LITERARY FEATURES - Weebly



LITERARY FEATURES

MEANINGS AND EXAMPLES

ALLEGORY

The term derives from Greek allegoria, “speaking otherwise.” As a rule, an allegory is a story in verse or prose with a double meaning: a primary or surface meaning, and a secondary or under-the-surface meaning. It encompasses such forms as the fable and parable. Allegories are composed of several symbols or metaphors. For example, in The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan, the character named Christian struggles to escape from a bog or swamp. The story of his difficulty is a symbol of the difficulty of leading a good life in the “bog” of this world. The “bog” is a metaphor or symbol of life's hardships and distractions. Another good example is Animal Farm, by George Orwell.

ALLITERATION

A figure of speech in which consonants, especially at the beginning of words, or stressed syllables, are repeated: the simmering spirituality sensitized his soul.

ALLUSION

Usually an implicit reference, perhaps to another work of literature or art, to a person or an event. T. S. Eliot, in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" alludes (refers) to the biblical figure John the Baptist in the line, “Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter.”

ANALYSIS

A detailed splitting up and examination of a work of literature. A close study of the various elements and the relationship between them. An essential part of criticism.

ANECDOTE

A brief account of, or a story about, an individual or an incident (often humorous).

ANTAGONIST

A person or force which opposes the protagonist in a literary work. In Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Devil and Daniel Webster," Mr. Scratch is Daniel Webster's antagonist at the trial of Jabez Stone. The cold, in Jack London's "To Build a Fire," is the antagonist which defeats the man on the trail.

ANTITHESIS

(Greek for "setting opposite", from anti = against and thesis = position) means contrasting ideas sharpened by the use of opposite or noticeably different meanings. These are often seen within a parallel grammatical structure: “When there is need of silence, you speak, and when there is need of speech, you are dumb; when present, you wish to be absent, and when absent, you desire to be present; in peace you are for war, and in war you long for peace"

APOSTROPHE

A figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality, an idea, a dead or absent person, is addressed as if present and capable of understanding. In these lines from John Donne's poem "The Sun Rising" the poet scolds the sun for interrupting his nighttime activities:

                        Busy old fool, unruly sun,

                        Why dost thou thus,

                        Through windows, and through curtains call on us?

ARCHETYPE

The abstract idea of a class of things which represents the most typical and essential characteristics shared by the class; thus a paradigm or exemplar. The fundamental facts of human existence are archetypal: birth, growing up, love, family life, dying, death, the struggle between children and parents, and fraternal rivalry. Certain character or personality types have become established as more or less archetypal: the rebel, the hero, the country bumpkin, the self-made man, the siren, the witch, the villain, the traitor, etc. Creatures, plants and colors are also known to be archetypal.

ASSONANCE

The repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words. From Tennyson: “All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone / Thro’ every hollow cave and ally lone.”

ATMOSHPERE

The mood and feeling, the intangible quality which appeals to extra-sensory as well as sensory perception, evoked by a piece. Synonym = mood.

BALLAD

A song that tells a story. We can distinguish certain basic characteristics common to large numbers of ballads: (a) the beginning is often abrupt; (b) the language is simple; (c) the story is told through dialogue and action; (d) the theme is often tragic (though there are a number of comic ballads); (e) there is often a refrain.

BILDUNGSROMAN

Refers to a novel which is an account of the youthful development of a hero or heroine. It describes the processes by which maturity is achieved through the various ups and downs of life. A coming-of-age story.

BLANK VERSE

Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Most of Shakespeare’s plays are written in blank verse.

CATALOG/CATALOGUING

A long list of anything; an inventory used to emphasize quantity or inclusiveness.

CHARACTER

A person, or any thing presented as a person, e. g., a spirit, object, animal, or natural force, in a literary work. There are a variety of character types, including main characters, minor characters, static/flat characters (those who remain the same as the plot unfolds), dynamic/round characters (those who undergo change as the plot unfolds).

