literary terms

Anachronism

Something out of its normal time.

Archetype

a term applied to a universal symbol, theme, or character type that recurs across literature and culture.

Bildungsroman

A coming of age narrative in which the young protagonist develops self awareness or identity.

Blank verse

Poetry written in unrhymed imabic pentameter

catharsis

A moral and spiritual cleansing; an empathetic identification with others.

Chiasmus

Parallel structure in inverted/ mirror form.

Colloquialism

An expression used in informal conversation but not accepted in formal writing or speech.

Cumulative sentence

A sentence that builds on itself by adding subordinate elements or modifiers.

Didactic

A tone intended to instruct or moralize.

Elegy

A lyric poem that mourns the death of a person or laments something lost.

Epigraph

A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of them.

Heroic couplet

A couplet written in iambic pentameter