Lit Term 83-108

1. Omniscient Point of View: knowing all things, usually the third person.

2. Onomatopoeia: use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning.

                     Example: Splash; Sprinkle; Boom

3. Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradicting words or phrases are combined to produce a rhetorical effect by means of a concise paradox.

           Example: Pretty ugly; Along together; Original copy

4. Pacing: rate of movement; tempo.

5. Parable: a story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth.

                   Example: The Prodigal Son; Fish Net

6. Paradox: a statement apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really containing a possibe truth; an opinion contrary to generally accepted ideas.

                                  Example: " You can save money by spending it."
                                                     " Bittersweet"
 
7. Parallelism: the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal functions should have equal form.

        Example: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."---(I have a dream)
8. Parody: an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist.

                             Example: "Scary Movie"

9. Pathos: the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.

     Example: "This is the lesson: Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or pretty--never give in, except to convictions of honour or good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this countrym were gone and finished and liquidated.Very different is the mood today."--Winston Churchill

10. Pedantry: a display of learning for its own sake.

11. Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

         Example: "My stomach was punished me for not eating on time."
             "The rain was angry; you could tell just by listening to it from indoors."

12. Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.

13. Poignant: eliciting sorrow or sentiment.

14. Point of View: the attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; in description, the physcial point from which the observer views what he is describing.

           Example: First person; Second Person; Third Person.

15. Postmodernism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontradictional forms, multiple meanings, playfulness and blurred boundary between real and imaginary.

                            Example: Cat's Cradle-Kurt Vonnegut

16. Prose: the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhymen pattern.    

       Example: "The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam."---Conrad,Heart of Darknes

17. Protagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist.

                           Example: Pip-Great Expectations

18. Pun: play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications.

        Example: "A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking."

19. Purpose: the intended result wished by an author.

20. Realism: writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightforward manner to reflect life as it actually is.

21. Refrain: a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus.

22. Requiem: any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead.

23. Resolution: point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement.

24. Restatement: idea repeated for emphasis.

25. Rhetoric: use of language, both writeen and verbal in order to persuade.