CHARACTERIZATION

The method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work: Methods may include (1) description of physical appearance, (2) by the character’s own speech, thoughts, feelings, or actions; (3) by what others reveal about the character; and (4) the direct comments a narrator makes about a character.

CHORUS

In Greek tragedy, the chorus (a group of people) would comment on the action in the drama. In most literary works, the chorus has been reduced to one person. A chorus character is a character who participates in the story as the author’s mouthpiece, intelligently commenting (often with irony) on the actions of the other characters.

CLICHÉ

A trite, overused expression which is lifeless. A very large number of idioms have become clichés through excessive use. Examples: green with envy, the heart of the matter, with all my heart.

CLIMAX

A moment of great or culminating intensity in a narrative or drama, especially the conclusion of a crisis; the turning point in a plot or dramatic action.

COMEDY

Dramatic comedies generally depict a movement from unhappiness to happiness, from (for example) young lovers frustrated by their parents to  young lovers happily married.  The unhappy situation is so presented that it entertains rather than distresses the spectator; it is ridiculous and/or diverting rather than painful.

CONFLICT

In the plot of a drama, fiction, or poem, conflict occurs when the protagonist is opposed by some person or force. In the film "Star Wars," having learned that Princess Lea is being held prisoner by the evil Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker sets out to rescue her. In doing so, he becomes involved in the conflict between the empire and the rebels which Lea spoke of in her holograph message in the drama's exposition. Since Luke is the protagonist of "Star Wars," the conflict in the drama

crystallizes to that between Luke and Darth Vader. There are four main types of conflict:

1. Man vs. Man: problem with another character

2. Man vs. Society: problem with the laws or beliefs of a group

3. Man vs. Nature: problem with force of nature

4. Man vs. Himself: problem with deciding what to do or think

CONNOTATION

The suggestion or implication evoked by a word or phrase, over and above what the word or phrase means or denotes. For example, the word “kitten” connotes cuteness/cuddliness, while “young cat” means the same, but does not necessarily convey the same cuteness.

CONSONANCE

The close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels. For example: slip – slop; creak – croak; black – block.

COUPLET

Two successive rhyming lines. The couplet is one of the main verse units in Western literature. Couplets can be combined to form more complex stanzas. Couplets are used as a conclusion to the sonnet.

COUPLET RHYME

A rhyme scheme made up of closed couplets (e.g., aabbccdd).

CRITICISM

The art or science of literary criticism is devoted to the comparison and analysis, to the interpretation and evaluation of works of literature.

CROSS RHYME

Also called “alternate rhyme.” A rhyme scheme in which lines “answer” one another in rhyme across intervening lines (e.g., abab).

DENOTATION

The most literal and limited meaning of a word (like a dictionary definition), regardless of what one may feel about it or the suggestions and ideas it connotes.

DENOUEMENT

See resolution.

DIALECT

A language or manner of speaking peculiar to an individual or class or region. In literature, dialect is often conveyed through non-conventional spelling of words. See vernacular.

DICTION

An author's choice of words. Since words have specific meanings, and since one's choice of words can affect feelings, a writer's choice of words can have great impact in a literary work. The writer, therefore, must choose his words carefully. Discussing his novel "A Farewell to Arms" during an interview, Ernest Hemingway stated that he had to rewrite the ending thirty-nine times. When asked what the most difficult thing about finishing the novel was, Hemingway answered, "Getting the words right."

END-STOPPED LINE

A term applied to verse where the sense and meter coincide in a pause at the end of a line, usually denoted by a comma, semi-colon, dash or period.

ENJAMBEMENT

Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break without a punctuated pause. It is the opposite of having “end-stopped” lines.

EPIC

A long narrative poem, on a grand scale, about the deeds of warriors and heroes, such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

EPISTOLARY TEXT

A novel or book written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used.

ESSAY

A prose composition which may be of only a few hundred words or of book length and which discusses, formally or informally, a topic or a variety of topics. It is one of the most flexible and adaptable of all literary forms.

