Lit Terms 82-108

Omniscient Point of View: Knowing all things, usually the third person. 
Onomatopoeia: Use of a word whose sound on some degree imitates or suggests its meaning. 
Oxymoron: 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. 
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 or 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; physical point from which the observer views what he is describing. 
Postmodernism: Literature characterized by experimentation, irony, 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 center 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 straightforward 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, 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.