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GlOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS
Adynation A type of hyperbole in which the exaggeration is magnified so greatly that it refers to an impossibility. For example: I'd walk a million miles for one of your smiles.
Allegorical narrative A story, poem or play in which the characters and events not only have meaning in themselves but also convey a second meaning that lies outside the work.
Allegory ► see Genres
Alliteration The repetition of the same consonants at the start of several words or syllables in sequence or in close proximity to each other. For example: And sings a solitary song
That whistles in the wind (from “Lucy Gray” by William Wordsworth)
Allusion An indirect reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.
Allusive name ► Symbolic name.
Analepsis ► Flashback.
Anapest A metrical foot consisting of three syllables. The first two are unstressed and the last is stressed. For example: undermine, overcome.e
Anti-climax A sudden transition from an elevated thought to a trivial one in order to achieve a humorous or satirical effect.
Anti-novel ► see Genres
Antithesis The expression of opposing or contrasting ideas laid out in a parallel structure. For example: Not that I loved Caesar, but that I loved Rome more (From Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare)
Assonance The repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables in a sequence of nearby words. For example:
Thou still unravished bride of quietness. Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, (from 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' by John Keats)
Ballad ► see Genres
Beast fable A brief story that teaches a lesson or moral in which animals talk and act like humans. Beast fables are found in many cultures. Among the most famous are the fables attributed to Aesop, the Greek slave of the sixth century ВС and the fables of La Fontaine, a seventeenth-century French poet.
Blank verse Verse that consists of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, i.e. ten-syllable lines in which unstressed syllables are followed by stressed syllables. It is the most common metrical pattern in English because it recreates most successfully the rhythm of ordinary speech.
Caesura A break or pause that occurs in the middle of a line of poetry. The term comes from a Latin word meaning “cut or slice”. Caesura is usually marked by a double slash. For example:
He stared at the Pacific // - and all his men
Look'd at each other // with a wild surmise
Silent // upon a peak in Darien.
(from 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer' by John Keats)
Casting The choice of actors in a play.
Character The representation of a human being in narrative fiction, poetry or drama. Round characters have a distinct identity and usually change their thoughts, feelings and behaviour in the course of a story, while flat characters have little psychological depth and do not evolve.
Character portrayal In drama, a character can be portrayed through tone, movement, gestures, facial expressions and costume.
Chacterisation The act of creating and developing a character. Characterisation may focus on external aspects, i.e. physical traits or behaviour, and/or the character's internal world, i.e. thoughts and feelings. In direct characterisation the writer simply states the character's traits, while in indirect characterisa tion he allows the reader to draw conclusions.
Climax The point in a literary or theatrical text when the conflict and resulting tension reach the highest point of interest or suspense.
Comedy ► see Genres
Connotation What a word suggests or implies or calls to mind, apart from what it explicitly describes (its denotative meaning). Words may carry emotional, psychological, or social connotations. The word 'home' is similar to the word 'house' in meaning but has the added connotations of privacy, intimacy, and safety.
Crescendo Fictional devices used to bring a narrative to a climax.
Delivery The way in which an actor says his lines.
Denotation The literal meaning of a word, as found in a dictionary, which does not include the feelings or suggestions that are part of the word's connotation.
Descriptive passage A descriptive passage tries to recreate both the visual and emotive elements of a scene, situation or character.
Dialogue A dialogue is a conversation between characters. It is used to reveal character and to advance action.
Diction The writer's choice of words. Diction may be described as abstract, concrete, technical, common, literal or figurative. Diction may also be analysed from the point of view of register (colloquial, formal, or neutral) and origin of the words (for example, Latinate or Anglo-Saxon).
Didactic literature Poetry, plays, novels and stories whose primary purpose is to guide, instruct, or teach.
Doppelganger A term which comes from German folklore and means “double goer” or “double walker”. It refers to a ghostly double of a living person, an evil and menacing twin.
Dramatic irony ► Irony.
Dramatic monologue A type of poem in which a single person (not the poet himself) speaks to an internal listener (a silent character in the poem). The temperament and character of the speaker is unintentionally revealed in the course of the monologue. (► Soliloquy)
Dramatic tension ► Suspense.
