Lit. Terms: List #5

parallelism: agreement in direction, tendency, or character; grammar repetition of a syntactic construction in successive sentences for rhetorical effect

parody: a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious place of literature or writing

pathos: appeal to emotions

pedantry: the habit or an instance of being a pedant, especially in the display of useless knowledge or minute observance of petty rules or details; pretension, precision

personification: the attribution of human nature or character to human animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure

plot: storyline the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story

poignant: keenly distressing to the feelings; heartbreaking, penetrating

point of view: the position of a narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted & by the attitude towards the characters; 1st, 2nd, & 3rd person

post modernism: any of a number of trends or movements in the arts or literature developing in the 1970's in reaction to or rejection to dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism; playful illusion, decoration or complexity

prose: the ordinary form of spoken or written language, w/o metrical structure as distinguished from poetry or verse

protagonist: the leading character, hero/heroine of a drama or other literary work

pun: the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of works that are alike or nearly alike in sound, but in a different meaning; play on words

purpose: the reason for which something exists or done, made, used, etc.; an intended or desired result

realism: a manner of treating a subject matter that represents a careful description of everyday life, usually of the middle & lower classes; a theory of writing in which the ordinary, familiar, or mundane aspects of life are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact manner that is presumed to reflect life as it actually is

refrain:a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a song or poem, especially at the end of each stanza; chorus

requiem: any musical service, hymn, or dirge for the repose of the dead

resolution: the act of determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.

restatement: to state again or in a new way

rhetoric: (in writing or speech) the undue use of exaggeration or display; the study of a technique of using language effectively

rhetorical question: a question solely to produce an effect or use an assertion & not to elicit a reply

rising action: a related series of incidents in a literary plot that builds towards the point of greatest interest

romanticism: Romantic style or movement in literature & art, or adherence to its principles (contrasted w/ Classicism)

satire: the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

scansion: the metrical analysis of verse

setting: the surroundings or environment of anything