New Literary Terms Definitions

Question 1

Allegory

Answer 1

An allegory is a story with two meanings: a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning; the underlying meaning may have moral, social, religious, or political significance

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

In a literary work, an allusion is a reference to a person, place, or event, or object from history, literature, or mythology

Question 3

Extrapolate

Answer 3

To infer or estimate by extending or projecting known information

Question 4

Flashback

Answer 4

A device by which the writer of a fiction or a drama presents scenes or incidents that occurred prior to the opening scene of work

Question 5

Hyperbole

Answer 5

A deliberately exaggerated statement made for effect

Question 6

Inference

Answer 6

The act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true; the act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence

Question 7

In medias res

Answer 7

Latin for “in the midst of things”

The literary technique of opening a story in the middle of the action and then supplying information about the beginning of the action through flashbacks

Question 8

Situational irony

Answer 8

When what happens is the opposite of or different from what is expected

Question 9

Verbal irony

Answer 9

When the real or intended meaning of a word, phrase, or sentence is different from or opposite to what the speaker actually says

Question 10

Dramatic irony

Answer 10

Dramatic irony occurs when the writer shares knowledge with the reader or viewer that a character does not have. The character will then say or do something that foreshadows what the audience knows will happen but the character has no idea about. The character often speaks more truly than he or she could possibly know

Question 11

Juxtaposition

Answer 11

To deliberately place side by side for emphasis

Question 12

Motif

Answer 12

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the major themes of the literary work

Question 13

Pathos

Answer 13

The quality in literature which stimulates pity, tenderness, or sorrow in the reader; also describes the helpless suffering occasioned by unmerited grief

Question 14

Science fiction

Answer 14

A form of fiction that draws imaginatively on scientific knowledge and speculation in its plot, setting, and theme

Question 15

Stereotype

Answer 15

An oversimplified picture, usually a group of people, giving them all a set of characteristics without consideration for individual differences

Question 16

Unreliable Narrator

Answer 16

A narrator who may be in error in his understanding or report of things or a narrator whose perspective is obviously biased and whose views cannot be trusted by the reader