Literary and Stylistic Terms
COMPREHENSIVE 220 words list
Lax
A
Absurd- Irrational, ludicrous, nonsensical, ridiculous, preposterous; without reason or common sense, illogical
Aesthetic- Artistic focus on what is beautiful; what constitutes beauty
Allegory - Story in verse or prose with a primary or surface meaning; and a secondary or under-the-surface meaning.
Alliteration- Figure of speech in which the consonants or stressed syllables are repeated, at beginning of words
Allusion - Usually an implicit reference to another work of literature or art, to a person or an event
Ambiguity -When something can be taken more than one way- there could be another meaning /alternative reaction
Anachronism -Placing an event, person, item, or verbal expression in the wrong historical period
Anagnorisis - Moment in play or other work when character makes critical discovery. Originally meant "recognition"
Analogy - The comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship.
Anapest - Metrical foot used in poetry consisting of two short (unstressed) syllables followed by a long (stressed) one
Anecdote - A brief account of or a story about an individual or an incident.
Antagonist - in drama or fiction the antagonist opposes the hero or protagonist.
Anthropomorphism - Attributing human forms or qualities to entities (gods and goddesses), which are not human.
Anti-climax - The same as bathos. The last part of the sentence expresses something lower than the first. (Often comical)
Anti-hero - Type of character who is incompetent, unlucky, tactless, stupid, buffoonish (opposite of old-fashioned hero)
Antithesis - Opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by paralleling opposites or contrasts
Aphorism - Brief saying embodying a moral; a concise statement of a principle or precept given in pointed words
Apostrophe – When a thing, place, abstract quality, idea, dead or absent person, is addressed as if present
Archetype - Usage of any object or situation as it was originally made; a universally recognized idea or type
Aside - In drama, words spoken in an undertone or to the audience. Words are presumed inaudible to other characters
Assonance - Sometimes called "vocalic rhyme", consists of the repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually close together
Asyndeton - When conjunctions are deliberately omitted from a series of related clauses
Attitude - A manner of thinking, feeling, or behaving that reflects a state of mind or disposition
Aubade - Morning love song (as opposed to serenade, which is in evening) or poem about lovers separating at dawn
B
Ballad - Form of verse, often a narrative set to music. From medieval French chanson or ballade ("dancing songs")
Bathos - An effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous
Bildungsroman - Story where protagonist undergoes growth throughout the entire narrative; coming of age narrative Blank
verse - Unrhymed five-stress lines; properly, iambic pentameters... closest in rhythm to everyday English speech
Byronic Hero - A typically rebellious, arrogant, anti-social hero, perhaps in exile, and darkly, enticingly romantic
C
Cacophony - Opposite of euphony. Deliberate use of harsh sounds to achieve a particular effect
Cadence - Refers to the melodic pattern preceding the end of a sentence; the rising and falling of language
Caesura - A break or pause in a line of poetry, dictated, usually, by the natural rhythm of the language
Caricature - A portrait that ridicules a person by exaggerating or distorting his most prominent features and characteristics
Catastrophe - (From Greek "overturning")... The tragic denouement or outcome of a play or story
Catharsis - Purging or cleansing of emotions through fear and pity - from Aristotle in his definition of tragedy
Chiasmus - ("Placing crosswise") Reversal of grammatical structures or order to complement and balance one another
Cinquain - Poetry that employs a 5-line pattern. Describes any five-line form
Cliché - A trite over-used expression, which is lifeless. Many idioms have become clichés through excessive use.
Climax - That point of a story or play at which a crisis is reached and a resolution achieved.
