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Chris Cloke, WHS English Department |
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(509) 663-8117 ext. 260 |
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(Contact me any time, and please let me know if you find a broken link.) |
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Chris Cloke, WHS English Department |
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(509) 663-8117 ext. 260 |
||
|
(Contact me any time, and please let me know if you find a broken link.) |
Literary and Speech Terms*
acoustics - the qualities that determine the ability of an enclosure (as an auditorium) to reflect sound waves in such a way as to produce distinct hearing
ad lib - to improvise especially lines or a speech
In Die Hard Bruce Willis's lines during the scene when he pulls the glass out of his feet were ad-libbed (made up on the spot and not in the script).
Most commonly actors in drama often use an ad-libbed line to cover an error.
allegory - a writing where the characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities (creates a second meaning beneath the surface story)
Examples:
Jonathan Swift's Tale of a Tub and Gulliver's Travels
George Orwell's Animal Farm
Richard Adam's Watership Down
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"
alliteration - the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within words
Five miles meandering with mazy motion
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Kubla Khan)
The turtle lives ‘twixt plated decks In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne,
Which partially conceal its sex. I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were,
I think it clever of the turtle In habite as an hermite unholy of workes,
In such a fix to be so fertile. Went wyde in this world wondres to here.
- Ogden Nash (“The Turtle”) - William Langland ("Piers the Plowman")
* Notice the repetition of the “t” sound * Notice the repetition of the "s" sound and
and the “x” sound in “The Turtle.” "w" sound in "Piers the Plowman."
allusion - a passing reference to historical or fictional characters, places, events, or other works that the writer assumes the reader will recognize
1. An ironic use can be seen in "Miniver Cheevy" when the "labors" of Hercules are alluded to.
2. A humorous use is seen in each of the following lyrics.
Two brothers devised what at sight A monkey sprang down from a tree
Seemed a bicycle crossed with a kite. And angrily cursed Charles D.
They predicted--rash pair! “I hold with the Bible,”
It would fly through the air! He cried. “It’s a libel
And what do you know? They were Wright! That man is descended from me!”
- Laurence Perrine - Laurence Perrine
3. Robert Frost composed a poem about a boy with great potential who dies suddenly and without warning called “Out, Out--”.
This refers to a line in Macbeth by William Shakespeare where Macbeth learns of his wife’s "deathcandle!” in a speech referring
to the uncertainty of life.
analepsis (see flashback)
antagonist - the person or thing that causes conflict for the main character
In William Shakespeare's Othello the Moor's antagonist is Iago.
In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird the final antagonist is Bob Ewell.
In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest R.P. McMurphy's antagonist is Nurse Ratched.
In Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" the stowaway's antagonist is scientific law or the "cold equations."
In Stephen King's The Stand the primary antagonist is Randall Flagg.
assonance - the close repetition of vowel sounds between different consonant sounds (they are not exact rhymes)
Whinnying, neighed the maned blue wind
- Edith Sitwell (“The Drum”)
“mad as a hatter” “time out of mind” “free and easy” “slapdash”
asyndeton - the omission of conjunctions for effect
Example:
"I came, I saw, I conquered." ("Veni, vidi, vici.") -----> Taken from Word-A-Day E-mail (Subscribe here)
autobiography - a story of a person’s life written by the subject
Examples:
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougalss, An American Slave
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
ballad - a sung poem about a hero usually ending in tragedy
Also, see "American Pie"
Also, see "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" (be prepared for the tune to start up)
Also, see "The Ballad of Jesse James
Also, see "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"
Also, see "Hotel California"
Also, see "House of the Rising Sun"
Also, see "Me and Bobby McGee"
Also, see "Sir Patrick Spens"
bias - a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment; prejudice
A) Two different 24 hour news networks covered the same investigation at the same time.
Which headline shows bias since no conclusions had been reached?
1. Oil for food scandal
2. Oil for food probe
B) Suffolk University has a simple web page using screenshots to illustrate how bias is used on the internet.
biography - a story of a person’s life not written by the subject
Examples:
C. Alexander's 1998 biography, The Endurance, about Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
Georges Belmont's 2000 biography, Marilyn Monroe and the Camera, about Marilyn Monroe.
blank verse - unrhymed, iambic pentameter
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
And burned the topless towers of Illium?
(from Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe)
cadence - a rhythmic sequence or flow of sounds in language; the beat or pacing
climax - the point of highest intensity in a story (where the outcome is decided) -- (download a plot line example)
The climax in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is when R. P. McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched because it determines the ending of the novel.
