Lit 12 Literary Terms for Exams

Ministry of Education - 1 - English Literature 12
2008/09 School Year Terms and Devices
ENGLISH LITERATURE 12
TERMS AND DEVICES
A
allegory
alliteration
allusion
analogy
antagonist
anticlimax
anti-Petrarchan
antithesis
aphorism
apostrophe
archaic language
aside
assonance
atmosphere
audience
B
ballad
ballad stanza
bathos
bias
blank verse
C
cacophony
caesura
caricature
carpe diem
character
character foil
characterization
chorus
classical
climax
colloquial language
comedy
comic relief
conceit
conflict
connotation
consonance
couplet
D
denotation
dénouement
dialect
dialogue
diary
diction
didactic
dilemma
dissonance
dramatic irony
dramatic monologue
E
elegy
English
(Shakespearean) sonnet
epic
epigram
epigraph
epilogue
epitaph
essay
euphemism
euphony
exposition
extended metaphor
F
figurative language
foreshadowing
free verse
G
genre
H
hero
heroic couplet
hyperbole
I
iambic
image
imagery
in medias res
internal rhyme
inversion
invocation
irony
Italian
(Petrarchan) sonnet
J
juxtaposition
K
kenning
L
Latinate
literal language
lyric
M
metaphor
metaphysical
meter
metonymy
mock epic
mock heroic
monologue
mood
motif
N
narrative
narrator
near rhyme (half, slant)
O
octave
ode
onomatopoeia
oxymoron
P
paradox
parallelism
parody
pastoral
pathos
pentameter
persona
personification
Petrarchan
(Italian) sonnet
play on words
prologue
protagonist
proverb
pun
Q
quatrain
R
refrain
resolution
rhetoric
rhetorical question
rhyme
rhyme scheme
rhythm
Romanticism
S
satire
sestet
Shakespearean
(English) sonnet
simile
soliloquy
sonnet
speaker
Spenserian stanza
stanza
stock / stereotyped
style
symbol
synecdoche
syntax
T
tercet
terza rima
tetrameter
theme
tone
tragedy
trimeter
trochaic
trochee
U
understatement
V
villanelle
voice
volta
W
wit
word play