Comic relief - Comic episodes or interludes aimed to relieve tension and heighten the tragic element by contrast
Conceit - Denotes fairly elaborate figurative comparative device of a fanciful kind which is intended to surprise and delight
by its wit and ingenuity. Associated with the metaphysical poets
Conflict - Tension in a situation; character's moral dilemma or predicament (may be external or internal)
Connotation - Suggestion or implication evoked by a word or phrase, over and above what it means or actually denotes
Consonance - Close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels
Conundrum - Confusing and difficult problem or question- often asked for amusement; a riddle
Couplet - Two successive rhyming lines
Crisis - Stage in a sequence of events at which future events are determined; the turning point
D
Dactyl- Poetic foot that has a long (stressed) syllable followed by two short (unstressed) syllables (-uu)
Denotation- Most literal meaning of a word, regardless of suggestions and ideas it connotes
Denouement - (French-"unknotting") ... the unraveling of a plot's complications at the end of a story or play
Diction - Writer's vocabulary usage and choice of words.
Dissonance - Arrangement of cacophonous sounds in words, or rhythmical patterns, for a particular effect
Dogma - A tenet, doctrine, law or principle. Something laid down as being so
Dramatic irony - When audience knows implication and meaning of situation or what is being said, but characters do not
Dumb-show - Mimed dramatic performance that prepares audience for the main action of the play to follow
Dystopia - Imagined place or state where everything is unpleasant; typically totalitarian or environmentally degraded one
E
Elegy – Poem written in honor or memory of someone who has died
Ellipsis - (Greek-"leaving out") Figurative device where word/s are omitted in order to achieve more compact expression
End-stopped rhyme - Occurs at the end of a line or verse. Distinguished from head-rhyme or alliteration & internal rhyme
Enjambment - Running on of the sense beyond the second line of one couplet into the first line of the next.
Epic - Long narrative poem, on a grand scale, about deeds of warriors and heroes. Incorporates myth, legend, and history
Epigram - Short poem or verse that seeks to ridicule a thought or event, usually with witticism or sarcasm
Epiphany - (Greek-"manifestation" Magi - Jesus) In literature, denotes an awareness or awakening'; a realization
Epithet - Usually an adjective or phrase expressing some quality or attribute which is characteristic of a person or thing
Euphony - The terms denotes pleasing, mellifluous sounds, usually produced by long vowels rather than consonants.
Exegesis - Critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture
Existentialism - Vision of condition of man that existence precedes essence; man must accept responsibility for his actions
Exposition – Background information about events, settings, etc.; “showing forth”. Also first part of play; prologue
Extended Metaphor - Comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout poem, novel, short story, etc.
F
Fable - Short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimateobjects as characters
Falling action - That part of a play that follows the denouement or climax
Fantasy – Genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena
Farce - Comic dramatic work using buffoonery, horseplay, crude characterization, and ludicrously improbable situations
Feminine Rhyme – Rhyme at end of line of poetry that involves using two syllables in each rhyming word
Fiction - A vague and general term for an imaginative work, usually in prose
Fixed form – Verse that has prescribed and established rules with regard to number of lines, meter, line length, rhyme etc.
Flashback - Describes any scene or episode that is inserted to show events that happened at an earlier time
Flat character – Two-dimensional characters that are deliberately not fully-developed
Foil – A character that contrasts with another character in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character
Foot - Group of syllables forming a metrical unit; a unit of rhythm. We measure feet in terms of syllable variation
Foreshadowing – Events and information in a narrative are arranged so that later events are prepared for beforehand
Frame Story – A story within a story; when there is a secondary narrator – the outer narrative frames the inner story
Freytag's Pyramid – A way to analyze a plot that consists of five elements in an ascending and descending manner
G
Gallows Humor – Humor about very unpleasant, serious, or painful circumstances, such as disease, death, etc.
Genre - A kind; a literary type or class. For example: epic, tragedy, poem, comedy, satire, novel, novella, short story, etc.
Gothic - A genre or mode (of literature or other) that combines fiction, horror and Romanticism
Great Chain of Being - Idea that everything in created order is part of natural hierarchy, from God to lowest creature
Greek Tragedy - Had a definite structure- a prologue, chorus, episodes, conclusion, and constituted 5 Acts.
