Lit Terms #6

simile

• Comparing two things using the words like or as.

soliloquy

• an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, esp. by a character in a play

spiritual

•  of, relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

speaker

• A speaker who speakes

stereotype

• a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

stream of consciousness

• a person's thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow

structure

•  construct or arrange according to a plan; give a pattern or organization to

style

• A way of doing something.

subordination

•  the action or state of subordinating or of being subordinate.

surrealism

•  a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind

 symbol

•  A deeper meaning of something

synesthesia

•  the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.

synecdoche

•  a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”).

syntax

• The style of writing

theme

• The main idea.

thesis

• The overall message of what is going on.

tone

•  The attitude towards the piece of work.

tongue in cheek

•  without really meaning what one is saying or writing.

tragedy

• a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, esp. one concerning the downfall of the main character.

understatement

•  the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is.

vernacular

•  the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.

voice

•  express (something) in words

zeitgeist

• the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.