Student's Glossary of literary terms.pdf

A STUDENT’S GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS

Anachronism:

An error in chronology: placing an event, item or expression in the wrong period. Shakespeare

referred to a cannon in King John , a play set in time long before those weapons were used in

England, and he placed a clock in Julius Caesar .

Accumulation:

The enumeration of words (attributes) having a similar meaning. ”The process is wasteful, dan-

gerous, messy, and sometimes tragic.”

Anagram:

A word or phrase formed by the transposition of letters in another word. Samuel Butler’s novel

Erewhon derives its title from the word nowhere .

Acronym:

A single word, formed from the initial letters of other words (NATO = N orth A tlantic T reaty

O rganization)

Anaphora:

The anaphora is a repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of neighbouring sen-

tences, lines , stanzas , etc.

And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun,

And she forgot the blue above the trees, ...

Act:

The act is the major division of a drama/play , often divided further into scenes .

Acting time:

The acting time is the time from the beginning to the end of an episode or episodes in a fictional

text . The relationship between acting time and narrating time/reading time depends on the

mode of presentation .

Anticlimax:

This is a stylistic device which involves a humorous descent from something serious or digni-

fied to something frivolous or trivial.

Action :

The action of a story is a series of events usually arranged so as to have three recognizable

parts:

1. the beginning ( introduction, exposition ),

2. the middle ( rising action, complication; crisis, climax, turning-point; falling action )

3. and the end ( dénouement or solution, catastrophe, resolution ).

In contrast to real life, action in fiction is ordered; it "imitates in words a sequence of human

activities, with a power to affect our opinions and emotions in a certain way". It is the basic

principle in all fiction and arouses the reader's interest: it makes him eager to learn what is go-

ing to happen and/or how the problems faced by the characters are going to be solved. Action

produces tension , suspense or surprise.

Antithesis:

A figure of speech in which opposing or contrasting ideas are balanced against each other in

grammatically parallel syntax.

Archaism:

The use of an old or obsolete word: albeit (though), quoth he (said he).

Aside:

In a play, words spoken by an actor which the other persons on stage are not supposed to hear.

Assonance:

The assonance is a repetition of similar vowel sounds within stressed syllables of neighbouring

words, e.g. ” on the d ol e with n o where to g o .”

Allegory:

The allegory appears in fictional texts in which ideas are personified and a story is told to ex-

press some general truth.

Examples:

Truth, Vice, Virtue, Justice.

Asyndeton:

A condensed expression in which words or phrases are presented in series, separated by com-

mas only: Caesar: Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered).

Alliteration:

An alliteration is a repetition of sounds (consonants) at the beginning of neighbouring words or

of stressed syllables within such words, e.g. ”finger s th e s mall s i z e of s mall s pade s .” Purpose:

rhythm and stress.

Atmosphere:

Atmosphere is a feeling or mood created by a writer or speaker to evoke the reader’s or lis-

tener’s emotions. It may be, for example, pleasant or gloomy, peaceful or violent.

Allusion:

An allusion is a direct or indirect reference to some well-known historical person or event, say-

ing, proverb, line or sentence from a work of literature.

Attitudinal adverb:

It is an adverb expressing a writer’s or speaker’s attitude towards his or her topic , e.g. ”certain-

ly”, ”honestly”, ”obviously”, ”simply”.

A Student’s Glossary of Literary Terms

Author (omniscient):

An omniscient author is capable of seeing, knowing, and telling whatever he wishes. He is free

to move his characters in time and place, to describe the physical action and private thoughts of

characters , to comment on what happens and to make clear the theme of his story in whatever

way he chooses (cf. point of view ).

Chiasmus:

A figure of speech by which contrasted terms are arranged crosswise, the word order in the first

phrase is reversed in the second:

Example:

As fast as idylls seduce visitors, visitors reduce idylls.

Ballad:

Originally a song accompanied by a dance. Later the name was applied to a narrative poem.

Ballads, passed down by word of mouth, were direct and simple, with romantic, historical or

supernatural setting. The literary ballad is a poem with the rhyme scheme abcb .

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.

Blank verse:

Unrhymed lines of mostly 10 syllables each; especially the iambic pentameter . Shakespeare

chiefly used blank verse in his dramas.

Climactic order:

Way of structuring a text according to the importance of its items, leading to a climax .

Caesura:

The break or pause between words within a metrical foot; a pause in a line of verse generally

near the middle.

Climax:

Structural element of a text, the moment when the conflict is most intense. In fictional texts , the

climax follows the rising action and precedes the turning-point .

Cliff-hanger:

A melodramatic adventure serial (in magazines or films) in which each instalment ends in sus-

pense .

Caricature:

One-sided over-emphasis of certain traits of character , used to mock or criticize.

Character:

In a fictional text , person developed through action , description , language and way of speaking.

1. flat character : Term coined by E.M. Forster; a flat character is not fully developed, it lacks

complexity, and may be referred to a type or a caricature .