H
Haiku – Form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables
Hamartia – Fatal flaw that causes an error of judgment that leads to a tragic end for the tragic hero
Heroic Couplet – Traditionally used in epic and narrative poetry, refers to sequence of rhyming pairs in iambic pentameter
Hexameter – Six metrical feet per line (standard epic meter)
Hubris - Excessive pride - shortcoming in hero that leads him to ignore gods, brings about his downfall and nemesis
Humours – Body fluids believed in Renaissance to determine moods or temperaments (blood, bile, black bile, phlegm)
Hyperbole - A figure of speech that contains an exaggeration for emphasis
Hypotaxis - ("Under arrangement") Subordination; syntactic relationship between dependent and independent clauses
I
Iambic pentameter - Line of five feet, arranged as unstressed, followed by stressed syllables. (Shakespearean sonnet)
Ideology – Organized collection of ideas; comprehensive vision; set of ideas or philosophical tendencies
Idiom – Expression whose meaning comes from its figurative meaning rather than its literal one (a “saying”)
Idyll - Poem or episode that describes a scene in rural life, or a description of any scene of tranquil happiness
Imagery - Using language to represent objects, actions, thoughts, ideas, and any sensory or extra-sensory experience
In Medias Res – “In the middle of things”… refers to when the narrative starts in the middle of things, not the beginning
Interior Monologue- Inner voice or thinking of a character… shows character’s thoughts and consciousness
Internal Rhyme – Rhyme that occurs within a verse or within the lines (words end with same sounds within verse)
Inversion - Also known as anastrophe, term refers to reversal of normal order of words to achieve a particular emphasis
Irony - Perception or awareness of a discrepancy or incongruity between words and their meanings, or between actions
and their results, or between appearance and reality. Basic kinds are verbal, dramatic, and situational
J
Jargon – Special words or phrases used by a particular group of people; language particular to certain professions, etc.
Juvenalian Satire - Writing aimed at correcting wrongs; characterized by invective and contempt
Juxtaposition – When two or more ideas, places, actions, etc. are placed side by side to develop comparisons
K
Kafkaesque - Characteristic of nightmarish atmosphere that Franz Kafka created through sinister forces - feelings of loss
of identity, guilt and fear, and a sense of permeating evil and an "absurd" logic of ruling powers pervade
L
Lampoon – Sharp, often virulent satire directed against institution that ridicules character of person, society, behavior, etc.
Limerick - Five line poem with a strict meter, popularized by Edward Lear. Usually A-A-B-B-A rhyme scheme
Litote – Figure of speech that emphasizes claim by denying its opposite (makes it larger); can be used as understatement
Lyric – Originally a song to be sung accompaniment by the lyre, describes type of poem that is usually personal
M
Malapropism- From Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan's The Rivals, who had the habit of using polysyllabic words incorrectly
Marxism – Philosophy and theory based on Karl Marx’s ideas on the five stages of history as determined by economics
Masque – Form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th century; usually includes pantomime and allegory
Medieval Drama – Theater in Europe between fall of Roman Empire and beginning of Renaissance
Meiosis – Intentional understatement; implying that something is of lesser importance than it actually is
Melodrama – Dramatic form with increased emotional response; villain, hero, stock characters, and happy ending
Metaphor - Figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. A comparison is usually implicit
Metaphysical -17'" century poets who used conceits, wit, ingenuity, and argument to express their passions and beliefs
Meter - (Greek: "Measure") Refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse
Metonymy - ("Name change") Figure of speech in which name of an attribute or a thing is substituted for the thing itself
Mock Epic – Also called mock-heroic; form of satire that adapts elevated heroic epic style to a trivial subject
Modernism – Breaks away from traditional forms of literature, poetry, etc. because their ideas are believed to be outdated
Monologue - A single person speaking alone, with or without an audience
Mood – Frame of mind, emotions, or feelings
Moral - The lesson to be learnt from a story, poem, play or fable- any work which purports to teach anything.
