Lit Terms

(the) Absurd

An avant-grade style in which structure, plot, and characterization are disregarded or garbled in order to stress the lack of logic in nature and man’s isolation in universe which has no meaning or value

Aesthetics 

Means the study of the emotions and mind in relation to their sense of beauty in literature and other fine arts, but separately from moral, social, political, practical, or economic considerations. This area of study is connected with the appreciation and criticism of what is considered beautiful or ugly. It is sometimes refered to as “art for art’s sake” 

Affective Fallacy

The error of judging a literary work by its emotional effect upon readers or confusion between the workitself and its results 

Allegory

An extended metaphor in which a person, abstract idea, or event stands for itself and for something else. It usually involves moral or spiritual concepts which are more significant than the actual narrative 

Alliteration

Common in poetry and occasionally in prose, this is the repetition of an initial sound in two or more words of a phrase, line, or sentence. It is usually a consonant and marks the stressed syllables in a line of poetry or prose. Alliteration may be considered ornamental or as a decoration which appeals to the sense of hearing.

Allusion

A reference, usually brief, often casual, occasionally indirect, to a person, event, or condition thought to be familiar (but sometimes actually obscure or unknown) to the reader. This holds true especially for the characters and events of mythology, legends, and history. Association is an essential part of allusion. The purpose of allusion is to bring a world of experience outside the limitations of a statement to the reader

Ambiguity

A doubtfulness or uncertainty about the intention or meaning of something. It usually refers to a statement that is subject to more than one interpretation. The term is used for words that suggest two or more appropriate meanings or that convey both a basic meaning and complex overtones of that meaning. Sometimes, authors make deliberate choices of words that simultaneously cause several different streams of thought in the reader’s mind. Ambiguity is also used to mean confusion between the denotation and connotation of a literary work. A simple kind of ambiguity is the use of homophones to promote a multiplicity of possible meanings. In Sonnet 135, Shakespeare puns on the word “Will”, invoking its sense as one’s wish, as well as its sense as a nickname for “William”: “whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will” (line 1)

Anachronism

An error in chronology, or placing an event, person, item, or language expression in the wrong period

Analogy

The relationship of similarity between two or more entities or a partial similarity on which a comparison is based. An example is the classical analogy between the heart and a pump. In argumentation and persuasion, analogy is often used as a form of reasoning in which one thing is compared to or contrasted with another in certain respects, based on the known similarity or dissimilarity in other respects. Analogy is often used to paint vivid word pictures

Antagonist

the character who strives against another main character. This character opposes the hero or protagonist in drama. The term is also used to describe one who contends with or opposes in a fight, conflict, or battle of will.s In literature, this is the principal opponent or foil of the main character and is considered the villain unless the protagonist is a villain; in that case, the antagonist is the hero

Anticlimax 

A drop, often sudden and unexpected, from a dignified or implant idea or situation to a trivial one or a descent from something sublime to something ridiculous. In fiction and drama, this refers to action which is disappointing in contrast to the previous moment of intense interest or anything which follows the climax. The effect may be comic and is often intended to be. According to Samuel Johnson, who first recorded the word, it is “A sentence in which the last part expresses something lower than the first”

Antithesis

Contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence. It is the juxtaposition of two words, phrases, clauses, or sentences contrasted or opposed in meaning in such a way as to give emphasis to their contrasting ideas and give the effect of balance. This is a device often used in rhetoric.

