Literary Terms

Terminology to support AO2

Allegory

A literary work in which characters, objects, or actions represent ideas

Alliteration

Repetition of consonant sounds. It can create different effects.

Allusion

A reference to another work of literature, person, or event. (ex: Alluzjoni Bibblika)

Ambiguity

Where language, action, tone, or character are (sometimes deliberately), unclear and may yield two or more interpretations/meanings.

Ambivalence

The state of having contradictory or conflicting emotional attitudes. A writer's attitude to a character or event may not be clear cut, but may seem to hold at least two responses at the same time.

Anagnoris

Recognition of truth about one's self and his actions; moment of clarity that is usually late in the plot

Antithesis

The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure

Apostrophe

A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person.

Assonance

Repetition of similar vowel sounds within two or more words in close proximity

Atmosphere

It refers specifically to place - a setting or surrounding.

Bathos

A sudden descent from the serious, to the ridiculous or trivial. "His pride and his bicycle tyre were punctured in the first hour".

Bildungsroman

A coming of age story

Blank verse

verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter.

Caesura

a break or pause within a line of poetry, created by a comma or full stop.

Caricature

An exaggerated representation of a character, often emphasising physical or vocal features, usually for comic and satiric purposes.

Colloquial

everyday speech or language

Conceit

A witty thought or idea or image, a fanciful or deliberately far-fetched comparison.

Concrete Imagery

Language that describes qualities that can be perceived with the five senses

Connotation

All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests

Consonance

Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity.

Context

The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text.

Contradiction

Stating or implying the opposite of what has been said or suggested.

Rhyming Couplet

Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry

Defamiliarisation

A process in which the author can make a reader perceive something in a new way, sometimes making them feel uncomfortable

Denoument/Resolution

final outcome, conflict is solved

Diction

the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.

Didactic

tone - intended to instruct or teach

Dramatic Irony

when a reader is aware of something that a character isn't

Elegy

a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead or times past.

Elegiac

a meditative mood in prose or verse, reflecting on the past.

End-stopped line

A line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation

Enjambement

a run-on line, continuing into the next without a grammatical break

Epigram

a witty saying expressing a single thought or observation

Epiphany

A moment of sudden revelation or insight

Form

the physical structure of the poem

Free Indirect Discourse

the narrator conveys a character's inner thoughts while staying in the third person

Free Verse

Poetry that does not have a regular metre or rhyme scheme

Genre

A category or type of literature

Hyperbole

exaggeration

Iambic

a metrical foot in poetry that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

Iambic Pentameter

a poetic meter that is made up of 5 stressed syllables each followed by an unstressed syllable

Idyll/idyllic

Refers to innocent simple life in idealised rural setting.

Imagery

Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

Interior Monologue

Narrative technique that records a character's internal flow of thoughts, memories, or ideas

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a line

Intertextuality

the shaping of a text's meaning by another text

Irony

A contrast between expectation and reality

Lyric

A song-like poem expressing personal feeling.

Metafiction

Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself, either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.

Metaphor

A comparison without using like or as

Metre

The regular use of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry

Mood

Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader

Monologue

A long speech made by one performer or by one person in a group.

Motif

A recurring theme, subject or idea

Omniscient

All-knowing narrator who can see into the minds of any character

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. "parting is such sweet sorrow"

Paradox

A statement that seems contradictory but is actually true

Parody

A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule.

Pastiche

Imitation of the style of another work sometimes mildly ridiculing, but often in homage to the original and creating a new work

Persona

The identity or character assumed by the writer in a work

Personification

The giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea

Plot

Sequence of events in a story

Point of view

the perspective from which a story is told

Protagonist

Main character in a story

Antagonist

A character or force in conflict with the main character

Quatrain

4 line stanza

Refrain

A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem (like the chorus of a song)

Rhythm

A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.

Satire

A literary work that criticises human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.

Setting

The time and place of a story

Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as"

Skaz

A technique of narration that mirrors oral narration with its hesitations, corrections, grammatical mistakes and interactions

Soliloquy

A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage

Aside

A line spoken by an actor to the audience but not intended for others on the stage

Sonnet

A 14 line rhyming poem usually in iambic pentameter. Examples: Shakespearean (3 quatrains + a couplet), Petrarchan (octave and sestet)

Story

The events of a narrative in the chronological order in which they actually happened.

Stream of Conciousness

The representation of a character's thought processes

Style

The choices a writer makes; the combination of distinctive features of a literary work

Subtext

The implied meaning that underlies the main meaning

Syntax

Sentence structure

Theme

Central ideas or issues

Tone

Attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character

Trochee (trochaic)

A foot consisting of one long or stressed syllable followed by one short or unstressed syllable. (Ex: Witches in Macbeth)

Utopia

an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect; an ideal society

Dystopia

An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.

Absurdist Theatre

An anti-realist form of theatre that seeks to reveal the meaninglessness of human existence.

Agit-Prop (Agitation Propaganda)

A piece of drama that exists to make a political point. Often performed in the street.

Brechtean Drama/Epic Theatre

A drama designed to confront its audience directly through devices like the alienation effect, to put forward a political point of view. In Brecht's case this was used to advance left-wing politics. Sometimes this type of play is called 'Epic theatre'

Classical Drama

the drama of ancient Greece and Rome

Aristotle's Three Unities

unity of action (no sub-plots), unity of place (only one scene throughout), and unity of time (action takes place within 24hrs)

Farce

A comedy featuring exaggerated situations and physical humour, based around the attempt to preserve respectability

Farcical

An event which becomes absurd

Happening

an act of performance art that is initially planned but involves spontaneity, improvisation, and often audience participation

Masque

16th/17th form of court entertainment with music, dancing, and dialogue but emphasising spectacle, costume and theatrical effects rather than plot.

Realistic Drama

An attempt to represent life on stage with the minimum interference from convention. The defining metaphor is that viewing a realistic play should be like looking into a room with one wall missing.

Shakespearean Drama

The name given to British drama of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period that ignored the rules of classical drama and uses large time-spans, sub-plots and many scenes.

Catharsis

a release of emotional tension

dramatis personae

list of characters in a play

Hamartia

a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine