A
allegory = in literature, the description or illustration of one thing
in terms of another; a work of poetry or prose in the form of an extended
metaphor or fable that makes use of symbolic fictional characters.
alliteration = in poetry and prose, the use, within a line or phrase of
words beginning with the same sound, as in "Two tired toads trotting to Trewkesbury."
It was a common device in Old English poetry, and its use survives in many
traditional phrases, such as dead as a doornail, pretty as a picture.
anthology = (Greek "bouquet") collection of verse by various authors, particularly
of shorter poems such as epigrams
antithesis = the balancing of two contrasting ideas, usually in the same
sentence.
archetype = typical or perfect specimen of its kind. In the psychology
of Jung, it refers to one of the basic roles or situations, received from
the collective unconscious, in which people tend to cast themselves - the
Hero, the Terrible Mother (stepmother, witch). Archetypes are recurring
motifs in myths, art and literature.
argumentative (writing)=a piece of formal writing outlining advantages
and disadvantages of the topic under discussion
assonance = the matching of vowel (or, sometimes consonant) sounds, generally
in poetry.
autobiography = a person's own biography, or written account of his / her
life, distinguished from the journal or narrative, and from memoirs by dealing
less with contemporary events and personalities. Forms of autobiography
include the confessional attempting faithful description of moral weakness
and the inner life; the would-be exemplary, seeking to promote a particular
cause or outlook espoused by the writer; and the military and political
memoirs, intended as contributions to history.
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B
ballad = a form of traditional narrative poetry, widespread
in Europe and the USA. Ballads are metrically simple, sometimes unstrophic
and unrhymed or dependent on assonance. Concerned with some strongly emotional
event, the ballad is halfway between the lyric and the epic. Most English
ballads date from the 15th century but may describe earlier events. Poets
of the Romantic Movement both in England and Germany were greatly influenced
by the ballad revival.
ballade = in literature, a poetic form developed in France in the later
Middle Ages from the ballad, generally consisting of one or more groups of
three stanzas of seven or eight lines each, followed by a shorter stanza or
envoy, the last line being repeated as a chorus.
bibliography = list of books on a particular subject, or used in the research
for a work; or a list of all the books by a particular writer. Bibliography
can also mean the study of books.
biography = account of a person's life. When it is written by that person
it is an autobiography. It may consist simply of the factual details of
a person's life told in chronological order, but has generally become a
matter of interpretation as well as historical accuracy.
blank verse = in literature, the unrhymed iambic pentameter or ten-syllable
line of five stresses. First used by the Italian Gian Giorgio Trissino in
his tragedy Sofonisba 1514-15, it was introduced to England about 1540 by
the Earl of Surrey, who used it in his translation of Virgil's Aeneid. It
was developed by Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare, quickly becoming the
distinctive verse form of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.
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C
classicism = a style that emphasizes the qualities traditionally
considered characteristic of ancient Greek and Roman art, that is, reason,
balance, objectivity, restraint and strict adherence to form. It is often
used to characterize the culture of 18th century Europe.
crime fiction = variant of detective fiction distinguished by emphasis
on character and atmosphere rather than the solving of a mystery. The English
writer William Godwin's Caleb Williams 1794 is a forerunner that points
to the continuing tendency in crime fiction for serious psychological exploration
to be linked with political radicalism.
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D
Dada or Dadaism = artistic and literary movement founded in
1915 in Zurich, Switzerland by the Romanian poet Tristan Tzara (1896-1963)
and others in a spirit of rebellion and disillusionment during World War
I. The Dadaists produced deliberately anti-aesthetic images, often using
photomontages with worded messages to express their political views, and
directly scorned established art.
deconstruction = in literary theory, a radical form of structuralism, pioneered
by the French philosopher Jaques Derrida, which views text as a "decentered"
play of structures lacking any ultimately determinable meaning. Through
analysis of the internal structure of a text, particularly its contradictions,
Deconstructionists demonstrate the existence of subtext meanings - often
not those that the author intended - and hence illustrate the impossibility
of attributing fixed meaning to a work.
denouement = the unraveling of the plot of a work of fiction. In a typical
structure, the denouement would come just before the end, following the
climax. The detective story is a genre where the complication of plot usually
needs a lengthy denouement, where all is explained to the reader.
descriptive(writing) = a piece of writing providing particular details
of the place, people, objects , feelings and thoughts
detective fiction = novel or short story in which a mystery is solved mainly
by the action of a professional or amateur detective. Where the mystery
to be solved concerns a crime, the work may be called crime fiction. Types
of detective fiction: police procedural where the mystery is solved by detailed
police work; the inverted novel where the identity of the criminal is known
from the beginning and only the method or the motive remains to be discovered;
and the hard-boiled school of private investigators which became known for
its social realism and explicit violence.
dime novel = melodramatic paperback novel of a series started in the USA
in the 1850's, published by Beadle and Adams of new York, which frequently
dealt with Deadwood Dick and his frontier adventures. They attained massive
sales and were popular with troops during the American Civil War and World
War I.
discourse = written or spoken communication or debate
drama = in theatre, any play compose to be performed by actors for an audience.
