Sarcasm - If you have an older brother, then you know—perhaps painfully well—what sarcasm is: It's when what somebody says is different from what they actually mean. Usually, it's used for a bitter, comedic, or mocking effect.Let's return to your charming older brother. (Yep, we're already modeling sarcasm.)
We'll call him Ralph. If you ask Ralph if he wants to help you with your geometry homework and he says, "Oh, yeah. I can't wait. I definitely wouldn't rather be out playing basketball with my friends," that's sarcasm. Ralph would totally rather be out playing roundball with his friends than be a model big bro, so his words and their meaning don't match up.
He's also making fun of you for asking. Isn't Ralph lovely?
Satire - A piece of literature designed to ridicule the subject of the work. While satire can be funny, its aim is not to amuse, but to arouse contempt. Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" satirizes the English people, making them seem dwarfish in their ability to deal with large thoughts, issues, or deeds.
Setting - The time and place in which a story unfolds. The setting in Act 1, scene 1 of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," for example, is a public square in Verona, Italy. A drama may contain a single setting, or the setting may change from scene to scene.
Simile - A figure of speech which takes the form of a comparison between two unlike quantities for which a basis for comparison can be found, and which uses the words "like" or "as" in the comparison, as in this line from Ezra Pound's "Fan-Piece, for Her Imperial Lord": clear as frost on the grass-blade. In
this line, a fan of white silk is being compared to frost on a blade of grass. Note the use of the word "as" in the comparison.
Slang - Informal diction or the use of vocabulary considered inconsistent with the preferred formal wording common among the educated or elite in a culture. For instance, formal wording might require a message such as this one: "Greetings. How are my people doing?" The slang version might be
as follows: "Yo! Whassup with my peeps?"
Sonnet - A lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns. It usually expresses a single, complete idea or thought with a reversal, twist, or change of direction in the concluding lines.
Speaker - In poetry, the speaker is the voice behind the poem—the person we imagine to be saying the thing out loud. It's important to note that the speaker is not the poet. Even if the poem is biographical, you should treat the speaker as a fictional creation because the writer is choosing what to say about himself. Think of the speaker of a poem as a character—someone to be analyzed, thought about, and discovered. Where would we be if we didn't wonder who Prufrock really is?
Stanza - A major subdivision in a poem. A stanza of two lines is called a couplet; a stanza of three lines is called a tercet; a stanza of four lines is called a
quatrain. Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night," consists of four rhymed tercets followed by a rhymed couplet. The following illustrates the look of a stanza:
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain-and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
Static character - A static character is a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of a narrative. Such
static characters are also called flat characters if they have little visible personality or if the author provides little characterization for them. The term is used in contrast with a round or dynamic character.
Stereotyped character - An author's method of treating a character so that the character is immediately identified with a group. A character may be associated with a group through accent, food choices, style of dress, or any readily identifiable group characteristic. Examples are the rugged cowboy, the bearded psychiatrist, and the scarred villain.
Stock character - Hagrid. Hodor. Fezzik. What do these three massive men have in common—aside from gargantuan grocery bills? They are all the same stock character: a gentle giant, to be specific. A stock character is a conventional character who is instantly recognizable to readers because it pops up everywhere. A lot. Evil stepmothers. Tortured artists. Reluctant heroes. Manic pixie dream girls. They're all stock characters.Since stock characters are such familiar stereotypes, they often seem one-dimensional and boring… but they don't have to be. Skilled writers sometimes use stock characters to subvert the very conventions that they are associated with. Hello, Neville Longbottom.
Structure - Structure in literature is the organizational method of the plot and the setting. Some common methods of organization include:
* Narrative (order of occurrence or order of telling)
* Chronological (time sequence)
* Comparison and Contrast
* Cause and Effect
* Inductive (specific to general)
* Deductive (general to specific)
Style - Many things enter into the style of a work: the author's use of figurative language, diction, sound effects and other literary devices. Ernest Hemingway's style derives, in part, from his short, powerful sentences. The style of the Declaration of Independence can be described as elegant.
Suspense - Suspense in fiction results primarily from two factors: the reader's identification with and concern for the welfare of a convincing and sympathetic character, and an anticipation of violence. The following line from Elizabeth Spencer's "The Name of the Game" is an example of a suspense maker:
He was an innocent, this boy; the other boys were out to get him.
Symbolism - A device in literature where an object represents an idea. In Willaim Blake's "The Lamb," the speaker tells the lamb that the force that made him or her is also called a lamb:
Little lamb, who made thee?
Little lamb, who made thee?
Little lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little lamb, I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a lamb;
The symbol of the lamb in the above lines corresponds to the symbolism of the lamb in Christianity wherein Christ is referred to as The Lamb of God.
Theme - A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work. The theme can take the form of a brief and meaningful insight or a comprehensive vision of life; it may be a single idea such as "progress" (in many Victorian works), "order and duty" (in many early Roman works),
"seize-the-day" (in many late Roman works), or "jealousy" (in Shakespeare's Othello). A theme is the author's way of communicating and sharing ideas, perceptions, and feelings with readers, and it may be directly stated in the book, or it may only be implied.
Tone - Tone expresses the author's attitude toward his or her subject. Since there are as many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships, the tone of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or piety-the entire gamut of attitudes toward life's phenomena. Here is one literary example: The tone of John Steinbeck's short novel "Cannery Row" is nonjudgemental. Mr. Steinbeck never expresses disapproval of the antics of Mack and his band of bums. Rather, he treats them with unflagging kindness.
Tragedy - A serious play in which the chief character, by some peculiarity of psychology, passes through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe. The story depicts the trouble part of the hero's life in which a total reversal of fortune comes upon a person who formerly stood in high degree, apparently secure, sometimes even happy.The suffering and calamity in a tragedy are exceptional, since they befall a conspicuous person, e. g., Macbeth is a noble at first, then a king; Hamlet is a prince; Oedipus is a king. Moreover, the suffering and calamity spread far and wide until the whole scene becomes a scene of woe. The story leads up to and includes the death and/or moral destruction of the protagonist.
Tragicomedy - An experimental literary work--either a play or prose piece of fiction--containing elements common to both comedies and tragedies.
Typically, the early stages of the play resembled those of a tragedy, but an abrupt reversal of circumstance prevent the tragedy.
Understatement - A statement which lessens or minimizes the importance of what is meant. For example, if one were in a desert where the temperature was 125 degrees, and if one were to describe thermal conditions saying "It's a little warm today," that would be an understamement. In Shakespeare's "Macbeth," Macbeth, having murdered his friend Banquo, understates the number of people who have been murdered since the beginning of time by saying "Blood hath been shed ere now."
We'll call him Ralph. If you ask Ralph if he wants to help you with your geometry homework and he says, "Oh, yeah. I can't wait. I definitely wouldn't rather be out playing basketball with my friends," that's sarcasm. Ralph would totally rather be out playing roundball with his friends than be a model big bro, so his words and their meaning don't match up.
He's also making fun of you for asking. Isn't Ralph lovely?
Satire - A piece of literature designed to ridicule the subject of the work. While satire can be funny, its aim is not to amuse, but to arouse contempt. Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" satirizes the English people, making them seem dwarfish in their ability to deal with large thoughts, issues, or deeds.
Setting - The time and place in which a story unfolds. The setting in Act 1, scene 1 of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," for example, is a public square in Verona, Italy. A drama may contain a single setting, or the setting may change from scene to scene.
Simile - A figure of speech which takes the form of a comparison between two unlike quantities for which a basis for comparison can be found, and which uses the words "like" or "as" in the comparison, as in this line from Ezra Pound's "Fan-Piece, for Her Imperial Lord": clear as frost on the grass-blade. In
this line, a fan of white silk is being compared to frost on a blade of grass. Note the use of the word "as" in the comparison.
Slang - Informal diction or the use of vocabulary considered inconsistent with the preferred formal wording common among the educated or elite in a culture. For instance, formal wording might require a message such as this one: "Greetings. How are my people doing?" The slang version might be
as follows: "Yo! Whassup with my peeps?"
Sonnet - A lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns. It usually expresses a single, complete idea or thought with a reversal, twist, or change of direction in the concluding lines.
Speaker - In poetry, the speaker is the voice behind the poem—the person we imagine to be saying the thing out loud. It's important to note that the speaker is not the poet. Even if the poem is biographical, you should treat the speaker as a fictional creation because the writer is choosing what to say about himself. Think of the speaker of a poem as a character—someone to be analyzed, thought about, and discovered. Where would we be if we didn't wonder who Prufrock really is?
