Literary Terms Flashcards

A collection of essential literary terms and concepts based on lecture notes, covering movements, rhetorical devices, and historical periods, and genres.

Theatre of the Absurd

A post-World War II literary movement in drama characterized by existential themes, absurd situations, and illogical dialogues, often inspired by the philosophy of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Aesthetic

Principles pertaining to beauty, art, and taste, emphasizing sensory experience and emotional impact over utilitarian or moral purpose.

Aestheticism

A late $19\text{th}$-century movement that champions the idea of 'art for art's sake,' prioritizing beauty over moral, political, or practical functions as a reaction to Victorian utilitarianism.

Affective Fallacy

A term coined by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley in New Criticism that critiques judging a literary work based on its emotional impact on the reader.

African-American Literature

A body of work created by African-American writers that explores themes of racial identity, social injustice, and cultural heritage, gaining momentum during the Harlem Renaissance.

Age of Johnson

The period in English literature ($1745$–$1784$) dominated by Samuel Johnson, marked by moral essays, neoclassicism, and the rise of literary criticism.

Age of Reason

Also known as the Enlightenment (late $17\text{th}$ to $18\text{th}$ century), this period emphasized rationality, scientific thought, and intellectual discourse.

Age of Sensibility

A mid-$18\text{th}$-century literary period emphasizing emotion, empathy, and sentimentality, bridging the gap between neoclassicism and Romanticism.

Anagnorisis

A moment of critical discovery or recognition in a literary work where a character realizes their true identity or the true nature of their situation.

Anticlimax

A sudden transition from a significant or intense situation to a trivial or disappointing conclusion, often used for comic or satirical effect.

Agnosticism

The philosophical belief that the existence of God or the divine is unknown or unknowable, emphasizing the limits of human understanding.

Agitprop

A blend of 'agitation' and 'propaganda' referring to political propaganda in art or drama intended to inspire activism, originating in Soviet Russia.

Alexandrine

A poetic line consisting of $12$ syllables, often used in French poetry and as the final line in a Spenserian stanza.

Allegory

A narrative in which characters, events, and settings symbolically represent abstract ideas, moral qualities, or political concepts.

Anagram

A literary device where the letters of a word or phrase are rearranged to form a new word or phrase, often used for wordplay.

Antagonist

The character, group, or force that opposes the protagonist, creating the primary conflict within a narrative.

Antithesis

A rhetorical device that contrasts opposing ideas in parallel structures to highlight differences or create a balanced effect.

Aporia

A rhetorical device where a speaker expresses doubt or confusion to engage the audience or explore a topic deeply, often by raising questions without clear answers.

Aphorism

A concise and witty statement that expresses a general truth, principle, or observation about life.

Archetype

A universal symbol, character, or theme found across cultures, reflecting collective unconscious patterns as theorized by Carl Jung.

Aside

A dramatic device where a character speaks directly to the audience to reveal inner thoughts, unheard by other characters on stage.

Avant-Garde

Innovative, experimental, and unconventional works of art and literature that challenge traditional norms.

Ballad

A narrative poem or song, traditionally passed down orally, that tells a story often featuring dramatic, tragic, or romantic themes.

Bathos

An abrupt transition from the lofty or serious to the trivial or ridiculous, often creating an unintended comedic effect.

Bildungsroman

A coming-of-age novel focusing on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood.

Black Death

The bubonic plague that swept through Europe in the $14\text{th}$ century, killing approximately one-third of the population and impacting social and literary shifts.

Blank Verse

Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter, resembling the natural rhythms of English speech.

Bloomsbury Group

An early $20\text{th}$-century intellectual and artistic circle in London known for modernist approaches and progressive social values, including members like Virginia Woolf.

Bucolic

A literary work that idealizes rural life, often presenting shepherds and country settings as peaceful and harmonious.

Byronic Hero

A type of protagonist popularized by Lord Byron, characterized by rebellion, intense emotions, introspection, and a troubled past.

Caesura

A pause or break within a line of poetry, typically signaled by punctuation or a natural pause in speech.

Canto

A division or chapter of a long poem, common in epic poetry, derived from the Italian word for 'song.'

