AP ENGLISH LITERATURE
Literary and Critical Terms
2015-2016
Directions:
1. Memorize the terms and definitions.
2. Learn to pronounce them correctly.
3. Find examples. Some definitions contain examples, some don’t. Find new ones
since you’ll eventually have to identify these on your own. Pick examples that are
memorable to you.
4. Articulate the effect of the term. What is the enjambment doing in the poem? How is
the poet using it?
Abstract
The opposite of concrete. Abstract terms and statements describe ideas, concepts, qualities.
Love, hate, persistence, and agony are examples. Can you put it in a jar? If you can’t, it’s
probably abstract. The more intangible a term or statement, the more general, the more
associated with the intellect, the more abstract it is likely to be.
Act
A major division of the action of a play or drama. Acts are generally divided into scenes.
Ancient Roman dramatists divided plays into five acts. Shakespeare followed the tradition.
Action
The events or unfolding of events in a narrative. The action is what happens in the plot of
the literary work, including what the characters say or do, to advance the story.
Aesthetic Distance
A separation between the audience and a work of art that is necessary for the audience to
recognize and appreciate the work as an aesthetic object. Distance does not imply
complete detachment. It allows the audience to view the work free from overly personal
identifications and experience its contents fully and freely.
Allegory
The concrete presentation of an abstract idea with at least two levels of meaning--the
surface storyline and the political, philosophical, or religious meaning. Examples: John
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Alliosis
Presenting alternatives: "You can eat well or you can sleep well." While such a structure
often results in the logical fallacy of the false dichotomy or the either/or fallacy, it can create
a cleverly balanced and artistic sentence.
Alliteration
The repetition of sounds in a sequence of words. Alliteration generally refers to repeated
initial consonant sounds: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
Allusion
An indirect reference, often to a person, event, statement, theme, or work. Allusions enrich
meaning through the connotations they carry.
Ambiguity
Lack of clarity or uncertainty in meaning. May be intentional or unintentional, and the
richness and complexity of literary works depend to a great extent on ambiguity, which can
be used to create alternate meanings or levels of meaning.
Amplification
A rhetorical figure involving a dramatic ordering of words, often emphasizing some sort of
expansion or progression, whether conceptual, valuative, poetic, or even with regard to
word length. “It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman!”
Anacoluthon
Intentional disruption of syntax to create intensity, excitement, confusion. “Swear here as
before that you never shall note that you know aught of me.”
Anagnorisis
The moment in a drama when the protagonist discovers something that either leads to or
explains a reversal of fortune. Basically, the protagonist gains some crucial knowledge that
he or she did not have.
Analepsis
The evocation in a narrative of scenes or events that took place at an earlier point in the
story (flashback).
It can disrupt the chronological flow, involve memory or dream suddenly recounted by a
narrator, or add information.
Anapest
A metrical foot in poetry that consists of three syllables: two unstressed followed by a
stressed (⌣⌣’). Sounds like DEE-DEE-DUM. Anapestic words would include: contradict,
interfere, elegy.
Anaphora
An exact repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or sentences.
Anaphora is a type of parallelism.
Anapodoton
Deliberately creating a sentence fragment by the omission of a clause: "If only you came
with me!" If only students knew what anapodoton was! Good writers never use sentence
fragments? Ah, but they can. And they do. When appropriate.
Anecdote
A brief account of some interesting or entertaining and often humorous incident. It relates a
particular episode that illustrates a single point.
Antagonist
The character pitted against the protagonist. An evil or cruel antagonist is a villain.
Antanaclasis
The stylistic scheme of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time.
From Shakespeare: "for many a thousand widows/ Shall this his mock mock out of their
dear husbands; Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down." Or, “Police police
police.”
Anticlimax
Rhetorical descent, usually sudden, from a higher to a lower emotional point--from a topic or
tone with greater drama or significance to one with less impact or importance. Anticlimax
typically results in disappointment or reversal of expectations. An example would be the last
ten chapters of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Antihero
A protagonist who does not exhibit the typical qualities of the traditional hero. Instead of
being grand or admirable (brave, honest, magnanimous) an antihero can be ordinary, petty,
or a criminal. Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.
Antimetabole
Repetition in reverse order: "One should eat to live, not live to eat." Or, "You like it; it likes
you." The witches in Macbeth chant, "Fair is foul and foul is fair."
Antithesis
A rhetorical figure in which two ideas are directly opposed. Totalitarianism and freedom are
antithetical concepts.
Aphorism
A concise, pointed, epigrammatic statement that purports to reveal a truth or principle.
