Simile: a
figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through 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: cliché; 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; a.k.a. “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 (fatally) flawed
Understatement: opposite of hyperbole; saying 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 a particular era in history