Stanza - A major subdivision in a poem. A stanza of two lines is called a couplet; a stanza of three lines is called a tercet; a stanza of four lines is called a
quatrain. Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night," consists of four rhymed tercets followed by a rhymed couplet. The following illustrates the look of a stanza:
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain-and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
Static character - A static character is a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of a narrative. Such
static characters are also called flat characters if they have little visible personality or if the author provides little characterization for them. The term is used in contrast with a round or dynamic character.
Stereotyped character - An author's method of treating a character so that the character is immediately identified with a group. A character may be associated with a group through accent, food choices, style of dress, or any readily identifiable group characteristic. Examples are the rugged cowboy, the bearded psychiatrist, and the scarred villain.
Stock character - Hagrid. Hodor. Fezzik. What do these three massive men have in common—aside from gargantuan grocery bills? They are all the same stock character: a gentle giant, to be specific. A stock character is a conventional character who is instantly recognizable to readers because it pops up everywhere. A lot. Evil stepmothers. Tortured artists. Reluctant heroes. Manic pixie dream girls. They're all stock characters.Since stock characters are such familiar stereotypes, they often seem one-dimensional and boring… but they don't have to be. Skilled writers sometimes use stock characters to subvert the very conventions that they are associated with. Hello, Neville Longbottom.
Structure - Structure in literature is the organizational method of the plot and the setting. Some common methods of organization include:
* Narrative (order of occurrence or order of telling)
* Chronological (time sequence)
* Comparison and Contrast
* Cause and Effect
* Inductive (specific to general)
* Deductive (general to specific)
Style - Many things enter into the style of a work: the author's use of figurative language, diction, sound effects and other literary devices. Ernest Hemingway's style derives, in part, from his short, powerful sentences. The style of the Declaration of Independence can be described as elegant.
Suspense - Suspense in fiction results primarily from two factors: the reader's identification with and concern for the welfare of a convincing and sympathetic character, and an anticipation of violence. The following line from Elizabeth Spencer's "The Name of the Game" is an example of a suspense maker:
He was an innocent, this boy; the other boys were out to get him.
Symbolism - A device in literature where an object represents an idea. In Willaim Blake's "The Lamb," the speaker tells the lamb that the force that made him or her is also called a lamb:
Little lamb, who made thee?
Little lamb, who made thee?
Little lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little lamb, I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a lamb;
The symbol of the lamb in the above lines corresponds to the symbolism of the lamb in Christianity wherein Christ is referred to as The Lamb of God.
Theme - A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work. The theme can take the form of a brief and meaningful insight or a comprehensive vision of life; it may be a single idea such as "progress" (in many Victorian works), "order and duty" (in many early Roman works),
"seize-the-day" (in many late Roman works), or "jealousy" (in Shakespeare's Othello). A theme is the author's way of communicating and sharing ideas, perceptions, and feelings with readers, and it may be directly stated in the book, or it may only be implied.
Tone - Tone expresses the author's attitude toward his or her subject. Since there are as many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships, the tone of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or piety-the entire gamut of attitudes toward life's phenomena. Here is one literary example: The tone of John Steinbeck's short novel "Cannery Row" is nonjudgemental. Mr. Steinbeck never expresses disapproval of the antics of Mack and his band of bums. Rather, he treats them with unflagging kindness.
Tragedy - A serious play in which the chief character, by some peculiarity of psychology, passes through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe. The story depicts the trouble part of the hero's life in which a total reversal of fortune comes upon a person who formerly stood in high degree, apparently secure, sometimes even happy.The suffering and calamity in a tragedy are exceptional, since they befall a conspicuous person, e. g., Macbeth is a noble at first, then a king; Hamlet is a prince; Oedipus is a king. Moreover, the suffering and calamity spread far and wide until the whole scene becomes a scene of woe. The story leads up to and includes the death and/or moral destruction of the protagonist.
Tragicomedy - An experimental literary work--either a play or prose piece of fiction--containing elements common to both comedies and tragedies.
Typically, the early stages of the play resembled those of a tragedy, but an abrupt reversal of circumstance prevent the tragedy.
Understatement - A statement which lessens or minimizes the importance of what is meant. For example, if one were in a desert where the temperature was 125 degrees, and if one were to describe thermal conditions saying "It's a little warm today," that would be an understamement. In Shakespeare's "Macbeth," Macbeth, having murdered his friend Banquo, understates the number of people who have been murdered since the beginning of time by saying "Blood hath been shed ere now."