A (very short) Dictionary of English Literary Terms
acting time – time from the beginning to the end of an
episode or episodes in a fictional text. Also: narrated
time.
alliteration – a string of words beginning with the same
sound, e.g. “Waves and wild wind washed over me.”
antagonist – the character who opposes the hero. Often
enough the villain, the bad guy, but doesn’t have to be.
anthropomorphism – technique of representing
animals, plants, objects, the forces of nature or
abstract ideas as if they were human beings and
possessed human qualities. Also: pathetic fallacy;
personification.
assonance – a certain similarity between the sounds of
words used, without there being proper rhyme, e.g.
“The murmuring of innumerable bees.” OR “Her
words were heard.”
atmosphere – feeling or mood created by a writer or
speaker to evoke the reader’s or listener’s emotions.
character – in a fictional text, a person developed
through action, description, language and a way of
speaking.
characterization – way of presenting a character in a
fictional text. If the reader or audience is told about a
character’s traits directly by the author, by another
character or the character himself, we speak of
explicit (direct) characerization. If the reader or
audience is expected to find out about a character’s
traits indirectly through what the character says and
does, we speak of implicit (indirect)
characterization.
chronological order – simple temporal order in which
the action is presented in sequence, i.e. as it actually
occurred or is supposed to have occurred.
climax – structural element of a text, the moment when
the conflict is most intense. In fictional texts, the
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A (very short) Dictionary of English Literary Terms
climax follows the rising action and precedes the
turning point.
conflict – clash between different forces. In fictional
texts, the struggle may be one of ideas or values
within a character (internal conflict) or between two
characters or one character and fate/nature/society
(external conflict).
contrast – opposite or strongly contrasting forms of
words. “I am going north by train; she is coming
south by car.”
dénouement – solution;.the final threads of the storyline
woven together, or spun on so as to offer the reader
a sense of continuity.
deus ex machina – (‘god out of a machine’) In Greek
theater a god that was lowered onto the stage from a
scaffolding, making a divine ruling known. The term
now describes any literary means beyond the logic of
the plot/story itself, by which a sudden turning of
events is achieved
diegesis – the telling of a story, as opposed to the
showing of a story (mimesis). Applicable to panoramic
presentation.
ellipsis – leaving out words to avoid repetition, e.g.
“Caesar came, saw and conquered” instead of
“Caesar came, then he saw and then he conquered.”
emotive – using words or expressions which have
particular connotations in order to appeal to the
reader’s or listener’s emotions and influence him or
her in some way.
exposition – structural element of a fictional text,
usually at the very beginning, including the
introduction of the main character(s), the theme and
the setting, as well as first indications of the
atmosphere and tone.
falling action – structural element of a fictional text,
marked by a reduction of the suspense. It usually
follows the turning point and precedes the solution.
ficelle – [thread] character who appears throughout a
fictional text in the most obscure places yet doesn’t
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A (very short) Dictionary of English Literary Terms
have much to do with the action as such; often
serves to describe the protagonist/antagonist
implicitly.
fiction, fictional – category of texts in which the author
creates his or her own world. The readers or a
audience are expected to accept this world as existing
within the context of the text, even though it may be
different from their own experience of reality
(novels, short-stories, dramas and poems).
flashback – interruption of the chronological order in
order to go back in time and show what happened
earlier.
flat character – character who represents one attitude
towards another character, a situation, a moral
question – yet who is not developed and looked at
from more than one point of view. Such a character
doesn’t change. (See also: stock character; type.)
foreshadowing – interruption of the chronological
order in order to go forward in time and suggest
things which may have a bearing on what is
happening at the moment.
hyperbole - a form of exaggeration, as in “That guy
weighed at least a ton,” or “waves as tall as houses.”
imagery – the use of metaphor(s) and/or simile(s); when
the images evoked by such devices are interwoven,
are connected and constitute a new layer of meaning,
one talks of the imagery in a text.
irony – to say one thing but mean another. Irony can
usually only be detected from the context. If we say
“what charming behaviour,” it would take rude
behaviour to make the phrase ironic. (See also:
sarcasm.)
metaphor – an expression used to describe one thing
comparing it/them directly with another thing, e.g.
“School is hell for many pupils.”
mimesis – the showing of a story, as opposed to the
telling of a story (diegesis). Applicable to scenic
presentation.
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A (very short) Dictionary of English Literary Terms
narratable disequilibrium – one can only tell a story
when something is not quite right, when there is
something that can be told (unless one wishes to be
utterly boring). As soon as the happy end is there, the
story ends, nothing is left to be told. The solution to
each and any problem within a story leads to nonnarratable stasis.
narrated time - time from the beginning to the end of
an episode or episodes in a fictional text. Acting time.
narrating time – time it takes to relate a particuluar
event or series of events in a narrative text, nearly the
same as reading time. The relationship between
narrating time/reading time and acting time is
dependent on the mode of presentation.
narration, narrative – one of the five text types,
presenting actions or events in some kind of
temporal orders. Can, but doesn’t have to be
fictional.
narrator – person who tells the story in a narrative text,
through whose eyes events are seen. The narrator is
usually not identical to the author.
omniscient narrator – (all-knowing) a narrator whose
scope of vision and knowledge is unlimited.
onomatopoeia – words that sound like the thing they
refer to, e.g. “buzzing bees,” “clanking, clanging
chains,” or “a trickling creek.”
open ending – structural element of a fictional text, the
opposite of a solution: the conflict is not solved, the
final interpretation is left up to the reader or
audience.
order – chronological, climactic, contrastive, dialectical,
listing, temporal, topical order.
