The following literary terms are so important...
Major Literary Term
allegory - device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning
alliteration - the repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words (eg "she sells sea shells")
allusion - a direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art
ambiguity - the multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage
analogy - a similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them
antecedent - the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun
aphorism - a terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general turht or moral principle
apostrophe - a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love
atmosphere - the emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described
clause - a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb
colloquial - the use of slang or informalities in speech or writing
conceit - a fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects
connotation - the nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning
denotation - the strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color
diction - refereing to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness
didactic - from the Greek, literally means "teaching"
euphemism - from the Greek for "good speech," a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept
extended metaphor - a metaphor developed at great length, ocurring frequently in or throughout a work
figurative language - writing or speech that is not intended to carry litera meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid
figure of speech - a device used to produce figurative language
generic convntions - refers to traditions for each genre
genre - the major category into which a literary work fits (eg prose, poetry, and drama)
homily - literally "sermon", or any serious talk, speech, or lecture providing moral or spiritual advice
hyperbole - a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement
imagery - the sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions
infer (inference) - to draw a reasonable conclusion from the informaion presented
invective - an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language
irony - the contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant
verbal irony - words literally state the opposite of speaker's true meaning
situational irony - events turn out the opposite of what was expected
dramatic irony - facts or events are unknown to a character but known to the reader or audience or other characters in work
loose sentence - a type of sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by dependent grammatica units
metaphor - a figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similarity
metonomy - from the Greek "changed label", the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it (eg "the White House" for the President)
mood - grammatically, the verbal units and a speaker's attitude (indicative, subjunctive, imperative); literarily, the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a word
narrative - the telling of a story or an account of an event or sereis of events
onomatopoeia - natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words (eg buzz, hiss)
oxymoron - from the Greek for "pointedly foolish," author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggesta paradox
paradox - a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon close inspection contains some degree of truth or validity
parallelism - from the Greek for "beside one another," the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words,
phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity
parody - a work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the speific aim of comic effect
and/or ridicule
pedantic - an adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or
bookish
periodic sentences - a sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end
personification - a figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animasl, or
inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions
point of view - the perspective from which a story is told (first person, third person omniscient, or third
person limited omniscient)
predicate adjective - one type of subject complement, an adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective cluase
that follows a linking verb
predicate nominative - another type of subject complement, a noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that
renames the subject
prose - genre including fiction, nonfiction, written in ordinary language
repetition - the duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language
rhetoric - from the Greek for "orator," the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently,
and persuasively
rhetorical modes - the variety, conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of writing (exposition explains