Aphorism

A brief, pithy, usually concise statement or observation of a doctrine, principle, truth, or sentiment. Aphorisms are usually not anonymous

Apocalyptic 

Connected with revelation. The term is also used to describe literature that provides a prophecy or revelation. In contemporary usage, this refers to any literary selection that reveals and predicts the future. Usually, the term is used to refer to the coming of the end of the world and the expected final battle between good and evil 

Apology

A defense and justification for some belief, doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action without any admission of blame with which we contemporarily associate the word. In the Eighteenth Century, the word came to be used loosely almost as a synonym for autobiography without any suggestion of justifying or defending the writer’s ideas or conduct

Arbitrary

Lacking any natural basis or substantial justification; determined by whim with little thought

Archetype

The original model or pattern from which copies are made or from which something develops. It is also a symbol, theme, setting, or character that is thought to have some universal meaning and recurs in different times and places in myth, literature, folklore, dreams, and rituals

Ballad

A short, narrative folk song that fixes on the most dramatic part of a story, moving to its conclusion by the means of dialogue and a series of incidences. It represents a type of literary and musical development across Europe in the late Middle Ages and tends to have a tight dramatic structure that sometimes omits all preliminary material, all exposition and description, even all motivation, to focus on the climatic scene. The narrator is impersonal and the listener or reader is left to supply the antecedent material. Folk ballads are transmitted orally, and therefore, subject to continual change, although most seem to be domestic, simple, stanzad, rhymed, and use language and actions which are stylized. Cliches and conventionalized conduct are typical in ballads which are still common in northern Greece, parts of the central Balkans, and Sicily. Originally, the term signified a song accompanied by a dance. Later, it came to mean a narrative poem with short stanzas designed for signing or oral recitation.

Bard

One of an ancient Coltic order of versifiers, especially one who was highly trained as a composer, signer, and harpist who recited heroic and adventurous poems. This type of versifiers was the oral historian, political critic, eulogizer, and entertainer of his society. Poems passed from bard to bard orally with each bard adding some personal embroidery. Their memorization was aided by certain formulas such as fixed phrases and repeated verses or groups of verses. The most prominent bards lived in medieval and post-medieval Wales and Ireland, many as residents in wealthy homes, others as itinerants. In Wales, bards were often nobles and formed guilds to set standards for writing and reciting. They were repeatedly outlawed by the English as politically incidting, causing their gradual extinction. The word is still used to describe a recognized singer at the Welsh music festival

Bibliography

A list of readings on a particular subject. Included in the list are authors, titles, editions, and dates and places of publication. Bibliographies can be divided into two categories: the enumerative, which listst alphabetically or chronologically, and the critical, which lists evaluations or comparisons of the items. In library science, however, the term means the study of the history, physical description, and classification of books

Black Comedy

Often considered perverted and morbid, black comedy depicts situations normally thought of as tragic or grave as humorous. Specifically, it it displays marked disillusionment and depicts humans without convictions and with little hope. The term is also used to describe theater dealing with sinister or disturbing subjects handled lightly in an attempt to offend and shock, as it is common in Theater of the Absurd 

Blank Verse

Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents. Blank verse is considered best for dramatic verse in English since it is the verse closest to the rhythms of everyday English speech and has been the dominant verse form of English drama and narrative poetry since the mid-Sixteenth Century. Such verse is blank is rhyme only, having a definite meter, although variations in meter are sometimes used. 

Bombast

Originally, cotton or any soft material used for padding to produce clothes in the fashion of the Sixteenth Century. It has come to mean a highflown, unnatural style, rather inflated and insincere, pretentious, ranting, and using extravagant language. Also, it can denote extravagance at the expense of content

Canon

A standard of judgement or a criterion. It is also an approved list of books belonging in the Christain Bible, in addition to being accepted list of any given order, and the list of books accepted as Scripture. The term is increasingly used to refer to those works of literature that have come to be considered standard in any anthology or course of study. In addition, it refers to the works of an author which are accepted as genuine, such as the Cjaucer Canon

Canto

One of the main or larger divisions of a long poem. It is also used to denote a singing or chanting section of a poem, or a subdivision of an epic or narrative (comparable to a chapter in a novel)

Catharsis

Any emotional discharge which brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety.. The usual intent is for an audience to leave feeling this relief from tension or anxiety after having viewed a play

