Literary Terms #4

Interior monologue: a literary attempt to present the mental processes of a character before they are formed into regular patterns of speech or logical sequence; stream of consciousness
Inversion: the reversal of a normal order of words
Juxtaposition: the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
Lyric: Of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style or form.
Magical realism: a genre where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment
Metaphor (extended, controlling, & mixed): a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object

• extended: when an author exploits a single metaphor or analogy at length
• controlling: symbolic story in which the real meaning is not directly put across the whole poem or may be a metaphor for something else; it affects the diction and the flow of a poem and normally used for political poems.
• mixed: a metaphor that combines different images or ideas in a way that is foolish or illogical

Metonymy: figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated
Modernism: characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry and verse
Monologue: A long speech made by one person, often monopolizing a conversation.
Mood: a prevailing atmosphere or feeling
Motif: A dominant theme or central idea.
Myth: A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society
Narrative: Consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story
Narrator: one who tells a story or recounts a series of events, aloud or in writing
Naturalism: practice of describing precisely the actual circumstances of human life in literature
Novelette/novella: A short novel.
Omniscient point of view: a method of storytelling in which the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story
Onomatopoeia: formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
Oxymoron: rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined
Pacing: the rhythm and speed with which the plot unfolds
Parable: A simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.
Paradox: a statement that apparently contradicts itself and yet might be true