and analyzes information; argumentation proves validity of an idea; description re-creates, invents,
or presents a person, place, event or action; narration tells a story or recount an event)
sarcasm - from the Greek for "to tear flesh," involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or
ridicule someone or something
satire - a work that targets human vices and follies or social institutinos and conventions for reform or
ridicule
semantics - the branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological
development (etymology), their connotations, and their relation to one another
style - an evaluation of the sum of the choices an author maks in blending diction, syntx, figurative
language, and other literary devices; or, classification of authors to a group and comparion of an
author to similar authors
subject complement - the word or clause that follows a linking verb and complements, or completes, the
subject of the sentence by either renaming it or describing it
subordinate clause - contains a subject and verb (like all clauses) but cannot stand alone; does not express
complete thought
syllogism - from the Greek for "reckoning together," a deductive system of fromal logic that presents two
premises (first "major," second "minor") that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion (eg All men are
mortal, Socrates is a man, Socrates is mortal)
symbol (symbolism) - anything that represents or stands for something else (natural, conventional, literary)
syntax - the way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences
theme - the central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life
thesis - in expository writing, the thesis statement is the sentence or group of sentences that directly express
the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition
tone - similar to mood, describes the author's attitude toward his material, the audience, or both
transition - a word or phrase that links different ideas
understatement - the ironic minimalizing of fact, presents something as less significant than it is
wit - intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights
Poetic Feet
U - unaccented syllable, A - accented syllable
amphimacer - AUA
anapest - UUA
antibacchus - AAU
bacchius - UAA
chouambus - AUUA
dactyl - AUU
iambus - UA
pyrrhic - UU
spondee - UU
trochee - AU
breve - symbol for unstressed syllable
macron - a "-" symbol to divide syllables
Minor Literary Terms
abecedarius - acrostic in ABC... order
acatalectic - metrically complete
accismus - pretended refusal
acmeism - Russian precise real
adonic - dactyl and a spondee
adversarius - addressed in satire
aetat - at his age
affective fallacy - judge results
agon - debate
agroikos - Frye's term for the fourth stock character, is easily deceived
alazon - braggart
alba - lament daybreak
alexandrine - 6 iambs
alloeostropha - Milton's term for an irregular stanza
ambages - misleading truth
ambo - both
amoebean - pastoral alternate
amphibology - 2 meanings
amphigory - sounds good, no meaning
amphisbaenic rhyme - switch order (eg step - pets)
ana - scraps of information
anacoluthon - don't end sentence as it started
anacoenesis - question
anacreontic poetry - Bacchanalian
anacrusis - extra unaccented syllable at start
anadiplosis - last word of one line is first word of next line
anagnorsis - peripety
analepsis - Grave's term for the vivid unconscious
analogism vs. anomalism - language orgin debate
anaphone - anagram of sounds
anaphora - expression repeated at start of lines
anastomosis - interconnection
anathema - denounce
Angry Young Men - in Britain 1950s and 1960s
anisobaric - rhyme but with different accents
anthropomorphism - humanlike objects
antimeria - change part of speech
antimetabole - repeat words in opposite order
antiphon - sung verse
antiphrasis - opposite meaning
antiquarianism - study past relics
strophe - (ancient Greek chorus) moves left, then antistophe, epode
antonomasia - proper name for an idea
aparithmesis - list numbers
aphaeresis - omit first syllable
aphorism - wise saying with known author
apocopated rhyme - add unstressed syllable to a rhyme
apocope - omit sounds
apodictic - argue with proof
apo koinon - in common
apolelymenon - Milton's term for monostrophic
apologue - moral fable
apophasis - make an assertion while disproving it at the same time
apophrades - unlucky days
aporia - pretended indecision
aposiopesis - don't finish a sentence
apothegm - short aphorism
apotropaic - ward off evil
apposition - second phrase explains first
ara - long curse
areopagus - final court
aristophanic - dactyl, trochaic, trochaic
arsis - now means a stressed syllable
artificial comedy - Lamb's term for comedy of manners
asyndeton - omit conjuctions
attenyseration - softening previous statement
attic - clear style
aubade - lyric poem about dawn serenade
auteur theory - film judged by director's work
autotelic - not didactic
auxesis - pile on detail
