Terms

1. Terms Literary terminology that will allow us to discuss poetry, short stories, plays and novels

2. Plot structure • 1. exposition – introduces the character and setting of a story • 2. rising action – consists of most of the story; shows an increasing number of conflicts • 3. climax- the turning point of the story for the major character; major secrets are revealed • 4. falling action – the major secrets are out so you get to see how characters react • 5. denouement/resolution- some stories don’t include this- shows what happens to characters after the story.

3. Setting • Time & Place • Example – To Kill a Mockingbird – 1930’s in Alabama • Example – Romeo and Juliet – 15th century Italy

4. Characters • Protagonist – the main character in the story; the reader should want this character to find success • Antagonist- opposes the protagonist and creates conflict

5. Characters • Static- these characters don’t really change in the story. Dynamic- these characters learn, grow, develop, change over the course of the story Foil – a character who contrasts another character

6. Theme • The meaning or lessons within the story • Example from Harry Potter - Humility, modesty, good vs. evil

7. Irony • Dramatic- the audience/reader knows something about the plot that the characters don’t know • Example – Romeo & Juliet – the audience knows from the opening scene that both the lead characters will die at the end

8. Irony • Situational- when the outcome is very different from what’s you’d expect • Example – Friday Night Lights – you think they’ll win the game, but they don’t

9. Irony • Verbal- when you say one thing, but mean something different (sarcasm) • Example – If the weather is pouring rain and you walk outside and say “It looks like a nice day for a picnic.”

10. Flashback- sometimes in a story you’ll “flash back” to an earlier time • Foreshadowing- when a future event in the plot is hinted at based upon prior plot events. • Example – Lenny killing Curly’s wife is foreshadowed – everytime he pets something soft, he kills it. • Anachronism- when something is out of place or out of time • Example – if a character in a story about the 17th century pulls out a cell phone

11. Terms • Diction: word choice – extremely key in poetry • Hyperbole: exaggerated, non-literal language Example -"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand? • No. This my hand will rather • The multitudinous seas incarnadine,Making the green one red." • from Act 2, scene 2 of "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare

12. Terms • Allusion: a reference to an historical person, place, or event; or a literary or Biblical reference that elicits an association that is not directly stated • Example – Harriet Tubman was the Moses of her time. • Apostrophe: a device in which the speaker addresses a dead or absent person, or an abstraction or inanimate object • The Sun Rising by John Donne • Busy old fool, unruly sun,Why dost thou thus,Through windows, and through curtains call on us?

13. Terms • Denotation: the literal, explicit, or surface meaning of a word – this is the dictionary definition • Example – dog- a carnivorous animal used for hunting or kept as a pet. • Connotation: the “deeper” or suggested meaning(s) of words • Example – dog – that cute, funny guy who curls up at your feet

14. Imagery: use of language to appeal to the reader’s senses; images are frequently, but not always, visual Examples - Grandma's hugs burn my skin. • The pitter-patter of the rain against the window. • The gurgling sound of my brother slurping.

15. Terms • Metaphor: an implied comparison or resemblance between two unlike things • Example – I am a rainbow. • Mood: a feeling, emotional state, or disposition of mind--especially the predominating atmosphere or tone of a literary work

16. Paradox: a statement or expression so self-contradictory as to provoke the reader into seeking another sense or context in which it would be true • "War is peace.""Freedom is slavery.""Ignorance is strength."(George Orwell, 1984)

17. Terms • Personification: giving human characteristics to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals • Example - The first rays of morning tiptoed through the meadow. • Poetic License: a poet’s privilege of departing from normal order, diction, rhyme, or pronunciation to make verse fit a pattern

18. Simile: a stated comparison between two things using like or as • Example – He was as tall as a tree. • Symbol: an object, action, person, or name that stands for something in addition to itself Example - in To Kill a Mockingbird - the characters of Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are symbolically mockingbirds

19. Terms • Syntax: the way in which words and clauses are ordered • Tone: the author’s attitude to the reader (or the speaker’s attitude in a work) • Understatement: form of speech in which a lesser expression is used than what would be expected – used by comedians frequently for humor • Example – Looking outside right now and saying “It looks like we have a little snow in the parking lot.”

20. Poetry - rhythm & rhyme

21. Meter • Meter: the rhythm established by the regular or almost regular patterns of sound • Example - Shall Icom PAREthee TOa SUMmer’s DAY? • Foot: unit of rhythm in a line of verse (similar to measure in music) • Lines vary according to number of feet (i.e. pentameter = 5 feet)

22. Rhyme • Rhyme: similarity of sounds between syllables in corresponding positions in two or more lines of verse • Internal: rhyming that occurs within a line of verse rather than at the end Ex - Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, • End: rhyming at the end of lines

23. End Rhyme • Whose woods these are I think I know, aHis house is in the village, though; aHe will not see me stopping here bTo watch his woods fill up with snow a • Rhyme scheme: the pattern or sequence in which the rhyming sounds occur in a stanza or a poem

24. Rhyme schemes • Examples of rhyme schemes • aabb ccdd • abab cdcd • abcb defe

25. Stanza • Stanza: a recurring group of two or more lines (in terms of length, metrical form, rhyme scheme, and so on) • Couplet: two lines of verse with similar end rhymes • Triplet: three lines with the same rhyme • Quatrain: stanza of four lines (rhyme schemes may vary) • Refrain: a phrase, line, or group of lines repeated at intervals

26. Sounds of poetry • Language choice means everything in poetry

27. Terms • Alliteration: repetition of beginning letters or sounds (ex. six slender saplings) • Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds (lake, fake, take, make) • Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds; similar to alliteration, but repetition may occur anywhere within the words (such a tide as moving seems asleep)

28. Terms • Inversion: the reversal of the normally expected order of words – think of how Yoda talks “Ready, you are.” • Onomatopoeia: words sound like the sound their name (a crack of thunder) • Repetition: reiterating word, phrase, statement, or stanza to achieve emphasis

29. Forms of Poetry • There are multiple ways to structure a poem

30. Forms • Fixed Verse: Poetry with clearly established meter and rhyme • Blank Verse: poetry that has meter (usually iambic pentameter), but does not have a rhyme scheme • Free Verse: poetry without a fixed meter or rhyme scheme • Prose Poetry: a poem printed as prose, but using characteristics of poetry

31. The End