Literary and Theater Terms

Characterization

  • The ways individual characters are represented by the narrator or author.
  • Includes descriptions of:
    • Physical appearances
    • Personalities
    • Actions
    • Interactions
    • Dialogue

Connotation

  • An idea or feeling that a word evokes in addition to its literal meaning.

Diction

  • Word choice; the specific language an author, narrator, or speaker uses.
  • Used to describe events and interact with other characters.

Ekphrasis

  • Detailed description of a work of visual art used as a literary device.

Hyperbole

  • Exaggerated language not meant to be taken literally, but used for emphasis.
  • Examples:
    • "I’ve been waiting here for ages."
    • "This bag weighs a ton."

Juxtaposition

  • Placing two things close together with contrasting effect.

Irony

  • Saying one thing and meaning the opposite, often to shock and emphasize the truth.
  • The gap between intention and effect.

Metadrama

  • Drama that calls attention to the artificiality of the events onstage.
  • Highlights its own status as a play.

Allegory

  • A story, poem, or picture with a hidden meaning, typically moral or political.

Alliteration

  • Repetition of consonants, especially at the beginning of related words.

Allusion

  • When a text references, incorporates, or responds to an earlier piece.
  • Includes literature, art, music, film, events, etc.

Analogy

  • A point-by-point comparison between two dissimilar things.
  • Clarifies the less familiar of the two things.

Foreshadowing

  • Hints or clues indicating events that will occur later in the narrative.

Imagery

  • Words and phrases based in the five senses.
  • Creates vivid experiences or a picture for the reader.

Metafiction

  • Fiction that self-consciously alludes to its own artificiality or literariness.

Metaphor

  • A figure of speech that refers to one thing by another to identify similarities.
  • Defines each in relation to one another.
  • Example: "If music be the food of love, play on" (1.1.1).
  • Components:
    • Tenor: The subject of the metaphor, the concept or idea being described.
    • Vehicle: The figurative image used to represent the concept or subject.

Simile

  • A figure of speech that compares two things using "like" or "as".
  • A type of metaphor.

Style

  • An author’s diction, syntax, tone, characters, and narrative techniques.
  • Describes how an author uses language to convey ideas and purpose.

Symbol(ism)

  • An object or element representing another concept or concern.
  • Typically recurs throughout a narrative.
  • Offers critical information about events, characters, and the author’s concerns.

Tone

  • A way of communicating information that conveys an attitude.
  • Conveyed through word-choice, imagery, perspective, style, and subject matter.

Motif

  • A unifying element in an artistic work.
  • A recurrent image, symbol, theme, character type, subject, or narrative detail.

Oxymoron

  • A figure of speech combining two contradictory words or phrases.
  • Creates a condensed paradox.
  • Examples: "wise fool," "cruel kindness."

Setting

  • The place and time at which a play, novel, or film happens.

Syntax

  • Sentence structure.

Theme

  • The central idea in a literary work.
  • An idea about life or people.
  • Expressed as a complete sentence (e.g., "love is an inauthentic performance").

Catharsis

  • Emotional release or sense of relief at the end of a tragedy.
  • Aristotle: tragedy arouses pity and fear, purging the body of these feelings.

Chorus

  • In Greek drama, a group of singers and dancers.
  • Provides exposition and commentary on the action.

Hubris

  • The tragic flaw of pride or arrogance.
  • Leads a hero to disregard moral codes or warnings.
  • Prompts their downfall.

Anagnorisis

  • The point in a play or novel where a character recognizes another's true identity or their own circumstances.

Hamartia

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

Aside

  • A theatrical convention where a character speaks frankly to the audience.
  • Other characters on stage do not notice.
  • Expresses a thought.

Dramatic Irony

  • A plot device where a character's expectation is reversed.
  • Audience anticipates events due to more complete knowledge.

Monologue

  • A long speech by one character.
  • Addressed to another character, oneself, or the audience.
  • Elucidates internal thoughts or desires.

Soliloquy

  • A monologue by a character alone on stage.
  • Provides insight into their thoughts.

Tragedy

  • A form of drama from ancient Greece.
  • Central conflict: humans struggle against an antagonistic force and are defeated.
  • Classical Greek tragedy: protagonist negotiates choice and relationship with gods.

Blank Verse

  • Unrhymed verse with five iambic feet to a line (iambic pentameter).

Couplet

  • A stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse.

Iambic Pentameter

  • A line of verse with ten syllables arranged in five metrical feet (iambs).
  • Each iamb consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Meter

  • The measured pattern of rhythmic accents in a line of verse.

Pun

  • Humorous use of words based on:
    • Several meanings of one word.
    • Similarity of meaning between words pronounced the same.
    • Difference in meanings between two words pronounced the same and spelled similarly.

Quatrain

  • A four-line stanza.

Soliloquy

  • Speaking one's thoughts aloud when alone.

Stanza

  • A division of a poem with two or more lines arranged together.

Sonnet

  • A lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines.

Verse

  • Writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme.

Abstraction (Graphic Novels)

  • Abstract images allow readers to map their own experiences onto the story.
  • Amplification through simplification.

Panel (Graphic Novels)

  • A distinct segment of the comic, containing a combination of image and text.

Congruent Relationship (Graphic Novels)

  • Words and pictures give the same information.

Foreground (Graphic Novels)

  • The part of a scene that is nearest the viewer.

Background (Graphic Novels)

  • Provides subtextual information for the reader.

Deviant or Ironic Relationship (Graphic Novels)

  • Words and pictures tell different stories.
  • Stories may enhance or contradict each other.

Frame (Graphic Novels)

  • The lines and borders that contain the panels.

Graphic Weight (Graphic Novels)

  • The amount of contrast in an image.
  • Considers blacks offset with whites or shades of grey.
  • Degree to which colors are vivid or opaque.

Gutter (Graphic Novels)

  • The space between framed panels.

Enhancement (Graphic Novels)

  • Pictures and text complement or extend one another.

Text Captions (Graphic Novels)

  • Boxes containing scene-setting, description, etc.

Splash (Graphic Novels)

  • A panel that spans the width of the page.
  • A 'bleed' is when it runs off the page entirely.

Speech Bubbles (Graphic Novels)

  • Enclose dialogue from a specific speaker’s mouth.
  • Vary in size, shape, and layout.

Synergy (Graphic Novels)

  • The combined meaning of words, pictures, and other elements.