Lit Terms #3

Epitaph: Any brief inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone; a short formal poem of commemoration often a credo written by the person who wishes it to be on their tombstone

Epithet: a short, descriptive name or phrase that may insult someone's character, characteristics

Euphemism: the use of an indirect, mild or vague word or expression for one thought to be coarse, offensive, or blunt

Evocation (Evocative): A calling forth of memories and sensations; the suggestion or production through artistry and imagination of a sense of reality

Exposition: beginning of a story that sets forth facts, ideas, and/or characters, in a detailed explanation

Expressionism: movement in art, literature, and music consisting of unrealistic representation of an inner idea or feeling(s)

Fable: a short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth

Fallacy: from Latin word " to deceive", a false or misleading notion, belief, or argument; any kind of erroneous reasoning that makes arguments unsound

Falling Action: part of the narrative or drama after the climax

Farce: a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue

Figurative Language: apt and imaginative language characterized by figures of speech (such as metaphor and simile)

Flashback: a narrative device that flashes back to prior events

Foil: a person or thing that, by contrast, makes another seem better or more prominent

Folk Tale: story passed down by word of mouth

Foreshadowing: in fiction and drama, a device to prepare the reader for the outcome of the action; "planning" to make the outcome convincing, though not to give it away

Free Verse: verse without conventional metrical pattern, with irregular pattern or no rhyme

Genre: a category or class of artistic endeavor having a particular form, technique, or content

Gothic Tale: a style in literature characterized by gloomy settings, violent or grotesque action, and a mood of decay, degeneration, and decadence.

Hyperbole: an exaggerated statement often used as a figure of speech or to prove a point

Imagery: figures of speech or vivid description, conveying images through any of the senses

Implication: a meaning or understanding that is to be arrive at by the reader but is not fully explicitly stated by the author

Incongruity: the deliberate joining of elements that are not appropriate to each other

Inference: a judgement or conclusion based on evidence presented; the forming of an opinion which possess some degree of probability according to the facts already available

Irony: a contrast or incongruity between what is said and what is meant, or what is expected to happen and what actually happens, or what is thought to be happening and what is actually happening.