Literary Terms

Act

the major subunit into which the action of a play is divided. The number of acts in a play typically ranges between one and five, and acts are usually further divided into scenes.

Allegory

a literary work that portrays abstract ideas concretely. Characters in an allegory are frequently personifications of abstract ideas and are given names that refer to these ideas. ("Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne)

Alliteration

The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words. For example, Robert Frost's poem "Out, out-” contains the alliterative phrase “sweet-scented stuff”

Allusion

a reference to another work of literature or to art, history, or current events. An implicit reference within a literary work to a historical or literary person, place, or event. For example, the title of William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury alludes to a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth. Authors use allusion to add symbolic weight because it makes subtle or implicit connections with other works. For example, in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab’s name alludes to the wicked and idolatrous biblical king Ahab- a connection that adds depth to our understanding of Ahab’s character

Analogy

in literature, a comparison between two things that helps explain or illustrate one or both of them.

Anaphora

repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.

Antagonist

a character in a story or play who opposes the protagonist; while not necessarily an enemy, the antagonist creates or intensifies a conflict for the protagonist. An evil antagonist is a villain.

Apostrophe

a direct address to an abstraction (such as time), a thing (the wind), an animal, or an imaginary or absent person. Walt Whitman's poem "O Captain, My Captain," written upon the death of Abraham Lincoln, is an example of apostrophe.

Archaic language

words that were once common but that are no longer used (art thou; thee).

Archetype

a cultural symbol that has become universally understood and recognized.

Ars Poetica

Latin for "the art of poetry;" a form of poetry written about poetry. A lyric poem of twenty-four lines. It describes the qualities a poem should have if it is to stand as a work of art.

Assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words.

Asyndeton

a rhetorical device for securing energy and emphasis by omitting connectives. No conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.

Atmosphere

the feeling created for the reader by a work of literature. The atmosphere can be generated by many things, especially style, tone, and setting. Synonymous with mood.

Ballad

first taking shape in the late Middle Ages, the ballad was a sung poem that recounted a dramatic story. Ballads were passed down orally from generation to generation. Arising in the romantic period, the literary ballad

Bildungsroman

a novel that explores the maturation of the protagonist, with the narrative usually moving the main character from childhood into adulthood. Also called a coming

Blank verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter, blank verse is the most commonly used verse form in English because it comes closest to natural patterns of speaking. See also iambic pentameter.

Cacophony

the opposite of euphony. Hence a series of harsh or disagreeable sounds coming in close succession. The hard c or k, the hard g, and the t and d, for example, when occurring close together, are liable to produce a discordant effect. (Kick the geese out of the basket.)

Caesura

a natural pause occurring within a line of poetry, sometimes punctuated, sometimes not, often mirroring natural speech.

Catharsis

This term was applied to tragedy by Aristotle to describe the emotionally purging effect on the audience of pity and fear. A tragedy, by evoking these emotions, cleansed the audience of all other, and lesser, emotions and left an after

Character

a person depicted in a narrative. While this term generally refers to human beings, it can also include animals or inanimate objects given human characteristics.

Flat character

a character embodying only one or two traits and who lacks character development; for this reason, a flat character is also called a static character. Often such characters exist only to provide background or adequate motivation for a protagonist's actions.

Round character

a character who exhibits a range of emotions and who evolves over the course of the story.

Secondary character

a supporting character; while not as prominent or central as the main character, he or she is still important to the events of a story or play.

Stock character

a type of flat character based on a stereotype; one who falls into an immediately recognizable category or type

Characterization

the method by which the author builds or reveals a character; it can be direct or indirect. Indirect characterization means that an author shows rather than tells readers what a character is like through what the character says, does, or thinks, or what others say about the character. Direct characterization occurs when a narrator tells the reader who a character is by describing the background, motivation, temperament, or appearance of that character.

Climax

the point in a story when the conflict reaches its highest intensity.

Colloquial language

an expression or language construction appropriate only for casual, informal speaking or writing.

Comedy of manners

a satiric dramatic form that lampoons social conventions.

Conflict

the tension, opposition, or struggle that drives a plot. External conflict is the opposition or tension between two characters or forces. Internal conflict occurs within a character. Conflict usually arises between the protagonist and the antagonist in a story.

Connotation

meanings or associations readers have with a word or an item beyond its dictionary definition or denotation. Connotations may reveal another layer of meaning of a piece, affect the tone, or suggest symbolic resonance. For example, the word home denotes the place where one lives but connotes shelter, affection, warmth, or perhaps security

Consonance

an instance in which identical final consonant sounds in nearby words follow different vowel sounds.