Aphorisms can be attributed to a specific person. “All you need is love” (The Beatles). “A
rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (William Shakespeare). Once a statement is
so widely known that authorship is lost, it is called a proverb. “It takes a village to raise a
child.” A statement that gives behavioral advice is called a maxim. “The early bird gets the
worm.”
Aposiopesis
A figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the
ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability
to continue. An example would be the threat "Get out, or else—!" This device often portrays
its users as overcome with passion (fear, anger, excitement) or modesty. Typically indicated
by ellipses (...) or a dash (--).
Apostrophe
When a character speaks to a character or object that is not present or is unable to respond.
The object of the apostrophe, if not human, is usually personified.
Archetype
The original model from which something is developed or made; in literary criticism, those
images, figures, character types, settings, and story patterns that, according to Carl Jung,
are universally shared by people across all cultures. Examples: The snake, the flood, the
savior, the blonde guy wearing white with a square jaw and chiseled pecs who shows up at
just the right time.
Assonance
Repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.
Asyndeton
Using no conjunctions to create an effect of speed or simplicity: Veni. Vidi. Vici. "I came. I
saw. I conquered." (As opposed to "I came, and then I saw, and then I conquered.") Been
there. Done that. Bought the t-shirt.
Atmosphere
The general feeling created for the reader by a work at a given point. Atmosphere is
established through elements such as imagery, setting, and sound. Atmosphere is not the
same as tone, which is the author’s attitude toward the reader, audience, or subject matter.
Aubade
A lyric poem delivered at dawn, usually by lovers who must part. Generally a joyful
announcement of the new day after an evening of “adult together time.”
Ballad
A poem that recounts a story--generally some dramatic episode--in the form of a song.
Bildungsroman
A novel that recounts the development of an individual from childhood or adolescence to
maturity, to the point at which the protagonist recognizes his or her place in the world.
Examples: Great Expectations, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Invisible Man, The
Outsiders, The Spider-Man story.
Blank Verse
Name for unrhymed iambic pentameter. An iamb is a metrical foot in which an unstressed
syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. In iambic pentameter there are five iambs per line
making ten syllables. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0aAWuUX5jU
Cacophony
Harsh, unpleasant, or discordant sounds. Opposite of euphony. An example of discordant
sounds found in poetry would be Hart Crane’s poem "The Bridge" (1930), which uses cacophony to
communicate the chaos and evil in the industrial world:
The nasal whine of power whips a new universe….
Where spouting pillars spoor the evening sky,
Under the looming stacks of the gigantic power house
Stars prick the eyes with sharp ammoniac proverbs,
New verities, new inklings in the velvet hummed
Of dynamos, where hearing’s leash is strummed….
Power’s script, - wound, bobbin-bound, refined-
Is stopped to the slap of belts on booming spools, spurred
Into the bulging bouillon, harnessed jelly of the stars.
Caesura
A pause in a line of poetry. It is dictated by natural speaking rhythm, not meter.
Canon
A body of written works accepted as authoritative or authentic.
Catachresis
A term referring to the incorrect or strained use of a word.
Catharsis
The emotional effect a tragic drama has on its audience.
Character
A figure in a literary work. A flat character is defined by a single idea or quality. A round
character has the three-dimensional complexity of a real person.
Cliche
An expression used so often (and often out of context) that it has lost its original impact. Ex:
“Under the weather” for being ill and “show me the money” for greedy enthusiasm.
Climax
The turning point in the plot or the high point of action.
Colloquial
Informal, conversational language. Colloquialisms are phrases or sayings that are indicative
of a specific region.
Concrete
Opposite of abstract. Concrete terms refer to specific people, places, events, or things. If
you can put it in a jar (even if it is painful), it is concrete.
Confessional Poetry
A contemporary poetic mode in which poets discuss matters relating to their private lives.
Confessional poets use intimate detail and often psychoanalytic terms to describe their
most painful experiences. Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath are are pioneers of this style.
Conflict
A confrontation or struggle between opposing characters or forces in the plot of a narrative
work, from which the action emanates and around which it revolves.
Connotation
An idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing, ie. Bat=evil.
Consonance
The repetition of consonant sounds in a phrase or line of poetry. The consonant sound may
be at the beginning, middle, or end of the word.
Contraction
Removes an unstressed syllable and in order to maintain the rhythmic meter of a line. This
practice explains some words frequently used in poetry such as th’ in place of the, o’er in
place of over, and ‘tis or ‘twas in place of it is or it was.