It is distinct from literature in that it is a performing art open to infinite
interpretation, the product not merely of the dramatist but also of the
collaboration of director, designer, actors and technical staff.
dramatic monologue = poem consisting of a speech by a single character,
in which his or her thoughts, character and situation are revealed to the
reader. It developed from the soliloquy, a monologue spoken in a play.
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E
elegy = ancient Greek verse form, originally combining a hexameter
with a shorter line in a couplet. In contemporary usage, the term refers
to a nostalgic poem or a lament, often a funeral poem.
empathy = the ability to understand or imaginatively enter into another
person's situation or feelings; the projection of one's feelings on to objects,
such as works of art.
epic = narrative poem or cycle of poems dealing with some great deed -
often the founding of a nation or the forging of national unity - and often
using religious or cosmological themes.
epigram = short, witty and pithy saying or short poem. The poem form was
common among writers of ancient Rome. It was a religious inscription, originally.
epilogue = postscript to a book; a short speech or poem at the end of a
play, addressed directly to the audience.
epithet = word or phrase that characterizes a person, place or thing, especially
when used instead of the name or in addition to it.
essay = short piece of non-fiction, often dealing from a personal point
of view with some particular subject.
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F
fable = story, in either verse or prose, in which animals or
inanimate objects are given the mentality and speech of human beings to point
out a moral. It is common in folklore and children's literature.
fairy tale = magical story, usually a folk tale in origin. Typically in
European fairy tales, a poor, brave, and resourceful hero or heroine goes
through testing adventures to eventual good fortune.
fantasy fiction = nonrealistic fiction. Much of the world's fictional literature
could be classified under this term, but as a commercial and literary genre,
it started to thrive after the success of J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the
Rings 1954-55.
farce = form of popular comedy involving stereotyped characters in complex,
often improbable situations frequently revolving around extramarital relations.
fiction = in literature, any work in which the content is completely or
largely invented. The term describes imaginative works of narrative prose
(such as the novel or short story), and is distinguished from non-fiction
(such as history, biography, or works on practical subjects) and poetry.
free verse = poetry without metrical form. Poets preferred irregular meters
because it made possible the expression of thought clearly and without distortion.
frontier literature = writing reflecting the US experience of frontier
and pioneer life long central to US literature.
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G
genre = a particular kind of work within an art form, differentiated
by its structure, content, or style. For instance, the novel is a literary
genre and the historical novel is a genre of novel.
gothic novel = literary genre established by Horace Walpole's "The Castle
of Otranto" 1765 and marked by mystery, violence and horror.
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H
historical novel = fictional prose narrative set in the past.
Literature set in the historic rather than immediate past has always abounded,
but in the West Walter Scott began the modern tradition by setting imaginative
romances of love, impersonation, and betrayal in a past based on known fact;
his use of historical detail, and subsequent imitations of this technique
by European writers, gave rise to the genre. Some historical novels of the
19th century were overtly nationalistic, but most were merely novels set
in the past to heighten melodrama while providing an informative framework.
The less serious possibilities of the historical novel were exploited by
writers in the early 20th century in the form of the historical romance.
horror = genre of fiction and film, devoted primarily to scaring the reader
or audience, but often also aiming to be cathartic through their exaggeration
of the bizarre and grotesque. Horror is derived from the Gothic novel, which
dealt in shock effects, as well as from folk tales and ghost stories throughout
the ages. Horror writings tend to use motifs such as vampirism, the eruption
of ancient evil, and monstrous transformation, which often derive from folk
traditions as well as recent concerns such as psychopathology.
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I
irony = literary technique that achieves the effect of "saying
one thing and meaning another" through the use of humour or mild sarcasm.
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L
lampoon = satirical attack on a person in verse or prose, most
commonly in the form of a vicious character sketch.
literary criticism = establishment of principles governing literary composition
and the assessment and interpretation of literary works. Contemporary criticism
offers analyses of literary works. Contemporary criticism offers analyses
of literary works from structuralist, semiological, feminist, Marxist, and
psychoanalytical perspectives, whereas earlier criticism tended to deal
with moral or political ideas, or with a literary work as a formal object
independent of its creator.
lyricism = the expressive or sensual qualities of a work. For instance,
lyric poetry expresses the writer's thoughts and feelings.
