LITERARY TERMS

Literary Terms Characters  People in a story, play, novel  Major Characters most important  Minor Characters less important

Literary Terms Characterization – The way the author presents the personality of a character.  Directly - describing the character  Indirectly - by showing the character’s actions, speech, and thoughts and how they affect the other characters. Character Traits – the qualities that a character possesses.

Literary Terms Setting  Time, place, and general environment of a story.  When and where  Established through description  Creates a certain atmosphere or mood

Literary Terms Plot  sequence of events in a short story, novel, play, or poem. Subplot  minor plot in a story that is usually related to the main plot and supports the main plot. Major Elements of the Plot: - Conflict - Rising Action - Climax - Resolution

Literary Terms Conflict  Problem in a story.  Internal Conflict Struggle in the mind of a character who must resolve something.  External Conflict Struggle between characters; between characters and a force of nature

Literary Terms Rising Action  Action builds and a problem or conflict develops. Climax  Problem reaches a high point and the outcome becomes known.

Literary Terms Resolution  Problem or conflict is solved.

Literary Terms Theme  Main idea  Message the writer conveys  Whole story, title, plot, characters, setting, and mood.

Literary Terms Point of View  Who is telling the story?  1 st Person Narrator is usually a character in the story. (uses the pronouns “I” or “we”).  3 rd Person Most common Narrator may or may not be a character in the story. (uses the pronouns “he,” “she,” or “they”),

Literary Terms Tone Attitude that the writer narrator or characters take toward the subject Establishes the mood & atmosphere  Serious, playful, humorous, angry

Literary Terms Style  The way the author expresses his/her ideas Symbol  Something that has meaning in itself but also means something else. Ex. A dove is a sign of peace.

Literary Terms Figurative language  Words used in a special way to add meaning. Bold Words! Metaphor  comparison between two unlike things. Ex. Her eyes were stars in the midnight sky. Simile  two things are compared using “as,” or “like.” Ex. Her eyes sparkled like diamonds.

Literary Terms Personification  Describing an object or animal as though it had human characteristics.  Ex. “The tender clouds danced above our heads.”

Literary Terms Imagery  Words that create mental pictures  Images, that appeal to one or more the readers five senses.  Ex. “ The moon floated above the clouds like a ship lost on the stormy seas.”

Literary Terms Flashback  Interrupts the present action in a story to tell about something that happened in the past. (The movie “The Notebook”) Foreshadowing  Hints in a story that give the reader advance warning of events to come.

Literary Terms Irony  contrast or difference between what you think will happen & what actually happens  A situation is ironic when it is totally different from what the reader or character expected.

Literary Terms Allegory  Characters and setting represent moral qualities Allusion  Reference to a person or place which the reader is familiar with

Literary Terms Alliteration  repetition of the initial consonant sound  Adds musical quality  Rhythm  Creates mood and emphasis She sells sea shells at the sea shore

Literary Terms Onomatopoeia  Words that imitate the sounds they describe BUZZ CRASH SWOOSH

Literary Terms Hyperbole – Exaggeration for effect  It felt like the day lasted a week

Literary Terms Denotation  Dictionary meaning of a work Connotation  Suggested or implied meaning of a word  Munch and chew mean basically the same

Literary Terms Diction  Word choice Syntax  Word order

Literary Terms – Poetry Ballad  Narrative poem written in rhythmic stanzas  Old form of Poetry (originally sung)  Emotion and adventure Couplet  2 consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme

Literary Terms – Poetry Descriptive poem  Short poem  Reveals the poet’s feelings about what is being described

Literary Terms – Poetry Free verse  No regular sequence or pattern of rhythm Light verse  Amusing

Literary Terms – Poetry Nonsense verse  Humor results from unusual rhythm, play on words, or absurd ideas. Lyric poetry  Expresses the poet’s feelings  Short  Reaction to an experience

Literary Terms – Poetry Narrative poem  tells a story Quatrain  stanza of four lines Refrain  a line or phrase repeated at regular points in a poem (usually at the end of each stanza)

Literary Terms – Poetry Rhyme  Repetition of words or syllables with a similar sound Internal rhyme – words rhyme within the same line of a poem  Rhyme scheme pattern of rhyme (indicated by letters – a,b,c,d…etc) Where have these hands been - a By what delayed - b That so long stayed - b Apart from the thin - a

Literary Terms – Poetry Sonnet  14 line poem  written in iambic pentameter  expresses a single complete idea  Iambic meter – every two syllables = one foot

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 2 1.When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, 2. And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, 3. Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now, 4. Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held: 5. Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies, 6. Where all the treasure of thy lusty days; 7. To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes, 8. Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise. 9. How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use, 10. If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine 11. Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,' 12. Proving his beauty by succession thine! 13. This were to be new made when thou art old, 14. And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.

Analysis – Shakespeare’s Sonnet 2 The poet looks ahead to the time when the youth will have aged, and uses this as an argument to urge him to waste no time, and to have a child who will replicate his father and preserve his beauty. The imagery of ageing used is that of siege warfare, forty winters being the besieging army, which digs trenches in the fields before the threatened city. The trenches correspond to the furrows and lines which will mark the young man's forehead as he ages. He is urged not to throw away all his beauty by devoting himself to self-pleasure, but to have children, thus satisfying the world, and Nature, which will keep an account of what he does with his life.

Literary Terms Drama – Literature meant to be performed on a stage

Literary Terms Plays are usually broken up into  Acts  Scenes