2. round character : a person in a work of fiction who is so fully described as to be recogniz-

able, understandable, and individually different from all others appearing in the book.

Cloak-and-dagger:

A play or novel that deals with espionage or intrigue and is highly dramatic and romantic.

Duma’s The Three Musketeers is a famous example.

Characterization :

There are several different ways of presenting a character in fiction or drama :

1. Explicit presentation : Here the omniscient author describes the outward appearance and the

psychological nature of a character . If a character's thoughts and/or his feelings are de-

scribed we speak of introspection .

2. Implicit presentation : A character is presented in terms of his or her environment. If a per-

son lives in strange surroundings he is assumed to be strange himself. Since the author does

not tell us explicitly, the reader is expected to draw his own conclusions.

3. Dramatic presentation : A character is presented through action , interaction or dialogue .

Here, too, the author seems to have withdrawn from the scene and the reader (or audience)

must form their own impressions.

Comedy:

Kind of drama which deals with a light topic or a more serious topic in an amusing way. By

using comic elements, the author wants to entertain and sometimes criticize.

Comic relief:

A comic, diverting element in a serious literary work, especially in a play , which relieves the

tension , and also by contrast, heightens the significance of the tragic theme .

Examples: the gravedigger scene in Hamlet and the episode of the drunken porter in Macbeth .

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.

Cartoon:

A cartoon is a drawing, usually in a newspaper or magazine and often with a comment (or cap-

tion) underneath it, which is funny and/or makes a political point or criticism.

Comment:

Non-fictional text form in which the writer or speaker deals with one or more topics and offers

his or her own judgement in order to convince the reader or listener.

Page 2

Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike.

A Student’s Glossary of Literary Terms

Complication:

The interplay between character and event which builds up a tension in the character and de-

velops a problem out of the original situation given in a piece of fiction .

Description:

Tthe 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 .

Conflict:

All fiction involves, at one level or another, conflict. A character struggles against a certain

environment or against others ( external conflict ), or he is engaged in a struggle with himself

( internal conflict ). One important approach to the right understanding of any story is to deter-

mine the nature of the conflict involved and the pattern which the opposing forces assume.

Dialectical order:

A way of structuring a text by opening with the statement of an idea/action (= thesis ), following

by its opposite (= antithesis ) and solving the conflict between the two in a compromise (= syn-

thesis ). It is frequently used in argumentative texts .

Connotation:

Additional meaning of a word beyond its dictionary definition ( Denotation ).

Diary:

A personal record of facts and experiences, kept daily or at frequent intervals, usually for pri-

vate use.

Contrast:

Bringing together of opposing views in order to emphasize their differences or create tension.

Examples:

Didactic:

Intended to teach a lesson.

Paradise’ loss is our gain.

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.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Counterplot:

(Also called subplot ) a secondary theme in a play or novel used as a variation of the principal

theme or in contrast to it.

Drama (dramatic):

Piece of fiction , also called play , presenting a conflict and. It is usually written for performance

on stage, in films or on TV. The drama usually falls into the following categories: play, com-

edy, tragedy. (Cf. act, scene, stage direction ).

Couplet:

A couplet consists of two consecutive lines of verse rhyming together, usually in the same me-

tre.

Example: Cassius:

And after this let Caesar seat him sure;

Dramatic irony:

This is the device of putting into the speaker’s mouth words which have for the audience a

meaning not intended by the speaker.

Example from Macbeth : the drunken porter jestingly talks of being the porter at Hell’s gate.

For we will shake him or worse days endure. ( Julius

Cae-

sar, I, 3 )

Crisis:

The highest point of the complication in the action , when forces and counter forces have met

and the direction which the action must now take is determined (cf. turning-point ). In strict

terminology, crisis refers only to structural and plot elements, whereas climax refers to the

highest point of reader/audience interest.

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.

Denotation:

Actual meaning of a word as defined in a dictionary ( Connotaton ).

Elegy:

A mournful, melancholy poem , especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.

Dénouement:

( Solution ) structural element of fictional texts in which the conflict is solved.

Ellipsis:

Page 3

A Student’s Glossary of Literary Terms

Shortening of sentences by dropping a word or words (often verbs) which can be understood

form the context. Purpose: focus the reader’s attention.

Example: ”’Been to the cinema lately?’ he asked”

It has to fulfil several requirements - to set the action going, suggest the theme , sketch the

background , introduce the main characters and their problems, arouse suspense . Generally

speaking, it sets forth the prerequisites from which the story will develop. –

The process of giving the reader necessary information concerning the characters and events

existing before the action proper of a story , drama or novel begins.

Emotive (language):

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.

Expressionism:

Expressionism in modern literature can be referred to as any deliberate distortion of reality. In

drama it applies to a style of play-writing emphasising emotional and symbolic or abstract rep-

resentations of reality. In novels or short stories it involves the presentation of an objective

outer world through intensified impressions and moods of characters.

Examples: E. O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones , T. Williams’ The Glass Menagerie , A. Miller’s

The Death of a Salesman .