EUPHEMISM

The substitution of a mild and pleasant expression for a harsh and blunt one, such as “to pass away” for “to die.”

EXPOSITION

In a literary work, the structure of the plot usually begins with exposition. The exposition sets the tone, establishes the setting, introduces the characters, and gives other important background information.

FABLE

A short narrative in prose or verse which conveys a moral. Non-human creatures or inanimate things are normally the characters. One example is the story of the tortoise and the hare, in which the moral is “slow and steady wins the race.”

FALLING ACTION

The falling action is the series of events which take place after the climax. The falling action of a drama leads to the conclusion or resolution.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

An umbrella term for language which uses figures of speech, including (but not limited to) metaphor, simile, alliteration, personification, and hyperbole.

FLASHBACK

Any scene or episode in a play, novel, story or poem which is inserted to show events that happened at an earlier time. In Ernest Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," the protagonist, Harry Street, has been injured on a hunt in Africa. Dying, his mind becomes preoccupied with incidents in his past. In a flashback, Street remembers one of his wartime comrades dying painfully on barbed wire on a battlefield in Spain.

FOIL

A character who provides a striking contrast to another character (usually the protagonist). In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet and Laertes are young men who behave very differently. While Hamlet delays in carrying out his mission to avenge the death of his father, Laertes is quick and bold in his challenge of the king over the death of his father. Much can be learned about each by comparing and contrasting the actions of the two. Other examples include: Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.

FOOT

The basic unit of measurement in a line of poetry. A foot represents a set of syllables (usually two), with stressed and unstressed syllables. Here are some common types of metrical feet:

An iamb (the adjective is "iambic") is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.

                They ál/so sérve/ who ón/ly stánd /and wáit.

A trochee (the adjective is "trochaic") is a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one:

                Róund a/bóut the/ cáuldron/ gó,

                Ín the /póisoned/ éntrails /thrów.

A dactyl is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables:

                 "Ca/n/ada," "hol/i/day," "cam/ou/flage."

A spondee is a foot with two stressed syllables. Although it's rare for any two adjacent syllables to receive exactly the same stress, in spondees there's no obvious stress on one syllable rather than the other. Some examples:

"pen-knife," "ad hoc," "heartburn."

FORESHADOWING

The technique of arranging events and information in a narrative in such a way that later events are prepared for or hinted at beforehand. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Romeo's

expression of fear in Act 1, scene 4 foreshadows the catastrophe to come:

       I fear too early; for my mind misgives

       Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

       Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

       With this night's revels and expire the term

       Of a despised life closed in my breast

       By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

But He that hath the steerage of my course,

       Direct my sail! On,lusty gentlemen.

FRAME STORY

A frame story is one which contains either another tale, a story within a story, or a series of stories. The Stories of Eva Luna, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Canterbury Tales are examples.

FREE VERSE

Unrhymed poetry with lines of varying lengths, and containing no specific metrical pattern. The poetry of Walt Whitman provides us with many examples. Consider the following lines from "Song of Myself":

       I celebrate myself and sing myself,

       And what I assume you shall assume,

       For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

GENRE

A literary type or class. Comedy, tragedy, novel, short story, and memoir are all examples of literary genres.

HAMARTIA

An error of judgment which may arise from ignorance or some moral shortcoming; a hero’s tragic flaw. The defect in a tragic hero or heroine which leads to their downfall. Examples: Hamlet’s inaction, Achilles’ heel.

HEROIC COUPLET

Rhymed iambic pentameter in pairs. Can be used in series to form a stanza.

HYPERBOLE

A figure of speech which contains an extreme exaggeration for humorous or serious effect. Example: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!

IAMBIC PENTAMETER

A metrical line of five feet, each of which is made up of two syllables, the first unstressed and the second stressed. This is the meter used in blank verse, heroic couplet, and the sonnet. Example from Romeo and Juliet:

Let two more summers wither in their pride

Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride

IDIOM

A form of expression possessing a meaning other than its grammatical or logical one. Example: It’s raining cats and dogs.

