Literary and Stylistic Terms
Lax
Allegory – A story in verse or prose with a double meaning: a primary or surface meaning; and a secondary or under-thesurface meaning. Closely related to the fable and parable. Can be read on two or more levels.
Alliteration – A figure of speech in which the consonants, especially at the beginning of words, or stressed syllables, are
repeated. Tends to be used for the achievement of the special effect.
Allusion - Usually an implicit reference, perhaps to another work of literature or art, to a person or an event. It is often a
kind of appeal to a reader to share some experience with the writer. An allusion may enrich the work by association and give
it depth. When using an allusion the writer tends to assume an established literary tradition, a body of common knowledge
with an audience sharing that tradition and an ability on the part of the audience to “pick up” the reference. Roughly, we can
distinguish: (a) a reference to events and people, (b) reference to facts about the author himself, (c) a metaphoric allusion,
and (d) an imitative allusion.
Ambiguity – (William Empson – things are not what they seem) Words connote at lest as much as they denote – and very
often more. We recognize that there could be another meaning / verbal nuance / alternative reaction to the word.
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.
Anti-climax – The same as bathos. The last part of the sentence expresses something lower than the first. (Often comical.)
Anti-hero – A type of character who is incompetent, unlucky, tactless, stupid, buffoonish – the opposite of the oldfashioned hero who is considered capable of heroic deeds, who was dashing and strong, brave and resourceful.
Antonym – A word of opposite meaning to another.
Apostrophe – A figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality, an idea, a dead or absent person, is
addressed as if present and capable of understanding.
Aside – In drama a few words or a short passage spoken in an undertone or to the audience. It is a thetrical convention by
which the words are presumed inaudible to other characters on stage.
Assonance – Sometimes called “vocalic rhyme”, it consists of the repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually close
together, to achieve a particular effect of euphony.
Asyntactic – (from the Greek “not arranged”) Applied to prose or verse which is loose, ungrammatical in structure and
therefore which breaks the normal conventions governing word order.
Blank verse – Unrhymed five-stress lines; properly, iambic pentameters. Most widely used English verse form, closest in
rhythm to everyday English speech.
Cacophony – The opposite of euphony. Harsh sounds are used deliberately by the writer, especially the poet, to achieve a
particular effect.
Cadence – Refers to the melodic pattern preceding the end of a sentence; for instance, in an interrogation or an exhortation;
and also the rhythm of accented units. (Also refers to the natural rhythm of language; its “inner tune”, rising and falling.)
Caesura – A break or pause in a line of poetry, dictated, usually, by the natural rhythm of the language.
Caricature – In literature (as in art) a portrait, which ridicules a person by exaggerating or distorting his most prominent
features and characteristics. Quite often, the caricature evokes genial and not derisive laughter.
Catachresis – The misapplication of a word, especially in a mixed metaphor.
Catastrophe – (From Greek “overturning”) The tragic denouement of a play or story.
Catharsis – (Greek – purgation) Aristotle uses the word in his definition of tragedy. Through pity and fear there is a
purging of the emotions at the end of a tragedy. So, the tragedy, having aroused powerful feelings in the spectator, has also a
therapeutic effect; after the storm and climax there comes a sense of release from tension, of calm.
Chiasmus – (Greek – “placing crosswise”) A reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses.
Cliché – A trite, over-used expression which is lifeless. Many idioms have become cliches through excessive use.
Climax - That part of a story or play at which a crisis is reached and a resolution achieved.
Colon – A metrical term which denotes a number of feet or metra. (In punctuation, a : denotes a list or series of terms.)
Comic relief – Comic episodes or interludes, usually in a tragedy, aimed to relieve tension and heighten the tragic element
by contrast. The humor involved tends to by wry or sardonic.
Conceit – Has been used as a synonym for “thought”, “idea”, or “concept”. It also denotes a fanciful supposition, an
ingenious act of deception or a witty or clever remark or idea. As a literary term, it denotes a fairly elaborate figurative
device of a fanciful kind which often incorporates metaphor, simile, hyperbole or oxymoron and which is intended to
surprise and delight by its wit and ingenuity. (The pleasure is an intellectual one.) Particularly associated with the
metaphysical poets.
Conflict – The tension in a situation between characters, or the actual opposition of characters. External conflict =
character vs. character, or character vs. environment. Internal conflict = character’s moral dilemma or predicament.