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M
magic realism = in 20th century literature, a fantastic situation
realistically treated as in the works of many Latin American writers.
metaphysical poets = group of early 17th century English poets whose work
is characterized by ingenious, highly intricate wordplay and unlikely or
paradoxical imagery.
monologue = one person speaking. Literary monologues are often set pieces
in which a character reveals his or her personality, sometimes unintentionally
(as in the dramatic monologue); in drama the soliloquy performs a similar
function.
morality play = medieval European verse drama, in part a development of
the mystery play (or miracle play), in which human characters are replaced
by personified virtues and vices, the limited humorous elements being provided
by the Devil.
motif = a distinct element or image within a work, such as a detail in
a painting or building, especially one which is repeated and echoed throughout
the work. It can also refer to a significant object or action in a novel
or a phrase in a piece of music.
mystery play = miracle play; medieval religious drama based on stories
from the Bible.
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N
narrate = telling a story by describing events as they happen.
narrator = the character who tells what is happening in a book.
New Criticism = in literature, a US movement dominant in the 1930's and
1940's stressing the autonomy of the text without biographical and other external
interpolation, but instead requiring close readings of its linguistic structure.
novel = extended fictional prose, narrative often including some sense
of the psychological development of the central characters and of their
relationship with a broader world. The modern novel took its name and inspiration
from the Italian novella, the short tale of varied character which became
popular in the 13th century, as the main form of narrative fiction in the
20th century, the novel is frequently classified according to the genres
and subgenres such as the historical novel, detective fiction, fantasy, and
science fiction.
novella = a short novel such as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness 1902.
The novella originated in the 14th century Italy, with collections of tales
such as Boccaccio's Decameron 1348-53.
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O
objective correlative = phrase suggested by TS Eliot in a discussion
of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Recognizing that the hero's emotion in the play
was excessive and inexplicable, Eliot suggested that dramatists must find
an exact, sensuous equivalent for any emotion they wish to express.
omnibus = in literature, a collection of works by a writer, or works by
various writers on a similar subject, reprinted in one volume.
omniscient = knowing everything
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P
picaresque = (Spanish picaro "rogue") genre of novel that takes
a rogue or villain for its central character, telling his or her story in
episodic form.
plot = the story line in a novel, play or other work of fiction. A plot
is traditionally a scheme of connected events. Novelists in particular have
at times tried to subvert or ignore the reader's expectation of a causally
linked story with a clear beginning, middle and end.
point of view = the narrator's position in relation to the story being
told; the position from which something or someone is observed.
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R
revenge tragedy = form of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in
which revenge provides the mainspring of the action. It is usually characterized
by bloody deeds, intrigue, and high melodrama.
register = a variety of a language or a level of usage, as determined by
degree of formality and choice of vocabulary, pronunciation and syntax according
to the communicative purpose, social context, and standing of the user.
review = a brief description of a book , film, play giving
the main points of the plot, including the writer's comments of the book,
play, film
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S
satire = literary or dramatic work which ridicules human pretentions
or exposes social evils. It is related to parody in its intention to mock,
but satire tends to be more subtle and to mock an attitude or belief, whereas
parody tends to mock a particular work (such as a poem) by imitating its
style, often with purely comic intent.
short story = short work of prose fiction, which typically either sets
up and resolves a single narrative point or depicts a mood or an atmosphere.
soliloquy = in drama, thinking aloud. It is a speech for the benefit of
the audience only and by convention is not heard by any other actor on stage
at the time. It is a form of monologue.
stanza = group of lines in a poem. A stanza serves the same function in
poetry as a paragraph in prose. They are often of uniform length and separated
by a blank line.
stream of consciousness = narrative technique in which a writer presents
directly the uninterrupted flow of a character's thoughts, impressions,
and feelings, without the conventional devices of dialogue and description.
It first came to be widely used in the early 20th century. Leading exponents
have included Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and William Faulkner.
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T
third person narrative = omniscient narrator
thriller = a novel, play or film with an exciting plot, typically involving
crime or espionage
tragedy = in the theatre, a play dealing with a serious theme, traditionally
one in which a character meets disaster as a result either of personal failings
or circumstances beyond his or her control.
tragicomedy = drama that contains elements of the tragedy and comedy. It
is the usual form for plays in the tradition of the Theatre of the Absurd.
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V
verbose = using or containing more words than necessary
verisimilitude = the quality of seeming true or having the appearance
of reality
verse = writing which is arranged in short lines with rhythmic pattern
, or one of the parts into which a poem is divided
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