Lit Terms Glossary

Alienation

Estrangement from our true human natures under Capitalism, as suggested by Marxism.

Allegory

A complex story that corresponds to another situation on a deeper level, exemplified by *Animal Farm* reflecting the Russian Revolution.

Alliteration

Repetition of identical consonant sounds at the beginning of stressed words, creating effects in poetry and prose.

Allusion

A reference to an event, person, or work that adds layers of meaning to a text.

Ambiguity

Deliberately unclear language that allows for multiple interpretations.

Ambivalence

A writer's mixed feelings towards a character or event, showing at least two responses.

Antithesis

Contrasting ideas balanced by opposite meanings in words.

Apostrophe

An exclamatory passage addressing a dead or absent person or object.

Assonance

Repetition of similar vowel sounds close together, creating atmosphere in poetry.

Atmosphere

The specific setting or surroundings of a literary work.

Bathos

A sudden shift from the serious to the trivial.

Bildungsroman

A novel focusing on a character's development from youth to maturity.

Blank verse

Unrhymed poetry in iambic pentameter, resembling natural speech.

Caesura

A break or pause within a line of poetry for emphasis or change of pace.

Caricature

An exaggerated representation of a character for comic or satiric effect.

Colloquial

Everyday language as opposed to formal or literary language.

Conceit

A fanciful or far-fetched comparison, often found in 16th and 17th-century poetry.

Concrete

Referring to details that can be perceived by the senses.

Connotation

The associations a word suggests beyond its literal meaning.

Consonance

Repetition of final consonant sounds in close proximity.

Contradiction

Stating the opposite of what has been suggested.

Couplet

Two consecutive rhyming lines of verse.

Defamiliarization

Making the familiar seem new and strange to enhance perception.

Denouement

The resolution or unraveling of a plot in a narrative.

Diction

The writer's choice of words and vocabulary.

Didactic

A tone or intention to preach a moral, political, or religious point.

Dramatic irony

When the audience knows something that characters do not.

Elegy

A mournful lament for the dead or for times past.

End-stopped line

A line of poetry where the meaning pauses at the end.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line.

Epigram

A concise, witty statement often with a humorous twist.

Form

The shape and arrangement of a literary work.

Free verse

Poetry without fixed structure in meter or rhyme.

Genre

A specific type or kind of literature.

Grain

Reading against the assumptions and values in a text.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration for effect.

Iambic

A metrical foot with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Idyll/idyllic

Referring to an idealized, simple life in a rural setting.

Imagery

Concrete descriptions that evoke sensory experiences.

Interior monologue

A character's thoughts expressed in language.

Internal rhyme

Rhymes occurring within a line of poetry.

Irony

A gap between what is said and what is meant.

Lyric

A songlike poem expressing personal feelings.

Metaphor

A comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as."

Meter

The rhythmic structure of lines in poetry.

Mimesis

The use of words that suggest movement or texture.

Mood

The emotional atmosphere of a piece of literature.

Monologue

A speech by a single speaker, revealing character.

Motif

Recurrent elements in a work that contribute to its theme.

Omniscient Narrator

A narrator who knows all characters and events.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sounds they describe.

Oxymoron

A combination of contradictory terms.

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory statement that reveals a truth.

Parody

A comic imitation of another work.

Pastiche

A work composed in the style of a well-known author.

Persona

The character or identity assumed by the author.

Personification

Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

Plot

The sequence of events in a narrative as chosen by the author.

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