Literary Terms Cornerstone

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A form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning may have moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas such as charity, greed, or envy.

• Aphorism

• allegory

• climax

• conflict

The repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words.

• dialect

• alliteration

• dialogue

• diction

An implied or indirect reference in literature to a familiar person, place, or event.

• characterization

• allusion

• climax

• dialogue

A tersely phrased statement that embodies a general truth

• allusion

• aphorism

• allegory

• characterization

The method an author uses to reveal characters and their various traits and personalities (e.g. direct, indirect)

• conflict

• characterization

• dialogue

• diction

The turning point in a narrative; the moment when the conflict is at its most intense. Typically, the structure of stories, novels, and plays is one of rising action, in which tension builds to the climax

• dialect

• climax

• prologue

• foreshadowing

A struggle or clash between opposing characters, forces, or emotions.

• dialect

• conflict

• diction

• flashback

A variety of a language distinct from the standard variety in pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary

• dialogue

• dialect

• diction

• conflict

a conversation between characters or speakers in a literary work; in its most restricted sense, it refers specifically to the speech of characters in a drama.

• dialogue

• dialect

• diction

• conflict