IMAGERY

Descriptive words and phrases that re-create vivid sensory experiences for the reader. Imagery usually appeals to one or more of the five senses:          

Visual - seen

            Auditory - heard

             Tactile - felt

            Olfactory - smelled

             Gustatory - tasted

INTERIOR MONOLOGUE

The presentation to the reader of the flow of a character’s inner emotional experience at a particular moment. One type of interior monologue is stream of consciousness.

IRONY

A special kind of contrast between appearance and reality—usually one in which reality is the opposite from what it seems. There are four major types of irony:

1. Verbal Irony: when someone knowingly exaggerates or says one thing and means another. In speech, tone of voice makes ironic intent obvious: “That’s just wonderful!” can clearly mean “That is terrible!” In Julius Caesar, Antony calls Brutus “honorable” but knows he is not honorable. Sarcasm is verbal irony that is harsh and heavy-handed rather than clever and incisive.

2. Situational Irony: defies logical cause/effect relationships and justifiable expectations. For example, if a greedy millionaire were to buy a lottery ticket and win additional millions, the irony would be situational because such a circumstance cannot be explained logically. Such a circumstance seems “unfair.” This sense of being “unfair” or “unfortunate” is a trademark of situational irony. Another example of situational irony is if a fireman’s house burns down.

3. Cosmic Irony (or Irony of Fate):  Some irony goes beyond being unfair and is morally tragic. Such irony is often so severe that it causes people to question God and see the universe as hostile. For example, if an honest, hardworking, and generous person buys a lottery ticket and wins ten million dollars, only to die in an auto crash two days later, the irony would reach tragic proportions. When situational irony reaches this scale, it is often called cosmic irony or irony of fate. Such irony typically suggests that people are pawns to malicious forces.

4. Dramatic Irony: created by the audience's/reader’s awareness of something that a character does not know.

MACHIAVEL

A character type that is associated with treachery, murder, atheism and every kind of villainy and viciousness. Derived from Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine statesman and political philosopher.

MAGICAL REALISM

This term was first used to describe art. In literature, it is used to describe works which mingle and juxtapose the realistic and the fantastic or bizarre, skilful time shifts, convoluted or labyrinthine narratives and plots, and surrealistic description. Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Franz Kafka are authors whose works have been described as magical realism.

METAPHOR

A figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. It often takes the form of a comparison of two different things, without the use of like or as. Unlike similes, metaphors can be implicit. Examples: school is hell; the heart’s flower withers at the root, rosy cheeks.

METER

A regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line or lines of poetry. Pentameter indicates a pattern of five feet. The meter in a poem is classified according both to its pattern and the number of feet to the line.

MONOLOGUE

A part of a drama in which a single actor speaks alone, usually at some length, with or without other characters on the stage. A soliloquy is a type of monologue.

MOOD

The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work. Descriptive words, the setting, and figurative language contribute to the mood of a work, as do the sound and rhythm of the language. A work may contain a mood of horror, mystery, holiness, regret, dread, joy or childlike simplicity, to name a few.

MOTIF

In literature, a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, symbol, or situation that appears throughout the work. A motif can unify the work by bringing to mind its earlier occurrences and the impressions that surround them. A motif can help to convey a thematic statement (author’s message), such as the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg in Great Gatsby.

NARRATOR

The character or voice from whose point of view events are told. The narrator in a poem is called the SPEAKER.

NEW CRITICISM

A term which refers to a movement of literary criticism which developed in the 1920s. The New Critics advocate close reading and detailed textual analysis of the words on the page. IB English curriculum favors New Criticism in its approach to texts.

ONOMATOPOEIA

The use of words in which the words imitate sounds. The words "splash" "knock," and "roar" are examples.

OXYMORON

A figure of speech, and a form of paradox, which combines incongruous and apparently contradictory words and meanings for a special effect. Examples: bittersweet, military intelligence, jumbo shrimp, honest thief. A combination of contradictory terms, such as used by Romeo in Act 1,

scene 1 of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet:"

       Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!