Motif - One of dominant ideas in a work of literature; a part of main theme. A recurring image, idea, or verbal pattern
Myth - A story that is not "true" and which usually involves the supernatural. Myths explains how something came to exist
N
Narrative Verse - Form of poetry that tells a story
Neo-classical - Late 17th century classical revival – features include reason, form, restraint, order, and symmetry
Nonfiction - Account or representation of subject which is presented as fact, whether accurate or not
Novella - Narrative fictional work that is longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel
Nuance – Subtle difference in shade of meaning, expression, or sound
0
Objective details - Suggest that writer is "outside of" and detached from what he/she is writing about
Octave - Also known as an octet... A group of 8 lines - either in stanza form or as the first 8 lines of a sonnet (abbaabba)
Ode - ("Song") Lyric poem that contains an elaborate stanza structure, formality, stateliness, and lofty sentiments
Oedipus complex –Based on Greek myth where Oedipus marries his mother, refers to over attachment of son to mother
Onomatopoeia - (Greek: "Name-making") ... the formation and use of words to imitate sounds. Used for a special effect
Oxymoron – Combination of incongruous and apparently contradictory words and meanings for a special effect
P
Pantomime - Theater that involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy; based on a fairy tale or nursery story
Paradox - Apparently self-contradictory statement that contains a truth reconciling the conflicting opposites
Parallelism - When phrases or sentences of similar construction and meaning placed side by side, balancing each other
Paraphrase - Rewording of something written by someone else; putting their words into your own words
Parataxis - Co-ordination of clauses without conjunctions. The effect is terseness and compression. (See Dickinson)
Parody – Work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, comment on, or poke fun of another work or subject
Pastoral – Poetry concerned with rural subjects such as milkmaids and herdsmen; usually unrealistically romanticized
Pathos - (Greek: "suffering; feeling") That quality of art that evokes feelings of tenderness, pity or sorrow.
Persona - (Latin: "Mask") Denotes the "person" who speaks in a poem or novel or other form of literature.
Personification -Impersonation or embodiment of human quality; the attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects
Plot - Plan, design, scheme or pattern of events in a work and the organization of incident and character
Prolepsis - (Greek: "Anticipation") A figurative device by which a future event is presumed to have happened
Prologue - Opening section of a work; a kind of introduction that is part of the work and not prefatory
Prose - Direct, unadorned form of language, in ordinary usage. Not restricted in rhythm, measure or rhyme
Protagonist - The principal actor or character. Has come to be the equivalent of the hero
Pun - A figure of speech that involves a play upon words. Gives rise to a fairly universal form of humor
Q
Quatrain - A stanza of four lines rhymed or unrhymed. It lends itself to a wide variation in meter and rhyme
R
Realism – General attempt to treat subjects as they occurred or truthfully
Refrain – Phrase or line repeated during a poem and especially at the end of a stanza
Renaissance - ("Rebirth") Revival - Refers to historical period after the Middle Ages. (Sir Thomas More, Shakespeare)
Revenge Tragedy - Drama in which dominant motive is revenge for a real or imagined injury; popular in Shakespeare
Rhetorical question - A question not expecting an answer, or one to which the answer is more or less self-evident
Rhyme - When words sound alike ... Echoes sounds of words
Rhythm - Movement or sense of movement communicated by arrangement and duration of syllables
Roman a clef – Novel describing real life events behind a façade of fiction (often for satire or controversial subjects)
Romanticism – 18th century: Aspects include increasing interest in Nature and the natural, primitive and uncivilized way of
life, subjective feelings, emphasis on individual and his need for spontaneity and personal expression, in importance of
the imagination and personal expression (Blake, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Byron)
S
Sarcasm – Use of irony to mock something or someone and to convey contempt
Satire – Aims to amend vices - ridicules and brings scorn to the follies, vices and shortcomings of society and individuals
Sentimentality – Excessive or unnecessary emotion; that is, more than the occasion warrants
Sestet - The sub-division or last six lines of the Italian sonnet following the octave
Setting - The where and when of a story or play; the locale. Involves atmosphere, context, weather, time, etc.