Catharsis

A concept from Aristotle's Poetics referring to the emotional release or purification (specifically pity and fear) experienced by an audience following a tragedy.

Catastrophe

The final event in a tragedy where the protagonist's downfall or the resolution of conflict leads to a tragic outcome or death.

Chicago Critics

A group of mid-$20\text{th}$-century literary scholars associated with the University of Chicago who emphasized close reading and formal analysis.

Chronotope

A term introduced by Mikhail Bakhtin to describe the interconnectedness of time and space in literature.

Closet Drama

A play written primarily for private reading rather than for public performance.

Comedy of Manners

A type of comedy that satirizes the social customs, behaviors, and attitudes of a particular group, often the upper class.

Conceit

An extended metaphor or elaborate comparison between two seemingly unrelated things, a hallmark of metaphysical poetry.

Dadaism

An early $20\text{th}$-century cultural movement that rejected conventional aesthetic standards and embraced absurdity, chaos, and irrationality.

Deus Ex Machina

A literary device where an unexpected or improbable event resolves a seemingly unsolvable conflict, meaning 'god from the machine.'

Denouement

The final part of a story, following the climax, where loose ends are tied up and the resolution is reached.

Différance

A term coined by Jacques Derrida representing the idea that meaning in language is not fixed but is always deferred or delayed.

Dissociation of Sensibility

A term coined by T.S. Eliot in 'The Metaphysical Poets' referring to a separation between thought and feeling in poetry post-$17\text{th}$ century.

Dramatic Monologue

A poem in which a single speaker addresses a silent listener, uncovering their internal conflicts or motivations.

Dramatic Irony

A situation in which the audience or reader possesses knowledge that the characters in the story lack.

Early Tudor Age

The period in English history and literature from $1485$ to the early $16\text{th}$ century, marking the transition from medieval to early modern England.

Epistolary Novel

A novel written in the form of letters, diary entries, or other personal documents.

Existentialism

A philosophical movement emphasizing individual freedom, choice, and the inherent meaninglessness of life.

Expressionism

An artistic movement that seeks to express subjective emotional experience rather than physical reality often through the distortion of reality.

Hamartia

An Aristotelian term referring to a tragic flaw or error in judgment that leads to the downfall of a protagonist.

Heroic Couplet

Two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter, common in the works of Alexander Pope and John Dryden.

Imagism

An early $20\text{th}$-century literary movement focusing on clear, precise language and direct, unembellished images.

Incunabulum

A term referring to books printed before the year $1501$, during the infancy of the printing press.

Interior Monologue

A literary technique that presents a character's inner thoughts and feelings in a continuous, real-time flow.

In-Yer-Face Theatre

A genre of contemporary British drama from the $1990\text{s}$ that is aggressive, confrontational, and explicitly tackles taboo subjects.

Jacobean Age

The period in English history during the reign of King James I ($1603$–$1625$), known for darker and more cynical dramatic themes.

Künstlerroman

A genre of novel that traces the growth and development of an artist from youth to maturity.

Malapropism

The incorrect use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, resulting in a humorous effect, named after the character Mrs. Malaprop.

Metaphysical Poets

A group of $17\text{th}$-century English poets known for intellectual wit, complex metaphors (conceits), and exploration of philosophical themes.

Negative Capability

A concept coined by John Keats referring to a writer's ability to embrace uncertainty and ambiguity without needing a logical resolution.

Pathetic Fallacy

A literary device where human emotions or characteristics are attributed to nature or inanimate objects to mirror a character's mood.

Picaresque Novel

A genre of prose fiction portraying the episodic adventures of a roguish, lower-class hero (picaro) in a corrupt society.

Sprung Rhythm

A metrical pattern developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins based on the number of stressed syllables rather than a traditional alternating pattern.

The Movement

A group of $1950\text{s}$ British poets, including Philip Larkin, who favored clarity, precision, and traditional forms over modernist romanticism.

Transcendentalism

A $19\text{th}$-century American philosophical movement advocating for the inherent goodness of people, intuition, and a spiritual connection with nature.

Verisimilitude

The quality of appearing to be true or real within a narrative, making fictional events seem plausible.

Zeugma

A literary device where one word governs multiple other words, often with different meanings, to create irony or humor.