Hamlet Literary Terms

A literary mode that attempts to convey abstract concepts, values, beliefs, or historical events into characters or other tangible elements in a narrative.

• allegory

• in media res

• irony

• satire

A comparison WITHOUT using "like" or "as"

• climax

• connotation

• simile

• metaphor

The style of writing that mocks, ridicules, or pokes fun at a person, belief, or group of people in order to challenge them. Often, texts employing satire use sarcasm, irony, or exaggeration to assert their perspective.

• parody

• satire

• apostrophe

• extended metaphor

A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.

• denouement

• epistolary

• essay

• extended metaphor

Beginning "in the middle of things" or when an author begins a text in the midst of action. Secures the reader's interest in the text that follows.

• in media res

• apology

• denotation

• deus ex machina

A narrative work or writing styles that mocks or mimes another genre or work.

• novella

• bildungsroman

• allusion

• parody

The generally accepted importance of a work representing a given culture

• cultural significance

• universal significance

• stream of consciousness

• epistolary

The dictionary definition of a word

• connotation

• denotation

• diction

• denouement

Often at the beginning or conclusion of a text, the term refers to an instance in which the author or narrator justifies, defends, or clarifies his or her goals in producing the text

• allusion

• climax

• exposition

• apology

The generally accepted importance or value of a work to represent human experience regardless of culture or time period

• cultural significance

• epistolary

• connotation

• universal significance