Convention
An understanding between a reader and a writer about certain details of a story that does
not need to be explained.
Couplet
Two rhyming lines in poetry.
Dactyl
A metrical foot in poetry that consists of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed
ones.
Most nursery rhymes are dactylic: “Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker’s man.”
Denotation
A word’s literal meaning(s), independent of any connotations; the dictionary definition of a
word.
Denouement
The final resolution or clarification of a dramatic or narrative plot.
Deus Ex Machina
Term that refers to a character or force that appears at the end of a story or play to help
resolve conflict. Word means “god from a machine.” In ancient Greek drama, gods were
lowered onto the stage by a mechanism to extricate characters from a seemingly hopeless
situation. The phrase has come to mean any turn of events that solve the characters’
problems through an unexpected and unlikely intervention.
Dialogue
Conversation between two or more characters in a literary work.
Diction
A speaker or author’s word choice. The general type or character of language used in
speech or in a work of literature.
Didactic
Instructive or providing information for a particular purpose. “Teachy.”
Dissonance
Harsh, discordant sounds.
Domesticity
An aspect of patriarchal, nineteenth-century doctrine of separate spheres, according to
which a woman’s place was in the privacy of the home, whereas a man’s place was in the
wider, public world.
Ekphrasis
Literary representation of a response to a visual work or art, such as a painting or sculpture.
Elektra Complex
The desire a female child feels toward the male parent, from the ancient Greek legend of
Elektra, who convinced her brother to kill their mother to avenge their father’s murder.
Elegy
A poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person.
Enallage
Intentionally misusing grammar to characterize a speaker or to create a memorable phrase.
Boxing manager Joe Jacobs, for instance, became immortal with the phrase, "We was
robbed!" Or, the editors of Punch magazine might tell their British readers, "You pays your
money, and you takes your chances."
End Rhyme
Rhyme that occurs at the end of lines in verse. The last word of the line rhymes with the last
word of another line.
End-Stopped Line
A line of poetry whose meaning is complete in itself and that ends with a grammatical pause
marked by punctuation.
English (Shakespearean) Sonnet
A 14-line sonnet consisting of three quatrains with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef,
followed by a couplet, gg.
Enjambment
A poetic statement that spans more than one line.
Epigraph
A passage printed on the first page of a literary work, taken from earlier texts, to establish
the tone or theme of what follows.
Epilogue
The concluding section of a work.
Epiphany
Sudden enlightenment or realization, a profound new outlook or understanding about the
world usually attained while doing everyday mundane activities.
Epistolary Novel
A novel that tells its story through letters written from one character to another. Ex: Perks of
Being a Wallflower
Epistrophe
Repetition of a concluding word or endings: "He's learning fast; are you earning fast?"
When the epistrophe focuses on sounds rather than entire words, we normally call it rhyme.
Epithet
An adjective or phrase applied to a noun to accentuate a certain characteristic. Ex: The
Founding Fathers; Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, that Mr. Rogers-looking fool.
Euphony
A succession of words which are pleasing to the ear. These words may be alliterative,
utilize consonance or assonance, and are often used in poetry but also seen in prose.
Opposite of cacophony.
Euphemism
The act of substituting a harsh, blunt, or offensive comment for a more politically accepted
or positive one.
Fable
A usually short narrative making an edifying or cautionary point and often employing as
characters animals that speak and act like humans.
Falling Action
In a tragedy, the portion of the plot that follows the climax or the crisis and that leads to or
culminates in the catastrophe. In other genres, it leads to the resolution of the plot.
Figurative Language
Speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or
meaning. Speech or writing employing figures of speech.
Foil
A character that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of
another.
Foot
The metrical length of a line is determined by the number of feet it contains.
Monometer: One foot
Dimeter: Two feet
Trimeter: Three feet
Tetrameter: Four feet
Pentameter: Five feet
Hexameter: Six feet
Heptameter: Seven feet
The most common feet have two to three syllables, with one stressed.
Iamb- An iambic foot has two syllables. The first is unstressed and the second is
stressed. The iambic foot is most common in English poetry. (re/spect)
Trochee- A trochaic foot has two syllables. The first is stressed and the second is
unstressed. (bum/mer, Free/burg, Pass/ler)
Dactyl- A dactylic foot has three syllables beginning with a stressed syllable; the
other two unstressed. (ec/sta/cy)
Anapest- An anapestic foot has three syllables. The first two are unstressed with the
third stressed. (con/tra/dict)
Foregrounding
Giving prominence to something in a literary work that would not be accentuated in ordinary
discourse. An example would be Zora Neale Hurston’s “foregrounding of language and
culture in her fiction, dramatizing vernacular ways of speaking that are so independent,
dynamic, and expressive that they cross over, challenge, and transform mainstream
dialects.”
