Lit Terms 83-108

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


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

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.


Pacing:  rate of movement; tempo.
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Parable:  a story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth.


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


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.


Postmodernism: 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 straightfoward 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.