       O heavy lightness, serious vanity;

       Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

       Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

PARADOX

A statement that, while apparently self-contradictory, is nonetheless essentially true. Examples: The more you know, the more you know you don’t know; “I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude” (Thoreau).

PARALLELISM

The technique of showing that words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures are comparable in content and importance by placing them side by side and making them similar in form. It is commonly used in poetry. This can happen at the word, phrase, or clause level.  Example: Mary likes hiking, swimming, and bicycling. Example: She could not breathe. She could not move. She could not comprehend what had just happened.

PENTAMETER

The five-foot line and the basic line in much English verse, especially in blank verse and the heroic couplet.

PERSONIFICATION

A figure of speech in which human characteristics and sensibilities are attributed to animals, plants, inanimate objects, natural forces, or abstract ideas. Example: the tree shook with fear, crying sappy tears.

PLOSIVE

(adj and noun) denoting a consonant that is produced by stopping the airflow using the lips, teeth, or palate, followed by a sudden release of air. The basic plosives in English are t, k, p, d, g, and b.

PLOT

The careful arrangement by an author of incidents in a narrative to achieve a desired effect. It is the result of the writer’s deliberate selection of interrelated actions (what happens) and choice of arrangement (the order of happening) in presenting and resolving a conflict. The structure of a five-act play often includes exposition, rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution.

POETIC LICENSE

The liberty poets and other literary artists have to depart from normal word order, distort pronunciation, use archaic words, or invent new words in order to achieve certain effects.

POINT OF VIEW

The vantage point, or stance, from which a story is told, the eye and mind through which the action is perceived and filtered. Sometimes called narrative perspective. There are two general narrative points of view: first person (I) and third person (he, she, they). The most common third-person POV is omniscient POV, in which the narrator, standing outside the story, assumes a godlike persona, moving about freely in time and space, revealing the thoughts and motives of all the characters. There is also the third-person limited omniscient POV, in which the narrator focuses on the thoughts of a single character while presenting the other characters only externally.

PROLOGUE

An introduction or preface, especially to a play.

PROTAGONIST 

The hero or central character of a literary work. In accomplishing his or her objective, the protagonist is hindered by some opposing force either human (one of Batman's antagonists is The Joker), animal (Moby Dick is Captain Ahab's antagonist in Herman Melville's Moby Dick), or natural (the sea is the antagonist which must be overcome by Captain Bligh in Nordhoff and Hall's "Men Against the Sea," the second book in the trilogy which includes Mutiny on the Bounty).

PSEUDONYM

A name other than his own taken by a writer. Also known as a pen-name or a nom de plume.

PUN

A joke that comes from a play on words. Puns can make use of a word’s multiple meanings or of a word’s rhyme. In Romeo and Juliet when Mercutio is fatally wounded, he says, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man,” with a pun on the word grave, meaning both “solemn” and “a tomb.”

RESOLUTION

The final unwinding, or resolving, of the conflicts and complications in the plot of fiction or drama. The part of a story or drama which occurs after the climax and which establishes a new norm, a new state of affairs-the way things are going to be from then on. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet climaxes with the death of the two lovers. Their deaths end the feud between the two families. In the play's resolution, Lords Capulet and Montague swear to end their feud and build golden monuments to each other's dead child. In the resolution of the film "Star Wars," Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca are given medals by Princess Lea for destroying the death star and defeating the empire.

       

RHYME

The similarity of sound between two words. In end rhyme, the rhyme is at the end of the line, as in these lines from "Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish:

       A poem should be palpable and mute

       As a globed fruit

Dumb

       As old medallions to the thumb

When one of the rhyming words occurs in a place in the line other than at the end, it is called Internal rhyme. Eye rhyme is a form of rhyme wherein the look rather than the sound is important. "Cough" and "tough" do not sound enough alike to constitute a rhyme. However, if these two words appeared at the ends of successive lines of poetry, they would be considered eye rhyme. Half rhyme occurs when the final consonants rhyme, but the vowel sounds do not (chill-Tulle; Day-Eternity).