axiom - obvious maxim
Bad Quartos - Pollard's term for false Shakespeare manuscripts
bagatelle - trifle
ballad stanza - abcb, 4343 stress
ballade - French with refrain, envoy, 3 rhymes
barbarism - mistake in word form
bard - Celtic, trouvere - Normandy, skald - Scandenavian, troubadour - Provence
baring device - Sklovskij's term for showing the play is artificial
basic English - 850 AD by Ogden
bathos - failed attempt at dignity
begging the question - can't prove major premise
Benthamism - goal of happiness
Bildungsroman - novel that deals with the development of a young person from adolescence to maturity
billingsgate - vulgar language as in fish market
Black Mountain School - NC group, projective verse, aesthetic, included Olson, Creele, and Duncan
blason - detailed praise or blame poem
Bloomsburg Group - group which enjoyed pretty things, included Virginia Woolf
blues - 3 lines, repeat
bluestockings - smart women
bob and wheel - Middle English alliterative verse
bombast - ranting
bon mot - witty repartee
boustrophedon - zig-zag reading
bouts-rimes - rhyme game
brachycatalectic - omit 2 syllables
broken rhyme - divide word to make it rhyme
bucolic - formal, about rural areas
burden - refrain
burlesque - lower style, parody - lower subject
burletta - ballad-opera
Burns stanza - aaabab 444343 syllables
Byronism - rich, charm, wit
cabal - acrostic
cadence - sound before pause
calque - loan transition
calypso - ballad with African rhythm, originated in Trinidad
canonical hours - 7 prayer times
canso - southern France love song
canticle - chant
canto - section of long poems
canzone - lyric poem with envoy
canzonet - little song, more than one movement
catachresis - misuse of word
catalexis - truncate final syllable of line
catastasis - rising action
catastrope - conclusion
catch - round of 3
catena - string of quotes
cauda - tail
caudate sonnet - add lines to Italian sonnet
causerie - informal literary essay
Cavelier lyric - light, polished
Celtic Revival - 1700s movement, two types of Celts: Brythonic and Gaelic
Gaelic Movement - 1890s movement, included Hyde
cento - scraps from several authors
chain rhyme - last word in one line is a homophone with first in next line
chanson - song (de geste - great deeds)
chant royal - 60 lines (5*11 plus an envoy)
chantey - sailor song
charientism - gloss over disagreeable
chartism - ideal of helping the poor, attacked by Carlyle
chiasmus - second phrase balances the first but reverses it
choliambus - scazon with last foot of iamb a trochee or dactyl
choreopoem - Shange's term for complementing dance and poem
chrestomathy - choice passages
chronotope - time-space world
Ciceronian style - ornamental
Cinema Verite - small crews
cinquain - invented by Crapsey, 5 line poem
claque - paid applauders
clerihew - 4-line poem about person, invented by Bentley
clinamen - swerving away
closet drama - read not acted, invented by Seneca
cock and bull - meandering tall tale
Cockney School - Blackwood's term for the bad diction of Hazlitt, Hunt, and Keats
coda - conclusion
codex - manuscript book
collate - compare texts
colloquy - formal discussion
colophon - publisher's symbol
comedy of humours - characters represent the humours (angry, sad, etc), Jonson and Chapman
comedy of manners - drama about high society, included Congreave, Goldsmith, Sheridan
comitatus - king's dependents
commedia dell'arte - improvised comedy
common meter - abab or abcb, iamb 4343
commonplace book - Milton's book of quotes for reference
compendium - condensation of work(s) without maintaining style
compositor - sets type by hand
compound rhyme - primary and secondary stressed syllables same
concatenation - chain verse
concrete poetry - way word is written looks like what word means
condensation - abridged version of a work which maintains its style
conspectus - outline
conte - French tale, has different meanings
copy text - basic text for comparisons
copyright - since 1976 in US applies for life plus 50 years and existing copyrights get 75 years, 1909-1976
in US 28 years with one 28-year renewal, since 1911 in England life plus 50 years
coronach - funeral dirge
correlative verses - abbreviated linear sentences
corrigenda - to be corrected
cothurnus - buskin
counterpoint rhythm - developed by Hopkins
covenant theology - revised Calvinism in New England in 1600s
Cowleyan ode - irregular
Cratylism - names are necessary
criticism types - impressionist (how affects critic), historical, textual, formal (genre), judicial (based on standards),
analytical (organization of parts), moral, mythic (archetypes), phenomenological (existential worlds)
cross-compound rhyme - first syllable of one word rhymes with second syllable of another word
crossed rhyme - rhyme in middle of lines (casesura)
crotchet - [ ]
crown of sonnets - repeat a line
Cruelty Theater - 1930s Artaud
crux - decision in text editing
cryptarithm - letters get number values
curtal sonnet - Hopkins changed octave to sestet in sonnet