End rhyme It occurs when the rhyming words come at the ends of lines. For example:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night
(From 'Songs of Experience' by William Blake)
Enjambement Also run-on line. In a poem, a line that continues into the following line, without a pause or punctuation, allowing the uninterrupted flow of«meaning. It is used to create a sense of forward motion. For example:
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know
(From 'To a Skylark' by P.B. Shelley)
Epigram ► see Genres
Epiphany A term applied to literature by James Joyce to indicate a sudden revelation of an essential truth.
Euphemism A polite word or expression used instead of a more direct one, to avoid a shocking or upsetting effect. For example: As virtuous men pass mildly away (= die) (From 'Valediction, Forbidding Mourning' by John Donne).
Extended metaphor or simile A metaphor or simile which is sustained over several lines in a passage or throughout an entire passage.
Fable ► Beast fable.
Fallible narrator ► Unreliable narrator.
Farce ► see Genres
Figurative language Writing or speech not meant to be interpreted literally. It is often used to create vivid impressions by drawing comparisons between dissimilar things.
Figure of speech It is any use of language which deviates from the obvious or common usage in order to achieve a special meaning or effect.
First-person narrator A first-person narrator refers to himself as “I” and is a character in the story. We distinguish between the following types of first person narrators: the narrator who witnesses the events he relates (Marlow in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad); the narrator who is a minor participant in the story (Nick in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald); the narrator who is the central character in the story (Robinson in Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe).
Flashback (or Analepsis) A section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an event that took place at an earlier time.
Free indirect speech A narrative technique in which the point of view shifts between an objective account and a subjective interpretation.
Free verse Poetry which is not written in a regular rhythmical pattern, or metre. Most free verse has irregular line lengths and does not rhyme. It usually depends on repetition, balance and variation of phrases for its rhythmic effect. For example: When I heard the learned astonomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me (from 'When I Heard the Learned Astronomer' by Walt Whitman)
Gothic ► see Genres
Grand style A style characterised by the choice of words of Latin origin, allusions to the classical world and long sentence structure. It was typical of John Milton (1608-1674).
Heroic couplet A pair of rhyming lines written in iambic pentameter. For example:
A dog starved at his Master's Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State
(From 'Auguries of Innocence' by William Blake)
Hexameter A line of poetry consisting of six metrical feet.
Humour The main ingredient in comedy. It can be divided into verbal, behavioural and situational humour. Black humour is often used in literature of the absurd, in which characters cope with events and situations that are simultaneously comical and horrifying.
Hyperbole The deliberate exaggeration of the truth to achieve intensity, or for dramatic or comic effect.
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
(from “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth)
Iamb A foot composed of an unstressed syllable folowed by a stressed syllable. For example: em | bark.
Iambic dimeter Line of poetry consisting of two iambic feet. For example:
| The way | a crow |
| Shook down | on me |
| The dust | of snow |
(From 'Dust of Snow' by Robert Frost)
Iambic pentameter Line of poetry consisting of five iambic feet.
Iambic tetrameter Line of poetry consisting of four iambic feet.
Iambic trimeter Line of poetry consisting of three iambic feet.
Imagery The descriptive language used in literature to evoke mental pictures or sensory experiences. The images in a poem or prose passage provide details of sight, sound, taste, smell, or movement and help the reader to sense the experience being described.
In-line pause ► Caesura.
Innocent narrator ► Naive narrator.
Interior monologue ► Stream of consciousness.
Internal pause ► Caesura.
Internal rhyme Rhyme that occurs within a line. For example:
In mist or cloud on mast or shroud (from 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Coleridge)
Intrusive narrator The intrusive or obtrusive narrator interrupts the narrative to speak directly to the readers, expressing his views on the characters or events.
Irony It refers to a contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality. In “verbal irony”, there is a contrast between what is literally said and what is meant. In “dramatic irony” there is a discrepancy between what a character thinks and what the audience or reader knows to be true. In “situational irony” an event occurs which is the opposite of what is expected.
Kenning Compound word or metaphorical phrase used instead of a noun especially in Old English poetry. For example “sea-wood” for “ship”.
Lighting The primary function of lighting is to illuminate the actors and the stage, but it may also play an important part in creating mood and conveying the meaning of the play.
Limited omniscient narrator The limited or non omniscient narrator tells the story from the perspective of one single character, or at most of a very limited number of characters in the story. He has access to and reports the thoughts and feelings of only that character or those characters.
