Dress Ups
An explicit comparison between two things, signified by words “like or as”
Simile
A long, narrative poem that usually tells of heroic deeds in fancy language
Epic Poetry
Central topic or idea explored in the text
Theme
Brief work of fiction, usually written in prose.
Short story
When several words in a line use the same initial consonant or vowel sound.
Alliteration
A compound expression in old English and old Norse poetry with metaphorical meaning
Kenning
A way of criticizing an idea or person by exaggerating their troubling characteristics to create humor, but with the ultimate goal of producing reform.
Satire
The events or course of action that moves a story
Plot
Genre consisting of stories that could have actually occurred to people or animals in a believable setting
Realistic fiction
The use of vivid, specific, and descriptive language that evokes a strong image or appeals to the senses.
Imagery
An arrangement in which two or more elements are arranged, using similar phrasing or sentence structure
Parallelism
A story in which another story is enclosed or embedded as a “tale within a tale”
Frame Narrative
Tensions or difficulties faced by the character
Conflict
In mythology in literature, a quest, a journey towards a goal (mainly in fantasy adventures)
Episodic quest
The speech of the common people, day-to-day language
Vernacular
Employs two or more clauses which are related grammatically and conceptually, but in which the grammar and concepts are reverse, inverted parallelism.
Chiasmus
A novel written as a series of documents in the form of letters, diary entries, newspaper, clippings, and other documents
Epistolary Novel
A character who opposes the hero
Antagonist
Literary genre made up a fictional works of chivalry and adventure from the middle ages
Medieval romance
Repetition of similar vowel or diphthong sounds in adjacent or closely connected non-rhyming words.
Assonance
And indirect reference to another literary work.
Allusion
A story with two levels of meaning--one that is literal and one in which the characters, places, and events stand for something outside the story.
Allegory
Main character of a book viewed in a positive light.
Protagonist
Work that recreates a social world, conveying with fiction, a finally detailed observation, the customs, and values of a highly developed and complex society.
Novel of manners
Repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase (not always at the beginning of a word like alliteration).
Consonance