Character

An aggregate of traits and features that form the nature of some person or animal. It also refers to moral qualities and ethical standards and principles. In literature, character refers to a person represented in a story, novel, play, etc

Characterization

The creation of the image of imaginary persons in drama, narrative poetry, the novel, and the short story. Characterization generates plot and is revealed by actions, speech, thoughts, physical appearance, and the other characters’ thoughts or words about him 

Chorus

A group of singers distinct from the principal performers in a dramatic or musical performance and, also, the song or refrain that they sing

Chronicle

A detailed and continuous record of events, usually a systematic account or narration of events that contain little or no interpretation or analysis

Climax

The moment in a play, novel, short story, or narrative poem at which the crisis comes to its point of greatest intensity and is resolved. It is also the peak of emotional response from a reader or spectator, and it usually represents the turning point in the action. Additionally, the term is used for the arrangement of words, clauses, or sentences in order of their importance, the least forcible coming first and the others rising in power until the last, or simply, the last term of the arrangement. Climax also means a culmination. 

Closure

The sense of completion or resolution at the end of a literacy work or part of a work. In literary criticism, it is the reduction of a work’s meanings to a single and complete sense that excludes the claims of other interpretations

Colloquialism

A word or phrase used in an essay, informal style of writing or speaking. It is usually more appropriate in speech than formal writing. Colloquialisms appear often in literature since they provide a sense of actual conversation and use the prununciation, grammar, and vocabulary of everyday speech

Comedy

A ludicrous and amusing event or series of events designed to provide enjoyment and produce smiles or laughter usually written in a light, familiar, bantering, or satirical style. Comedy is the opposite of tragedy. Dramatic comedy begins in difficulty and rapidly involves its characters in amusing situations and ends happily, nut not all comedies are humorous and lighthearted. It differs from burlesque and farce in that comedy has a more closely knit plot, more sensible and intelligent dialogue, and more plausible characterization. Often comedy assures its desired effect by stressing some uddity or incongruity of character, speech, or action-perhaps by caricature or exaggeration. There are many different kinds of comedy with the most usual being 

Comic Relief

A humorous scene, incident, or remark occuring in the midst of a serious or tragic literary selection and deliberately designed to relieve emotional intensity and simulaneously to heighten, increase, and highlight the seriousness or tragedy of the action. Apart from being a simple diversion, though, comic relief normally plays some part in advancing the action of drama 

Conceit

Describing a person or idea by use of an analogy which often seems farfetched but proves surprisingly apt in pointing out parallels between the two being compared. A conceit may be considered an extravagant metaphor making an analogy between totally dissimilar things

Connotation

Suggestions and associations which surround a word as opposed to its bare, literal meaning. It is the opposite of denotation. Connotation refers to qualities, attributes, and characteristics implied or suggested by the word is used. Metaphors depend a great deal on connotation. Connotations often elicit emotional responses from the reader

Content 

Things or substances in an enclosed space, such as topics, ideas, statements, or facts in a book, document, letter, etc. This is true not only of forms, but also thought, feeling, attitude, and intention as conveyed by the words and their arrangement-especially what is said, rather than how it is said, in literature and in poetry 

Context

The part of a written (or spoken) statement which leads up to, follows, and specifies the meaning of that statement. The context of a group of words is nearly always very intimately connected as to throw light upon not only the meaning of individual words, but also the sense and purpose of an entire work

Couplet

A pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhymes, that are of the same metrical length, and form a single unit. The term is also used for lines that express a complete thought or form a separate stanza. Couplets are usually written in decasyllable lines. A closed couplet is one that is logically and grammatically complete.