Enjambment:

Running on of a syntactical unit beyond the end of a line of a poem , also called run-on line .

Entrance:

In drama , the coming of a character onto the stage. The opposite is exit .

Epic:

A lengthy narrative poem in which action , characters , and language are on a heroic level; the

style is exalted and even majestic.

Examples: Homer’s Odyssey , Virgil’s Aeneid , Milton’s Paradise Lost and Beowulf .

Eye rhyme:

Two words which, from the spelling, look as though they should rhyme , but which actually do

not.

Examples: move – love; have – grave; stood – blood.

Epigram:

A witty, ingenious, and pointed saying that is expressed tersely. Aphorism is a related form.

Examples: ”I would live to study and not study to live.” (F. Bacon), and ”I can resist everything

except temptation.” (O. Wilde)

Fable:

Usually short fictional narrative , commonly employing personified animals that represent hu-

man types. It us an allegorical text form with a clear didactic function that is either implicitly

expressed throughout the action or stated explicitly in the form of a moral .

Essay:

A text form in which the writer expresses his personal views on some topic in an artistic way.

Essays can be descriptive , narrative , argumentative , satiric , biographical , critical , or historical .

There are many possible varieties, from the serious to the light-hearted and entertaining.

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 / dénouement .

Euphemism:

Stylistic device used to hide the true nature of something unpleasant by expressing it in a more

pleasant, less direct way.

Examples: ”he passed away” instead of ”he died”, or ”mental home” instead of ”madhouse”.

Feature story:

Variant of the text form report . Though based on facts, it does not emphasize generally news-

worthy events, but rather an individual case and so it appeals to the emotions and arouses hu-

man interest. 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.

Exaggeration:

Exaggeration means a strong overstatement, often used with an amusing effect (cf. understate-

ment ).

Figurative (meaning):

meaning of a word that goes beyond its usual definition(s) and transfers the word from its nor-

mal context to a new one. Examples of figurative use of language are metaphors , similes and

symbols .

Exit:

In drama , a character’s leaving the stage (cf. entrance ).

Exposition:

Flashback:

A passage in the narrative which breaks the chronological sequence of events to deal with ear-

lier events, i.e. dream, dialogue, or memory.

Page 4

A Student’s Glossary of Literary Terms

Focus:

The center around which the material of an imaginative work of art is concentrated. The focus

may be primarily upon character , upon an idea, upon a setting , or the like.

Basically the term denotes the images employed in a literary work (or any other text). A general

definition is: a picture in words which often strongly appeals to the senses. Specific devices are

symbol , simile and metaphor .

Foot (feet):

Unit of stressed and unstressed syllables within a line of a poem (cf. metre ).

Initiation:

1. The act of initiation or the fact of being initiated; formal introduction or initial ceremony

into some office, into society, etc., or the participation in some principles or observances;

hence, instruction in the elements of any subject or practice.

2. Initiation story : the account of a boy's/girl's becoming a man/woman as he/she moves from

innocence and ignorance - through a difficult process of acquiring knowledge of the world -

to the practical but somewhat disillusioning wisdom of adulthood.

3. The first existential ordeal, crisis or encounter with the experience in the life of a youth. Its

ideal aim is knowledge, recognition and confirmation in the world, to which the actions of

the initiate, however painful, must tend. It is, quite simply, the viable mode of confronting

adult realities.

4. An initiation story may be said to show its young protagonist experiencing a significant

change of knowledge about the world of himself, or a change of character , or of both, and

this change must point or lead him toward an adult world. It may or may not contain some

form of ritual, but it should give some evidence that the change is at least likely to have

permanent effects.

5. Initiation stories obviously center on a variety of experiences and the initiations vary in

effect. It will be useful, therefore, to divide initiations into types according to their power

and effect ( tentative, incomplete and decisive initiation ).

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 , exposi-

tion , narration , argument or persuasion , and instruction .

Frame story:

A story within a story .

Free verse:

Form of a poem whose structure is not established by rhyme and a regular metre , but, for exam-

ple, by repetition , rhythm and sound elements such as alliteration and assonance .

Historical fiction:

A narrative form which attempts to re-create past events and includes both fictional elements

(imaginary characters and situations) and non-fictional or historical elements (historical char-

acters , factual documentation ). In this type of fiction the story element is important too.

Instruction:

It 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 .

Hyperbole:

Obvious and deliberate exaggeration, for the purpose of emphasis. 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.”

Iambus:

A metrical foot of two syllables, the first unaccented, the second accented ⏐∪ —⏐

Example: To be, or not to be – that is the question. ( Hamlet )

Interior monologue:

A form of presentation 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 synony-

mously.

Idiom (idiomatic speech):

A group of words which has a special meaning that cannot be literally translated into another

language.

Example: ”Hold the line, please.” In German: ”Bleiben Sie bitte am Apparat.”

Interview:

Special kind of dialogue , usually prepared in advance and later edited for publication or broad-

cast.

Image (imagery):

Irony:

Page 5

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: