Lit Terms #5

Parallelism: the use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc.

Parody: an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist. 

Pathos: the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness. 

Pedantry:  excessive concern with minor details and rules

Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. 

Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.  

Poignant:  evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret

Point of View: the attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; in description, the physical point from which the observer views what he is describing. 

Postmodemism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple  meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary 

Prose: written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure

Protagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist 

Pun:  play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications. 

Purpose: the intended result wished by an author. 

Realism: writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightforward manner to reflect life as it actually is.

Refrain:stop oneself from doing something

Requiem: any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead. 

Resolution: point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement.

Restatement: idea repeated for emphasis.

Rhetoric: use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade.

Rhetorical Question: question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion.

Rising Action: plot build up, caused by conflict and complications, advancement towards climax.

Romanticism: movement in western culture beginning in the eighteenth and peaking in the nineteenth century as a revolt against Classicism; imagination was valued over reason and fact.

Satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Scansion: the action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm.

Setting:  the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.