The climax in To Kill A Mockingbird is when the attack occurs after the pageant because it decides the ending of the novel.
colloquialism - a commonly used word or phrase that may be inappropriate for a formal writing (can include words, phrases, aphorisms, slang, jargon, etc.)
Examples:
gonna
ain't nothin'
dead as a doornail
hella cool
and all
raining cats and dogs
connotation - the associated or secondary meaning of a word
1. The word “spring” means a season of the year. This is the denotation.
However, spring is associated with rebirth, youth, life, and energy. This is the connotation.
2. The words “childish” and “childlike” both mean characteristic of a child (like a child). This is their denotation.
However, “childish” is associated with pettiness, immaturity, and temper tantrums while “childlike” is associated with meekness,
innocence, and wide-eyed wonder or awe. These would be the connotations of both words.
consonance - the close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after differing vowel sounds
The green frog groans to say the moon is mine
* Notice how the ‘gr’ sound begins green and groan while the ‘n’ sound comes after the different vowel sounds.
Also, notice how the ‘m’ sound begins moon and mine while the ‘n’ sound comes after the different vowel sounds.
couplets - two consecutive rhymed lines of poetry with the same meter
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.
- Dorothy Parker (“Inventory”)
denotation - the primary meaning of a word
See connotation for a more detailed difference between denotation and connotation.
denouement - the outcome of the story (the resolution) -- (download a plot line example)
A classic example of denouement is the final scene of Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It; couples marry, an evildoer repents,
two disguised characters are revealed for all to see, and a ruler is restored to power. (4)
dialect - the version of a language spoken by a particular group
Click on this link and then click on the "sample" icon to hear Jeff Foxworthy use a southern dialect.
Click here to read a weblog (blog) featuring a public discussion of dialects (there's no telling what might said here).
drama - a work of mainly dialogue meant to be performed
Examples:
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
dramatic irony - when the audience has knowledge that a character does not
1. In film dramatic irony is employed in scary movies when we see the creature sneaking up on someone, but the character does not know the monster is there.
2. In literature dramatic irony can be seen when a character pretends to be a good guy but is actually not, and the audience knows before the other characters in the story.
3. A classic example of dramatic ironyis in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar; when the soothsayer warns Caesar of the Ides of March, the audience realizes that is the day
when Caesar dies, but Caesar does not know this.
dynamic character - a character who changes during the course of a story
An example of a dynamic characterwould be Ebeneezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Scrooge begins as a remorseless and selfish man, but he
becomes a caring and remorseful man.
elegy - a poem of sorrow or mourning for the dead; also a reflective poem in a solemn or sorrowful mood
See "Elegy for Jane: My student, thrown from a Horse"
Also, see "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
end rhyme - when the rhymes in a poem appear at the end of a line
I dare not ask a kiss,
I dare not beg a smile,
Lest having that, or this,
I might grow proud the while.
No, no, the utmost share
Of my desire shall be
Only to kiss that air
That lately kissed thee.
- Robert Herrick (“To Electra”)
enunciation - to utter articulate or pronounce all the sounds of a word or phrase
essay - a composition on a specific topic
exposition - the background information in a story (download a plot line example)
An important scene in Sophocles' Antigone between Antigone and Ismene provides the reader with important background information: that the girls' two brothers
are dead, and that the king will only bury one with honors while the other is left to rot outside the city. This information helpsthe reader to understand the characters'
actions in the play.
extemporaneous - composed, performed, or uttered on the spur of the moment; impromptu
Extended Metaphor - a metaphor that is sustained for several lines or that becomes the controlling image of an entire poem
What syrup, what unusual sweet, Life the hound
Sticky and sharp and strong, Equivocal
Wafting its poison through the street, Comes at a bound
Has lured this buzzing throng Either to rend me
That swarms along the counters there Or to befriend me.
Where bargain bait is dangled-- I cannot tell
Clustered like flies in honey snare, The hound’s intent
Shrill, cross, and well entangled? Till he has sprung
- Phyllis McGinley (“Sale Today”) At my bare hand
With teeth or tongue.
Meanwhile I stand
And wait the event.
- Robert Francis (“The Hound”)
external conflict - a struggle occurring outside the mind of a character
Against nature: Carl Stephenson's "LeiningenVersus the Ants"
Against fate: The Epic of Gilgamesh
Against another character: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado"
fable - a short tale ending with a moral
Read some of Aesop's fables here.
falling action - the events after the climax leading up to the resolution (download a plot line example)
fantasy - a story set in an unreal or imaginary place
Examples:
J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy
Christopher Paolini's Eragon
C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia series
first person - when the narrator is involved in the action and typically uses “I”
1st person: I went to the store.
