Literary Forms

Allegory

A story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning.

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

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 career of the subject.

Comedy

A literary work written chiefly to amuse its audience, usually providing a happy ending.

High Comedy

Characterized by grace, elegance and wit; intellectual comedy.

Low Comedy

Crude, boisterous 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.

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.

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.

Epistolary

A novel written in the form of correspondence between characters.

Eulogy

A formal composition or speech in high praise of someone or something.

Exemplum

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.

Historical Novel

Attempts to re-create an historically significant personage or series of events.

Homily

Religious sermon or discourse.