Literary Terminology: 52 Terms

When one thing is pictured or described as though it were something else, suggesting likeness through an implied comparison. A _________________ can be extended, controlling, or mixed

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Theme

• Diction

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.5

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

The character who tells the story. The ________________ in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a young girl named Scout

• Narrator

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Unreliable Narrator

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

The central or dominant idea or focus of a work of literature. The central ______________ in the novel Things Fall Apart would involve the subjugation of a native culture

• Theme

• Thesis

• Persona

• Idea

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

Specific word choice used to persuade or convey a tone. The striking ___________________ in the author's sentence structure involves his use of striking modifiers

• Diction

• Syntax

• Theme

• Metaphor

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.5

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

A figure of speech in which human qualities are given to an abstract idea or nonhuman object. Shakespeare once used _______________ to describe jealousy in the play Othello, "Beware of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster that mocks the meat it feeds on."

• Personification

• Metaphor

• Synecdoche

• Simile

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.5

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

A narrative with multiple, highly symbolic levels of meaning. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is clearly an ___________________.

• Allegory

• Hyperbole

• Voice

• Irony

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.5

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

A deliberate overstatement using exaggerated language. It would be _______________ to say that Jackie's book bag weighed a ton

• Hyperbole

• Litotes

• Voice

• Irony

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.5

CCSS.L.11-12.5A

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

The source of the words in a story: the narrative ___________ that speaks directly to the reader.

• Voice

• Tone

• Hyperbole

• Metaphor

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

A contrast between what is said and what is meant. There are different forms of _______________: situational, dramatic, cosmic, tragic, and fatalistic

• Irony

• Synecdoche

• Voice

• Meter

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.5

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.11-12.6

A work that imitates another for comic effect by using exaggeration and adapting the content of the original. The movie Meet the Spartans is a ____________ of the film 300.

• Parody

• Paradox

• Irony

• Theme