Lit Terms 1
Use of words that imitate sounds
Example: Moo
What is Onomatopoeia?
Comparison using "like" or "as"
Example: Light as a feather
What is Simile?
Any literary work that is meant to amuse
Example: Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
What is Comedy?
An exaggeration
Example: I'm so tired I could sleep for a week!
What is Hyperbole?
Repeating of words, phrases, etc.
Example: Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...
What is Repetition?
Giving a nonhuman object human characteristics.
Example: The trees danced in the wind
What is Personification?
The use of creating "pictures" in the mind using words
Example: Two roads diverging in a yellow wood
What is Imagery?
A serious drama in which the main protagonist suffers a downfall
Example: Shakespeare's Macbeth
What is Tragedy?
Any literature that is not poetry
Example: Grendel by John Gardner
What is Prose?
A work that ridicules another by imitating it
Example: The song "Eat it" by Weird Al Yankovic
What is a Parody?
A statement that is self-contradictory but true
Example: If I know one thing, it's that I know nothing
What is a Paradox?
Speech that is meant to give a moral lesson
Example: The tortoise's explanation that "slow and steady wins the race"
What is Didactic?
A form of verbal irony in which a statement is purposefully understated for effect
Example: Saying "It seems to be raining a little" in the middle of a hurricane
What is Understatement?
Speaking to an inanimate object as if it were human
Example: When Hamlet addresses the skull of Yorick saying, "Alas, poor Yorick!"
What is Apostrophe?
The reader/audience is surprised by the outcome or situation
Example: A fire station burning down
What is Situational Irony?
A character says the opposite of what they intend; similar to sarcasm
Example: Saying "Tell us how you really feel" when someone has an uninhibited reaction to a situation
What is Verbal Irony?
The reader/audience knows something other characters do not know
Example: A character thinks his girlfriend has died but the audience knows she has not died
What is Dramatic Irony?
A style of writing in which the narrator speaks their thoughts
Example: I need to study for my test but I left my coffee on the counter and I need caffeine to study. Ok, I'll get my coffee, oh, the kitchen counter is so dirty. Yuck! I should really clean this kitchen!
What is Stream of Consciousness?
A contrasting character that is meant to bring out true qualities of another character
Example: Unferth who is cowardly acts as a foil for Beowulf who is brave
What is a Foil?
Opposites side by side in which both statements are true
Example: "All's fair in love and war"
What is Juxtaposition?