cynghanedd - Hopkins's term for interlaced alliteration
Dadism - freedom movement, started in 1916 by Tzara in Zurich
Dandyism - exaggerated emotion
Dead Sea scrolls - 800 scrolls from 70 AD found in 1947
Debat - Medieval debate, to judge
Decadents - late 1800s movement, art is greater than nature, dying is pretty, included Oscar Wilde
De Casibus - fall from greatness
deconstruction - Derrida's term
composition in depth - deep focus (both near and far)
deep image - Bly's term for the subconscious
defamiliarization - human perception, Russian ostranenie
definition poem - rapid analogies
deictis - pronoun referring inwards
Della Cruscans - late 1700s movement, included Merry/Cowley, based in Florence
demotic - Frye's term for ordinary speech
determinism - all acts caused by reasons
deuteragonist - second actor, introduced by Aeschylus
dialectic - debate of eternal questions
dialogism - Bakhtin's term for many voices
diastich - use key and text for nonsense text
diasyrm - disparaging someone
diegesis - not explaining, concluding, or judging
dieresis - caesura
differance - Derrida's term for difference / deferring
dime novel - American penny dreadful
Diminishing Age - English 1940 - 1965
dipody - 2 different feet
dirge - wailing song
discordia concors - unlike images, Samuel Johnson
discourse - direct or indirect quote
dissemination - Derrida's theory that language's meaning is signed and unsigned
Dissociation of Sensibility - Eliot's theory that separates thought and feeling
dithyramb - wild language
divine afflatus - poetic inspiration
doggerel - rude verse
Dolce Stil Nuovo - sweet new style, from 1200s
donnee - James's term for the given
doppelganger - double-goer
double rhyme - feminine rhyme, similar stressed syllables, then same unstressed
drab - 1500s poetry, Lewis
dramatic conventions - accepted by audience but known to be false
dramatic propriety - judge words and acts in context
dramatism - Burke's critical mehtod of actions and grammar
drame - 1700s French tragedy / comedy cobination, problem play
drawing room comedy - high society comedy of manners
droll - substitute short plays used when full plays were outlawed
Drottkvaett - 8-line poem with internal rhyme from Medieval Iceland
druid - Celtic philosophical poet
dub - words with recorded music, from 1975 Jamaica
dubia - disputed authorship
dysphemism - opposite of euphemism
Early Tudor Age - 1500-1557, characterized by Humanism
Early Victorian Age - 1832-1870, realism grew
echelon - words printed stepwise
ecologue - formal pastoral poem (like Idylls of the King)
ecphonema - outcry
Edinburgh Review - 1802 published by Scott, included Jeffrey, Smith, and Brougham
edition - single typeset
Edwardian Age - 1901-1914, included Celtic Revival, critical questioning
eiron - character that is smarter than he appears
Eisteddfod - Welsh festival
ekphrasis - artwork in literature
elegiac - distitch for lamenting
elegiac stanza - abab iambic pentameter, develeped by Gray
elegy - solemn (oftern for death)
elision - omit part of word
Elizabethan Age - 1558-1603, growth of literature
ellipsis - omit word(s)
emendation - correct text
empiricism - rules come from experience not theory
enallage - substitute grammatical form
enchiridion - handbook
encomium - Greek praise for a living person
englyn - Welsh quatrain
ennead - set of 9
enthymeme - syllogism without major or minor part
envoy - bcbc, repeat line from refrain, used in a ballade
epanalepsis - repeat word at start and end of a clause
epanodos - repeat word at start and middle of a clause
ephemera - short-lived writing
epicede - funeral ode
epideictic poetry - for special occasion
epigone - imitator of movements
epigram - pithy saying
epigraph - on stone or coin
epimyth - moral of a fable
epistrophe - repeat ending in several clauses
epitaph - inscription on burial place
epitasis - rising action
epithalamium - celebrate wedding
epithet - describe noun
epitrope - submit
eponym - name associated with attribute
epyllion - brief epic
equivoque - deceiving pun
erethism - exaggerated excitement
esemplastic - Coleridge's term for imagination uniting unlike things
Esperanto - international language, by Russian Zamenhof
ethos - character of speaker
Euhemerism - explain myths as exaggerated human stories
eulogy - praise person
Euphuism - Lyly's style of balance construction, unnatural natural, rhetorical questions
excursus - long digression
exegesis - explanation of text
exemplum - moralized tale
exergasia - same point made in many ways
exergue - place for inscription
existentialism - post-World War II style, existence over essence, no explanations, universe enigma
exordium - first of seven oration parts; the introduction
expressionism - objectify inner experience
expressive theory - Abram's style of analyzing author's expression
extravaganze - Planche's term
fabliau - funny Medieval tale in France in an eight-syllable couplet
fantastic - rely on imagination for realization
