Literary Terms

Alienation

This term, from Marxism, suggests that under Capitalism we live estranged from our true human natures.

Allegory

A story of some complexity that corresponds to another situation on a deeper level. Animal Farm is about a community of animals, but reflects the Russian Revolution and satirizes Communism. The dual perspective, the link between animal story and political story, gives it its interest and wit.

Alliteration

Repetition of an identical consonant sound at the beginning of stressed words, usually close together ("So dawn goes down today"

Allusion

A reference to an event, person, place, work of literature, etc. that gives additional layers of meaning to a text or enlarges its frame of reference. Look at the biblical allusion to the "whited sepulcher" in the Conrad essay sample, Chapter Two of this Guide.

Ambiguity

(Distinguish this from ambivalence). Where language and tone are (usually deliberately), unclear and may have two or more interpretations or meanings. Look at the discussion of Banquo's speech in Chapter Four of this Guide.

Ambivalence

Where the writer's attitude to, for example, a character or event is not clear-cut, but may seem to hold at least two responses (Marlow's attitude toward Kurtz in Conrad's Heart of Darkness-both understanding and critical?).

Antithesis

Contrasting ideas by balancing words of opposite meaning and idea ("And wretches hang, that jurymen may dine"

Apostrophe

An exclamatory passage where the speaker or writer breaks off in the flow of a narrative or poem to address a dead or absent person, a particular audience, or object (often personified). Gaev in Chekhov's Cherry Orchard addresses a bookcase at length, a symbol of his past and the family home.

Assonance

Repetition of similar vowel sounds close to one another ("Down some profound dull tunnel"

Atmosphere

Often confused with "mood," it refers specifically to place, a setting, or surroundings. ("There was a holiday atmosphere in the town.")

Bathos

A sudden descent from the sublime or serious, to the ridiculous or trivial. "His pride and his bicycle tire were punctured in the first hour."

Bildungsroman

German term for a novel focusing on the development of a character from youth to maturity (Joyce - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a famous example of a male; Jane Eyre of a female.)

Blank verse

Unrhymed poetry not broken into stanzas, keeping a strict pattern in each line, usually in iambic pentameter. Used by Shakespeare, epic poets, and much of Frost. It is close to the rhythm of speech. ("Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown"

Caesura

A break or pause within a line of poetry by comma or full stop or unmarked pause, used for emphasis, or to change direction or pace. Quite frequently used, so worth knowing. (He was always late. That evening he was later" - Boland).

Caricature

An exaggerated representation of a character often by emphasizing a small number of features, usually for comic and satiric purposes. Jane Austen and Dickens frequently use this.

Colloquial

Everyday speech and language as opposed to literary or formal register. The inclusion of the odd colloquial word or phrase in an otherwise formal work can be striking.

Conceit

A witty thought or idea or image, a fanciful or deliberately far-fetched comparison, as found in 16% and 17th century English poetry. Donne compares two lovers to the points of a mathematical compass.

Concrete

(As in concrete detail). Refers to objects or aspects that may be perceived by the senses.

Connotation

An association that a word may suggest. Very useful word when discussing diction.

Consonance

Where the final consonants are the same in two or more words close together, as in Macbeth's "poor player/That struts and frets his hour upon the stage."

Contradiction

(Distinguish from "paradox"). Stating or implying the opposite of what has been said or suggested.

Couplet (rhyming couplet)

Two consecutive rhyming lines of verse. May clinch or emphasize an idea (Nature's first green is gold/Her hardest hue to hold"

Defamiliarization

The technique of making the familiar seem new and strange, and thus making us see more vividly. Coined by the Russian "Formalists." This may be done through point of view, as in Gulliver's Travels.

Diction

The writer's choice of words or vocabulary. You will need this word.

Didactic

Describes the tone or intention to preach a (usually) moral, political, or religious point. It usually has a negative connotation.

Dramatic irony

A very powerful tool especially in drama, used for tragic or comic purposes. Where a character (or characters) is/are unaware of something that the audience/reader and possibly other characters on state are aware of.

Elegy

A mournful lament for times past or the dead. It has a particular poetic form but the term can be used more generally/ "Elegiac" describes a meditative mood in prose or verse, reflecting on the past.

End-stopped line

A line of poetry where the meaning pauses or stops at the end of a line ("Nature's first green is gold" - Frost). A statement or idea can stand out clearly, and provide a pause for reflection.