2nd person: You know I went to the store.
3rd person: She went to the store.
flashback - a scene occurring before the action of a story
The television series Lost uses flashbacks in almost every episode.
foil - a character set up in opposition of another usually for comparison
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain the characters of Huck and Tom are foils. Huck represents pragmatism and realism
while Tom represents excess and romanticism.
foot - the basic unit of rhythm consisting of at least one accented syllable (/) and one or more unaccented syllables (~ )
iambic = ~/ (one unaccented followed by one accented syllable)
trochaic = /~ (one accented followed by one unaccented syllable)
anapestic = ~~/
dactylic = /~~
spondaic = //
paeonic = /~~~
foreshadowing - hints given by the author about future events
In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet the "star-crossed lovers" state that they would rather die than be separated, which foreshadows their demise.
In William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar references and imagery of battle foreshadow the civil war after Caesar's death.
formal writing - the use of heightened language and precise forms
Formal: Your rhetoric lacks erudition and remains singular in its nature.
Informal: You kinda talk funny.
Free Verse - poetry that is “free” of the regular beat of meter, relying on the poet’s sensitivity to the music of natural speech rhythms
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before
me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
- Walt Whitman
genre - a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content
haiku - a lyric and unrhymed poem that captures the sense of a moment in a simple natural image; it consists of seventeen syllables broken
down into three lines (5 in the first, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third)
The cold winter wind The falling flower
writes it message in shivers I saw drift back to the branch
on the drifting snow. Was a butterfly.
- Georgian Tashjian - Moritakehyperbole - obvious exaggeration for humor or emphasis
1. Alfred, Lord Tennyson says an eagle is “Close to the sun in lonely lands” in “The Eagle.”
2. Robert Frost says “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence” in “The Road Not Taken.”
3. A frustrated parent says, “I’ve told you a million times not to do that!”
4. A hungry teenager says, “I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse.”
imagery - descriptive and colorful writing putting pictures in minds
I love those skies, thin blue or snowy gray,
Those fields sparse-planted, rendering meager sheaves;
That spring, briefer than apple-blossom’s breath,
Summer, so much too beautiful to stay,
Swift autumn, like a bonfire of leaves,
And sleepy winter, like the sleep of death.
- Elinor Wylie (“Puritan Sonnet”)
inflection - change in pitch or loudness of the voice
informal writing - the use of common language and is loosely formed
Formal: Your rhetoric lacks erudition and remains singular in its nature.
Informal: You kinda talk funny.
initiation - when the hero takes the first step on his journey
When Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz places her foot on the yellow brick road and begins to walk,
she has initiated her journey to meet the wizard.
When Luke Skywalker discovers his aunt's and uncle's corpses in Star Wars, he initiates his journey
by deciding to join with Obi Wan Kenobi.
internal conflict - a struggle occurring inside the mind of a character
Hamlet, in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, encounters an internal conflict when he wishes to avenge
the death of his father but knows not when or how to do it.
In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huck encounters his own internal conflict
when deciding whether or not to turn in Jim as a runaway slave or not.
initial rhyme - when the rhymes in a poem appear at the beginning of a line
I watch the racers struggle by,
while you breeze through that arduous mile.
May you feel the warmth of triumph upon this day,
and hear the cheers over the melody of the band.
- Chris Cloke (“The Race”)
internal rhyme - when the rhymes in a poem appear in the middle of a line
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley (“The Cloud”)
jargon - the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group
Examples of baseball jargon
Examples of legal jargon
Examples of military jargon
Examples of poker jargon
Examples of professional wrestling jargon
memoir - a work centering on one event usually near a historic moment
Examples:
Stephen King's On Writing
Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes
Elie Wiesel's Night
metaphor - a comparison without using “like” or “as” (also, see extended metaphor)
Walt Whitman calls grass “the beautiful uncut hair of graves.”
Beatrice Janosco calls a garden hose “a long green serpent / With its tail in the dahlias.”
Eve Meriam says that “morning is / a new sheet of paper / for you to write on.”
