1. Literary Terms

2. Hyperbole A purposeful exaggeration or overstatement. Examples: –I–I’ve been waiting forever. –M–My bookbag weighs a ton! –I–It was so hot outside that you could fry an egg on the sidewalk.

3. Imagery Passages or words that stir feelings or memories through an appeal to the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. Example: “The rainstorm had ended and the gray mist and clouds had been swept away in the night by the wind. The wind itself had ceased and a brilliant, deep blue sky arched high over the moorland. Never, never had Mary dreamed of a sky so blue. In India skies were hot and blazing; this was of a deep cool blue which almost seemed to sparkle like the waters of some lovely bottomless lake, and here and there, high, high in the arched blueness floated small clouds of snow-white fleece. The far-reaching world of the moor itself looked softly blue instead of gloomy purple-black or awful dreary gray. “ – The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett SHOW don’t tell!!!

4. Irony The incongruity between expectation and actuality; when the outcome of a set of circumstances is contrary to conventional expectations. (Three types: Dramatic Irony, Situational Irony, Verbal Irony.) Examples:

5. Metaphor A figure of speech that makes an imaginative comparison between two unlike things. It differs from a simile in that it does not use “like” or ‘’as.’’ Examples: –“Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.” – Maya Angelou from “Still I Rise” –“I am a manila envelope.” - Stephen Colbert

6. Simile A verbal comparison in which a similarity is expressed often using like or as. Examples: –“houses leaning together like conspirators” - James Joyce –How dreary -- to be -- Somebody!/How public -- like a Frog -/To tell one's name - - the livelong June --/To an admiring Bog! – “I'm Nobody! Who are you?” by Emily Dickinson

7. Tone/Mood Mood: (Atmosphere) (Ambience) The emotional content of a scene or setting, usually described in terms of feeling such as somber, gloomy, joyful, expectant; Tone: The attitude a writer conveys toward his or her subject and audience. Example: “This living hand, now warm and capable/Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold/And in the icy silence of the tomb,/So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights/That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood/So in my veins red life might stream again./And thou be conscience-calmed — see here it is —/I hold it towards you.” – “This Living Hand” by Keats

8. Personification Endowing an inanimate object or abstract concept with life or with human attributes or feelings. Example: “Let the rain kiss you/Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops/Let the rain sing you a lullaby/The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk/The rain makes running pools in the gutter/The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night/And I love the rain.” “April Rain Song” by Langston Hughes

9. Pun A play on words which are either identical in sound (homonyms) or similar in sound but are different in meaning. Puns have serious as well as comic literary uses. Examples: –A–A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat. –I–In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio, bleeding to death, says, “...Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.” –H–He had a photographic memory that was never developed.

10. Setting The time and place in which a piece of literature occurs. Example: “Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana wife of the above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond, was the river; and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry,was Pip.” from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

11. Setting (continued) Note that imagery can also help to establish setting. Thus, literary techniques work in cooperation with one another to fulfill the author’s purpose. The Bronte House

12. Symbol/Symbolism Something concrete that suggests or stands for an idea, quality, or concept larger than itself. Examples: –T–The lion is a symbol of courage – a voyage or journey can symbolize life – water suggests spirituality –d–dryness the lack thereof

13. Theme A central or dominant idea advanced by a literary work and revealed through plot, characters, setting, point of view, and symbols. Example: In Shakepeare’s Romeo and Juliet, love, fate, parent-child conflict, and friendship are all themes.

14. Alliteration Repetition of the same consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words. Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Credits: Sharon, Lois, & Bram's Mother Goose. Illustrated by Maryann Kovalski. Boston, MA: Little Brown and Co., 1985.

15. Assonance The repetition of internal vowel sounds usually close together for aesthetic or humorous effect. Examples: –I–Ivy as light and lively as the vine –T–The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

16. Character A person or thing e.g., a spirit, object, animal or natural force, presented as a person in a literary work. It is defined by one’s actions and dialogue.

17. Character, Cont’d Example: “John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older than I, for I was but ten: large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large extremities. He gorged himself habitually at table, which made him bilious, and gave him a dim and bleared eye and flabby cheeks. He ought now to have been at school; but his mama had taken him home for a month or two, “on account of his delicate health.” Mr. Miles, the master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes and sweetmeats sent him from home; but the mother’s heart turned from an opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John’s sallowness was owing to over-application and, perhaps, to pining after home. John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in the day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh in my bones shrank when he came near. There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired, because I had no appeal whatever against either his menaces or his inflictions; the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence, more frequently, however, behind her back.” Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

18. Foreshadowing Intentional clues about what will happen later in a narrative or play.

19. Genre A classification of literature: drama, novel, short story, poem, etc.

20. Plot The structure of a narrative. A series of causally related events or episodes that occur in a narrative or play. Exposition Rising Action conflict Climax Falling Action Resolution or Denouement

21. Exposition In literature, the presentation of essential information regarding what has occurred prior to the beginning of the narrative. Example: In the exposition to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, two servants of the house of Capulet discuss the feud between their master and the house of Montague, thereby letting the audience know that such a feud exists and that it will play an important role in influencing the plot.

22. Rising Action The complication and development of the conflict leading to the climax of a plot. Example: In the rising action for William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo goes to the Capulet party and meets/falls in love with Juliet, which is a part of the major conflict.

23. Conflict The antagonism between opposing characters or forces that causes tension or suspense in the plot. Conflict may be internal or external. Types of conflict include the protagonist vs. a person, nature, society, technology, and/or himself.

24. Climax The point toward which the action of a plot builds as the conflicts become increasingly intense or complex; the point at which the protagonist makes a conscious decision which enables him/her to resolve the primary conflict.

25. Falling Action In classical dramatic structure, the part of a play after the climax, in which the consequences of the conflict are revealed. In literature, a series of events that takes place after the climax. The falling action of a drama leads to the conclusion.

26. Resolution The conclusion of the conflict in a narrative or dramatic plot.

27. Denouement Literally, the “untying” (French); the resolution of the conflict following the climax (or crisis) of a plot – a statement or revelation of insight that the main character finally has.

28. THE END