Lit terms #5

Parallelism:     the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form
 
Parody:           an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist.
 
Pathos:            the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.
 
Pedantry:        a display of learning for its own sake.
 
Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.
 
Plot:     a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.
 
Poignant:         eliciting sorrow or sentiment.
 
Point of View:   the attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; in description, the physical point from which the observer views what he is describing.
 
Postmodemism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple  meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary
 
Prose:              the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern.
 
Protagonist:     the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist
 
Pun:                 play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications.
 
Purpose:          the intended result wished by an author.
 
Realism:          writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightforward manner to reflect life as it actually is.
 
Refrain:           a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus.
 
Requiem:        any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead.
 
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.

credit to Ms. Dolan's forms to help define the words.