Convention

a literary convention is a practice that is followed so often in literature that it has become standard (the happy ending, the boy

Critical lenses

different approaches to interpreting a work of literature, also known as critical perspectives.

Cultural lens

an interpretation of a text that examines how different races and ethnicities, social, and economic class distinctions, and political ideologies influence the creation and interpretation of literature. Although the perspective of cultural criticism covers a broad landscape, it focuses on how dominant groups have silenced, devalued, misrepresented, or even demonized marginalized ones.

Formalist lens

also called New Criticism. An interpretation of a text that treats it as an independent and self

Gendered lens

an interpretation of a text that explores its treatment of gender stereotypes, social mores, and values based on gender, and the overall representation of the genders.

Historical lens

an interpretation of a text that treats it as a product of the historic moment when it was created.

Psychological lens

an interpretation of a text that considers the behavior and motivations of characters, exploring how both conscious and unconscious drives and desires influence their actions.

Denotation

the literal definition of a word, often referred to as the "dictionary definition."

Denouement

pronounced day-noo-moh, this term means “untying the knot”; in this phase of a plot, the conflict has been resolved, and balance is restored to the world of the story. Very common in detective and mystery stories, the denouement gives the explanation for the yet explained mysteries of the plot.

Dialect

dialogue or narration written to simulate regional or cultural speech patterns. One language may contain several dialects, such as the Southern, Yankee, or Western of our language. The term covers both written and spoken forms of language. Dialect, vernacular, lingo, cant, argot, patois, and slang all differ from the standard form of a language.

Dialogue

the written depiction of conversation between characters.

Diction

a writer's choice of words. In addition to choosing words with precise denotations and connotations, an author must choose whether to use words that are abstract or concrete, formal or informal, or literal or figurative.

Didactic

suitable for teaching, or intended to teach, a moral lesson or convey a moral teaching. Most allegories, for example, are didactic. Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life" is an example of a didactic poem.

Dramatic monologue

a type of poem in which the speaker, who is distinct from the poet, addresses an audience that is present in the poem.

Ekphrasis

a descriptive work of prose or poetry that describes a visual work of art. It highlights through its rhetorical vividness what is happening or what is shown in the artwork, and, in doing so, may enhance the original art and so take on a life of its own through its description.

Elegy

a contemplative poem on death and mortality, often written for someone who has died.

Ellipsis

a rhetorical device used for the sake of increased vividness and energy in which a word or words are omitted necessary to the complete construction of a sentence but not required for the understanding of it. ("Who steals my purse steals trash.") Ellipsis is also the name for the three dots (...), indicating the omission of words.

End-stopped Line

an end-stopped line of poetry concludes with punctuation that marks a pause. The line is completely meaningful in itself, unlike run-on lines, which require the reader to move to the next line to grasp the poet's complete thought

Enjambment

a poetic technique in which one line ends without a pause and must continue on to the next line to complete its meaning; also referred to as a "run-on-line”

Epic

a long narrative poem relating in lofty style the deeds of a great (usually national) hero of ancient or legendary times. Usually, the epic contains supernatural elements (for example, one

Epigram

a very short poem or prose piece, or a very short passage, expressing a single idea with brevity and cleverness and often with wit; commonly, a short pointed saying.

Epigraph

a quotation preceding a work of literature that helps set the text's mood or suggests its themes.

Epilogue

an incident or scene occurring after the end of the story or play proper; also a speech in prose or verse addressed by a player to the audience after the end of the play itself. In such a speech, the player might point out the moral or aid the audience in the interpretation of the play.

Epiphany

a character's transformative moment of realization.

Epitaph

an inscription upon a tomb. Hence, it occasionally means a brief composition characterizing a dead person and expressed as if intended to be inscribed on his tombstone.

Ethos

Greek for "character." Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Ethos is established by both who you are and what you say.

Eulogy

a poem, a speech, or another work written in great praise of something or someone, usually a person no longer living.

Euphony

pleasantness of sound, the opposite of cacophony. For example, Mark Twain is alleged to have once said that the most beautiful

Exposition

in a literary work, contextual and background information is told to readers (rather than shown through action) about the characters, plot, setting, and situation.

Falling action

in a plot diagram, this is the result (or fallout) of the climax or turning point. In this phase, the conflict is resolved.

Farce

a dramatic form marked by wholly absurd situations, slapstick, raucous wordplay, and sometimes innuendo.