Foreshadowing
Introducing into narrative material that prepares the reader for future events, actions, or
revelations. Foreshadowing often helps to create mood and atmosphere.
Formalism
A style of literary criticism from the 30s. It’s what we do for AP: the literary work is an object
in its own right. We analyze what’s on the page, not the author’s life or social forces. This
allows us to deal with any piece of literature, whether we are familiar with the context or
author or not.
Frame Story
A story that contains another story or stories. Usually the frame story explains why the
interior story or stories are being told.
Free Verse
Poetry that lacks a regular meter, does not rhyme, and uses irregular line lengths. Writers of
free verse disregard traditional poetic conventions and rely instead on parallelism, repetition,
and the ordinary cadences and stresses of everyday discourse.
Freytag’s Pyramid
Gustav Freytag’s conception of the typical structure of a five-act play: introduction, rising
action, climax, falling action, catastrophe.
Genre
The classification of literary works on the basis of their content, form, or technique.
Ex: Prose/Poetry, Epic/Drama/Lyric, Comedy/Tragedy/Pastoral/Satire
Gothic
A genre characterized by a general mood of decay, suspense, and terror; action that is
dramatic and generally violent or otherwise disturbing; loves that are destructively
passionate; and landscapes that are grandiose, if gloomy or bleak. Ex: Edgar Allan Poe,
Dracula, Frankenstein.
Grotesque
Strangely unusual things, bizarre or unnatural combinations of characteristics or images.
Hagiography
Originally a biography recounting a saint’s life. Now hagiography can refer to writing about a
revered individual. Ex: “Michael Jordan’s hagiographers were unwilling to admit he was a
style trainwreck.”
Hamartia
An error in judgment made by a tragic hero that brings about the suffering, downfall, and
often death of that hero.
Harlem Renaissance
An intellectual and cultural movement of the 1920s centered in Harlem, then a
predominantly African American section of New York City. Commonly dated 1919-1937.
Significant writers include: Langston Hughes, WEB DuBois, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale
Hurston, Dorothy West, Nella Larsen, Countee Cullen.
Hendiadys
The expression of an idea by the use of usually two independent words connected by and
(as nice and warm) instead of the usual combination of independent word and its modifier
(as nicely warm).
Hero/Heroine
Synonymous with protagonist, a hero or heroine is the main character of the work.
Hubris
Used in Greek tragedies, refers to excessive pride that usually leads to a hero’s downfall.
Hypallage
Also known as a transferred epithet, is the trope in which a modifier, usually an adjective, is
applied to the "wrong" word in the sentence. The word whose modifier is thus displaced can
either be actually present in the sentence, or it can be implied logically. The effect often
stresses the emotions or feelings of the individual by expanding them on to the environment.
Ex: “restless night,” “clumsy helmet,” “happy morning.”
Hyperbaton
A generic term for changing the normal or expected order of words. "One ad does not a
survey make." The term comes from the Greek for "overstepping" because one or more
words "overstep" their normal position and appear elsewhere. For instance, Milton in
Paradise Lost might write, "High on a throne of royal gold . . . Satan exalted sat." In normal,
everyday speech, we would expect to find, "High on a throne of royal gold . . . Satan sat
exalted."
Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or comic/dramatic effect.
Iamb
A metrical foot in poetry that consists of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed
syllable. Ex: afloat, respect, in love.
Idyll
A narrative work, usually short, descriptive, and composed in verse that depicts and exalts
pastoral scenes and themes. The simple shepherd’s life is a typical subject. Often
composed from the viewpoint of a “civilized” society that longs for something more primal,
natural, or innocent.
Imagery
The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas.
In Medias Res
A literary technique of beginning the narrative in the middle of the action. Used to “hook” the
reader or audience.
Interior Monologue
A literary technique for rendering stream of consciousness by reproducing a character’s
mental flow. Presents thoughts, emotions, and sensations as experienced by the character.
Internal Rhyme
A rhyme that occurs within a line of verse.
Ex: “They took some honey and plenty of money/Wrapped in a five-pound note.”
Intertextuality
The condition of interconnectedness among texts, or the concept that any text is an
amalgam of others, either because it exhibits signs of influence or because its language
inevitably contains common points of reference with other texts through such things as
allusion, quotation, genre, style, and even revisions.