Literal meaning The surface meaning of a text.
Magic realism A term used in both art and literary criticism to refer to works that mix realistic portrayals of everyday events and characters with elements of fantasy and wonder. In works of magic realism the fantastic is treated without any sense of surprise or amazement. The mingling of the mundane and the fantastic creates a rich, dreamlike atmosphere.
Metaphor A figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else. Unlike a simile, which compares two things using “like” or “as”, a metaphor states the comparison directly. For example:
Life's but a walking shadow (From Macbeth by William Shakespeare)
Metonymy A figure of speech in which the name of one object is replaced by another which is closely associated with it. For example, the Prime Minister is sometimes referred to as “Downing Street”. (► Synecdoche)
Mock heroic/epic ► see Genres
Monologue A long speech made by one character in a poem, play or a novel. A monologue may be addressed to another character or to the reader or audience, or it may be a soliloquy.
Mood The feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage. The mood may be conveyed by the writer's choice of words, by events in the work, or by the physical setting.
Naive narrator The naive or innocent narrator tells a story without understanding its full meaning. Naive or innocent narrators are often children.
Narrative Another word for “story”.
Narrative technique The way a story is told; how the setting, characters, actions and events that make up a work of fiction are presented to the reader.
Narrator The person from whose point of view a story is narrated. A narrator may be: (a) a participant in the story); (b) an observer who is not directly involved in the action. There are two broad categories of narrators: first-person narrators and third-person narrators.
Novel of character A novel which focuses on the psychology of the characters, their motives and their evolution in the course of the story.
Novel of incident A story-driven work of fiction in which the plot is carefully developed and the reader's attention is held by the unfolding events.
Obtrusive narrator ► Intrusive narrator.
Ode ► see Genres
Omniscient narrator The omniscient narrator knows everything about the fictional world he is describing. He reports on all the characters and events and knows not only what characters do but also their thoughts, feelings and motivations.
Onomatopoeia The use of words or sounds which appear to resemble the sounds which they describe: hiss, buzz, bang.
Oxymoron A combination of words, which at first sight seems to be contradictory or paradoxical, but whose closeness emphasises a contrast, expresses a truth or creates a dramatic effect. For example: “deafening silence”, “wise folly”.
Parable A short narrative that conveys or illustrates a moral lesson.
Paradox A statement that seems self-contradictory or absurd, but that expresses a truth. For example: One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die! (From 'Holy Sonnets' by John Donne)
Parallelism The repetition in the same line or in close proximity of similar syntactical structures. It is often used for emphasis or irony. For example: Early to bed, early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise, (proverb)
Parody A work done in imitation of another, usually in order to ridicule it, but sometimes just to create humour.
Pathos A quality in a work of art that is intended to create feelings of tenderness, sympathetic sadness or pity.
Pentameter A line of poetry consisting of five feet. For example:
| Lift not | the paint | ed veil | with those | who live | (from 'Sonnet' by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Personification A type of figurative language in which a non-human subject is given human characteristics. “My car has decided to quit on me” is an example of personification from everyday speech.
Pindaric ode ► see Genres
Plot The sequence of events in a story. Plots often follow the pattern of “exposition”, “rising action”, “climax”, “falling action”, and “resolution” or “conclusion”.
Point of view The perspective from which a story is told, by a first or third person.
Propagandist literature It is a particular type of didactic literature which tries to convince the reader to take a position, or direct action, on a contemporary moral or political issue.
Pun A play on words based on different meanings of words that sound alike. For example:
Eve was nigh Adam
Adam was naive. (M.A. Neville)
Realism An accurate representation of reality, without idealisation or sensational, dramatic effects. In realism the diction is usually natural, not heightened or poetic. Objectivity in presentation is important and the author's intrusions are minimal or absent.
Refrain Repetition of a line or group of lines in a poem or song.
Repetition The repeated use of any element of language - a sound, a word, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence.
Rhetorical question A question asked for effect, to which no response is expected.
