Literary terms

Alienation

from Marxism, suggests that under Capitalism we live estranged from our true human natures

Allegory

a story of some complexity that corresponds to another situation on a deeper level, a dual perspective giving...(e.g. interest and wit)

Alliteration

repetition of an identical consonant sound at the beginning of stressed words, usually close together - look at the effet it creates... (e.g. draw together unlike ideas for contrast, suggest meaning through the sound effect, link similar things for emphas

Allusion

a reference to an event, person, place, work of literature etc. that gives additional layers of meaning to a text or enlarges its frame of reference

Ambiguity

where language and tone are (usually deliberately) unclear and may have two or more interpretatins or meanins

Ambivalence

where the writer's attitude to, e.g., a character or event is not clear-cut, but may seem to hold at least two responses

Antithesis

contrasting ideas by balancing words of opposite meaning and idea

Apostrophe

an exclamatory passage where the speaker or writer breaks off in the flow of a narrative or poem to address a dead or absent person, a particular audience, or object (often personified)

Assonance

repetition of similar vowel sounds close to one another - can create atmosphere in descriptive poetry

Atmosphere

often confused with 'mood', it refers specifically to place, a setting, or surroundings

Bathos

a sudden descent from the sublime or serious, to the ridiculous or trivial

Bildungsroman

German term for a novel focusing on the development of a character from youth to maturity

Blank verse

unrhymed poetry not broken into stanzas, keeping to a strict pattern in each line, usually in iambic pentameter - clost to the rhythm of speech

Caesura

a break or pause within a line of poetry by comma or full stop or unmarked pause, used for emphasis, or to change direction or pace

Caricature

an exaggerated representation of a character often by emphasising a small number of features, usualy for comic or satiric purposes

Colloquial

everyday speech and language as opposed to literary or formal register - the inclusion of the odd colloquial word or phrase in an otherwise formal work can be striking

Conceit

a witty thought or idea or image, a fanciful or deliberately far-fetched comparison, as found in 16th and 17th century English poetry

Concrete

refers to objects or aspects that may be percieved by the senses

Connotation

an association that a word may suggest

Consonance

where the final consonants are the same in two or more words close together

Couplet (rhyming couplet)

two consecutive rhyming lines of verse - may clinch or emphasise an idea

Defamiliarization

the technique of making the familiar seem new and strange, and thus making us see more vividly - may be done through point of view

Denouement

how the ending of of a novel or play turns out, how the plot is unravelled or revealed - literally, from the French, 'unknotting'

Diction

the writer's choice of words or vocabulary

Didactic

describes the tone or intention to preach a (usually) moral, political or religious point - usually has a negative connotation

Dramatic irony

tool especially in drama, used for tragic or comic purposes - where a character(s) is/are unaware of somethign that the audience/reader and possibly other characters on stage are away of

Elegy

a mournful lament for times past or the dead - has particular poetic from but can be used more generally - 'elegiac' describes a meditative mood in prose or vers, reflecting on the past

End-stopped line

a line of poetry where the meaning pauses or stops at the end of the line - a statement or idea can stand out clearly, and provide a pause for reflection

Enjambement

the opposite of end-stopped line, the sense flows over from one line to another, perhaps even to the next stanza - can reflect a build-up of emotion or create dramatic effect

Epigram

a concise, pointed, witty statement - epigrammatic' style in prose or poetry

Form

the shape of a work, the arrangement of its parts, the patterns, divisions and structures used - in poetry, there are traditional, metrical and rhyming 'forms' (ode, ballad, sonnet etc.) and modern, non-metrical forms

Free verse

verse written without any fixed or traditional structure in metre or rhyme - very flexible because it follows the speech rhythms of the language

Genre

a specific type or kind of literature, such as drama, prose, poetry, essay, autobiography

Grain

a reader can go acceptingly along wih assumptions and values in a text, or go 'against the grain', resisting and questioning values and assumptions in that text - also apply to other situations...

Hyperbole

a deliberate exaggeration for various effects, comic, tragic, etc.