Inversion
An intentional digression from ordinary word order which is used to maintain regular meters.
For example, rather than saying “the rain came” a poem may say “came the rain”. Meters
can be formed by the insertion or absence of a pause.
Irony
When one thing should occur, is apparent, or in logical sequence, but the opposite occurs.
A man in the ocean might say, “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”
Dramatic Irony: When the audience or reader knows something characters do not
know
Verbal Irony: When one thing is said, but something else, usually the opposite, is
meant
Cosmic Irony: When a higher power toys with human expectations
Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet
A poem with fourteen lines. An Italian sonnet subdivides into two quatrains and two tercets
(or an octave which presents a problem and a sestet which ponders a solution). Rhyme
scheme is typically ABBAABBA followed by CDCDCD or a (variation). A contemporary one:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/244570
Litotes
A trope that involves making an affirmation by negating its opposite. “Not unkind” means
“kind.” “Not bad” usually means “good.”
Loose Sentence
A complex sentence in which an independent clause is followed by one or more other
elements. It is syntactically complete on the front end. Loose sentences are less formal,
more conversational, and more common in English than periodic sentences.
Meiosis
A trope involving deliberate understatement, usually for comic, ironic, or satiric effect.
Typically involves characterizing something in a way that, taken literally, minimizes its
gravity. Ex: “One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day.”
Metaphor
A figure of speech that associates two distinct things without using a connective word. Ex:
“That child is a wet napkin.”
Metaplasmus
A type of neologism in which misspelling a word creates a rhetorical effect. To emphasize
dialect, one might spell dog as "dawg." To emphasize that something is unimportant, we
might add -let or -ling at the end of the word, referring to a deity as a "godlet", or a prince as
a "princeling." To emphasize the feminine nature of something normally considered
masculine, try adding -ette to the end of the word, creating a smurfette or a corvette. To
modernize something old, the writer might turn the Greek god Hermes into the Hermenator.
Likewise, Austin Powers renders all things shagedelic. The categories following this entry
are subdivisions of metaplasmus. I remember these by thinking about adding PEP.
Prosthesis--adding an extra syllable or letters to the beginning of a word:
Shakespeare writes in his sonnets, "All alone, I beweep my outcast state." He could
have simply wrote weep, but beweep matches his meter and is more poetic. Too
many students are all afrightened by the use of prosthesis. Prosthesis creates a
poetic effect, turning a run-of-the-mill word into something novel.
Epenthesis--Epenthesis (also called infixation) -- adding an extra syllable or letters
in the middle of a word. Shakespeare might write, "A visitating spirit came last night"
to highlight the unnatural status of the visit. More prosaically, Ned Flanders from The
Simpsons might say, "Gosh-diddly-darn-it, Homer."
Proparalepsis--adding an extra syllable or letters to the end of a word. For instance,
Shakespeare in Hamlet creates the word climature by adding the end of the word
temperature to climate (1.1.12). The wizardly windbag Glyndwr (Glendower)
proclaims that he "can call spirits from the vasty deep" in 1 Henry IV (3.1.52).
Aphaeresis--deleting a syllable from the beginning of a word to create a new word.
For instance, in King Lear, we hear that, "the king hath cause to plain" (3.1.39). Here,
the word complain has lost its first syllable. In Hamlet 2.2.561, Hamlet asks, "Who
should 'scape whipping" if every man were treated as he deserved, but the e- in
escape has itself cleverly escaped from its position!
Syncope--deleting a syllable or letter from the middle of a word. For instance, in
Cymbeline, Shakespeare writes of how, "Thou thy worldy task hast done, / Home art
gone, and ta'en thy wages" (4.2.258). In 2 Henry IV, we hear a flatterer say, "Your
lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some smack of age in you,
some relish of the saltness of time" (1.2.112). Here, the -i- in saltiness has vanished
to create a new word. Syncope is particularly common in poetry, when desperate
poets need to get rid of a single syllable to make their meter match in each line.
Apocope--deleting a syllable or letter from the end of a word. In The Merchant of
Venice, one character says, "when I ope my lips let no dog bark," and the last
syllable of open falls away into ope before the reader's eyes (1.1.93-94). In Troilus
and Cressida, Shakespeare proclaims, "If I might in entreaties find success--/ As
seld I have the chance--I would desire / My famous cousin to our Grecian tents"
(4.5.148). Here the word seldom becomes seld.
Meter
The measured arrangement of words in poetry, as by accentual rhythm, syllabic quantity, or
the number of syllables in a line.
