Literary Techniques

• Allegory


  A narrative in which characters, action, and sometimes setting represent abstract concepts or moral qualities
• Allegory


  • Lord of the Flies
• Alliteration


  The repetition of same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together
• Alliteration


  • She sells seashells down by the seashore
• Allusion


  A seemingly brief reference to something in history, politics, literature, art, or music which the writer expects the reader to understand and relate to the work
• Allusion


  • "Then Eden sank to grief"
• Anagnorisis


  A moment of recognition or discovery, primarily used in Greek tragedy. (An aha! moment)
• Antagonist


  The character that opposes the hero
• Antithesis


  A figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by parallelism of words that are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other
• Antithesis


  • "hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins"
• Aphorism


  A short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life
• Aphorism


  • "Early bird gets the worm"
• Atmosphere


  The mood or prevailing feeling created in a literary work
• Binary opposition


  A pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.
• Caricature


  Exaggeration or distortion of a character's physical, emotional, and moral characteristics, for the purpose of comic criticism
• Many political cartoons rely on caricature
• Catharsis


  An emotional discharge through which one can achieve a state of moral or spiritual renewal or achieve a state of liberation from anxiety and stress
• Catharsis is a Greek word and it means cleansing. In literature it is used for the cleansing of emotions of the characters. It can also be any other radical change that leads to emotional rejuvenation of a person.
• Character


  An imaginary person in a literary work
• Types of characters


  • Static character (does not change in the course of the story)
  • Dynamic character (changes in some important way as a result of the story's action)
  • Flat character (have few personality traits; they can be summed up by a single phrase)
  • Round character (have more dimension to their personalities; they are complex like real people)
• Characterization


  The creation of believable fictitious personalities. Although techniques of characterization are complex, writers typically reveal characters through their speech, dress, manner, and actions.
• Cliché


  An overused phrase which has lost its freshness
• Clichés


  • "Once and for all"
  • "Last but not least"
  • "In this day and age"
• Close reading


  A careful reading that is attentive to organization, figurative language, sentence structure, vocabulary, and other literary and structural elements of a text
• Colloquial


  Informal language of a region, the vernacular
• Colloquial language


  • Depending upon where in the United States you live, a large sandwich might be a hero, a sub, or a hoagie
• Confidant


  A character in a novel or a drama who takes little part in the action but is a close friend of the main character and who receives the confidences and intimate thoughts of the main character
• Conflict


  The struggle between opposing forces in a story, usually resolved by the end of the work
• Types of conflict


  • Internal conflict (involves opposing forces within a person's mind)
  • External conflict (exists between two people, between a person and a force of nature or a machine, or between a person and a whole society)
• Connotation


  The implied meaning of a word or phrase; the associations which come to mind when a word is used that go beyond its dictionary meaning
• Connotation


  • The word "house" has a different emotional effect on the reader than does the word "home", with its connotation of safety, coziness, and security
• Crisis


  A significant action which changes inevitably the course of the literary work
• Denouement


  The final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved
• Denotation


  The literal (dictionary) meaning of a word or phrase
• Dialect


  A way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area
• Dialogue


  The conversation of characters in a story
• Diction


  The choice or use of words in oral and written discourse
• Levels of diction


  • Formal (serious and formal books)
  • Informal (relaxed and polite conversation of cultivated people)
  • Colloquial (everyday, often regional, usage in a group but not necessarily universal)
  • Slang (newly coined words which are not acceptable in formal usage)
• Epiphany


  A sudden, powerful and spiritual realization
• Euphemism


  The use of a mild, delicate, inoffensive, or vague word or expression for one thought to be coarse, unpleasant, offensive, or blunt