Introduction to Literary Studies – Key Vocabulary

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering communication theory, definitions of literature, scholarly practice, poetic form and devices, narratology, drama analysis and tragic theory for the ‘Introduction to Literary Studies’ course.

Communication Model (General)

Diagram that presents sender, message, receiver, context, code and contact as interacting elements in any act of communication.

Roman Jakobson

Russian-American linguist whose six-factor model of communication and six language functions frame much modern literary theory.

Referential Function

Use of language to convey information about a context or external reality (describing facts).

Emotive / Expressive Function

Language use that foregrounds the speaker’s feelings or attitudes.

Conative / Imperative Function

Language directed at influencing or commanding the addressee’s behaviour.

Phatic Function

Utterances whose chief purpose is to open, test or maintain the channel of communication (e.g., “Hello?”).

Metalingual Function

Use of language to discuss or clarify the code itself (talking about words or grammar).

Poetic Function

Orientation on the message for its own sake – foregrounding sound, form or style; central to literature.

Broad Definition of Literature

Inclusive view that treats many verbal artefacts (e.g., advertisements, speeches) as literature.

Narrow Definition of Literature

Restrictive view that limits literature to canonical, artistically valued texts.

Normative Definition

Definition that states what literature should be according to cultural or aesthetic norms.

Descriptive Definition

Definition that records how a society in fact uses the label ‘literature’ without value judgement.

Literariness

The stylistic devices and formal features that distinguish a literary text from non-literary discourse.

Ambiguity

Intentional openness to multiple meanings; often a hallmark of poetic language.

Fictionality

Status of a text that presents imagined events and characters rather than factual reportage.

Mimesis

Artistic imitation of reality.

Poiesis

Creative making; producing a self-contained verbal artefact rather than imitating reality.

Aesthetic Attitude / Convention

Reader’s or writer’s decision to approach a text primarily as art, focusing on form and beauty.

Primary Literature

Original creative texts that are the main object of literary study.

Secondary Literature

Scholarly writing that analyses, interprets or edits primary texts.

Academic Discourse

Peer-reviewed, research-oriented communication among scholars; contrasts with reviews or journalism.

Textual Analysis

Close reading that describes the form and structure of a literary text.

Textual Interpretation

Critical explanation of a text’s meanings and implications.

Literary History

Study of literature within chronological, cultural and social contexts.

Literary Theory

Systematic reflection on the methods and aims of literary study.

Textual Criticism / Scholarly Editing

Establishing reliable texts through comparison of manuscripts and editions.

Monograph

Single-author book devoted to one unified scholarly topic.

Edited Collection

Book of chapters by different authors, organised by one or more editors.

Journal

Periodical that publishes peer-reviewed scholarly articles.

Journal Article

Scholar’s essay published in a periodical.

Book Article / Chapter

Essay published inside an edited collection.

Self-contained Source

Text published as an independent physical entity (e.g., novel, play).

Non-self-contained Source

Text that appears within a larger container (e.g., poem in anthology).

Foot

Smallest metrical unit in poetry, a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iamb

Two-syllable foot: unstressed + stressed (da-DUM).

Trochee

Two-syllable foot: stressed + unstressed (DUM-da).

Anapaest

Three-syllable foot: unstressed + unstressed + stressed (da-da-DUM).

Dactyl

Three-syllable foot: stressed + unstressed + unstressed (DUM-da-da).

Iambic Pentameter

Line of five iambs (10–11 syllables); dominant metre in English verse from Chaucer to Milton.

Monometer – Octameter

Lines of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven or eight stresses respectively.

Rhyming Couplet

Two consecutive lines that rhyme AA; also a two-line stanza.

Alternate Rhyme

ABAB pattern, also called cross rhyme.

Embracing / Envelope Rhyme

ABBA pattern enclosing inner lines.

Full Rhyme

Perfect match of final stressed vowel and subsequent sounds.

Half Rhyme

Imperfect or slant correspondence of sounds (e.g., love / move).

Eye Rhyme

Words that look alike but sound different (e.g., love / move).

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme within a single line, not only at line endings.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighbouring words.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby stressed syllables.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds, often at word ends or within words.

