LIT TERMS #4

Interior Monologue: a form of writing which represents the inner thoughts of a character; the recording of the internal, emotional experience(s) of an individual; generally the reader is given the impression of overhearing the interior monologue.
ex: Used in The Shining by Stephen King

Inversion: words out of order for emphasis.
ex: "Where in the world were you!"

Juxtaposition: the intentional placement of a word, phrase, sentences of paragraph to contrast with another nearby.
ex: "The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
      "Petals on a wet, black bough.  by Ezra Pound

Lyric: a poem having musical form and quality; a short outburst of the author’s
innermost thoughts and feelings.
ex: Sonnet Number 18 by William Shakespeare

Magic(al) Realism:  a genre developed in Latin America which juxtaposes the everyday with the marvelous or magical.
ex: The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende

Metaphor(extended, controlling, and mixed): an analogy that compare two different  things imaginatively.
ex: America is a melting pot.

Extended: a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it.
ex: Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Controlling: a metaphor that runs throughout the piece of work.
ex: The Author to Her Book, Anne Bradstreet

Mixed: a metaphor that ineffectively blends two or more analogies.
ex: "So now what we are dealing with is the rubber meeting the road, and instead of biting the bullet on these issues, we just want to punt." (Chicago Tribune, cited by The New Yorker, August 13, 2007)

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 a thing.
ex:  the "pen" stands in for "the written word."

Mode of Discourse:  argument (persuasion), narration, description, and exposition.
ex: the mode of discourse in an essay and in a fiction novel can be very different

Modernism:  literary movement characterized by stylistic experimentation, rejection of tradition, interest in symbolism and psychology
ex: Ezra Pound, modernist poet

Monologue:  an extended speech by a character in a play, short story, novel, or narrative poem.
ex: Hamlet has monologues in Hamlet

Mood:  the predominating atmosphere evoked by a literary piece.
ex: The mood of the WW2 movie was depressing
 
Motif:  a recurring feature (name, image, or phrase) in a piece of literature.
ex: In Mark Twain’s “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn”, we see several motifs that support the central idea of the narrative. The motif childhood gives the novel a lighter tone and makes it enjoyable to read despite its grave central idea i.e. slavery and racism

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

Narrative:  a story or description of events.
ex: Animal Farm is a narrative

Narrator:  one who narrates, or tells, a story.
ex: If I tell a story, I am a narrator

Naturalism: extreme form of realism.
ex: Stephen Crane
 
Novelette/Novella: short story; short prose narrative, often satirical.
The Birds

Omniscient Point of View:  knowing all things, usually the third person.
ex: Charlotte's Web, E.B. White

Onomatopoeia: use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning.
ex: Mumble

Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradicting words or phrases are combined to produce a
rhetorical effect by means of a concise paradox.
ex: "it's the same difference"

Pacing:  rate of movement; tempo.
ex: speed and rhythm

Parable:  a story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth.
ex: Bible parables
 
Paradox:  a statement apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really containing a possible truth; an opinion contrary to generally accepted ideas.
ex: Deep down, you're really shallow