Literary Terms Unit 5

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Mood

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The atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through word choice (diction).

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Motif

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Recurring idea in a piece of literature.

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Oxymoron

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When apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox - "wise fool," "eloquent silence," "jumbo shrimp."

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Pacing

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The speed or tempo of an author's writing.

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Paradox

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A seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true. "You can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without getting a job."

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Parallelism

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Sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions near each other, or repeats identical grammatical patterns.

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Anaphora

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Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent. "I came, I saw, I conquered."

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Antithesis

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Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

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Parody

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An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes. It borrows words or phrases from an original, and pokes fun at it. This is also a form of allusion, since it is referencing a previous text, event, etc.

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Persona

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The fictional mask or narrator that tells a story. Do not confuse with alter-ego.