Geminatio

Immediate repetition of a word or phrase (e.g., “Tyger! Tyger!”).

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginnings of successive lines or sentences.

Epiphora

Repetition at the ends of successive lines or sentences.

Epanalepsis

Repetition at both beginning and end of a clause or line (e.g., “Live and let live”).

Parallelism

Balanced repetition of syntactic structures (e.g., “Out of sight, out of mind”).

Chiasmus

Crossed arrangement of mirrored elements (ABBA), often reversing order.

Simile

Explicit comparison using ‘like’ or ‘as’ (e.g., “My love is like a red rose”).

Metaphor

Implicit comparison that transfers attributes from one domain to another (e.g., “Time is money”).

Metonymy

Figure in which one thing stands for another closely associated object (e.g., “The White House” for U.S. government).

Source / Donor Field

Domain from which metaphorical language is taken.

Target / Recipient Field

Domain that receives qualities from the metaphor’s source.

Free Verse

Poetry lacking regular metre and conventional rhyme schemes.

Sonnet

14-line lyric, typically iambic pentameter, with a set rhyme scheme; origin in Petrarch.

Ballad

Narrative poem or song, often in quatrains with alternating 4- and 3-stress lines; rooted in folk tradition.

Ballad Revival

18th- & 19th-century movement in which educated poets imitated folk ballad style (e.g., Keats).

Speaker (Lyric I)

Fictional voice that utters a poem; must not be conflated with the author.

Addressee

Person within or outside the text to whom the speaker directs the poem.

Implicit Subjectivity

Minimal or hidden self-reference in a lyric voice.

Explicit Subjectivity

Clearly delineated personal voice with identifiable traits in a poem.

Covert Narrator

Narrator whose presence is unobtrusive and not explicitly acknowledged by the story.

Overt Narrator

Narrator who openly comments, addresses the reader or intrudes in the text.

Story

Chronological sequence of events in a narrative (what happens).

Discourse

Manner of telling; the narrative presentation of story events.

Plot

Story arranged with causal, thematic or dramatic emphasis (how & why events connect).

Narratee

Implied reader addressed by the narrator inside the fictional world.

First-Person Narrative Situation

Story told by an ‘I’ who is also a character within the events.

Authorial Narrative Situation

Third-person narration by an overt, external voice with panoramic knowledge.

Figural Narrative Situation

Third-person narration filtered through a character’s perspective; narrator recedes.

Narrating I

Role of the first-person storyteller looking back on events.

Experiencing I

Same first-person narrator viewed as character undergoing events.

Reflector

Character whose consciousness provides focalization in figural narration.

Homodiegetic Narrator

Narrator who is also a character in the story world.

Autodiegetic Narrator

First-person narrator who is the protagonist of the story.

Heterodiegetic Narrator

Narrating voice situated outside the characters’ world.

Extradiegetic Narrator

Narrator who frames a story from an external level.

Intradiegetic Narrator

Narrator who tells a story within another story (embedded).

Unreliable Narrator

Narrator whose account the reader is led to question (e.g., Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart”).

Internal Focalization

Perspective located inside a character’s consciousness; reader sees what the character sees.

External Focalization

Perspective from outside characters; narrator presents observable behaviour.

Zero Focalization

Narration with unrestricted, god-like knowledge (no fixed focalizer).

Psycho-Narration

Narrator describes a character’s mental states from outside.

Free Indirect Discourse

Blending of third-person narration with character’s thoughts, retaining third-person pronouns but adopting character’s diction.

Interior Monologue

Direct presentation of a character’s unmediated thoughts in first person, present tense.

Flashback (Analepsis)

Narrative shift to earlier events than the current story time.

Flashforward (Prolepsis)

Narrative leap to events that will occur later than the current story time.

Ellipsis (Narrative)

Omission of a span of story time; events skipped over.

Summary (Duration)

Condensed narration that covers a long stretch of story time quickly.

Scene

Narration roughly equal in time to events (dialogue, detailed depiction).

Stretch

Discourse time longer than story time, as in extended description of a brief moment.

Pause

Narrative commentary during which story time stops.