Simile - A figure of speech in which one thing is likened to another using the words "like" or "as"
Situational Irony – When the reversal of what was expected to occur transpires
Soliloquy – Speech in which a character, alone on stage, expresses his thought and feelings – as such, the truth
Sonnet - A poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with considerable variation in rhyme scheme
Spondee – Metrical foot consisting of two long and or stressed syllables (--)
Stanza - Group of lines of verse; the unit of structure in a poem (Has fixed form, as opposed to verse)
Stereotype – Character with assumed characteristics based upon simplification and exaggeration
Stock character - A recurrent "type", such as: the oaf, the clown, the coward, the nagging wife, the buffoon, etc.)
Stream of consciousness - Flow of inner experiences. Depicts multitudinous thoughts and uncensored feelings
Subjective details -When writer is concerned with conveying personal experience and feeling from personal point of view
Sub-plot - A subsidiary action in a play or story that coincides with the main action
Suspense - A state of uncertainty, anticipation and curiosity as to the outcome of the story, play, or prose
Syllable – Unit of organization for sequence of speech sounds
Symbol - Animate or inanimate object or action that represents or "stands for" something else (may be universal or local)
Synesthesia - Mixing of sensations; concurrent appeal to more than one sense; response through several senses
Synecdoche -Figure of speech in which part stands for whole, thus something else is understood within thing mentioned
Syntactic Doubling – Refers to what comes either before or after the words, thus reversal of order to find meaning
Syntax - (Greek: "Together arrangement") Sentence construction or arrangement
T
Tableau – Motionless performance in poetry – often a “frozen” form for effect
Tercet - A stanza of three lines linked by rhyme. Also as one of a pair of triplets which makes up the sestet of a sonnet
Theme - Not merely the subject but rather a specific large, central idea, which may be stated directly or indirectly
Tone - The reflection of a writer's attitude, manner, mood and moral outlook in his work
Tragedy - Originally Greek drama in honor of Dionysus, the disaster that comes to those whose flaws and shortcomings
result in an unhappy end and series of events; involves peripeteia, catharsis and resolution
Tragic flaw -Traditionally defect in tragic hero that leads to their downfall
Trilogy - A group of three tragedies. Also a group of 3 works linked by common theme or characters
Trimeter – Meter of three metrical feet per line
Trochee – Metrical foot consisting of a stressed (long) syllable followed by an unstressed (short) one (-u)
Trope – Familiar and repeated symbol, meme, motif, style, character etc. that permeates literary work
Turning point - Observable moment in story, play or narrative where there is a definite change in direction; crucial point
U
Understatement – Form of speech in which lesser expression is used than would have been expected
Universality - When something transcends limits of a particular situation and is applicable beyond the work
Utopia – Imaginary, ideal civilization regarded to be attainable in the future (originally Sir Thomas More)
Unreliable Narrator - When narrator is compromised because of bias, instability or lack of knowledge (mostly first-person)
V
Verbal Irony – Use of words to convey something other than, and especially the opposite of, literal meanings of the words
Verisimilitude - Likeness to the truth; appearance of being true or real even when fantastic
Vernacular - Domestic or native language. Now applied to the language used in one's native country
Verse -Three meanings: (a) a line of metrical writing; (b) a stanza; (c) poetry in general
Vignette – Short, impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives impression of one character, etc. (snapshot)
Villanelle – 18th century type of poem with only two rhyme sounds, has 19 lines and a couplet at end (Joyce/Stephen)
Villain – Antagonist or “bad guy” whose evil actions affect the outcome of the story/play
Volta – Place at which distinct turn of thought occurs (in sonnet); called a “shift” in regular poetry
W
Willing suspension of disbelief – Reader/audience is "asked" to accept dramatic conventions of the theatre and the stage
Wit - Formerly meant common sense. During Renaissance meant intelligence" or "wisdom"; thus intellectual capacity
X
Xanaduism – The search for the source of imagination and fantasy
Y
Yarn – Long and often involved story or account that is not true
Z
Zeitgeist – Spirit of the age or time; intellectual fashion or dominant school of thought of the time
Zeugma – Describes joining of two or more parts of sentence with a common verb or noun – uses ellipsis and parallelism
(Compiled by Jill Lax: Taken from The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms, Literary Theory: Cuddon, J.A. 3rd edition &
tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/)