Metonymy
The use of a word or phrase to stand in for something else which it is often physically
associated. ie. Hollywood for US cinema, the Crown for UK government, the White House,
City Hall.
Mood
The general feeling created for the reader by a work at a given point. Mood is established
through elements such as imagery, setting, and sound. Mood is not the same as tone,
which is the author’s attitude toward the reader, audience, or subject matter.
Motif
A recurrent, unifying element in an artistic work, such as an image, symbol, character type,
action, idea, object, or phrase.
Myth
A traditional anonymous story, originally religious in nature, told by a particular cultural
group in order to explain a natural or cosmic phenomenon. Myths are distinguished from
legends (adventures of a human cultural hero like Robin Hood) and fables (which have a
moral, didactic purpose and often feature animals).
Narrator
A speaker through whom an author presents a narrative. Narrators are classified by point of
view:
first-person--the author, the protagonist, another character, a witness to the action. “I’m on
the ramp.”
second-person--the narrator refers to the reader as “you,” making the reader a part
of the story. “You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the
morning. But here you are, and you cannot say the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although
the details are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is
either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge.”
third-person omniscient--each and every character is referred to by the narrator as
"he", "she", "it", or "they." An omniscient narrator has knowledge of all times, people, places,
and events, including all characters' thoughts.
third-person limited--a limited narrator may know absolutely everything about a
single character and every piece of knowledge in that character's mind, but the narrator's
knowledge is "limited" to that character — that is, the narrator cannot describe things
unknown to the focal character.
Narrators are also classified by whether or not they are intrusive (opinionated), unintrusive
(detached), reliable, unreliable, self-conscious or self-effacing.
Novel
A lengthy fictional prose narrative.
Novella
A shorter fictional prose narrative that ranges from 50-100 pages in length.
Occupatio
Literally "seizing," occupatio is the rhetorical figure of bringing up and responding to a
counterpoint before the opponent has the chance to make it. Ex: “Now mom, I know you’re
going to say that if I join the Dungeons and Dragons club it may damage my social life, but
Sheila and Tracy are already members!” This is opposed to apophasis, where the
rhetorician feigns unwillingness to discuss a topic he or she is interested in.
Octave
An eight-line stanza. More specifically, the first eight lines of an italian sonnet. May pose a
question or a dilemma that the sestet answers.
Ode
A relatively long, serious, and usually meditative lyric poem that treats a noble subject in a
dignified or calm manner.
Oedipus Complex
The desire a young child feels for the opposite-sex parent and the hostility the child
correspondingly feels toward the same-sex parent. Based on the Greek legend of Oedipus,
who blinds himself after discovering that he killed his dad and then married his mother.
Onomatopoeia
Words that seem to signify meaning through sound effects. Ex: Hiss, sizzle, pop, moo, purr,
quack, beep.
Other
A person or category of people seen as different from the dominant social group. Almost
any ideology involves the classification of some group as the Other, often by virtue of race,
class, gender, sexuality, or other characteristic. This practice often results in marginalization
and oppression of that group.
Parable
A short, realistic, but usually fictional story told to illustrate a moral or religious point or
lesson; a type of allegory.
Paradox
A statement that seems self-contradictory, but expresses an underlying truth. Ex: “It
became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it.” Or, from the Tao Te Ching: “My
words are easy to know and practice, but there is no one in the world who is able to know
and practice them.”
Paralipsis
A rhetorical figure involving a speaker’s assertion that he or she will not discuss something
that he or she in fact goes on to discuss.
Parataxis/Paratactic Style
A sequence of sentences bearing only a loose logical relation to one another. Elements
within those sentences tend to be joined by simple conjunctions (like and) that do little to
show or explain causal or temporal relations. Another way to think about it is that all of the
sentences carry the same weight. Ex: “There were no rooms at the inn. We drove farther
until we found a hotel. It was raining heavily and we got soaked on the way to the door. Our
socks stank of mildew. We ate dinner there and talked little.”
Pastoral
A literary mode historically and conventionally associated with shepherds and country living.
Pentameter
A line of verse with five metrical feet. The most common line length in English verse.
Ex: “Deer walk | upon | our moun | tains, and | the quail |”
Periodic Sentence
A complex sentence that is not syntactically complete until its very end. The opposite of a
loose sentence.
Periphrasis
A roundabout way of speaking or writing. The term is often used pejoratively to designate
pompous or wordy writing. Ex: Ronald Reagan once called a lie a “terminological
inexactitude.”
Personification
A figure of speech in which human characteristics are bestowed upon anything nonhuman.