Denouement

Refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events. It is the final outcome or unraveling of the main dramatic complications in a play, novel, or other work of literature. In drama, the term is usually applied to tragedies or to comedies with catastrophes in their plot. Denouement is usually the final scene or chapter in which any necessary, and, as yet unmade, clarifications are made 

Device

A term used to describe any literary technique deliberately employed to achieve a specific effect such as: in medias res in novels; parallelism in rhetoric; alliteration, simile, and metaphor in poetry; soliloquy in drama; and hyperbole, paradox, and oxymoron in conceits

Dialect

The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons. It encompasses the sounds, grammar, and diction employed by a specific people as distinguished from other persons either geographically or socially. Dialect, as a major technique of characterization, is the use by persons in a narrative of distinct varieties of language to indicate a person’s social or geographical status, and is used by authors to give an illusion of reality to fictional characters. It is sometimes used to differentiate between characters.

Dialogue

Is a conversation, or a literary work in the form of a conversation, that is often used to reveal characters and to advance the plot. Also, the lines spoken by a character in a play, essay, story, or novel

Digression

A passage or section of writing that departs from the central theme or basic plot. usually within the framework of the piece of writing rather than added at the end of prefaced at the beginning. It is used extensively in storytelling.

Drama

A composition in prose or verse presenting, in pantomime and dialogue, a narrative involving conflict and usually designed for presentation on stage. Aristotle called it “imitated human action”. This type of composition needs a theater, actors, and an audience in order to be fully experienced; reading it is not enough. Sometimes, the word us used to mean a serious play

Elegy

A mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead or a personal, reflective poem 

Ellipsis

The omission of a word or words that a reader must supply for full understanding, or a mark or marks to indicate the omission or suppression of words, phrases, etc. This also means the omission in a sentence of one or more words needed to express the sense completely

Epic

A lengthy narrative poem in which the action, characters, and language are on a heroic level and the style is exalted and even majestic. Early epics are often stemmed from oral traditions.

Epigram

A witty, ingenious, and pointed saying that is tersely expressed 

Epilogue

A concluding part added to such a literary work as a novel, play, or long poem. It is the opposite of a prologue. Sometimes, the word is used to refer to the moral of a fable. Often, we see it as a speech by one of the actors at the end of a play asking for the indulgence of the critics and audience

Epithet

An adjective which expresses a quality or attribute considered characteristic of a person or thing. It is also an appellation or descriptive term which is common in historical titles such as “Catherin the Great”

Essay 

A short literary composition on a particular theme or topic, usually in prose and generally thoughtful and interpretative. This type of writing is devoted to the presentation of the writer’s own ideas and generally addresses a particular aspect of the subject 

Euphemism

The use of an indirect, mild, delicate, inoffensive, or vague word or expression for one thought to be coarse, sordid, or otherwise unpleasant, offensive, or blunt

Exegesis

A critical interpretation and explanation of a literary work, but usually applied to an analysis of an unusually difficult passage in poetry or prose. Exegesis refers especially to the interpretation and explanation of a selection from the Bible

Exposition 

A form of discourse that explains, defines, and interprets. The word is also applied to the beginning portion of a plot in which background information about the characters and situation is set forth. 

Fable

A short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth. Such a story often concludes with an epigram containing the moral. Allegories, parables, and fables with animals as the principal characters are sometimes called beast fables. Occasionally, the term is applied to stories about supernatural persons, to accounts of extraordinary events, to legends and myths, and to outright falsehoods

Fantasy

Extravagant and unrestrained imagination. In writing, it is used to denote a literary work in which the action occurs in a non-existent and unreal world (such as fairyland) or to a selection that involves incredible characters

Farce

A foolish show or a ridiculous sham. Also, a light, humorous play in which the plot depends upon a carefully exploited situation rather than upon character development. Farce is usually considered to be a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue which is intended to excite laughter through exaggeration and extravagance rather than by a realistic imitation of life. It contains exaggerated physical action which is often repeated, exaggeration of character and situation, Absurd situations, and surprises in the form of unexpected appearances and disclosures. The characters and dialogue are almost always subservient to the plot and situation which are so complex that the events happen with bewildering rapidly. Elements of farce can be found in Classical Literature, and it is the mainstay of many television and film comedians 

