Lit Terms Essay

Submitted By FreshTillDead
Words: 526
Pages: 3

Allegory- A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Diction- The style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words.
Syntax- The study of the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences in a language.
Mood- A prevailing emotional tone or general attitude.
Setting- The place or period in which the action of a novel, play, film, etc., takes place.
Allusion- A reference to a person, event, place, or phrase.
Tone- The writer's attitude toward the material and/or readers.
Metaphor- A comparison of two things that does not use "like" or "as."
Antagonist- The character who opposes the hero.
Characterization- The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character.
Flashback- A device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological order of a narrative.
Frame Narrative- A story within a story.
Foreshadowing- A warning or indication of a future event.
Protagonist- The leading or main character.
Personification- The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman.
Denotation- The exact meaning of a word, without the feelings or suggestions that the word may imply.
Narrator- A person who gives an account or tells the story.
Irony- A term referring to how a person, situation, statement, or circumstance is not as it would actually seem.
Connotation- An association that comes along with a particular word.
Symbol- A word or object that stands for another word or object.
Imagery- The formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things.
Analogy- A comparison between two things.
Stereotype- A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
Hyperbole- Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
Archetype-A statement, or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated.
Motif- A recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work