Literary Terms Full

Allegory

A story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning.

Anecdote

A brief narrative of an entertaining and presumably true incident.

Argument

Discourse intended to convince or persuade through appeals to reason or emotion.

Autobiography

An account of all or a part of a person's life written by that person.

Bildungsroman

A coming of age work that follows its protagonist from youth to experience, or maturity.

Biography

A written account of someone's life, written by someone else, which focuses on the character and career of the subject.

Comedy

A literary work written chiefly to amuse its audience, usually providing a happy ending.

High Comedy

Characterized by grace, elegance and wit; intellectual comedy.

Low Comedy

Crude, boisterous comedy; slapstick and crude jokes; physical comedy.

Confessional Literature

Autobiographical writing in which the author discusses highly personal and private experiences normally withheld.

Convention

An accepted or expected style or form.

Courtly Love

The emotion that a knight was expected to feel toward a noble lady; a convention of literature of the Middle Ages.

Didactic

Any text whose main purpose is to teach or instruct.

Dirge

A funeral song of lamentation; a short lyric of mourning.

Discourse

Spoken or written language.

Description

The picturing in words of people, places and activities through detailed observations of color, sound, smell, touch and motion.

Exposition

The setting forth of a systematic explanation of or argument about any subject.

Narration

The process of relation a sequence of events or another term for narrative.

Rhetoric

The art of persuasion, in speaking or writing.

Essay

A short written composition in prose that discusses a subject or proposes an argument without claiming to be a complete or thorough exposition.

Epistolary

A novel written in the form of correspondence between characters.

Eulogy

A formal composition or speech in high praise of someone or something.

Exemplum

Brief tale told to illustrate a biblical text or to teach a lesson or moral.

Expose

Article exposing scandal or crime.

Fable

A brief tale that conveys a moral lesson, usually by giving human speech and manners to animals and inanimate things.

Farce

A type of drama related to comedy but emphasizing improbable situations, violent conflicts, physical action, and coarse wit over characterization or articulated plot.

Genre

A French term for a type, species, or class of composition such as novel, poem, short story, and such sub-categories as sonnet, science fiction or mystery.

Gothic

A type of novel characterized by mystery, horror, and the supernatural.

Historical Novel

Attempts to re-create an historically significant personage or series of events.

Homily

Religious sermon or discourse.

Melodrama

drama that pits unbelievably good characters against a despicably evil character. The plot includes dire events and near disasters. Good is always rewarded, and evil punished.

Memoir

an account of a single period in a writer's life, often one that coincides with important historical events.

Metaphysical poetry

intricate 17th century English poetry employing wit and unexpected images.

Miracle Play

medieval religious drama based on a miraculous event in a saint's life or a story from the Bible.

Mock Epic

comically or satirically imitates the form and style of the epic, treating a trivial subject in a lofty manner.

Morality Play

allegory in dramatic form. Hero, who represents all mankind, is surrounded by personifications of virtues, vices, angels, demons and death, who battle for possession of the hero's soul.

Myth

an anonymous narrative, originating in the primitive folklore of a race or nation, that explains natural phenomena, or recounts the deeds of heroes, passed on through oral tradition.

Novel

a lengthy fictional narrative in prose dealing with characters, incidents, and settings that imitate those found in real life.

Novelette

built on one incident; shorter than a novel, but has more development of character and theme than a short story.

Novella

a short novel.

Novel of manners

a novel, usually comical and satirical, whose characters and plot emerge from and are limited by the social customs, values, habits and mores of a particular social class in a particular time and place.

Paean

a song of triumph or thanksgiving.

Parable

a brief tale intended to be understood as an allegory illustrating some lesson or moral.

Parody

A composition that ridicules another composition by imitating and exaggerating aspects of its content.

Pedantic

writing that borders on lecturing. Scholarly, academic, and often overly difficult and distant.

Picaresque novel

a novel whose principal character is a low-born rogue who lives by his/her wits and who becomes involved in one predicament after another.

Play

a literary work written in dialogue and intended for performance before an audience by actors on stage.

Poetry

literature in its most intense, most imaginative, and most rhythmic form.

Prose

in the broadest sense, all forms of ordinary writing and speech lacking the sustained and regular rhythmic patterns found in poetry. It resembles closely everyday speech.

Psychological Novel

novel that focuses on the "interior" lives of its characters, their mental states and emotions, and their psychological motivations of their actions than on the actions themselves.

Romance

any extended work of fiction that deals with adventure, extravagant characters, strange or exotic places, mysterious or supernatural incidents, heroic or marvelous achievements, or passionate love.

Science Fiction

novels and short stories set either in the future or on some imaginary world.

Short Story

a fictional narrative in prose, short in length (500-15,000 words approx.), usually limited to a few characters, a single setting, and a single incident.

Sociological Novel

concerned primarily with social issues and problems.

Tract

a formal, religious essay or pamphlet.