Connotation – The suggestion or implication evoked by a word or phrase, over and above what it means or actually
denotes. May be personal and individual, or general and universal.
Consonance – The close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels.
Contrast – The juxtaposition of disparate or opposed images, ideas, or both, to heighten or clarify a scene, theme or
episode. Also as a technique (verb) refers to the differences between two pieces of literature.
Couplet – Two successive rhyming lines. One of the main verse units in Western literature.
Denotation – The most literal and limited meaning of a word, regardless of what one may feel about it or the suggestions
and ideas it connotes.
Denouement – (French – “unknotting”) It may be the event or events following the major climax of a plot, or the
unraveling of a plot’s complications at the end of a story or play.
Diction – Diction denotes the vocabulary used by a writer. Poetic diction usually refers to that rather particular kind of
language and artificial arrangement employed by many poets. (Especially Neoclassic poets.)
Dissonance – The arrangement of cacophonous sounds in words, or rhythmical patterns, for a particular effect.
Dithyramb – Originally a Greek choric hymn, with mime describing the adventures of Dionysus.
Dogma – A dogma is a tenet, doctrine, law or principle. Something laid down as being so.
Dramatic irony – When the audience understands the implication and meaning of a situation on stage, or what is being
said, but the characters do not. Common in tragedy and comedy. (Or when a character’s words “recoil” upon him.)
Dumb-show – a mimed dramatic performance whose purpose was to prepare the audience for the main action of the play
to follow.
Ellipsis – (Greek – “leaving out”) A figurative device where a word (or several words) is left out in order to achieve more
compact expression. (Modern poets like Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden use the device frequently.)
Emotive language – Language intended to express or arouse emotional reactions towards the subject.
Empathy – When we experience empathy we identify ourselves, up to a point, with an animate or inanimate object. The
experience might even be an involuntary projection of ourselves into an object.
End-rhyme – This occurs at the end of a line or verse. Distinguished from head-rhyme or alliteration & internal rhyme.
Enjambement – Running on of the sense beyond the second line of one couplet into the first line of the next.
Epic – A long narrative poem, on a grand scale, about the deeds of warriors and heroes. It is a “herioc” story that
incorporates myth, legend, folk tale and history.
Epic simile – An extended simile, in some cases running to fifteen or twenty lines, in which the comparisons made are
elaborated in considerable detail.
Epiphany – (Greek – “manifestation”) Denotes the festival which commemorates the manifestation of Christ to the
Gentiles in the persons of the Magi. More generally, the term denotes a manifestation of God’s presence in the world. (See
James Joyce – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.) Used a symbol of a spiritual state. (I.e. An “awakening”.)
Epitasis(Greek – “near intensification”) The part of a play when the denouement or climax approaches, when the plot
thickens. It precedes the catastrophe.
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.
Existentialism – A vision of the condition and existence of man, his place and function in the world, and his relationship,
or lack of one, with God. Existence precedes essence. Man fashions his own existence and only exists by so doing, and in
that process, and by the choice of what he does or does not do, gives essence to that existence.
Falling action – That part of a play which follows the denouement or climax.
Fiction - A vague and general term for an imaginative work, usually in prose.
Figurative language – Language which uses figures of speech; for example, metaphor, simile, alliteration, etc.
Fixed form – Denotes a form in poetry for which there are prescribed and established rules with regard to the number of
lines, the meter, line length, rhyme, etc.
Flashback – A term which describes any scene or episode in a play, novel, story or poem which is inserted to show events
that happened at an earlier time. (Frequently used in modern fiction.)
Flat character – (E.M. Forster – Aspects of the Novel)
Foot – A group of syllables forming a metrical unit; a unit of rhythm. We measure feet in terms of syllable variation: long
and short syllables, stressed and unstressed. (Common feet = iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapest and spondee.)
Foreshadowing – The technique of arranging events and information in a narrative in such a way that later events are
prepared for or shadowed forth beforehand.
Free verse – Has no regular meter or line length and depends on natural speech rhythms and the counterpoint of stressed
and unstressed syllables.
Genre – A French term for a kind, a literary type or class. The major genres were: epic, tragedy, lyric, comedy and satire,
to which would now be added novel and short story.
Great Chain of Being – This phrase summarizes an idea that all that exists in the created order is part of natural
hierarchy, from the lowest possible grade up to God. (insect, fish, bird, beast, man, angel, God)
Greek Tragedy – Had a definite structure – a prologue, chorus, episodes, conclusion, and constituted 5 Acts.