Fantastic Poets - Milton and the metaphysicals
fantasy - break from reality
feminine ending - unstressed syllable added to end of iamb or anapest
la femme inspiratrice - woman who inspires and author
festschrift - volume of a scholar's essays compiled by his student
ficelle - puppet string; James's term for a confidante
Field Day - Norther Ireland 1980
filidh - professional Irish poets
film noir - somber, crime-filled, urban film of 1940-1960
fin de Siecle - 1890s
flat character - Forester's term for a character with a single quality
Fleshly School - Maitland (Buchanan)'s term for Rossetti, Swinburn, and Morris in 1871
flyting - vigorous verbal exchange
folio - standard size sheet of paper folded in half
Folds Leaves Pages Name
1/2 x x 2*x x-mo
folklore - 1850s Thoms defined as popular antiquities
foregrounding - unusual prominence given to something
form - organization of parts relating to whole
Russian formalism - form over content, phenomenology, linguistics, from 1920s
formative theory - how world raw manipulated
four ages - gold/silver/brass/iron
Four Master Tropes - Burke's grouping of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony
Four Senses of Interpretation - literal, allegorical, moral, anagogical
fractal - word as a part of another word
Frankfurt School - Marxists
Freytag's Pyramid - exposition, complication, reversal, catastrophe
fu - violence in Briggsian films
Fugitives - group at Vanderbilt in 1920s, agarians
fused rhyme - sound ended on next line
fustian - overblown diction
galliambic - 4 4-syllable feet
Gallicism - French diction
gasconade - boastful
gematric - give numerical values to letters
generative metrics - based on positions not feet
Geneva School - critics see existential expressions, included Miller
genteel comedy - comedy of manners, early 1700s, included Addison
Georgian Ages - 1714-1830 and 1910-1936
georgic - about farming, Vergil
gest - war or adventure tale
gestalt - sum is greater than parts
Ghazal - lyric from Middle East
glee - poem sung by group
gleeman - Anglo-Saxon musician
gloss - explanation
glyconic - 3 to 4 feet, trochee, trochee, trochee, dactyl
gnomic - moralistic
gnosticism - know truth through faith
goliardic verses - 1000-1300 satiric university student
Gongorism - Spanish extravagent style
Gothic - magic, mystery, chivalry
Gotterdammerung - violent destruction
Graces - 3 Greek goddesses
Graveyard School - 1722-1817, included Gray and his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Grub street - now Milton, tribe of poor hacks
Mrs. Grundy - all in Morton's book afraid of her but she does not appear
hagiography - about saints
haiku - 5-7-5 but too long
hapax legomenon - something said once
Hardy stanza - 8 lines aa'abcccb, mostly tetrameter
Hartford wits - Barlow, Dwight, and Trumbull
headless line - catalexis
hebraism - obedient and ethical
Hedge Club - transcendentalists, near Boston
Hegelianism - everything logically related
hendiadys - connect components with conjuction, "try and do better"
Heresy of Paraphrase - Frost's term
Hermeneutic circle - must know part and whole
Hermeneutics - nothing to interpret
Hermeticism - Bruns's theory that "language deviates to arrest function"
heteroglossia - Bakhtin's term for multiple voice in narrative
heteromerous rhyme - one word rhymed with multiple words together
hiatus - pause between vowel sounds
Hieratic style - self-consciously formal, Egyptian
Hieronymy - sacred names
holograph - handwritten manuscript by author
homily - practical sermon
homeoarchy - same unstressed syllabe before rhyming syllable
homoeoteleuton - same endings of words near each other (eg "really easily")
homostrophic - same stanza patterns
Horatian satire - tolerant, witty
howler - embarrassing innocent error
Hudibrastic verse - Butler's 8-syllable couplet
humanism - exalt human over divine and animals
new humanism - 1910-1930 US movement, included Arnold
hypallage - epithet put in unusual grammatical positions
hyperbaton - change senctence order
hypercatalectic - extra syllable at end
hypermonosyllabic - read as 1 or 2 syllables
hypertext - Nelson's paper for something that can't fit on paper
hypocorism - pet name
hypotaxis - words in dependent relationships
hypotyposis - vivid description
hysteron proteron - latter placed before
ictus - a stress
identical rhyme - same sound, different words
idiotism - depart from linguistic norms
idyll - short, pastoral, descriptive narrative
illocutionary act - speech act in act of speaking
Imagists - 1909-1918, intellect visual emotional auditory, included Pound, Doolittle, Flint
implied author - Booth's human agency
impression - copies printed at one time
imprimatur - license to print
incantation - chant for emotion or magic
incunabulum - printed before 1501
induction - introduction
inkhorn - needlessly pedantic, 450 years old
in medias res - in the middle of, from Horace
in memorium stanza - iambic tetrameter quatrain; abba
