Literature definitions


A , B , C , D , E , F , G , H , I , J , K , L , M , N , O , P , Q , R , S , T , U , V , W , X , Y , Z

A


Allegory
An extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events and settings represent abstract qualities. The writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface story and this may be moral, political, social or satiric. A famous example of allegory is John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678).

Alliteration
- the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within words. This old literary device is used in both poetry and prose for emphasis and musical effect, e.g. "after life's fitful fever" (MacBeth).

Allusion
- implied referance to persons, things etc. That the writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to.

Anaphora
Refers to the noticeable repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines, sentences or paragraphs.

Anticlimax
- when used deliberately this is a stylistic device which involves a humorous descent from something serious or dignified to something frivolous or trivial.

Antithesis
- a figure of speech in which opposing or contrasting ideas are balaced against each other in grammatically parallel syntax.

Argument
- is the form of discourse in which authors use carefully reasoned arguments with the intention of convincing the reader. Persuasion is similar to argument, but it aims to influence people's actions or opinions by strongly emphasising the advantages of one point of view. A text of this nature is called an argumentative text or a persuasive text.

C


Cartoon
A cartoon is a drawing, usually in a newspaper or magazine and often with a comment (or caption) underneath it, which is funny and/or makes a political point or criticism.

Characterization
The way in which the narrator presents the characters in the story. One can distinguish between two main methods:
  1. Direct characterisation, i.e. telling the reader about the person's quantities
  2. Indirect characterisation, i.e. showing the person's deeds through which his character is revealed.
Characterisation deals with describing all the features that make up a personality and its development. The description of a person's appearance may also be part of characterisation.

Comment
In a comment you voice your opinion on a certain situation, event, person, behaviour, attitude, or a statement made by someone else.

Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings or cartoons that tell a story and have dialogue printed in balloons. Comic strips are often serialised in newspapers.

Connotation
The connotation of a word refers to all the possible associations this word evokes.

D


Denotation
The denotation of a word refers to ist basic, literal meaning, as found in a dictionary (most commonly used as a verb : to denote).

Description
- is the form of discourse in which the author tells the reader what a person, a place, or an object looks like. The writer tries to evoke an image in the reader's mind similar to the in his/her own mind. A text of this nature is called a descriptive text.

Documentary fiction
A narrative build around a particular period or event in history or the present. In this type of writing there are no fictional characters and the aim is to bring the event or period to life for the reader.

E


Editorial or leader
A newspaper article which is a comment on an event that the readers are already fully informed about. It is often written by one of the top editors of a paper and reflects the policy of the paper. The writer's name is not mentioned. American and British papers reserve one or two inside pages for editorials and often print letters from readers beside them.

Exposition
- is the form of discourse in which the author explains something or informs the reader about something. A text of this nature is called an expository text.

Extended metaphor
- an implied comparison that is sustained for several lines or becomes the overall image of a piece of writing

F


Fable
A fable is a short narrative in prose or verse. The characters are usually non-human creatures or inanimate objects. The presentation of human beings as animals is the characteristic of the literary fable. Its tone is realistic and ironical at the same time. It often ends with a moral that summarises the meaning of the narrative.

Feature story
A feature story is a special form of newspaper article. It is based on a true story which the writer considers to be newsworthy. Feature stories are usually longer than ordinary articles and are written in an individual style. Feature story writers do not only give an account of an event but generally also provide background and supplementary information. The feature story is often written in an emotional, personal or humorous way.

First-person narrator
The first-person narrator is a character in the story.

Forms of discourse
Any piece of writing can be classified according to the writer's main purpose. These types of writing are called forms of discourse. The five major forms of discourse are description, exposition, narration, argument or persuasion, and instruction.

H


Historical fiction
A narrative form which attempts to re-create past events and includes both fictional elements (imaginary characters and situations) and nonfictional or historical elements (historical characters, factual documentation). In this type of fiction the story element is important too.

Hyperbole
Obvious, extravagant exaggeration or overstatement. It is not meant to be taken literally, but is used figuratively to create humor or emphasis, e.g. "I've told you a thousand times not to do that."

I


Imagery
The pictoral quality of a literary work achieved through a collection of images, pictures created in the reader's mind by words and phrases. These images are primarily visual, but can appeal to other senses as well. Imagery is also used as synonymous with figurative language or figure of speech. It evokes a complex of emotional suggestions and communicates mood, tone and meaning. An image can simply name something, describe it literally or invoke it figuratively as in the following figures of speech : simile, metaphor, extended metaphor, personification, symbol.

Instruction
- is the form of discourse in which the writer tries to teach people something, usually by telling them what to do or how to do something. A text of this nature is called an instructive text.

Interior monologue
A form of presentaton which reveals the feelings, thoughts and recollections of a character without the intervention of the narrator. The reader directly "overhears" the thoughts flowing through the character's mind. Sometimes the term stream of consciousness is used synonymously.

irony
The two basic kinds of irony are verbal irony and irony of situation. Verbal irony occurs when a writer or speaker says something that they do not really mean ( e.g. "What a funny joke," when the speaker really means to say that it is very silly) in order to create a humorous or satirical tone. Verbal irony that is crude rather than clever is called sarcasm. Irony of situation is based on the contrast between what a person would like to be, have, get, and what he really is, has, or gets.

L


Limited point of view
The perspective is limited to the consciousnes of one or several characters in the story.

M


Metaphor
- an implied comparison, e.g. All the world's a stage ...

Mode of presentation
This term refers to the way of telling a story. If the narrator gives a summarization of what happens in a certain period of time, this is called the panoramic mode of presentation. If direct speech is used or the action presented in great detail, this is called the scenic mode of presentation.