Rhyme The repetition of identical or similar sounds at the ends of poetic lines. Rhyming words contribute to unifying a poem and enhance the musicality. In “perfect rhyme” the final vowel and any following consonant sounds are identical, and the preceding consonant sounds are different, for example enough/stuff. “Imperfect” or “half-rhyme” occurs when the final consonants are the same but the preceding vowels are not, for example “love/have”. Eye (or “sight”) rhyme occurs with words that are spelled similarly, but do not rhyme, for example: “height/weight”.
Rhyming scheme A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem.
Rhythm The pattern of beats, or stresses, in units of poetry and prose. The pattern of some poems is very specific, while prose and free verse use the natural rhythms of everyday speech.
Run-on line ► Enjambement.
Satire ► see Genres
Setting The time and place in which the action of a poem, play or story takes place.
Showing The way the narrator shows the characters.
Simile It draws a comparison between two dissimilar elements using the word “like” or “as”, for example “He fought like a tiger”. (► Metaphor)
Soliloquy A speech in a play in which a character, usually alone on a stage, reveals his or her thoughts and feelings to the audience.
Sound features Resources used by poets to convey and reinforce the meaning or experience of poetry through the skilful use of sound. Alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, caesura, enjambement, rhythm and metre are common sound devices.
Spontaneous prose It is used to capture the immediacy of momentary impressions and the blurred and disorderly way in which events occur.
Sprung rhythm A type of meter based exclusively on the number of stressed syllables. In the following two lines from Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem “God’s Grandeur” there are four stressed syllables in each line. The number of unstressed syllables, which varies, is of no importance in sprung rhythm.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.
Stage directions Notes included in a drama to describe how the work is to be performed or staged. They are printed in italics and are used to describe sets, lighting, sound effects as well as the appearance, personalities, and movements of characters.
Stock image An image that occurs so frequently in literature that it is at once familiar, for example: lily-white skin.
Stream of consciousness The description of the flow of inner experience through the mind of a character.
Style The characteristic way a writer uses the resources of language, including his diction, syntax, sentence patterns and punctuation. It also refers to the way a writer uses sound, rhythm, imagery and figurative language in his work.
Suspense A feeling of uncertainty about how events in a story are going to turn out. It is created by encouraging readers to ask questions in their minds or by placing characters in potentially dangerous situations.
Symbol Something that stands for or represents something else. Symbols may be “shared” or “cultural”, i.e. widely accepted (for example the association of white with innocence) or “literary” or “personal”, i.e. created by the author in the context of his work.
Symbolic meaning It is the level of meaning which lies below the surface and is open to interpretation.
Symbolic name Allusive or symbolic names encourage the reader to identify a character with another real or fictional figure. The reader may gain greater understanding of the character by comparing him to the person he has been named after.
Symbolic setting A setting that comes to symbolise the central ideas of a work, for example, the Yorkshire moors in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
Synecdoche The rhetorical figure in which a part is substituted for a whole, for example, “a suit (i.e. a businessman) entered the room”, or, less usually, in which a whole is substituted for a part (as when a policeman is called “the law” or a manager is called “the management”). ► (Metonymy).
Syntax The way in which linguistic elements (words or phrases) are arranged to form grammatical structures.
Telling The way a writer tells the reader about the characters when he describes their personality, appearance, feeling and motives for their behaviour.
Tetrameter A line of poetry consisting of four feet. For example:
| О west | ern wind | when wilt | thou blow| (traditional ballad)
Theme The central concern, or insight into life contained in a work of literature. A theme may be stated directly (explicit) or may be implied (implicit).
Third-person narrator Someone outside the story who refers to all the characters by their proper names or using the third person pronouns “he”, “she” “they”.
Timing It refers to the pace at which an actor delivers his lines.
Tone The author’s attitude toward the subject of his work or his audience. Tone is conveyed by the choice of words, their denotative and connotative meanings and the images they conjure up.
Tragedy ► see Genres
Tragic flaw Weaknesses within the tragic hero himself, which eventually lead him to defeat.
Tragic hero(ine) The main character of a tragedy, whose actions lead him to an unhappy ending.
Unreliable narrator An unreliable or fallible narrator is a storyteller who is biased or prejudiced and whose interpretation and evaluation of events do not coincide with the beliefs held by the author.
Wit In the sixteenth and seventeenth century this term indicated ingenuity in literary invention and was frequently used to describe the brilliant and surprising imagery of the Metaphysical poets. In more recent times it has been used to refer to a clever type of verbal humour.