Homonym – (Greek: “Same name”) A word having the same sound and spelling as another, but a different meaning.
Homophone – (Greek: “Same sound”) A word which is pronounced the same as another, but has a different spelling and
meaning.
Hubris – (Excessive pride) This shortcoming or defect in the Greek tragic hero leads him to ignore the warnings of the
gods and to transgress their laws and commands. Eventually hubris brings about downfall and nemesis.
Hyperbole – A figure of speech which contains an exaggeration for emphasis.
Hypotaxis – (Greek: “Under arrangement”) Subordination; syntactic relationship between dependent and independent
constructions.
Iambic pentameter – Denotes a line of five feet, arranged as unstressed, followed by stressed syllables. (Shakes. Sonnet)
Idyll – (Greek: “Little form”) It can refer to either a poem or an episode which describes some episode or scene in rural life,
or a description of any scene of tranquil happiness.
Illusion – The semblance of reality and verisimilitude in art which most writers create in order to enable the reader to think
that he is seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting and smelling, or having some extra-sensory or kinesthetic experience.
Imagery – As a general term covers the use of language to represent objects, actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of
mind and any sensory or extra-sensory experience. Many images are conveyed by figurative language.
Irony – Most forms of irony involve the perception or awareness of a discrepancy or incongruity between words and their
meanings, or between actions and their results, or between appearance and reality. In all cases there may be elements of the
absurd or the paradoxical. The two basic kinds are verbal (saying what one does not mean) and situational irony.
Kafkaesque – Characteristic of the nightmarish atmosphere which Franz Kafka was capable of creating through the
pervasive menace of sinister, impersonal forces, the feeling of loss of identity, the evocation of guilt and fear, and the sense
of evil that permeates the twisted and “absurd” logic of ruling powers.
Lyric – From Greeks – a song to be sung to the accompaniment of the lyre, but also the term used to describe a particular
kind of poem in order to distinguish it from narrative or dramatic verse of any kind. Usually fairly short and personal.
Malapropism – From Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan’s The Rivals, who had the habit of using polysyllabic words incorrectly.
Metanoia – (Greek: “Afterthought”) A figurative device in which a statement is made, and then withdrawn or lessened in
its impact.
Metaphor – A figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. A comparison is usually implict.
Metaphysical – A term applied to 17th century poets (Donne, Marvell, et al) who used arresting original images and
conceits , wit, ingenuity, and intellectual stretching to express their passions and beliefs in their poetry.
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.
Monologue – A single person speaking alone – with or without an audience.
Moral – The lesson to be learnt from a story, poem, play or fable – any work which purports to teach anything.
Motif – One of the dominant ideas in a work of literature; a part of the main theme. It may consist of a character, a reurrent
image or a verbal pattern.
Myth – In general a myth is a story which is not “true” and which involves (as a rule) supernatural beings – or supra-human
beings. Myth explains how something came to exist and embodies feeling and concept.
Objective detail – Objectivity suggests that the writer is “outside of” and detached from what he is writing about, and
observes a distance from the subject. Objective details can be described in pretty much the same way by two people.
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 – (Greek: “song”) A lyric poem, usually of some length. Contains an elaborate stanza structure, a marked formality
and stateliness in tone and style, and lofty sentiments and thoughts. Public ode is ceremonious, while private ode is personal.
Onomatopoeia – (Greek: “Name-making”) The formation and use of words to imitate sounds. Used for a special effect.
Oxymoron – A figure of speech which combines incongruous and apparently contradictory words and meanings for a
special effect. Closely related to antithesis and paradox.
Paradox – An apparently self-contradictory (even absurd) statement which, on closer inspection is found to contain a truth
reconciling the conflicting opposites.
Parallelism – Common device in poetry, consisting of phrases or sentences of similar construction and meaning placed
side by side, balancing each other. (See T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, Walt Whitman, Beowulf, etc.)
Parataxis – Co-ordination of clauses without conjunctions. The effect is terseness and compression. (See Pope, Dickinson)
Pathos – (Greek: “suffering; feeling”) That quality of art which evokes feelings of tenderness, pity or sorrow.
Pentameter – The five-foot line and the basic line in English verse; especially in blank verse and the heroic couplet.
Persona – (Latin: “Mask”) From it derives the term dramatis personae. Denotes the “person” who speaks in aa poem or
novel or other form of literature.