Plot
The arrangement and interrelation of events in a narrative work, chosen and designed to
engage the reader’s attention and interest, while also providing a framework for the
exposition of the author’s message or theme.
Poetic Diction
The choice and phrasing of words deemed suitable for verse. Ex: “Ere,” “thrice,” “thou.”
Poetic Justice
The idea that virtuous and evil actions are ultimately dealt with justly, with virtue rewarded
and evil punished.”
Poetic License
The linguistic liberty taken by poets in composing verse. They can do unusual things, break
rules, etc.
Point of View
The vantage point from which a narrative is told.
Polysyndeton
Polysyndeton is the use of several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some
might be omitted (as in "he ran and jumped and laughed for joy"). It is a stylistic scheme
used to achieve a variety of effects: it can increase the rhythm of prose, speed or slow its
pace, convey solemnity or even ecstasy and childlike exuberance. Another common use of
polysyndeton is to create a sense of being overwhelmed, or in fact directly overwhelm the
audience by using conjunctions, rather than commas, leaving little room for a reader to
breathe. Ex: “We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm
together and loved each other.” --Ernest Hemingway
Postcolonial Literature
The body of literature written by authors with roots in countries that were once colonies
established by European nations. Postcolonial Theory explores the situation of colonized
peoples both during and after colonization.
Postmodernism
A term referring to radically experimental works produced after WWII. Much of
postmodernist writing reveals and highlights the alienation of individuals and the
meaninglessness of human existence.
Prose Poem
A brief, rhythmic composition blending prose and verse, ranging from several lines to
several pages. Prose poems are written in sentences and do not have line breaks.
Protagonist
The main character of a work; usually the hero or heroine, but sometimes an antihero.
Quatrain
A stanza containing four lines.
Refrain
A phrase, line, or lines that recur(s) throughout the poem or song. It may vary slightly, but is
usually exactly the same. When the refrain is meant to be repeated or sung by a group of
people, it is called a chorus.
Resolution
The culmination of a fictional plot.
Rhyme
An echoing of similar sounds in words.
Rhyme Scheme
The pattern of rhyme in a poem or stanza.
Rhythm
The measured flow of words, signifying the basic beat or pattern in language that is
established by stressed syllables, unstressed syllables, and pauses.
Rising Action
The part of a drama that follows the inciting moment and precedes the climax. During the
rising action, the plot becomes more complicated and the conflict intensifies.
Round Character
Characters which are fully developed, with the complexity and depth associated with real
people. They can surprise readers convincingly and have full-blown personalities complete
with contractions and quirks that make it difficult to describe them reductively.
Satire
A literary genre or mode that uses irony, wit, and sometimes sarcasm to expose humanity’s
vices and foibles. Corrective ridicule.
Scansion
The analysis of poetic meter, the more or less regular pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables found in verse.
Setting
The combination of place, historical time, and social milieu that provides the general
background for the characters and plot of a literary work.
Sestet
Any six-line poem or stanza. More specifically, the last six lines of an Italian sonnet, which
typically answer or resolve the question or problem posed in the octave.
Sibilance
A type of alliteration involving repetition or the consonant s or other letters and letter
combinations such as c (cent), ch (chalet), sh (shade), and z (zip).
Simile
A figure of speech comparing two distinct things using like or as. If you want to nerd out, like
connects the vehicle (image used to represent the subject) and the tenor (subject). In “that
child is like a cylcone,” child is the tenor and cyclone is the vehicle.
Soliloquy
A monologue delivered by a character while alone on the stage that reveals inner thoughts,
emotions, or information that the audience needs to know.
Stanza
A grouped set of lines in a poem., usually separated from other such clusters by a blank line.
Stream of Consciousness
A literary technique featuring the mental flow of one or more characters. This flow is more
determined by free association than by logic or grammatical rules. May seem fragmented,
illogical, or inchoherent.
Stress
The emphasis placed on a syllable. In the last name “Freeburg,” the first syllable is stressed.
Style
The way in which a literary work is written. Produced by the message the author
communicates to the plus how the author chooses to present it.
Surrealism
A literary and artistic movement whose proponents view the unconscious mind as the
source of imaginative expression and who seek to liberate the mind from the constraints of
reason, convention, self-censorship, and conscious control. Characterized by unusual
sequencing and syntax, free association, fantastic/nightmarish images, and the
juxtaposition of jarringly incongruous elements. Maya Deren’s film Meshes of the Afternoon
is a great visual example.
Symbol
Something concrete that stands for something larger and/or more complex--often an idea or
a range of interrelated ideas, attitudes, and practices. The Golden Arches represent
McDonald’s, and to much of the world, American culture.
