Prose Terms & Elements
A type of setting that is essential to the plot and characters in a story. These settings are usually specific locations created by the author and experienced by the characters.
What is, INTEGRAL SETTING?
(DOUBLE OR NOTHING... Can you give an example from a piece of literature we've read in our class?)
This is a type of character that opposes the protagonist of the story. These characters usually have more evil or undesirable traits about them.
What is an ANTAGONIST?
This is a type of rhythm/meter used in a line of poetry that has 10 syllables, but 5 feet. In this meter, the syllables alternate between unstressed (u) and stressed (/) sounds to create balance. This is used in the Shakespearean Sonnet, as well as many other works of poetry.
What is IAMBIC PENTAMETER?
Also called open form poetry, this form of poetry is characterized by its nonconformity to (or freedom from) established patterns of meter, rhyme, & stanza.
What is FREE VERSE?
the grouping of or organization of scenes in a play
What is an ACT?
An indirect reference to something (usually a literary text) with which the reader is expected to be familiar. These are usually literary, historical, Biblical, or mythological.
What is ALLUSION?
A character that goes through a significant change throughout the course of the story.
What is a DYNAMIC character?
(DOUBLE OR NOTHING... Can you give an example from a piece of literature we've read in our class?)
The repetition at close intervals of identical sounds that occur at the beginning of each word.
What is ALLITERATION?
A long, narrative poem that is centered on a heroic figure and legendary events. This hero's actions typically determine the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race. This type of poetry reveals the values of the people who created them, and were originally passed down by traveling poets called Scops.
What is an EPIC POEM?
Type of play where the main character is brought to ruin or suffers great sorrow. (from ancient Greek theater.)
What is TRAGEDY?
A technique of writing that undertakes to reproduce the raw flow of thought, with the perceptions, judgments, feelings, associations, and memories presented just as they occur without being tidied into grammatical sentences or given order.
What is STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS?
a character in which we learn a lot about throughout the course of a story, making them seem human
What is a ROUND character?
(DOUBLE OR NOTHING... Can you give an example from a piece of literature we've read in our class?)
This is a type of rhyming that is almost the exact same sound to another word in the poem. Sometimes poets use this to achieve the exact word meaning they want without sacrificing a rhyme scheme.
What is SLANT RHYME?
A type of poetry that is written in praise of a person, an object, or an event. In these, the speaker typically addresses the subject as if they are listening.
What is an ODE?
(DOUBLE OR NOTHING... Can you give an example from a piece of literature we've read in our class?)
In drama, this is a quick, private conversation off to the side of the stage. This usually lets the audience know background detail or intentions.
What is ASIDE?
Placement of two concepts, paragraphs, or other elements closely together to emphasize contrasts. This is a technique of organization used in many different forms of literature.
What is JUXTAPOSITION?
A character whose traits are the opposite of another and who therefore point out the other's strengths and weaknesses.
What is a FOIL character?
(DOUBLE OR NOTHING... Can you give an example from a piece of literature we've read in our class?)
A pattern of end-rhymes in a given poem. For example, in Shakespearean/English Sonnets this is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, whereas in a Petrarchan/Italian poem this can be ABBA ABBA CDECDE.
What is RHYME SCHEME?
A type of poetry that has a rigid structure, including a set rhyme scheme, meter, and 14 lines. There are several different types of these, all usually about love and/or time.
What is a SONNET?
Commonly seen in satirical works or plays, this is a discrepancy between expectation and reality. When a reader is aware of a reality that differs from a character's perception of reality, that is dramatic _____; when a given situation or instance occurs that is the opposite of what is expected, that is situational _____.
What is IRONY?
A frequently recurring symbol (character, incident, or concept) in literature.
What is MOTIF?
(DOUBLE OR NOTHING... Can you give an example from a piece of literature we've read in our class?)
A character that changes the course of the story or propels the action of a story forward.
What is a CATALYST character?
(DOUBLE OR NOTHING... Can you give an example from a piece of literature we've read in our class?)
This syntactical, poetic technique carries a sentence from one line of poetry to the next without sentence-ending punctuation.
What is ENJAMBMENT?
A form of poetry consisting of five three-line stanzas and one final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain.
What is a VILLANELLE?
This is the act of speaking one's thoughts aloud while alone on stage. No other characters can hear the speaker. These typically characterize someone or create dramatic irony (audience knows more than rest of the characters).
What is SOLILOQUY?