Enjambment

The opposite of the above. The sense flows over from one line to another, perhaps even to the next stanza. This can reflect a build-up of emotion or create a dramatic effect (see the first stanza of "Dulce Et Decorum Est"). From the French for "leg."

Epigram

A concise, pointed, witty statement. "Epigrammatic" style in prose or poetry has those qualities. Oscar Wilde is the master of the epigram - "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

Form

A word that often crops up and seems vague, but is important. It is the shape of a work, the arrangement of its parts, the patterns, divisions, and structures used. In poetry there are traditional, metrical and rhyming "forms" (ode, ballad, sonnet, etc.), and modern, non-metrical forms. If you want to know what these are, consult further resources.

Free verse

Verse written without any fixed or traditional structure in meter or rhyme. Commonly used since the early 20th century. It is very flexible because it follows the speech rhythms of the language.

Genre

A specific type or kind of literature, such as drama, prose, poetry, essay, autobiography.

Grain

("Reading against the grain.") A reader can go acceptingly along with assumptions and values in a text, or go "against the grain," resisting and questioning values and assumptions in that text, as Feminist critics often advocate when reading books by male authors. It can also apply to a number of other situations including, for example, the reading of books written in the colonial period.

Hyperbole

A deliberate exaggeration for various effects, comic, tragic, etc. When Frost writes that the beauty of Spring "is only so an hour," he emphasizes the tragic brevity of life.

Iambic

This you must know. The "iamb" is a metrical measure, or foot, in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable ("He clasps"). Iambic pentameter (five iambs in a line) is the commonest metrical pattern in English poetry, including Shakespeare. ("Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown"

Idyll/idyllic

Refers to innocent simple life in idealized rural setting. An "idyllic" childhood or country scene or experience has those untroubled, and simple qualities. Useful adjective.

Imagery

Used frequently-another word you need. It means concrete descriptions (images) we can see and sense in works of literature. Wilfred Owen describes a dying soldier with "white eyes writhing in his face." We see (whites of eyes rolling, his face) and feel (writhing) the agony.

Interior monologue

Here the character is thinking to him/herself in language, in words, conscious of what he/she is thinking. Thoughts are formulated in words, whereas in the stream of consciousness they are represented through the narrator.

Internal rhyme

Where there are rhymes within a line instead of, or as well as, at the ends of lines.

Irony

A difficult term to define, often used wrongly, and an effect that is often missed when analyzing literature. It means a gap or mismatch between what is being said, and what is intended, perhaps between the way a character or group sees him/her/itself, and the way the author wishes us to see him/her/it. A powerful tool for a writer as it exposes hypocrisies and lack of awareness. (Distinguish from dramatic irony.)

Lexical Field

a group of words or expressions that are related in meaning and share a common theme or topic.

Lyric

Originally a song performed to a lyre (early harp); now, a songlike poem expressing personal feeling. A common form. Prose can be lyrical too, expressive of feelings.

Metaphor

You can't get far without this. A comparison of two things without using a comparing word such as "like." To see a striking similarity between two normally unlike things can be an indicator of originality. It provides richness of sensation and meaning. Wilfred Owen's description of the dying soldier "guttering" is comparing him implicitly with a candle flame on the point of going out.

Meter

The organization of lines of verse into regular patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to achieve a rhythmic effect. Seems frightening and complicated, but a good resource book or teacher can make it clear. Helpful to understand the essentials, but not mandatory.

Mimesis

the process by which the work reflects and reinterprets the world around it

Modality

Modality is about a speaker's or a writer's attitude towards the world. A speaker or writer can express certainty, possibility, willingness, obligation, necessity and ability by using modal words and expressions. Speakers often have different opinions about the same thing.

Mood

(Often confused with atmosphere and tone.) Refers to people as in "the mood of the audience was somber."

Describes a person's (a character's or the narrator's) frame of mind or state of feeling. It may also indicate the emotional response the author hopes to evoke in the mind of the reader.

Monologue

Speech, usually of some length, by a single speaker. Distinguish from soliloquy. A 'dramatic monologue' (usually a whole poem) has a listener present and reveals the character of the speaker in a striking way. (Some of Browning's and Frost's poems.)

