Vocab 101-133

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- ridicules or condemns the weakness and wrong doings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general

Scansion- the analysis of verse in terms of meter

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

Simile- a figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things though the use of a specific word of comparison

Soliloquy- an extended speech, usually in a drama, delivered by a character alone on stage

Spiritual- a folk song, usually on a religious theme

Speaker- a narrator, the one speaking

Stereotype- cliche, a simplified, standardized conception with a special meaning and appeal for members of a group; a formula story

Stream of Consciousness- the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character's thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images, as the character experiences them

Structure- the planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization

Style- the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking

Subordination- the couching of less important ideas in less important structures of language.

Surrealism- a style in literature and painting that stresses the subconscious or the nonrational aspects of man's existence characterized by the juxtaposition of the bizarre and the banal

Suspension of Disbelief- suspend not believing in order to enjoy it

Symbol- something which stands for something else, yet has a meaning of its own.

Synesthesia- the use of one sense to convey the experience of another sense

Synecdoche- another form of name changing, in which a part stands for the whole.

Syntax- the arrangement and grammatical relations of words in a sentence

Theme- main idea of the story; its message(s)

Thesis- a proposition for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or disproved; the main idea

Tone- the devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work; the author's perceived point of view

Tongue in Cheek- a type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness; aka "dry" or "dead pan"

Tragedy- in literature any composition with a somber theme carried to a disastrous conclusion; a fatal event; protagonist usually is heroic but tragically flawed

Understatement- opposite of hyperbole; sating less than you mean for emphasis

Vernacular- everyday speech

Voice- The textual features, such as diction and sentence structures, that convey a writer's or speaker's persona

Zeitgeist- the feeling of particular era in history