Lit Terms 56-81

Genre:  a category or class of artistic endeavor having a particular form, technique, or content

Gothic Tale:  a style in literature characterized by gloomy settings, violent grotesque action, and a mood of decay, degeneration, and decadence

Hyperbole:  an exaggerate statement often used as a figure of speech or to prove a point

Imagery:  figure of speech or vivid description, conveying images through any of the sense

Implication:  a meaning or understanding that is to be arrived at by the reader but that is not fully and explicitly stated by the author

Incongruity:  the deliberate joining of opposites or of elements that are not appropriate to each other

Inference:  a judgement or conclusion based on evidence presented; the forming of an opinion which possesses some degree of probability according to the facts already available

Irony:  a contrast or incongruity between what is said and what is meant, or what is expected to happen and what actually happens, or what is thought to be happening and what is actually happening

Interior Monologue:  a form of writing which represents the inner thoughts of a character; the recording of the internal, emotional experiences of an individual; generally the reader is given the impression of overhearing the interior monologue

Inversion: words out of order for emphasis

Juxtaposition:  the intentional placement of a words, phrase, sentence or paragraph to contrast with another nearby

Lyric:  a poem having musical form and quality; a short outburst of the author's innermost thoughts and feelings

Magical Realism:  a genre developed in Latin America which juxtaposes the everday with the marvelous or magical

Metaphor:  an analogy comparing two different things imaginatively; can be  extended, controlling, or mixed

Metonymy:  literally "name changing" a device of figurative language in which the name of an attribute or associated thing is substituted for the usual name of the thing

Mode of Discourse:  argument, narration, description, and exposition

Modernism:  literary movement characterized by stylistic experimentation, rejection of tradition, interest in symbolism and psychology

Monologue:  an extended speech by a character in a play, short story, novel, or narrative poem

Mood:  the predominating atmosphere evoked by a literary piece

Motif:  a recurring feature (name, image, or phrase) in a piece of literature

Myth:  a story, often about immortals, and sometimes connected with religious rituals, that attempts to give meaning to the mysteries of the world

Narrative:  a story or description of events

Narrator:  one who narrates or tells a story

Naturalism:  extreme form of realism

Novelette/Novella:  short story; short prose narrative, often satirical

Omniscient Point of View:  knowing all things, usually the third person