Motif

Often used synonymously with the German leitmotif, meaning recurrent elements (images, ideas) in a work. These are not as significant as themes but have a cumulative effect like a refrain, and can assume symbolic importance. Candles and fire in Great Expectations could be seen this way.

Omniscient Narrator

It literally means 'all-knowing,' describing one who stands outside and can see into all characters and happenings, like Jane Austen.

Onomatopoeia

The effect of words that imitate the sound of things (hiss,' 'crash.)

Oxymoron

Where two words of opposite meaning are joined-"an open secret." It can suggest something quite complex or provocative.

Paradox

(Distinguish this from contradiction and oxymoron). Seemingly contradictory statement, but on reflection, it makes sense, contains its own resolution or truth ("Nature's first green is gold

Parody

Usually comic imitation of another work. Distinguish from pastiche (an option in World Literature 2).

Pastiche

A literary work composed in the style of a well-known author.

Persona

The identity or character assumed by the author in a work of literature.

Personification

Where human feelings or sensations are attributed to an inanimate object. Human qualities may also be given to abstract ideas.

Plot

(Distinguish from story, which lists the events of a narrative in chronological order.) Plot refers to the events of a narrative in the order the author has chosen to present them. Chronology may be distorted for particular effects, as in flashbacks or flash forwards. A novel may begin with the ending of the story, for example.

Point of view

A key concept in literature especially the novel, but can be confusing. It is the angle from which the narrative is seen or told. Who sees? Who speaks? The point of view may shift in a work.

Protagonist

Main character in a work.

Quatrain

Stanza or group of four lines that can have different rhyme schemes. Shakespeare's sonnets often contain three quatrains and a couplet.

Refrain

Repetition in a work of literature of a phrase or lines.

Rhythm

Distinguish this from meter, which has to do with the technical, identifiable organization of lines into units of stressed and unstressed syllables. Rhythm applies to both prose and poetry and has to do more generally with the flow of sound created by stressed and unstressed syllables. (Steady, irregular?)

Satire

Exposing and ridiculing of human follies in a society, sometimes with the aim to reform, sometimes predominantly to deflate. May be gentle, comic, biting or bitter, or a combination. Chaucer, Swift, Jane Austen and Dickens use this tool memorably.

Setting

Context in which a work of literature takes place

Sibilance

repetition of the 's' sound, which creates a hushing or hissing quality.

Simile

Where a comparison is made explicit with 'as' or 'like' (distinguish from metaphor). Can make descriptions vivid and unusual. Dickens is a master of the simile.

Soliloquy

A speech by a character alone on stage, thinking aloud, revealing thoughts and emotions, or communicating directly with the audience. Powerful tool for revealing psychological complexity, used often by Shakespeare.

Sonnet

A fourteen-line rhyming poem often in iambic pentameter. Rhyme schemes and organization of lines vary, depending on the type of sonnet (for example, Shakespearean, but often set out as a block of 8 lines (octave) and six lines

Stanza

The blocks of lines into which a poem is organized. In traditional forms of poetry each stanza follows a scheme governing meter, lines, and rhymes.

Story

(Distinguish this from plot). The events of a narrative in the chronological order in which they actually happened.

Stream of consciousness

The impression of a random stream of thoughts. This is the representation of a free, apparently random succession of thoughts and sensations in a character's mind, especially when alone. The first person,"I", is not used here. The term is often used synonymously with, but is a little different from, interior monologue.

Style

Necessary concept to know and use, but tricky to define and discuss. It has to do with the distinctive traits in an author's work, the 'how' of writing. It concerns theme, diction (emotional, abstract, poetic), sentence construction, imagery, sound, etc.

Subtext

Ideas, feelings, thoughts, not dealt with directly in the text but existing underneath. Quite a useful concept especially when reading plays, as characters don't always express their real thoughts.

Symbol

Objects that represent or evoke an idea or concept of wider, abstract significance, as roses represent love, walls divisions.

Syntax

The grammatical structure of words in a sentence. The normal order of words can be slightly displaced to create a particular effect, without losing the sense. Macbeth - "Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown."

Theme

Central ideas or issues, often abstract (for example racial injustice) explored or illustrated in a text. Can also refer to an argument raised or pursued in a text, like a thesis.

Tone

(Distinguish from mood, above). The technique of writing to convey the attitude of the writer towards his/her subject. Created through aspects of language like diction, syntax, rhythm, which will suggest a 'tone of voice.' Emotional meaning.