This list provides examples of literary terms, primarily in videos and images, though there are a few written texts here for now. Page updates will happen. Hopefully this helps define, work with, teach, and learn these terms.

If I’ve posted your content here, please don’t sue me! To download: Left click on “D/L” and select “Save As…” to download a copy to your computer so you can use these files when you’re not connected to the internet.

1. allegory – none
2. alliteration – The Office: “People Person’s Paper People” [D/L]
3. allusion – Roommate Confessions: LOTF
4. anachronism – Bearskinrug: Pharaoh and Caesar
5. analogy – Radiohead: All I Need [D/L]
6. antagonist – Something from Jake And Amir Dot Com, but it’s tough to find one appropriate for classroom use (could be used for “foil” as well)
7. archetype – Miss Teen USA: Miss South Carolina [D/L], Barats and Bereta: Mother’s Day [D/L]
8. climax – Does-Nothing-o-Matic (an anti example!)
9. conflict – Igor trailer, Why you should never drive and text
10. connotation – Fairly Reliable Bob’s (maybe)
11. denotation – Fool’s Gold as a “tedious” movie (maybe)
12. dynamic character – Living My Life Faster, 9 months of gestation (I’m waiting for one of these where the person doesn’t change at all to add to “static character”)
13. flashback – none (I’m thinking of Lost as food for a video clip of this)
14. foreshadowing – none
15. hyperbole – Jake And Amir: Elevator [edited for the classroom: D/L]
16. irony – Human Giant: Camping Weekend [D/L], Foresight
17. metaphor – Mac vs. PC – Home Movie, Ellen Page Hitler PSA
18. mood – VW Night Drive [D/L], The Strangers trailer, “More” [D/L], Saturn Outlook commercial (anything by David Lynch or any instrumental by Nine Inch Nails would work well here, too)
19. onomatopoeia – Batman opening credits or fight scene
20. parody – Obama as celebrity: Paris Hilton parody (you may want to edit her one curse word), Talk to your parents about voting McCain (I can’t find one of the original commercials on talking to your kids about drugs, can you?)
21. personification – Comcast: Stop Worrying About Time [D/L], Epuron: His Potential Is Ours [D/L], CMS FOREX currency battle
22. protagonist – Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay trailer, WALL•E trailer
23. pun – Comcast: Stupid Fast (only because I couldn’t find the El Moolah one) [D/L]
24. satire – truth.com: Shards O Glass Freeze Pops [D/L]
25. simile – Think Before You Post (posting online is like putting something on a bulletin board at school — pretty weak)
26. soliloquy – none (Stewie Griffin gives a ton of these on Family Guy, so I hope to find a clip)
27. static character – none (I haven’t seen it enough, but would Talladega Nights work? Isn’t Ricky Bobby static?)
28. symbol – none
29. theme – none
30. tone – (see “mood”)
31. understatement – “…only rolled once…”, Ben Stein: Clear Eyes

Update: 08.08.08 – added videos for “parody”
Update: 08.11.08 – added image for “irony”
Update: 09.19.08 – added videos for “onomatopoeia” and “dynamic character”
Update: 10.19.08 – added videos for “mood,” “parody,” and “personification”
Update: 04.12.09 – added videos for “metaphor” and “understatement” (thanks, Ms. Chow)

Other Resources

• Cyber English Literary Terms
• Wikipedia Literary Terms

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If you’re planning to teach something as far removed from modern day experience as Jonathan Swift (and there are plenty of good reasons to do such a thing), showing students a contemporary version of the same technique would be a good idea. I wonder if a list of classic literature can be augmented with modern uses of the same strategies. Or maybe a list of literary terms with classic and modern uses.

Attention draws away from the authors and moves toward the methods used; suddenly, these things become more relevant. You end up teaching the strategy that Swift used. Swift, himself, doesn’t matter. All that matters is his version of one way to make your point. Now it’s up to the students to find ways to use that strategy or ways that strategy is used already.Similar Posts:

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I’m reading Haunted right now, about 130 pages in after only 24 hours of ownership. Let me tell you, this thing starts off with a bang and you just wait for the other shoe to drop, cringing that each story will top that first one: “Guts.” You can’t start off a novel that big without any follow through and that story turns into the first ghost that haunts you throughout your reading. So you flip the page and think “is this something I can read while eating?” I trust Palahniuk so I’m sure this will get heavy quickly. Maybe American Psycho heavy because “Guts” and a few other spots show shades of Ellis. “We had no reason, none whatsoever, to bring a chainsaw.” Hmmm…

The book starts off with a poem called “Guinea Pigs.” Very Canterbury Tales, the poem seems gentle, a simple narrative that sets up the rest of the novel. But it turns at one decisive point. From that one spot on, you know that things are not sweetness and light. The tone of the poem shifts at a very precise line and it colors the rest of what follows. It even taints what came before it. Students should discover that spot all on their own. No one should miss that.

Combine that discussion of the poem with VW’s Night Driving, a video I stowed away a few months back after reading about it at Dan’s place, and you’ve got a good intro to tone. Students should leave the classroom with a firm understanding of what tone is and how authors achieve it. The authors of both pieces are playing with your emotions, using specific details (words and images) to set up an atmosphere. And the video even doubles as a nice intro to Dylan Thomas, if you’d like.

Download

Yes, yes, here’s that Night Drive video, as wrapped up in QuickTime (12MB) for you to download. And, just for safe keeping, here’s “Guinea Pigs,” that Palahniuk poem, again.Similar Posts:

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