Iambic

'iamb' is a metrical measure, or foot, in which an unstressed sullable is followed by a stressed syllable - iambic pentameter (five iambs in a line) is the commonest metrical pattern in English poetry - tetrameter (four-iamb line)

Idyll/idyllic

refers to innocent simple life in idealised rural setting

Imagery

concrete descriptions (images) we can see and sense in works of literature

Internal rhyme

where there are rhymes within a line instead of, or as well as, at the ends of lines

Irony

a gap or mismatch between what is being said, and what is intended, perhaps between the way a character or group sees him/her/itself, and the way the author wishes us to see him/her/it - exposes hypocrisies and lack of awareness

Lyric

originally a song performed to a lyre (early harp) - now a sonlike poem expressing personal feeling - prose can be lyrical too, expressive of feelings

Metaphor

a comparison of two things without using a comparing word such as 'like' - to see a striking similarity between to normally unlike things can be an indicator of originiality - it provides richness of sensation and meaning - comparison may be implied rathe

Metre

the organisationg of lines of verse into regular patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to achieve a rhythmic effect

Mimesis

describes an interesting and common effect: the use of words that suggest movement, shape, size, texture (smooth, rough, soft)

Mood

refers to people, describes a person's (a character's or the narrator's) frame of mind or state of feeling - may also indicate the emotional response the author hopes to evoke in the mind of the reader

Monologue

speech, usually of some length, by a single speaker - a 'dramatic monologue' has a listener present and reveals the character of the speaker in a striking way

Motif

recurrent elements (images, ideas) in a work - not as significant as themes but have a cumulative effect like a refrain and can assume symbolic importance

Omniscient Narrator

'all-knowing', describing one who stands outside and can see into all characters and happenings

Onomatopoeia

effect of words that imitate the sound of things

Oxymoron

where two words of opposite meaning are joined - can suggest something quite complex or provocative

Paradox

seemingly contradictory statement, but on reflection, it makes sense, contains its own resolution or truth

Parody

usually comic imitation of another work

Pastiche

a literary work composed in the style of a well-known author

Persona

the identity or character assumed by the author in a work of literature

Personification

where the human feelings or sensations are attributed to an inanimate object - human qualitites may also be given to abstract ideas

Plot

the events of a narrative in the order the author has chosen to present them - chronology may be distorted for particular effects, as in flashbacks or flash forwards; e.g. a novel may begin with the ending of the story

Point of view

the angle from which the narrative is seen or told - who sees? who speaks? - may shift in a work

Protagonist

main character in a work

Quatrain

stanza or group of four lines that can have different rhyme schemes

Refrain

repetition in a work of literature of a phrase or lines

Rhythm

aplies to both prose and poetry and has to do more generally with the flow of sound created by stressed and unstressed syllables (steady, irregular?)

Satire

exposing and ridiculing of human follies in a society, sometimes with the aim to reform, sometimes predominantly to deflate - may be gentle, comin, biting or bitter, or a combination

Setting

context in which a work of literature takes place: geographical, social, historical, generalised, conventional, symbolic etc.

Simile

where the comparison is made explicit with 'as' or 'like' - make descriptions vivid and unusual

Skaz

a technique of narration that mirrors oral narration with its hesitations, corrections, grammatical mistakes, interations etc.

Soliloquy

a speech by a character alone on stage, thinking aloud, revealing thoughts and emotions, or communicating directly with the audience - tool for revealing psychological complexity

Sonnet

a fourteen-line rhyming poem often in iambic pentameter - rhyme schemes and organisation of lines vary, depending on the type of sonnet, but often set out as a block of 8 lines (octave) or 6 lines (sestet)

Stanza

blocks of lines into which a poem is organised - in traditional forms of poetry each stanza follows a scheme governing metre, lines and rhymes

Story

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

Stream of consciousness

the impression of a random stream of thoughts

Style

the distinctive traits in an author's work, the 'how' of writing - concerns theme, diction (emotional, abstract, poetic), sentence structure, imagery, sound, etc.

Subtext

ideas, feelings, thoughts, not dealt with directly in the text but existing underneath - plays: characters don't always express their real thoughts

Symbol

objects that represent or evoke an idea or concept of wider, abstract significance

Syntax

grammatical structure of words in a sentence - normal order of words can be slightly displaced to create a particular effect, without losing the sense

Theme

central ideas or issues, often abstract, explored or illustrated in a text - can also refer to an argument raised or pursued in the text, like a thesis

Tone

the technique of writing to convey the attitude of the writer towards his/her subject, created through aspects of language like diction, syntax, rhythm, which will suggest a 'tone of voice' - emotional meaning

Trochee/trochaic

the reverse of iambic, it may be used as a contrast within an iambic line, to stress an idea