Personification – The impersonation or embodiment of some quality of abstraction; the attribution of human qualities to
inanimate objects. Appears frequently, especially in poetry.
Plot – The plan, design, scheme or pattern of events in a play, poem or work of fiction; and further, the organization of
incident and character in such a way as to induce curiosity and suspense in the spectator or reader.
Prolepsis – (Greek: “Anticipation”) A figurative device by which a future event is presumed to have happened.
Prologue – The opening section of a work; a kind of introduction which is part of the work and not prefatory.
Prose – (Latin: “straightforward discourse”) Thus, a direct, unadorned form of language, written or spoken, in ordinary
usage. Differs from poetry or verse in that it is 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, which involves a play upon words. Gives rise to a fairly universal form of humor.
Quatrain – A stanza of four lines, rhymed or unrhymed. It lends itself to a wide variation in meter and rhyme.
Refrain – A phrase, line or lines repeated at intervals during a poem and especially at the end of a stanza.
Renaissance – (French: “Rebirth”) A term commonly applied to the historical period which follows the Middle Ages. (15th
– 16th centuries) (See Dante, Cervantes, Sir Thomas More, Edmund Spenser, Shakespeare, Sir Francis Bacon)
Resolution – Those events which form the outcome of the climax of a play or story. The equivalent of falling action.
Rhetorical question – Bascially a question not expecting an answer, or one to which the answer is more or less selfevident. It is used primarily for stylistic effect. And is a common device in public speaking. Also used for emphasis.
Rhyme - Rhyme has two main functions: it echoes sounds and is thus a source of aesthetic satisfaction, and rhyme assists
in the actual structure of verse.
Rhythm – In verse or prose, the movement or sense of movement communicated by the arrangement of stressed and
unstressed syllables and by the duration of the syllables. In verse the rhythm depends on the metrical pattern.
Rising action – The part of a play, which precedes the climax.
Romanticism – A shift in the 18th century (in England, mainly) in sensibility and feeling, particularly in relation to the
natural order and Nature. Aspects of Romanticism include: an increasing interest in Nature, and in the natural, primitive and
uncivilized way of life, a growing interest in scenery, an association of human moods with the “moods” of nature – and thus
a subjective feeling for it and interpretation of it, a considerable emphasis on natural religion, an emphasis on the need for
spontaneity in thought and action and in the expression of thought, an increasing importance attached to natural genius and
the power of the imagination, a tendency to exalt the individual and his needs and emphasis on the need for a freer and more
personal expression, and the cult of the Noble Savage. (See Blake, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Worsdworth, Byron)
Satire – The true end of satire is to amend vices. Swift defined satire as “a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally
discover everybody’s face but their own, which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and so
very few are offended with it.” Thus satire is a kind of pretest, a sublimation and refinement of anger and indignation. The
satirist’s aim is to ridicule and bring scorn to upon those who threaten to impair a sense of their values and beliefs. Satire
ridicules the follies, vices and shortcomings of society, and of individuals who represent society. (See Chaucer and Swift.)
Seer – One who sees visions of divine things; and, in a broader sense, a person endowed with prophetic powers.
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, ins such a way as to clarify and enhance an image. It is
an explicit comparison recognized by the use of the words “like” or “as”.
Soliloquy – A soliloquy is a speech, often of some length, in which a character, alone on stage, expresses his thought and
feelings. It is an accepted dramatic convention of great importance. Shows a character’s intentions, motives, feelings, etc.
Sonnet – A poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter with considerable variation in rhyme scheme.
Stanza – A group of lines of verse. The stanza is the unit of structure in a poem.
Stasimon – (Greek: “stationary song”) An ode sung by the Chorus in a Greek play after taking its position in the orchstra.
Stock character – A recurrent “type”. (Such as: the oaf, the clown, the coward, the nagging wife, the buffoon, etc.)
Stream of consciousness – A tem coined by William James to denote the flow of inner experiences. It is a technique in
literature that seeks to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind. (See James Joyce.)
Stress – As a metrical term, stress is interchangeable with accent. A metrical foot usually comprises one stressed syllable
and one or more unstressed syllables.
Strophe – (Greek: “turning”) Originally the first part of a choral ode in Greek drama which the Chorus chanted while
moving from one side of the stage to the other. More recently it has been applied to a unit or verse paragraph in free verse.
Style – The characteristic manner of expression in prose or verse; how a particular writer says things. To analyze a writer’s
style, look at the writer’s choice of words, his figures of speech, the rhetorical and other devices, the shape of his sentences,
the shape of his paragraphs, etc.
