Lit terms: list #1

Allegory: n. a symbolic narrative

Plato’s Republic is also called the Allegory of the Cave because the cave represents the ignorance of citizens in a republic.

Alliteration: n. a commencement of two or more words of a word group with the same letter.

Annie’s ate an apple.

Allusion: n. a casual reference, an incidental mention of something directly or by implication.

The Band of Brother’s television show is an allusion to the St. Crispian day speech in Henry V.

Ambiguity: n. an unclear meaning or intention

Mr. Darcy’s actions were surrounded by ambiguity during the beginning of the novel but Elizabeth finally realized his intentions behind it in the end.

Anachronism: n. something or someone not located in its correct historical or chronological time.

Hipsters are the modern day anachronism bringing back all the fashion trends of the past.

Analogy: n a similarity between like features of two things on which a comparison may be based.

The heart and a pump can be an analogy because they have similar jobs.

Analysis: a method of studying the nature of something or of determining its essential features and their relations.

My literature analysis on Paper Towns studied the plot, characterization, and literature techniques in the novel.

Anaphora: n. repetition of a word or words at the beginning of tow or more successive verses, clauses, or sentences.

"It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place."
(Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, 1951)

Anecdote: n. a short account of a particular incident or event, especially an interesting or amusing nature.

A monologue about how you once went to the ER when you broke your foot when you slipped on a banana peel would be an anecdote.

Antagonist: n. the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work

Malificent is the antagonist in Sleeping Beauty.

Antithesis: n. the placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas.

“Give me liberty or give me death.

Aphorism: n. a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Apologia: n. an apology as in defense or justification of a belief or idea

“I’m sorry you feel that way, but I am right in my assertion that anyone wearing plaid is an idiot.”

Apostrophe: n. indication of omission of one or more letters in a word

Ne’er

Argument: n. a statement or fact for or against a point, process or reasoning, discussion involving differing points of view

My argument abdicating women’s rights showed all of the injustices we still face today.

Assumption: n. something taken for granted or assumed

Elizabeth’s assumption that Mr. Darcy was evil based upon his arrogant attitude was proven false once she learned of his backstory.

Audience: n. the persons reached by a book, radio, or television broadcast

The audience watching BBC is infinitely different from the audience watching MTV.

Characterization: n. portrayal, the creation and convincing representation of fictitious characters, act of characterizing

Direct: “The impatient girl always misbehaved with her calm and quiet brother.

Indirect: “I am paying today for my acts of cruelty.”

Chiasmus: n. a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases

“He went to the country, to the town went she.”