literary terms

drama: literature intended for performance

  • classical drama: adhering to the traditions of ancient greece and rome

  • comedy: light and humorous plays w happy endings

  • tragedy: serious and somber plays leading to a catastrophic ending

  • tragicomedy: a mix of tragedy and comedy, combining serious and lighthearted elements

  • historical drama: drama set in a specific historical period

forms of humour

  • irony: expressing meaning through contradiction or opposite statements

  • parody: comedic imitation of another work

  • satire: critique of society, politics, or human folly using humor

  • cynicism: distrusting or mocking human sincerity and motives

styles and figures of speech

  • anaphora: repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of succesive clauses

  • antithesis: contrast between two opposing ideas

  • parenthesis: (…), -…-

  • asyndeton: omission of conjuctions (e.g. and, but, or)

    • example: I came, I saw, I conquered

  • polysyndeton: exessive use of conjunctions to slow down the rhytm

    • example: we lived and laughed and loved and left-joyce

  • imagery

    • allegory: symbolic story where characters and events represent deeper meanings, often more political (animal farm)

    • anthropomorphism: giving human traits to animls, gods, or objects (lion king) behaves human

    • personification: giving human-qualities to non-human things (wind whispered) has qualities

    • synaesthesia: mixing sensory experiences (voice smooth as velvet)

    • metaphor: direct comparison without using like/as (time is a thief)

    • simile: comparison using like/as

    • metonymy (association substitution): replacing a word with something closely related to it. (pen better than sword → pen = writing, sword = war)

  • hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration for effect

  • litotes: a double negative or understatement to emphasize something (not exactly a genius = not smart)

  • understatement: making something seem less important than it is (winning lottery ‘this is nice’)

  • wordplay/pun: a joke using meanings of a word or similar-sounding words (time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana)

  • onomatopoeia: words that imitate sounds

  • oxymoron: a phrase combing two contradictory words for dramatic effect (bittersweet)

  • paradox: a self-contradictory statement that seems absurd but reveals a truth (to find yourself u have to lose urself)

  • rhetorical question: question asked for effect not to be answered (you think money grows on trees?)

  • volta (turn): a shift in tone or argument, often in poetry or speeches (in shakespeares sonnets often in 9th line)

  • caesura: a pause within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation (to be or not to be— that is the question)

prose

  • myth: stories explaining natural or social phenomena, often involving deities

  • legend: traditional stories with historical roots but often exaggerated

  • urban legend: contemporary folklore, often fictional yet presented as true

  • folktale/fairy tale: stories with magical or moral themes

  • essay: short non-fictional prose on a specific topic

  • short story: brief fictional narrative

  • novella: a short novel

  • novel: extended fictional work with various subgenres

    • historical novel

    • gothic novel

    • psychological novel

    • science fiction novel

    • fantasy novel

    • thriller

    • utopian / dystopian

    • whodunit / detective

    • autobiography

narrative features

  • character

    • hero/heroine: brave, noble and morally upright main character

    • antihero: a main character who lacks traditional heroic qualities (may be selfish, flawed, morally ambiguous

    • protagonist: the main character in the story (not always ‘good’)

    • antagonist: the opposing force to the protagonist (not always evil)

    • flat character: a simple, one-dimensional character, few personality traits; they don’t change

    • round character: complex, multi dimensional character who has a backstory, emotions and development

  • time

    • chronological order: events are told in the order they happened

    • flashback: a scene that takes place in the past, to explain something about the present

    • flashforward: scene that jumps forward in time to show future events

    • narrating time: how long it takes to tell the story

    • narrated time: the time span inside the story

  • literary space: setting or environment where the story takes place

    • physical: house, city, planet

    • symbolic: setting that represents something deeper (lotf, island represents human nature)

  • structure

    • in media res: ‘in the middle of things’ story starts in the middle of an action rather than the beginning

    • plot: sequence of events in a story

      • exposition: introduction

      • rising action: conflict builds

      • climax: turning point

      • falling action: events after climax

      • resolution: conclusion

    • cliffhanger: suspenseful ending that leaves the reader wanting more

    • open ending: story leaves questions unanswered

    • closed ending: everything gets resolved

    • punchline: final impactful line, often in jokes or short stories

    • climax: most intense or dramatic moment in a story

    • leading motif/leitmotif: recurring theme or symbol (green light, great gatsby)

  • suspense: the tension or excitement that keeps the reader engaged

  • point of view

    • I-narrator (first person narrative): narrator is using I or we (I did)

    • personal narrator: a limited third person narrator, following one character’s perspective (she did)

    • auctorial narrator (omniscient narrator): a god-like narrator who knows everything about every character

    • monologue: a long speech by one character (spoken to themselves or an audience)

    • dialogue: a conversation between two or more characters

    • internal monologue: a character’s thoughts written as if they are speaking to themselves

poetry

  • types of poems

    • ballad:

      • narrative poem that tells a story, often abt love, adventure or tragedy

      • usually written in quatrains (four line stanzas) with a rhyme scheme (often ABCB)

      • can be sung or recited

    • ode:

      • a lyrical poem that praises a person, event, or thing

      • often written in formal and elevated language

      • example: ode to a nightingale, keats

    • elegy:

      • a poem of mourning, often written for someone who has died

      • e.g. o captain, my captain, walt whitman

    • haiku:

      • short japanese poem with three lines (5-7-5 syllables)

      • often about nature, seasons or emotions

    • lymeric:

      • a humorous, five line poem with an AABBA rhyme scheme

      • line 1, 2 and 5 are longer, lines 3 and 4 are shorter

    • sonnet:

      • a 14-line poem, often about love or deep emotions

      • shakespeare sonnet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG)

      • petrarchan sonnet (ABBA ABBA CDE CDE)

  • rhyme

    • alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

    • assonance: repetition of vowel sounds within words

    • end rhyme / tail rhyme: rhyming words at the end of lines

    • rhyme scheme: the pattern of rhymes in a poem, usually labeled with letters (A,B,C, etc.)

    • pair rhyme (AABB): consecutive lines rhyme in pairs

    • crossed rhyme (ABAB): alternating lines in rhyme

    • embracing rhyme (ABBA): the first and last lines rhyme, and the middle lines rhyme

  • rhytm and structure

    • metrical foot: a unit of rhytm in a line of poetry, made stressed (’) and unstressed (˘) syllables

      • Common metrical feet:

        • Iamb (˘ ´) → To-DAY

        • Trochee (´ ˘) → HAP-py

        • Dactyl (´ ˘ ˘) → BEAU-ti-ful

    • metre: the pattern of metrical foot in a poem

      • Common types:

        • Iambic Pentameter → Five iambs per line (Shakespeare’s style).

        • Example: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

    • line: a single row of words in a poem

    • stanza: a group of line froming a unit in a poem (like a paragraph in prose)

    • refrain / chorus: a repeated line or stanza, often used in ballads or songs

    • enjambement: when a sentence continues beyond the line break without a pause