chaucer ao2

Denouement

The final unfolding of a plot.

Digressio

Rhetorical term for narrative embellishment by departure from the main subject.

Apostrophe

Speech addressed to a person, thing, or idea, often exclamatory.

Euphemism

Concealing unpleasant facts behind less blunt words or phrases.

Free Indirect Speech/Discourse

Narrating a character's thoughts through blending third- with first-person narrative.

Grammatical Gender

Forms of nouns sharing common characteristics in certain languages.

Irony

Saying one thing but meaning something else.

Traductio

A word or phrase that enters a text metaphorically and later occurs literally.

Prolepsis

Anticipation of future events in the narrative.

Diction

The distinctive tone of an author's writings or the selection of words peculiar to a writer.

Circumlocution

Words that move around a subject rather than announcing it directly.

Periphrasis

The use of excessive language to convey a meaning that could be expressed more directly.

Fabliau

Comic tale characterized by bawdiness.

Syntax

The arrangement of words in appropriate grammatical form and order.

Satire

Writing that exposes wickedness or folly by ridicule.

Aphorism

A concise expression of a generally accepted principle or truth.

Archetype

Recurrent interests, situations, plots, and personalities in literature.

Bathos

Ludicrous descent from the elevated to the ordinary and dull.

Effictio

Set-piece description of the hero or heroine in a narrative, usually complimentary.