Literary Forms

Allegory

a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its

literal or visible meaning. An allegory may be conceived at a metaphor that is

extended into a structured system.

Anecdote

a brief narrative of an entertaining and presumably true incident.

Argument

discourse intended to convince or persuade through appeals to reason or emotion.

Autobiography

an account of all or a part of a person's life written by that person.

Bildungsroman

translated literally means "development novel." A coming of age work that follows its protagonist from youth to experience or maturity.

Biography

a written account of someone's life, written by someone else, which focuses on the character and the career of the subject

Comedy

a literary work written chiefly to amuse its audience. It usually provides a happy ending and emphasizes human limitations rather than human greatness.

High Comedy

characterized by grace, elegance, and wit; intellectual comedy

Low Comedy

crude, boisteous comedy; slapstick and crude jokes; physical comedy

Confessional Literature

autobiographical writing in which the author discusses highly personal and private experiences normally withheld.

Convention

an accepted or expected style or form. (Wicked step-mothers in fairy tales, happy endings, etc.)

Courtly Love

the emotion that a knight was expected to feel toward a noble lady. A convention of literature of the Middle Ages.

Didactic

Any text whose main purpose is to teach or instruct.

Dirge

a funeral song of lamentation; a short lyric of mourning

Discourse

spoken or written language

Argument

discourse intended to convince or persuade through appeals to reason or emotion.

Description

the picturing in words of people, places and activities through detailed observations of color, sound, smell, touch and motion.

Exposition

the setting forth of a systematic explanation of or argument about any

subject.

Narration

the process of relation a sequence of events or another term for narrative.

Rhetoric

the art of persuasion, in speaking or writing

Essay

a short written composition in prose that discusses a subject or proposes an

argument without Claiming to be a complete or thorough exposition. Essays can be

formal, informal or humorous

Epistolary

a novel written in the form of correspondence between characters.

Eulogy

A formal composition or speech in high praise of someone (usually dead, but dead or alive) or something.

Exemplum

A brief tale told to illustrate a biblical text or to teach a lesson or moral.

Expose

article exposing scandal or crime

Fable

a brief tale that conveys a moral lesson, usually by giving human speech and

manners to animals and inanimate things.

Farce

A type of drama related to comedy but emphasizing improbable situations, violent

conflicts, physical action, and coarse wit over characterization or articulated plot.

Genre

- a French term for a type, species, or class of composition such as novel, poem,

short story, and such sub-categories as sonnet, science fiction or mystery.

Gothic

a type of novel characterized by mystery, horror, and the supernatural, often with

haunted castles,secret passageways, grisly visions, and all of the paraphernalia of the

tale of terror.

Historical Novel

attempts to re-create an historically significant personage or series of

events.

Homily

religious sermon or discourse

Melodrama

drama that pits unbelievably good characters against a despicably evil

character. The plot includes dire events and near disasters. Good is always

rewarded, and evil punished.

Memoir

an account of a single period in a writer's life, often one that coincides with

important historical events.

Metaphysical poetry

intricate 17th-century English poetry employing wit and unexpected

images

Miracle Play

medieval religious drama based on a miraculous event in a saint's life or a

story from the Bible.

Mock Epic

comically or satirically imitates the form and style of the epic, treating a trivial

subject in a lofty manner.

Morality Play

allegory in dramatic form. Hero, who represents all mankind, is surrounded

by personifications of virtues, vices, angels, demons and death, who battle for

possession of the hero's soul.

Myth

an anonymous narrative, originating in the primitive folklore of a race or nation, that

explains natural phenomena, or recounts the deeds of heroes, passed on through

oral tradition.

Novel

a lengthy fictional narrative in prose dealing with characters, incidents, and settings

that imitate those found in real life.

Novelette

built on one incident; shorter than a novel, but has more development of

character and theme than a short story.

Novela

a short novel

Novel of manners

a novel, usually comical and satirical, whose characters and plot

emerge from and are limited by the social customs, values, habits and mores of a

particular social class in a particular time and place.

Paean

a song of triumph or thanksgiving.

Parable

a brief tale intended to be understood as an allegory illustrating some lesson or

moral.

Parody

A composition that ridicules another composition by imitating and exaggerating aspects of its content.

Pedantic

writing that borders on lecturing. Scholarly, academic, and often overly difficult

and distant.

Picaresque novel

a novel whose principal character is a low-born rogue who lives by

his/her wits and who becomes involved in one predicament after another.

Play

a literary work written in dialogue and intended for performance before an audience

by actors on stage.

Poetry

literature in its most intense, most imaginative, and most rhythmic form.

Prose

in the broadest sense, all forms of ordinary writing and speech lacking the sustained

and regular rhythmic patterns found in poetry. It resembles closely everyday speech.

Psychological Novel

novel that focuses on the "interior" lives of its characters, their

mental states and emotions, and their psychological motivations of their actions than

on the actions themselves.

Romance

any extended work of fiction that deals with adventure, extravagant characters,

strange or exotic places, mysterious or supernatural incidents, heroic or marvelous

achievements, or passionate love.

Science Fiction

novels and short stories set either in the future or on some imaginary

world.

Short Story

a fictional narrative in prose, short in length (500-15,000 words approx.),

usually limited to a few characters, a single setting, and a single incident.

Sociological Novel

concerned primarily with social issues and problems.

Tract

a formal, religious essay or pamphlet.