GENERAL LITERARY TERMINOLOGY AND TECHNIQUE
As freshmen, you should learn these if you haven't already. As upperclassmen, you are expected to have mastered all of these already. As writers, you should begin to use these as technique. |
Some hints for using these terms: 1. Always use the terms when discussing or writing about literature. 2. Nearly all terms can be used for any genre of literature. 3. Realize that authors know about these techniques and use them on purpose with the idea that their readers will know about them too -- even if they themselves aren't aware of the technique at the time. (Ask me about this sometime!) They assume you can use them to interpret and understand their work. They aren't trying to trick you, they just figure you are smart and can think your way through it. In fact, that's part of why they bothered to write it! 4. Realize, too, that literature is really about life so even though our mastery of these terms and techniques is helpful in understanding literature and developing our powers of analysis, it is NOT the reason we read. We read to enjoy, to escape, to learn, to judge -- we read because stories and poems and plays all let us look at life in ways we hadn't before! |
THE TERMS
Common Terms for Poetry *Terms marked with the asterisk are repeated in the General Terms List. They are listed in the poetry terms to help you with your analysis of your critical essay poem. |
abstract | alliteration | allusion* | assonance | ballad |
blank verse | conceit | concrete | connotation* | consonance |
denotation* | diction | epic | figurative language | free verse |
heroic couplet | hyperbole | imagery | irony* | metaphor |
meter | mood* | narrative poem | onomatopoeia | personification |
pun | quatrain | refrain | repetition | rhyme |
rhyme scheme | rhythm | scansion | shape | simile |
slant rhyme | sound | speaker | stanza | structure |
symbol* | theme* | title* |
General Terms Common to All Literature: Drama, Novel, Short Story, Non-Fiction |
allusion | anecdote | antagonist | cause/effect | comparison/contrast |
connotation | denotation | description | details | dialect |
drama | dramatic climax | dramatic irony | editorial | external conflict |
fact/opinion | flashback | foil | foreshadowing | generalizations |
hero/heroine | humor | inferences | internal conflict | irony |
legends | mood | myth | narrator: first person | narrator: 3rd person limited |
narrator: 3rd pers omniscient | parody | protagonist | purpose | satire |
setting | stereotypes | suspense | symbol | technical climax |
theme | title | tone | tragedy | understatement |
characterization: thoughts/feelings, action, dialogue, reaction of others, direct description | ||||
plot: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement |