reader is expected to be familiar. Allusions are usually literary, historical, Biblical, or mythological.
❤Ambiguity-An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. Also, the manner of expression of such an event or situation may be ambiguous. Artful language may be ambiguous. Unintentional ambiguity is usually vagueness.
❤Anachronism-Assignment of something to a time when it was not in existence, e.g. the watch Merlyn wore in The Once and Future King.
❤Analogy-An analogy is a comparison to a directly parallel case. When a writer uses an analogy, he or she argues that a claim reasonable for one case is reasonable for the analogous case.
❤Anaphora-Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This device is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent.
❤Anecdote-A brief recounting of a relevant episode. Anecdotes are often inserted into fictional or nonfiction texts as a way of developing a point or injecting humor.
❤Angst-A term used in existential criticism to describe both the individual and the collective anxiety-neurosis of the period following the Second World War. This feeling of anxiety, dread, or anguish is notably present in the works of writers like Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.
❤Annotation-Explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographic data (by the author or student).
❤Antithesis-A balancing of two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses.
❤Apostrophe-An address to the dead as if living; to the inanimate as if animate; to the absent as if present; to the unborn as if alive. Examples: "O Julius Caesar thou are mighty yet; thy spirit walks abroad," or "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll."
❤Archetype-A term borrowed by psychologist Carl Jung who described archetypes as "primordial images" formed by repeated experiences in the lives of our ancestors, inherited in the "collective unconscious" of the human race and expressed in myths, religion, dreams, fantasies, and literature. These "images" of character, plot pattern, symbols recur in literature and evoke profound emotional responses in the reader because they resonate with an image already existing in our unconscious mind, e.g. death, rebirth.
❤Argumentation-Exploring of a problem by investigating all sides of it; persuasion through reason. One of the four chief forms of discourse, the others being exposition, narration, and description. The purpose of argumentation is to convince by establishing the truth of falsity of a proposition.
❤Aside-A dramatic convention by which an actor directly addresses the audience but it is not supposed to be heard by the other actors on the stage.
❤Assonance-Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity. "Fake" and "lake" denote rhyme; "lake" and "fate" demonstrate assonance.
❤Asyndeton-A series of words separated by commas (with no conjunction), e.g. "I came, I saw, I conquered." The parts of the sentence are emphasized equally; in addition, the use of commas with no intervening conjunction speeds up the flow of the sentence.
❤Balance-Construction in which both halves of the sentence are about the same length and importance, sometimes used to emphasize contrast.
❤Bandwagon-Trying to establish that something is true because everyone believes it is true.
❤Catharsis-The process by which an unhealthy emotional state produced by an imbalance of feelings is corrected and emotional health is restored.
❤Causal Relationship (cause and effect)-In causal relationships, a writer assert that one thing results from another. To show how one thing produces or brings about another is often relevant in establishing a logical argument.
❤Characterization-The method an author uses to develop characters in a work. In direct charachterization, the author straightforwardly states the character's traits. With indirect characterization, those traits are implied through what the character says, does, how the character dresses, interacts with other characters, etc.
❤Chiasmus-Arrangement of repeated thoughts in the pattern of X Y Y X. Chiasmus is often short and summarizes a main idea, e.g., "ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
❤Chronological Ordering-Arrangement of ideas in the order in which things occur; may move from past to present or in reverse, from present to past.
Classification (as means of ordering)-Arrangement of objects according to class; e.g., media classified as print, television, radio.
❤Comedy of Manners-Deals with the relations and intrigues of gentlemen and ladies living in a polished and sophisticated society; it evokes laughter mainly at the violations of social conventions and decorum and relies on the wit and humor of the dialogue for its effect.
❤Comic relief-Humorous speeches and incidents in the course of the serious action of a tragedy; frequently comic relief widens and enriches the tragic significance of the work.
❤Conceit-Unusual or surprising comparison between two very different things (a special kind of metaphor or complicated analogy.
❤Concrete Language-Language that describes specific, observable things, people or places, rather than ideas or qualities.
❤Connotation-Rather than the dictionary definition, the associations associated by a word. Implied meaning rather than literal meaning or denotation.
❤Consonance-Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity.
❤Conventional-Following certain conventions, or traditional techniques of writing. An over reliance on conventions may result in a lack of originality. The five-paragraph theme is considered conventional.
❤Cumulative-Sentence which begins with the main idea and then expands on that idea with a series of details or other particulars.
