Literary Terms
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
ALLEGORY
- A literary work in which characters, objects, or actions represent abstractions
- The allegory of the cave
ANAPHORA
- The repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of consecutive lines or sentences
- I want my money right now, right here, all right?
ANTITHESIS
- A statement in which two opposing ideas are balanced
- That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
BATHOS
- An effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous.
- MARY: John – once we had something that was pure, and wonderful, and good. What’s happened to it? JOHN: You spent it all.
CHIASMUS
- A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed
- You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.
CONNOTATION
- The implied or associative meaning of a word
- A dove implies peace or gentility
CUMULATIVE SENTENCE
- A sentence in which the main independent clause is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases
- The radiators put out lots of heat, too much, in fact, and old-fashioned sounds and smells came with it, exhalations of the matter that composes our own mortality, and reminiscent of the intimate gases we all diffuse.
DIDACTIC
- Having the primary purpose of teaching or instructing
- A story with a moral
DISSONANCE
- Harsh, inharmonious, or discordant sounds
- Gregor trying to speak
ELEGY
- A formal poem presenting a meditation on death or another solemn theme
- With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise.
ELLIPSIS
- The omission of a word or phrase which is grammatically necessary but can be deduced from the context
- ‘HOW OLD (is) CARY GRANT?–to which he responded: ‘OLD CARY GRANT FINE. HOW YOU?’
EPIGRAM
- A brief, pithy, and often paradoxical saying
- To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.
EPIGRAPH
- A saying or statement on the title page of a work, or used as a heading for a chapter or other section of a work
- Epigraph examples are also found in philosophical novels. The epigraph used by Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov is John 12:24 and it says: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
EPIPHANY
- A moment of sudden revelation or insight
- I used to smoke a lot. Everyone let me know that it was bad for my health however, I didn’t pay any notice. One day I saw my two years of age offspring trying for a used cigarette within an ashtray. Seeing this, abruptly it dawned upon me how terrible smoking was and I stopped smoking.
EPITAPH
- An inscription on a tombstone or burial place
- GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE BLESTe BE Ye MAN Yt SPARES THES STONES AND CVRST BE HE Yt MOVES MY BONES- Shakespeare's tomb
EPITHET
- A term used to point out a characteristic of a person. Homeric epithets are often compound adjectives (“swift-footed Achilles”) that become an almost formulaic part of a name. Epithets can be abusive or offensive but are not so by definition.
- "Death lies on her like an untimely frost. Upon the sweetest flower of all the field…” (Romeo and Juliet).
EULOGY
- A formal speech praising a person who has died
- O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart!…
LITERARY LICENSE
- deviating from normal rules or methods in order to achieve a certain effect (intentional sentence fragments, for example).
- "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears"
- Removal of and after Romans
LITOTES
- A type of understatement in which an idea is expressed by negating its opposite
- "Not too bad" for "good"
MALAPROPISM
- The mistaken substitution of one word for another word that soundssimilar (“The doctor wrote a subscription”).
- Richard J. Daley, the former mayor of Chicago, is said to have called “tandem bicycle” as “tantrum bicycle”
MAXIM
- A concise statement, often offering advice; an adage
- It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
METONYMY
- Substituting the name of one object for another object closely associated with it
- “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
- Ears equals attention
MOTIF
- A standard theme, element, or dramatic situation that recurs in various works
- Gregors transformation in the metamorphosis
ALLUSION
- A reference to something literary, mythological, or historical that the author assumes the reader will recognize
- The hollow men- for thine is the kingdom