parallelism – a string of sentences, clauses or phrases all
with more or less the same structure, e.g. “The
teachers tyrannized the pupils, the pupils tyrannized
their parents, and the parents tyrannized the teachers
by calling them at home.”
pathetic fallacy – technique of representing animals,
plants, objects, the forces of nature or abstract ideas
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A (very short) Dictionary of English Literary Terms
as if they were human beings and possessed human
qualities. Also: personification; anthropomorphism.
personification – technique of representing animals,
plants, objects, the forces of nature or abstract ideas
as if they were human beings and possessed human
qualities. Also: pathetic fallacy; anthropomorphism.
plot – in fictional texts, the structure of the action as a
set of events connected by cause and effect and
centred around one or more conflicts. Plot is
typically composed of the following elements, usually
in this order: exposition, rising action, climax,
turning-point, falling action, solution or open
ending. Definition by E.M. Forster: “The King died
and then the Queen died” – is a story (series of
events). “The King died and then the Queen died of
grief” – is a plot (sequence of events).
point of view – relationship between the
writer/narrator/speaker and his or her text;
narrative perspective from which the
topics/characters and events are presented. Point of
view may be personal, i.e. in the first person (“I”,
“we”) or non-personal, i.e. in the third person (“he”,
“she”, “they”). If the writer/narrator/ speaker knows
everything about the topics/characters and events, he
or she is said to be omniscient, the point of view is
unlimited. Otherwise the point of view is limited. A
narrator may be limited omniscient, when he
knows everything about one (or a small group of)
character(s) but can only describe the actions and
words of the other characters.
(mode of) presentation – way in which events are
related to the reader or listener in a narrative text. If a
story is told as a condensed series of events, this is
known as panoramic presentation; if an incident is
shown in detail, we speak of scenic presentation. A
text which shows us what is happening is called
mimetic, one that tells us of things is called
diegetic. A special kind of scenic presentation is
interior monologue, i.e. the verbal reproduction of
a character’s feelings, thoughts and recollections with
no intervention by the narrator. The mode of
presentation is closely related to an author’s
treatment of time.
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A (very short) Dictionary of English Literary Terms
protagonist – the character who is the hero, the good
guy, or at least the character through whose
experiences we see the whole story. The protagonist
can be a bad guy, too.
reading time – time it takes to read about a particular
event or series/sequence of events in a narrative text,
nearly the same as narrating time. The relationship
between reading time/narrating time and acting time
is dependent on the mode of presentation.
rhetorical question – a question which expects no
answer, e.g. “How long will this war last?”
rising action – structural element of a fictional text,
marked by an increase in the suspense and an
intensifying of the conflict. It usually follows the
exposition and precedes the climax.
round character – character who is deeply looked into,
looked at from various different angles, giving the
reader different (and even conflicting) aspects of its
personality. In the course of the narrative this
character will change.
sarcasm – saying one thing but meaning another AND
intending this to hurt, e.g. “Gee, I wish I had a nose
like yours – then my parrot would always have its
perch!” (See also: irony.)
setting – place and time in which the action of a text
takes place.
simile – a comparions between two things with similar
qualities, using “like” or “as,” e.g. “School is like hell
for many pupils.”
solution – structural element of a fictional text in which
the conflict is resolved. Also called dénouement.
stock character – character who plays a role typical of
the present action, i.e. the good mother, the bad stepmother, the bully, the secret admirer, the evil warden,
the silent kid, the stern but loving father etc. A
character you have met before – with a different
name, though. (Compare: type; flat character.)
story – series of (apparently unconnected) events.
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A (very short) Dictionary of English Literary Terms
structure – underlying any narrative, the structure of a
text can give us a clue to the author’s intentions, our
response to the action and the importance of the
different elements of the narrative. The typical order
is this: exposition, rising action, climax, turning-point, falling
action, solution (dénouement) or open ending. A narration
may have a set of such structural elements, e.g.
different climactic scenes, apparent solutions and
rising action again.
suspense – feeling of tension or expectation aroused in
the reader or audience about the further
development of the characters, conflict, and plot.
teichoscopia – (‘looking over a wall’) a character reports
something visible to him but not to the reader, i.e. the
narrator acts indirectly. (A technique used in Greek
theatre, often describing a battle scene.)
telling name – a character’s, a place’s or an object’s
name which by association or its connotation reveals
some hidden truth about it.
temporal order – way of structuring a text by presenting
actions and events in relation to time. A simple form
of temporal order is chronological order.
text form – realization of one of the five text types in
actual texts, e.g. as poems, short stories, novels,
reports, comments. Though most text forms contain
elements of several text types, one of them is usually
dominant.
text type – classification of texts according to five
different models based on the writer’s intentions
(argumentation, description, exposition, instruction,
narration).
theme – central topic or idea of a text, holding all its
elements together and giving them meaning in
addition to or beyond their own.
time – acting time, narrating time, reading time.
tone – writer’s or speaker’s attitude towards his or her
theme, character(s) and especially towards the reader
or listener, as reflected in the text. Tone can, for
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A (very short) Dictionary of English Literary Terms
example, be serious or playful, humorous or solemn,
arrogant or modest.
turning point – structural element of a fictional text,
marking a change in the conflict or suspense. It
usually follows the climax and precedes the falling
action.
type – character in a fictional text who is not fully
developed but remains one-sided, representing a
group of people or some human trait. A more
general portrayal. (Compare: stock character, flat
character.)
understatement – the opposite of hyperbole, when we
play down rather than exaggerate a matter, e.g. “he
was quite upset” for “he was absolutely hysteric.”
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