Chris Cloke calls the woodlands “a fortress of trees."
meter - the measurable repetition of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry
monometer = 1 foot
dimeter = 2 feet
trimeter = 3 feet
tetrameter = 4 feet
pentameter = 5 feet
hexameter = 6 feet
heptameter = 7 feet
octameter = 8 feet
(and so on)
mood - the author’s attitude toward the subject of the work (although often used interchangeably with tone)
myth - an anonymous story dealing with a culture’s beliefs (sometimes seen as legends or folk lore as well)
Examples:
American myth: Paul Bunyan
Greek myth: Hercules
Native American myth: Trickster tales
Norse myth: Beowulf
novel - a major literary work with many characters, locales, and events
Examples:
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
The Stand by Stephen King
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
novella - a work the length of a long short story usually centering on one or more major events
Examples:
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
onomatopoeia - the use of words whose sound imitates the sound of the thing being named
bark clang hum hiss
meow twitter buzz crack
parody - the imitative use of the words, style, attitude. tone, and ideas of an author in such a way as to make them ridiculous
So much depends So much more depends
upon upon
a red wheel a universal remote
barrow control
glazed with rain sitting on a coffee
water table
beside the white beside the TV
chickens Guide
- William Carlos Williams - Chris Cloke
personification - giving non human things human traits
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful--
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
- Sylvia Plath (excerpt from “Mirror”)
“Love captured my senses, locking them away”
plagiarism - using another writer’s ideas or words as one’s own
A University of Purdue site devoted to helping students avoid plagiarism.
poetry - a form of writing at its most imaginative and intense
Check out this site which focuses on poetry and includes a "poem of the day."
polysyndeton - the overuse of conjunctions for effect
Example:
Uncle Jim gobbled candy and pizza and ice cream and donuts and muffins that night!
-----> Taken from Word-A-Day E-mail (Subscribe here)
projection - the act of control of the volume, clarity, and distinctness of a voice to gain greater audibility
protagonist - the main character
Famous protagonists:
Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
R.P. McMurphy and Chief in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Frodo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
return - when the hero receives the “prize” and passes it on
In The Wizard of Oz Dorothy wakes from her dream and realizes that "there is no place like home" (her prize).
In Star Wars Luke Skywalker destroys the Death Star and brings a temporary peace to the region and saves a planet with the base of resistance (his prize).
rhetorical question - a question asked merely for effect with no answer expected
A classic example:
"Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?"
- Antony in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene 2)
Everyday examples:
Are you crazy?
What were you thinking?
Who cares?
Are you kidding me?
rising action - the events leading up to the climax (download a plot line example)
scene - a division of an act usually with a change in time or location
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar has five acts.
The Crucible has four acts.
science fiction- a story usually in the future using science to predict events
Examples:
Dune by Frank Herbert
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I Robot by Isaac Asimov
second person - when the narrator speaks directly to the reader
1st person: I went to the store.
2nd person: You know I went to the store.
3rd person: She went to the store.
separation - when the hero sets himself apart from society
When Dorothy is swept away to Kansas in The Wizard of Oz, she becomes separated from her society.
When Luke Skywalker loses his family and leaves Tatooine, he becomes separated from his society.
setting - the time and place of a story
In "The Cold Equations" the setting is the frontier of outer space in the distant future.
In To Kill A Mockingbird the setting is 1930s Maycomb, Alabama.
short story - a story of 500-15000 words centering on one major event
Examples:
"The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
"Teenage Wasteland" by Anne Tyler
simile - a comparison using “like” or “as”
Here and there Like a small grey
his brown skin hung in strips coffe-pot
like ancient wallpaper... sits the squirrel.
- Elizabeth Bishop - Humbert Wolfe
situational irony - when the opposite of what is expected occurs
Example:
In Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar one would expect Caesar to believe the soothsayer's
warning since he believes in superstition (ex. Lupercal).
In Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist Macon writes travel books yet hates to travel.
slang - language peculiar to a particular group
Examples:
making it to "the big leagues" = achieving a more prestigiuos position (baseball slang)
"da bomb" = the best or the coolest (another example of common slang)
"don't feed the bears" = don't get a ticket from the police (CB slang)
"hella" or "hecka" = a lot (common slang)
"hooch" = illegally made alcohol (country slang)
"the 4-1-1" = information (hip hop slang)
"bling" = fancy adornments (hip hop slang)
"LOL" = laugh out loud (internet slang)
"BRB" = be right back (internet slang)
"the head" = toilet or latrine (navy slang)
sonnet - a fourteen-line lyric poem in iambic pentameter
Petrarchan Sonnet ---> “On His Blindness” by John Milton Shakespearean Sonnet ----> Sonnet by William Shakespeare
| When I consider how my light is spent | a | When to the sessions of sweet silent thought | a | |
| Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, | b | I summon up rememberance of things past, | b | |
| And that one Talent which is death to hide, | b | I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, | a | |
| Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent | a | And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste. | b | |
| To serve therewith my Maker, and present | a | Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow, | c | |
| My true account, lest he returning chide; | b | For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night, | d | |
| Doth God exact day-labour, light denied, | b | And weep afresh love’s song since cancell’d woe, | c |