Lit terms 4

interior monologue - noun a piece of writing expressing a character's inner thoughts

inversion - noun the act of turning inside out; turning upside down; setting on end; the reversal of the normal order of words
juxtaposition - noun the act of positioning close together (or side by side); a side-by-side position
lyric - adj. expressing deep personal emotion; used of a singer or singing voice that is light in volume and modest in range; of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses emotion (often in a songlike way); relating to or being musical drama; noun a short poem of songlike quality; the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number; verb write lyrics for (a song)
magical realism - a literary genre or style associated especially with Latin America that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction
metaphor - noun a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity
metonymy - noun substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in `they counted heads')
modernism - noun practices typical of contemporary life or thought; genre of art and literature that makes a self-conscious break with previous genres; the quality of being current or of the present
monologue - noun a (usually long) dramatic speech by a single actor; a long utterance by one person (especially one that prevents others from participating in the conversation); speech you make to yourself
mood - noun verb inflections that express how the action or state is conceived by the speaker; a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling; the prevailing psychological state
motif - noun a design that consists of recurring shapes or colors; a theme that is elaborated on in a piece of music; a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work
myth - noun a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people
narrative - adj. consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story; noun a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
narrator - noun someone who tells a story
naturalism - noun (philosophy) the doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms without recourse to spiritual or supernatural explanations; an artistic movement in 19th century France; artists and writers strove for detailed realistic and factual description
novella - noun a short novel
omniscient point of view - noun an all-knowing point of view of a character
onomatopoeia - noun using words that imitate the sound they denote
oxymoron - noun conjoining contradictory terms (as in `deafening silence')
pacing - noun walking with slow regular strides; (music) the speed at which a composition is to be played
parable - noun (New Testament) any of the stories told by Jesus to convey his religious message; a short moral story (often with animal characters)
paradox - noun (logic) a statement that contradicts itself