N


Narration
- is the form of discourse in which an event or a series of events which happened in a certain period of time are presented to the reader. This form of discourse is not exclusive to fiction but may also be found in nonfictional texts. A text of this nature is called a narrative text.

Narrator and point of view
Narrative texts are told by someone, the narrator, who is not identical with the author. Instead, the author creates the narrator and tells the story from the narrator's point of view.
narrator point of view
Among the many possibilities, the following are the
most important : 		Depending on the type of narrator chosen, the point
of view or perspective is limited to a greater or lesser
degree.
first-person narrator restricted point of view
third-person narrator
- selective omniscience
- omniscience 		limited point of view
unlimited point of view

O


Oral history
A specific method of historiography (historical research and writing). A broad range of people are interviewed on how they expeienced a certain period, historical developement or event in their daily lives. Their reports - often recorded - are edited and more or less directly presented in print or on tape.

P


Parable
A short narrative text illustrating a moral lesson or spiritual truth, e.g. the parable of the sower in the Bible.

Paradox
- a statement which seems contradictory but holds some deeper truth.

Parallelism
- a structural arrangement of words, phrases, clauses or larger units of composition in which elements of equal meaning or importance are similarly phrased.

Personification
- a kind of metaphor in which an animal, plant, object or idea is given human characteristics and feelings

Poem
A traditional poem is arranged in lines with a regular rhythm. It usually has a rhyme scheme. Modern poetry often does not have a regular rhythm or rhyme scheme.

Poetic devices
Poetic devices are the means used by the poet to give a poem its characteristic form and message; they include metre, rhythm, rhyme, stanzas, choice of words, syntax, imagery figures of speech, sound patterns, etc.

Pun
A play on words: the use of words that are alike in sound but different in meaning, usually with a humorous intention.

R


Register
Register is a linguistic term desribing the style in a particular situation (e.g. scientist will express themselves differently when writing scientific papers and when speaking to their children). Register is therefore determined by the audience addressed and by the subject matter. Registers which are commonly used are formal language, colloquial language and slang. In particular fields a specific register is usually chosen, e.g. scientific language, journalese, the language of commerce or advertising etc.

Restricted point of view
The perspective is limited to the external, observable action.

Rhetoric
The act of using language for persuasion in speaking or writing, especially in oratory. The writer or speaker can use various rhetorical or stylistic devices to achieve the desiered effects. These include:
alliteration, allusion, anticlimax, antithesis, hyperbole, paradox, parallelism, pun.

Rhyme
Rhyme is the similarity of sound between two words. Words rhyme when their accented vowels and all successing sounds are identical. Rhyme is frequently but not always used in poetry.

Rhythm
Rhythm is the flow of language created by the arrangement of stressed an unstressed syllables. When this arrangement follows a regular pattern ( e.g. a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one throughout a line), we call it metre.

S


Satire
A piece of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses, foolishness or wrongdoing of individual, groups, institutions, society or humanity in general. Ist aim is to uphold certain values and to improve society. Satire often makes use of exaggeration, irony and sarcasm.

Science fiction
A popular form of fiction with a technological bias. Ist aim may be described in broad terms as getting the reader interested in the question "what if". The technique used to achieve this is "extrapolation". Extrapolation is the projection of current tendencies into a future world. By presetting models of the future, the science fiction writer invites the readers to view their own present from a different vantage point. The author's extrapolation may be pessimistic (as in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World) or optimistic (as in Francis Bacon's The New Atlantis.

Setting
The place, time, social circumstances, etc. In which the events of a novel or short story take place.

Simile
- a comparison introduced by like or as, e.g. My love is like a red, red rose ...

Speaker
The speaker is the voice speaking to us in a poem. Even when the personal pronoun is "I" is used in a poem, we can not assume that the speaker is identical with the poet. As a rule we should treat the speaker as a character invented by the poet. The speaker is also sometimes called "persona".

Stanza
A stanza is a group of two or more lines in a poem. In some poems, (especially in traditional ones), each stanza has the same pattern. A two line stanza is called a couplet, a stanza of four lines is known as a quatrain.

Style
A writer's characteristic use of language. Style includes: Style can be described as formal, literary, rhetorical, informal, colloquial, chatty, personal etc.

Symbol
- usually something concrete - an object, a place, a character, an action - which itself stands for or suggests something abstract, e.g. a tree for life, a wedding ring for marriage.

Symbolism
The conscious, literary use of symbols which are meant to be taken both literally and as representatives of an abstract level of meaning.

T


Tautology
An unnecessary accumulation of words of the same or similar meaning. It is a fault of style or a figure that is employed deliberately. Pleonasm is often used synonymously.

Third-person narrator
The story is told by someone who is not a character in the story. One can distinguish two types of third-person narration :

Tone
The reflection in a piece of writing of the author's attitude towards his or her subject and readers. Tone in writing is comparable to tone of voice in speech and may be described as emotional, ironical, critical, sympathetic, contemptuous etc. Tone conveys the emotional meaning of a work and may be revealed by the author's choice words, the details included, or the arrangement of ideas and descriptions.

U


Unlimited point of view
This perspective enables the narrator to know everything and to enter into the minds of all the characters.

Diese Seite ist eine Privatinitiative von Stefan Bettge, Werner v. Siemens Gymnasium und stellt eigene Ansichten und Meinungen dar. Es besteht keine Garantie auf Richtigkeit und insbesondere keine Verpflichtung diese Seite weiterzuführen oder zu aktualisieren.
<IMG SRC="tagteam.gif>