Fiction

Any imagined and invented literary composition fashioned to entertain and possibly instruct. While fiction makes its readers think, its primary purpose is to make readers feel. The most common elements of fiction are: point of view, characters, conflict, plot, and setting. The term is usually applied to novels and short stories, but drama, epic, fable, fairy tale, folklore, verse, and parable also contain fictional elements

Figure of Speech

The expressive use of language in which words are used in other ways than their literal senses so as to suggest and produce pictures or images in a reader or hearer’s mind, bypassing logic and appealing directly to the imagination in order to give particular emphasis to an idea or sentiment

First-Person Narrative

Personal point of view of the first person, usually the author participant if the writer assumes the point of view of a character. The narrator is the “I” telling his/her part in the story such as in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre

Folklore

The long-standing and traditional beliefs, legends, and customs of a people. It is a general term for the verbal, spiritual, and material aspects of any culture that are transmitted orally, by observation, or by imitation, and passed on and preserved from generation to generation with constant variations shaped by memory, immediate need or purpose, and the degree of individual talent. Not only does folklore entertain, but it passes on the culture and behavior models of a people, which psychologist Carl Jung called “the collective unconscious.” Folklore is comprised of folk tales

Folk Tale

A traditional legend or narrative originating among a people, usually part of an oral traditions and subject to variation in transmission. Folk tales include legends, myths, fables, and the supernatural. Folk tales make up the folklore of a people

Formula

A fixed and conventional method of developing a plot. In films, television, and western stories, there are several stock formulas, including the redemption theme, the Cinderella story, and the country bumpkin plot. While formulas are hackneyed, stereotypical, and use the same conventions repeatedly, there are also formulas in the form of poems in the oral traditions. They are predictable and conform to the patterns of the genre

Free Verse

Verse that lacks regular meter and line length but relies upon natural rhythms. It is free from fixed metrical patterns, but does reveal the cadences that result from alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. The form is thought to add force to thought and expression. While giving an address on May 17, 1935, Robert Frost explained, “Writing free Verse is like playing tennis with the net down”

Genre

A category or class of artistic endeavor having a particular form, technique, style, or content. Some current genres are the novel, short story, essay, epic, tragedy, comedy, satire, and lyric

Hagiography

A subtype of biography dealing with the lives and legends of saints and the critical study of these lives and legends. There are two main groups: literary, such as The Golden Legend of Jacobus a Voragine of the Thirteenth Century, and liturgical, such as The Roman Martyrology of the late Sixteenth Century. A second definition for hagiography is any idealizing or worshipful biography

Haiku

Japanese verse usually employing allusions and comparisons. The verse is composed of three lines containing a fixed number of syllables, usually 17 or 19, within three unrhymed lines: five, seven, and five syllables per each line in order. The haiku presents a pair of contrasting images, one suggestive of time and place, the other a vivid but fleeting observation which, together, evoke mood and emotion

Hero

The principal characters of a play, novel, etc.

Homily

A moralizing discourse or sermon explaining some part the Bible with accompanying instruction for the congregation

Hubris

Arrogance, excessive self-pride and self-confidence. The word was used to refer to the emotion in Greek tragic heroes that led them to ignore warnings from the gods and thus invite catastrophe. It is considered a form of hamartia or tragic flaw that stems from overbearing pride and lack of piety

Hyperbole

Obvious and deliberate exaggeration or an extravagant statement. It is a figure of speech not intended to be taken literally since it is exaggeration for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbole is a common poetic and dramatic device

Idiom

The language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people or the constructions or expressions of one language whose structure is not matched in another language. Idioms often possess a meaning other than their grammatical or logical ones and cannot be directly translated into another language.. It also is used to describe something peculiar to an individual

Imagery

The forming of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things. It is also the use of language to represent actions, persons, objects, and ideas descriptively. This means encompassing the senses also, rather than just forming a mental picture