Synesthesia
The condition where one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of
another. Ex: “heavy silence,” “icy tone,” “red hot.”
Synecdoche
A figure of speech where a part of something represents the whole. Ex: calling a car your
“wheels,” referring to the violins and cellos as “the strings,” senior citizens as “greyheads,”
football as “pigskin,” etc.
Syntax
The arrangement--the ordering, grouping, and placement--of words within a phrase, clause
or sentence. Syntax is one of two components of diction (the other is vocabulary). Consider
the differences between these examples: “I rode across the meadow” and “Rode I across
the sea of grass.”
Tercet
A group of three lines of verse.
Texture
A term referring to the surface details or elements of a work. Texture includes: imagery,
meter, rhyme, alliteration, euphony, etc.
Theme
The statements that a text seems to be making about its subject. Theme is usually a “big”
idea: suffering, freedom, happiness, death, morality.
Thesis
The position taken by someone expostulating on a particular topic with the intent of proving
that position plausible or correct. A claim.
Threnody
A threnody is a song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to
a dead person.
Tone
The attitude of an author toward the reader, audience, or subject matter of a literary work.
Tragedy
A serious drama, written in prose or verse, that typically ends in disaster and that focuses
on a character who undergoes unexpected personal reversals.
Tragic Flaw
A character trait in a tragic hero or heroine that brings about his or her downfall. Arrogance
(hubris) is a common tragic flaw.
Trochee
A metrical foot in poetry that consists of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed
syllable.
Unreliable Narrator
A narrator who, intentionally or unintentionally, fails to provide an accurate report of events
or situations and whose credibility is therefore compromised.
Verisimilitude
The apparent truthfulness and credibility of a fictional literary work. Works that achieve
verisimilitude seem believable to the reader or audience because they mesh with human
experience or accord with conventions that enable a suspension of disbelief.
Villanelle
A French verse form consisting of nineteen lines grouped in five tercets followed by a
quatrain and involving only two rhymes, with the rhyme scheme aba aba aba aba aba abaa.
Zeugma
A rhetorical figure where one word or phrase governs or modifies two or more words or
phrases. Ex: "Mary likes chocolate, John vanilla." "Lust conquered shame; audacity, fear;
madness, reason."
Poetry Content Genres
This is a list of the kinds of poems that lyric poets return to most frequently. It is convenient
to name a poem by its kind because you can then compare it to others of its kind. There are
many others (bird poem, farm poem, etc.), but the important thing is to realize almost any
poem is a repeat of a preceding genre. Thinking “what kind of lyric is this?” makes you more
aware of its place in a genre tradition, and of its response to that tradition.
Address to the Reader
Allegorical Object (Emblem) Poem
Aubade
Ballad
Dawn Poem
Deathbed Poem
Ekphrastic Poem
Elegy
Epigram
Epitaph
Epithalamion
Hymn
Lover’s Complaint
Lullaby
Muse Poem
Nocturne
Pastoral
Political Poem
Quest Poem
Religious Poem
Romance
Seasonal Poem
Self-Reflexive Poem
Shaped Poem
Song
Twin Poems
Valediction
Variations on a Theme
Speech Acts
Listed below are the most common types of speech acts appearing in lyric poetry. It is a
good idea to identify/name the successive speech acts in a poem. Does it begin with an
apology? Is that followed by a plea? This classifying helps you to track the emotions that
structure a poem.
Acknowledging
Address
Admission
Apology
Apostrophe
Banishing
Boast
Celebration
Claim
Command
Conjecture
Consolation
Definition
Description
Dialogue
Dreaming
Exclamation
Exhortation
Expostulation
Generalization
Imprecation
Instruction
Invitation
Invocation
Lament
Narration
Oath
Plea
Prayer
Prophecy
Question
Rebuttal
Reminiscence
Request
Resolve
Retraction
Rhetorical Question
Scorning
Self-Blame
Self-Correction
Self-Presentation
Spell
Supposition
Surmise
Vow
Prosody
Prosody concerns the measure in which poems are written. There are three kinds of poems,
prosodically speaking:
 poems in counted lines (where lines have regular number of beats)
 poems in free verse (where lines have irregular number of beats)
 poems in prose (usually a short symbolic paragraph)
Poems in Counted Lines:
 Monometer (one beat per line)
 Dimeter (two beats per line)
 The following are the most common:
 Trimeter (three beats per line)
 Tetrameter (four beats per line)
 Pentameter (five beats per line)