Subjective detail – Subjectivity, when applied to writing, suggests that the writer is primarily concerned with conveying
personal experience and feeling. Subjective details are those details that are seen from the writer’s personal point of view.
Sub-plot – A subsidiary action in a play or story which coincides with the main action.
Surrealism – A movement that originated in France in the 1920’s. Surrealists attempted to express in art and literature the
workings of the unconscious mind and to synthesize these workings with the conscious mind. Work develops non-logically.
Suspense – A state of uncertainty, anticipation and curiosity as to the outcome of the story, play, or prose.
Symbol - Is an object, animate or inanimate, which represents or “stands for” something else. Actions and gestures can be
symbolic, too. A literary symbol combines an image with a concept, and it may be universal or local.
Synaesthesia – (Greek: “Perceiving together”) The mixing of sensations; the concurrent appeal to more than one sense; the
response through several senses to the stimulation of one.
Synechdoche – (Greek: “Taking up together”) A figure of speech in which the part stands for the whole, and thus
something else is understood within the thing mentioned.
Synonym – A word similar in meaning to another.
Syntax – (Greek: “Together arrangement”) Sentence construction.
Synthesis – After analyzing (a detailed splitting up and examination of a work of literature, whereby you study the various
elements and the relationship between them) a work, the reader (or critic) can understand the author’s meaning and make his
own meaning of the work.
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 – The theme of a work is not its subject but rather its central idea, which may be stated directly or indirectly.
Thesis – A long essay or treatise, or a proposition to be proved. (We use the second meaning.)
Tone – The reflection of a writer’s attitude, manner, mood and moral outlook in his work.
Tragedy – (Greek: “Goat song”) Originally denoted a form of ritual sacrifice accompanied by choral song in honor of
Dionysus, the god of drama, the fields and the vineyards. (See Aristotle’s “Poetics”.) Tragedy is the disaster which comes to
those who represent and who symbolize, in a peculiarly intense form, those flaws and shortcomings which are universal in a
lesser form. (See Greek Tragic Hero, Tragic Flaw, and Tragic Outcome.)
Tragic flaw – Traditionally that defect in a tragic hero or heroine which leads to their downfall.
Triad – (Greek: “Three”) In Classical Greek poetry a group of 3 lyric stanzas: strophe, antistrophe and epode.
Trilogy – (Greek: “Set of three”) A group of three tragedies presented by individual authors at the drama festivals in
Athens in the 5th century BC. The term may also be applied to a group of 3 novels linked by a common theme or characters.
Turning point – The observable moment when, in a story, play or other narrative, there is a definite change in direction
and one becomes aware that it is now about to move towards its end; a change of fortune. In tragedy, the crucial point.
Universality – That quality in a work of art which enables it to transcend the limits of the particular situation, place, time,
person and incident in such a way that it may be of interest to all men at any time in any place.
Verisimilitude – Likeness to the truth, and therefore the appearance of being true or real even when fantastic. When the
writer does this well, the reader finds the result an acceptable presentation of reality. (As in fantasy.)
Vernacular – Domestic or native language. Now applied to the language used in one’s native country. It may also be used
to distinguish between a ‘literary” language and a dialect.
Verse – Three meanings: (a) a line of metrical writing; (b) a stanza; (c) poetry in general.
Viewpoint – The position of the narrator in relation to his story; thus the outlook from which the events are related. The
omniscient: the author moves from character to character, place to place, and episode to episode with complete freedom,
giving himself access to his characters’ thoughts and feelings whenever he chooses and providing information whenever he
wishes. Third person limited: The author chooses a character and the story is related in terms of that character in such a way
that the field of vision confined to him or her alone. First person narrative: here he story is told in the first person by one of
the characters.
Willing suspension of disbelief – The reader must “grant” that he or she is about to read a story; a person in the
audience is “asked” to accept the dramatic conventions of the theatre and the stage.
Wit – Wit formerly meant “sense” or “the five senses”; thus common sense. During the Renaissance it meant “intelligence”
or “wisdom”; thus intellectual capacity. Later, wit came to mean “fancy”, as in the imagination. For the most part wit now
suggests intellectual brilliance and ingenuity; verbal deftness. Wit is commonly verbal, while humor need not be.
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(Compiled by Jill Lax. Taken from The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory: Cuddon, J.A. 3rd edition)