In Media Res

Beginning a narrative well along in the sequence of events. It is a convention used in epic poetry and sometimes novels, short stories, drama, and narrative poetry designed to attract immediate attention from and secure the prompt interest of the reader or audience

Interior Monologue

Represents the inner thoughts of a character, recording the internal or emotional thoughts or feelings of an individual

Irony

A dryly humorous or lightly sarcastic figure of speech in which the literal meaning of a word or statement in the opposite of that intended. In literature, it is the technique of indicating an intention or attitude opposed to what is actually stated. Often, only the context of the statement leads the reader to understand it is ironic. Irony makes use of hyperboles, sarcasm, satire, and understatement

Lampoon

Prose or verse, sometimes in the form of sharp satire, which severely ridicules the character, intentions, or behavior of a person, institution, or society. Lampoons appeared often in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, but are less common today because of libel laws

Legend

A tradition or story handed down from earlier times and popularly accepted as true but actually a mix of fact and fiction. The term is also applied to any fictitious tale concerning a real person, event, or place and is likely to be less concerned with the supernatural than a myth. Another definition of legend is brief, explanatory comments accompanying a photography, map, or painting; in such a case, a synonym is caption

Limerick

Light verse consisting of a stanza of five lines, rhyming aabba, which is usually naughty in nature. The first, second, and fifth lines are in trimester, and the third and fourth lines are in diameter. Limericks are almost always humorous in tone

Litany

A form of prayer consisting of a series of invocations with identical responses in succession. It is also the term for the supplications in The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. Often, it is used for a recitation that is ceremonial and repetitive. It is common to hear the term used to describe any repetitive, monotonous statement or account

Literal

Pertaining to a letter of the alphabet. More typically, it means “based on what is actually written or expressed.” A literal interpretation gives an exact rendering-word for word-taking words in their usual or primary sense. It is also used to describe thinking which is unimaginative or matter of fact

Literature

Writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas and concerns of universal and apparently permanent interest, are essential features. While applied to any kind of printed material, such as circulars, leaflets, and handbills, there are some who feel it is more correctly reserved for prose and verse of acknowledge excellence, such as George Eliot’s works. The term connotes superior qualities

Malapropism

The act or habit of misusing words to comic effect. This usually results from ignorance or from confusion of words similar in sound but different in meaning, mainly polysyllabic words

Melodrama

A form of play that intensifies sentiment, exaggerates emotions, and relates sensational and thrilling action with four basic sharply contrasted and simplified characters: the hero, the heroine, their comic ally, and a villain. The action is constantly kept at high tension

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to a person, ideo, or object to which it is not literally applicable. It is an implied analogy or unstated comparison which imaginatively identifies one thing with another. This device is used by an author to turn or twist the meaning of a word. Metaphors are the most often and used figure of speech. While not required in poetry, they are universally used there. A “dead metaphor” is a former metaphor now accepted as common usage, such as table leg or car hood

Monologue

Refers to speech by one person in a drama, a form of entertainment by a single speaker, or an extended part of the text of a play uttered by an actor

Morality Play

An allegory in dramatic form, Popular from the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries, most morality plays used personification abstractions of vices and virtues. They did not necessarily use the Bible or strictly religious material and were more concerned with morality than spirit. This type of play essentially depicted a battle between the forces of good and evil in the human soul

Muse

The genius or powers characteristic of a literary artist, or a goddess regarded as inspiring a poet or other writers. In Classical mythology, the Muses were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (the Goddess of Memory) who presided over them. Each daughter was considered the inspiration in a different area: Calliope-epic poetry; Euterpe-lyric poetry; Clio-history; Terpsichore-choral songs and the dance; Melpomene-tragedy; Erato-love poetry; Polyhymnia-sacred poetry; Thalia-comedy; and Urania-astronomy. They were said to be the companions of the Graces and Apollo, the god of music