RHYME SCHEME

The pattern of rhymes in a stanza or poem, usually indicated by letters of the alphabet. For example, the following poem by Elinor Wylie follows an abab rhyme scheme:

I was, being human, born alone; a

I am, being woman, hard beset; b

I live by squeezing from a stone a

The little nourishment I get. b

RHYTHM

The patterned flow of sound in poetry and prose; the movement or sense of movement communicated by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables and by the duration of the syllables. In verse the rhythm depends on the metrical pattern. Meter is only the basic pulse of rhythm, however. Other sound devices, such as rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia, contribute greatly to rhythm. Whether words are made up of harsh sounds or soft sounds also affects the rhythm of a line of poetry.

RISING ACTION

That part of a dramatic plot that leads through a series of events increasing interest and power to the climax, or turning point. The rising action begins with an action or event that sets a conflict into motion, and moves through complication, an entangling of the affairs of the characters in conflict, toward the climax.

SARCASM

Harsh, cutting, personal remarks to or about someone, not necessarily ironic. In August Strindberg’s play The Dance of Death, Alice accuses the Captain of teaching their daughter to lie. The Captain’s response is sarcastic: “I had no need to—you had taught her already.” If the Captain had said, for example, “I see that our daughter has already learned to lie. You have taught her well,” his sarcasm would also be ironic. He would be saying the opposite of what he meant.

SATIRE

A literary technique in which ideas, customs, vices, habits or shortcomings are ridiculed, often for the purpose of improving society. Satire may be gently witty, mildly abrasive, or bitterly critical. Devices used by satirists include irony, understatement, sarcasm, innuendo, burlesque, parody and caricature. Fools are my theme, let satire be my song. — Lord Byron (1788-1824)

SCENERY

The carpentry and painted cloths (and projected images) used on a stage.   Scenery may be used to conceal parts of the stage, to decorate, to imitate or suggest  locales, to establish time or to evoke mood.

SETTING

The time and place in which a story unfolds. The setting in Act 1, scene 1 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, for example, is a public square in Verona, Italy. A drama may contain a single setting, or the setting may change from scene to scene.

SIC

Put in brackets [sic] after a word or expression or even perhaps a sentence from a quoted passage to indicate that it is quoted accurately even thought it may be incorrect, absurd, or grotesque.

SIMILE

A figure of speech in which one thing is likened to another, in such a way as to clarify or enhance an image. It is an explicit comparison recognizable by the use of the words “like” or “as.” Examples: she’s as fit as a fiddle; your skin is like sandpaper.

SOLILOQUY

A type of monologue wherein a character utters his thoughts aloud while alone. It enables a dramatist to convey direct to an audience important information about a particular character: his state of mind and heart, his most intimate thoughts and feelings, his motives and intentions. Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech is a famous soliloquy.

SPEAKER

In poetry the speaker in the poem is the voice that talks to the reader, similar to the narrator in fiction. The speaker is not necessarily the poet himself.

STANZA

A stanza is a grouping of two or more lines in a pattern that is repeated throughout a poem. A stanza is comparable to a paragraph in prose.

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

A method and a subject matter of narrative fiction that attempts to represent the inner workings of a character’s mind at all levels of awareness, to re-create the continuous, chaotic flow of half-formed and discontinuous thoughts, memories, sense impressions, random associations, images, feelings, and reflections that constitute a character’s “consciousness.” It is characterized on the page by fragmented sentences; unusual or nonexistent capitalization, punctuation, and spacing; heavy use of ellipses and dashes, and other typographical devices intended to represent the illogical, disjointed interplay of idea, impression, and emotion in free-flowing thought.

STRESS

In poetry, the emphasis placed on a word or syllable. Also called accent.

STRUCTURE

The design or arrangement of the parts of a work of literature to form a unified whole; the planned framework or “architecture” of a literary work. Also called form.

STYLE

A writer’s characteristic way of saying things. Style includes (but is not limited to) arrangement of ideas, word choice, imagery, sentence structure and variety, use of figurative language, rhythm, repetition, coherence, emphasis, unity and tone. Think of style as not what is said, but HOW it is said. Remember that style can also help to convey meaning—the two are inextricably linked. The analysis and assessment of style involves examination of a writer’s choice of words, his figures of speech, the devices, the shape of his sentences, the shape of his paragraphs—indeed, of every conceivable aspect of his language and the way in which he uses it.

SUSPENSE

A state of anxious anticipation, expectation, or uncertainty regarding the resolution of a conflict, the solution of a problem, the outcome of events, or the eventual well-being of characters in a work of literature. Often stimulated by foreshadowing, suspense creates tension and maintains interest by leading readers to ask what will happen or when will it happen.

SUBPLOT

A secondary series of events, subordinate to the main story in a play, short story, or novel, that is a story within a story, interesting and complete in itself. A subplot may complement the main plot, contrast with it (a counterplot) or simply provide additional action and complication.

SYMBOL

Anything that signifies, or stands for, something else. In literature, a symbol is usually something concrete—an object, a place, a character, an action—that stands for or suggests something else. In Joseph Conrad’s story “The Lagoon,” darkness is a symbol of evil and light a symbol of good. A symbol may be universal (see “archetype) or private.

SYNECDOCHE

A figure of speech wherein a part of something represents the whole thing. In one figure, the head of a cow might substitute for the whole cow. Therefore, a herd of fifty cows might be referred to as "fifty head of cattle." In the expression “I’ve got wheels,” wheels stands for the whole vehicle, usually an automobile. Also called metonymy.

SYNTAX

Sentence structure: the arrangement and grammatical relation of words, phrases, and clauses in sentences. Syntax is an important element of an author’s style.

THEME/THEMATIC STATEMENT

In literature, the central or dominating idea, the “message” implicit in the work. The theme of a work is usually an abstract concept indirectly expressed through recurrent images, actions, characters, and symbols, and must be inferred by the reader or spectator. Theme differs from subject (the topic or thing described in a work) in that theme is a comment, observation, or insight about the subject. For example, the subject of a poem may be a flower; its thematic statement, a comment on the fleeting nature of existence.

TONE

The reflection in a work of the author’s attitude toward his or her subject, characters, and readers. Tone in writing is comparable to tone in speech and may be described as brusque, friendly, imperious, insinuating, teasing, condescending, playful and so on. Unlike mood, which is intended to shape the reader’s emotional response, tone reflects the feelings of the writer. Tone may also refer to the narrator’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject.

TRAGEDY

A dramatic work that presents the downfall of a character. The events in a tragic plot are set in motion by a decision that is often an error in judgment, weakness of character, or twist of fate. Succeeding events are linked in a cause-and-effect relationship and lead inevitable to a disastrous conclusion, usually death.

TRAGIC FLAW

See hamartia.

UNDERSTATEMENT

A type of verbal irony in which something is purposely represented as being far less important than it actually is; also called meiosis. Mark Twain’s famous remark “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” is a good example. Second example: if one were in a desert where the temperature was 125 degrees, and if one were to describe thermal conditions by saying, "It's a little warm today."

VERNACULAR

The everyday spoken language of the people in a particular locality; by extension, writing that imitates or suggests that language. See dialect.

VERISIMILITUDE

The appearance of truth, actuality, or reality; what seems to be true in fiction. For example, Daniel Defoe achieved such verisimilitude in his Journal of the Plague Year, a fictional account of the outbreak of bubonic plague in England in 1665 that many believed it to be an eyewitness report of actual events. And the verisimilitude of Orson Welles’ 1938 radio dramatization of War of the Worlds, in which Earth is invaded by spaceships form Mars, was so strong that it caused widespread panic in the United States.

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