Literary Terms: A - A

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Abstract words –

words that do not refer to tangible, specific items

Act –

section of a play which generally includes more than one scene

Action –

the events that occur in the piece of literature

Allegorical figures –

the symbolic character representing something in an allegory such as the character Faith representing religious faith in “Young Goodman Brown”

Allegorical framework –

the overall organization of an allegory

Allegory –

a pattern of using symbols in prose or poetry to tell a story in a story

Alliteration –

the repetition of sounds in the beginnings of word; front rhyme

Allusion–

a reference to an historical event, aspect of culture, character or content in a piece of literature, or other widely known type of information to convey a feeling, idea, or image; serves to convey information using few words

Analyze –

review critically considering possibility of author bias, accuracy and completeness of information presented, use of language to convey message and influence interpretation, and  implications of information presented

Anaphora –

repetition of word or words at the beginning of lines or stanzas

Ancient Greek Theater (Dionysus, Sophocles, Euripides) –

the presentation of drama and comedy dating back about 400-500 BC to Sophocles and Euripides in Ancient Greece.

Ancient Literature –

all written stories, poems, histories, and dramas from the surviving texts from about 2800 BC to about 500 AD

Ancient Poetry –

poetry created before the late 500s AD having roots in an oral tradition of creating and performing poetry verbally. Surviving poetry includes love poem from Ancient Sumeria, poetic verses in ancient religious texts including the Bible and Koran, and epics such as the Iliad and Odyssey.

Anecdotes –

short, amusing, true events about a person that relate a bigger truth about life than the specific incident

Anglo-Saxon era –

poetry created from the beginning of the Middle Ages (late 500s AD) into the end of the Middle Ages (mid-1400s) usually associated with tales of heroic deeds and non-romantic love

Antagonist –

the forces against the protagonist; could be another character, a force of nature, or an organization, or other entity or situation which creates opposition to protagonist

Apostrophe –

where the speaker speaks to a dead or non-present person

Approximate rhyme –

near rhyme

Archetypal images – 

images that are generally accepted as representing something such as the Statue of Liberty representing freedom and opportunity

Arrangement of events –

how the events are structured in a plot; may be chronological, start in the middle of things (in medias res), or as flashbacks

Asides –

where a character makes a comment to the audience which is supposedly not heard by the other characters; used in drama

Assonance –

use of vowel sounds for rhyming

Assumptions –

guesses; information that is not based on evidence

Atmosphere –

the general feeling of the surroundings that is created in the work such as peaceful or tragic; slightly different from mood which is the emotional reaction in the reader to the atmosphere although mood and atmosphere are sometimes used interchangeably.

Aubade –

a lyric poem about morning or the rising sun

Auditory imagery –

the creation of an image of sound

Autobiography –

a factual story written by a person on his or her own life