Feminine ending

when a line of poetry ends on an unstressed syllable, especially one exceeding the general metrical pattern of the poem, the line is said to have a feminine ending.

Feminine rhyme

is one in which the rhyming words both end on unstressed syllables (motion and ocean, seeing and being).

Figurative language

figures of speech; nonliteral language usually evokes strong images. Sometimes referred to as metaphorical language, most of its forms explain, clarify, or enhance an idea by comparing it to something else; the comparison can be explicit (simile) or implied (metaphor). Other forms of figurative language include personification, paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement, and irony.

Flashback

a scene in a narrative that is set in an earlier time than the main action. A passage in a play or story that breaks the chronological sequence of the story to deal with an earlier event.

Foil

a contrasting character who allows the protagonist to stand out more distinctly. A character who illuminates the qualities of another character by means of contrast.

Foot

The foot is the basic rhythmic unit into which a line of verse can be divided. When reciting verse, there usually is a slight pause between feet. When this pause is especially pronounced, it is called a caesura. The process of analyzing the number and type of feet in a line is called scansion.

Iamb

an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: today

Trochee

a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: carry

Dactyl

a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables: difficult

Anapest

two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable: it is time

Spondee

two successive syllables with strong stresses: stop, thief

Pyrrhic

two successive syllables with light stresses: up to

Monometer

one foot

Dimeter

two feet

Trimeter

three feet

Tetrameter

four feet

Pentameter

five feet

Hexameter

six feet

Heptameter

seven feet

Octameter

eight feet

Foreshadowing

a plot device in which future events are hinted at.

Form

refers to the defining structural characteristics of a work, especially a poem (i.e., meter and rhyme scheme). Often poets work within set forms, such as the sonnet or sestina, which require adherence to fixed conventions.

Frame

a story in a frame is preceded by a scene presenting the narrator as about to tell the story and often followed by a scene presenting him as he ends it; sometimes, but not usually, it is interrupted by glimpses of him in the midst of his recital (James' The Turn of the Screw, Wharton's Ethan Frome, Hilton's Lost Horizon). This kind of story thus usually involves a flashback.

Free verse

a form of poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme. Usually contains a vague natural or conversational rhythm of speech. (Most of Walt Whitman's poetry is free verse.) No exact line of separation exists between free verse and rhythmic prose nor between conventional poetry and free verse.

Genre

this term can refer broadly to the general category that a literary work falls into (drama or poetry, fiction or nonfiction) or, more specifically, to a certain subset of literary works grouped based on similar characteristics (science fiction, local color, western).

Gothic

having the characteristics and atmosphere associated with Medievalism or the Middle Ages. Related to Romanticism, Gothicism suggests rugged grandeur, emotional or spiritual appeal, and a shadowy mysteriousness. The Gothic novels were a group written in England in the latter part of the eighteenth century which contain traits that have come to be associated in literature with the term Gothic: a gloomy castle or mysterious house, secret passageways, hidden documents, screams in the night, creaking doors, and fearful suspense. Many of these qualities have been handed down to us in modern mystery and adventure stories.

Hackneyed

worn-out, like a hired horse, by indiscriminate or vulgar use; threadbare, trite, commonplace. Here are some examples of hackneyed expressions: after all is said and done; along these lines; budding genius; by leaps and bounds; deadly earnest; drastic action; it stands to reason; last but not least.

Harlem Renaissance

a movement in the 1920s and 1930s marked by a great flowering of African American arts and culture centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.

Homonym

a word pronounced the same as another but having a different meaning (scene and seen).

Hook

an opening to a piece of writing designed to catch the audience's attention.

Hubris

an excessive level of pride that leads to the protagonist's downfall.

Hyperbole

deliberate exaggeration used to emphasize or produce a comic or an ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point.

Iambic pentameter

an iamb, the most common metrical foot in English poetry, is made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. Iambic pentameter, then, is a rhythmic meter containing five iambs. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse.

Imagery

a description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds. The verbal expression of a sensory experience: visual (sight), auditory (sound), olfactory (scent), gustatory (taste), tactile (touch), or kinesthetic (movement/tension). Imagery may use literal or figurative language.

Imagism

a modernist literary movement that rejected overly sentimental, decorative language in favor of direct and succinct expression, often focusing an entire poem on a single image.

In medias res

Latin for "in the middle of things," the technique of starting a narrative in the middle of the action.

Interior monologue

A record of a character's thoughts, unmediated by a narrator. Interior monologue sometimes takes the form of stream