Inns of Court - Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn
inscape - Hopkins's term for inner nature
instess - creates inscape
intentional fallacy - judge by how a work meets its goals, from Wimsatt and Beardsley
interlude - short 1500s English movement, led to realistic comedy
interpretive community - readers with similar strategies, from Fish
inversion - place sentence element out of order
ionic - 2 long and 2 short syllables, "lesser" pyrrhic and spondee
isobaric - same stress
issue - distinct copies of an edition
Jacobean Age- 1603-1625, realist-cynic growth
jest books - 1500s joke books
Jesuits - Loyola 1534, Southwell and Hopkins
jeu d'espirit - clever word play
jongleur - French Medieval professional mucisian
Juvenalian satire - contempluous formal satire
Kabuki - mid-1600s Japanese theater
Kailyard School - 1800s Scottish moviement with focus on village life, included Barrie and Maclaren
keen - Irish funeral song
kenning - synonym for simple noun
kenosis - emptying; Jesus becoming human
kind - genre (neoclassical)
Kit-Cat Club - 1703-1733 English club, Protestant Whigs in London, included Addison, Steele, and
Congreave
kitsch - shallow commercial art
Knickerbocker Group - early 1800s New York group, included Irving, Cooper and Bryant
Koine - ancient Greek
Kunstlerroman - Bildungsroman about struggling artist
kyrielle - French couplets with refrain
Lake Poets - included Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey, attacked by Edinburgh
lampoon - bitter satire of person
Lanuage Poets - 1980s American suspicious of language
Late Victorian Age - 1870-1901, realistic
lay - song or short narrative poem
leitmotif - recurrent phrase
Leonine rhyme - last stressed syllable before caesura rhymed with last stressed syllable of line
letterpress - words not illustrations
level - metaphor with dignity
libretto - text of opera
life and letters - 1800s style
limerick - 5 anapestic aabba 33223 feet
liminality - threshold of space or time
link sonnet - use second line rhyme for first; Spenserian
linked rhyme - fused rhyme
lipogram - exclude letter(s) of alphabet
Literary Club (Dr. Johnson's Circle) - 1764 London club founded by Reynolds
litterateur - literary person
little theater movement - 1887 Paris movement by Antoine, in England Independent Theater
locus classicus - classical example
locutionary act - say something with verb of phenomena beyond itself
logaoedic - mixed rhythms
logical positivism - empirical sensory observation
logocentrism - centering of though, truth, and logic in Western thought since Plato
logogriph - puzzle, clue is a synonym
Lollards - 1300s English group, included Wycliffe, led to Reformation, wanted purer religion
long measure - 4 lines iambic tetrameter abab or abcb
loose sentence - complete idea before end of sentence
lunulae - ( ), term from Erasmus
lyric present - Wright advocates using present tense not progressive (eg "I use it" instead of "I am using it")
Mabinogion - Welsh tales, translated by Guest
macaronic - blockhead; language combination
macedoine - grammar example
MacGuffin - MacPhail's term for a scene used to move along the plot
machinery - Pope's term for diety in poem
madrigal - musical, pastoral
maggot - fanciful, morbid
manichaeism - 250 AD Oriental movement by Mani, says God-Satan coeval
mannerism - 1500s style, affected style
marchen - Germen fairy tales
marinism - Italian affected style, shocking, by Marino
Marprelate Controversy - 1580s Puritans opposed bishops
Martian School - fresh view, Fenton from Raine
masked comedy - commedia dell'arte
masorah - commentary on Scripture
matin - bird morning song
meaning - Richards defines as sense, feeling, tone, and intention
meiosis - funny understatement
melic poetry - with lyre and flute
meliorism - 1800s tendency to improvement
melopoeia - Pound's term for the whole sound of poem
mesostich - acrostic in middle
metalepsis - adding tropes to get literal nonsense
metaphysical poetry - 1600s, analyze love and religion, taken to the extreme
metaplasm - moving a language element from its common place
metathesis - switch sounds in a word
Middle English Period - 1350-1500, included Chaucer and the Lollards
midrash - commentary on Scriptures by rabis
Miles Georiosus - braggart soldier, from Plautus
milieu - environment in which work is produced
Miltonic sonnet - Italian sonnet without twist
mime - developed in the 5th century BC in southern Italy
mimesis - theory of imitation
mimetic theory - the actuality that is imitated
minnesinger - German lyric poet
minstrel - bards during late Middle Ages
minstrel show - imitate blacks
mise en Abyme - small text on a big text
mise en Scene - stage setting
Modernist Period - 1914-1965 England, best work from 1920s
monody - dirge by one mourner
monologism - Bakhtin's term for a single voice in a work
monosemy - one meaning
monostrophic - invented by Milton
montage - editing camera shots, originated by Eisenstein
mora - duration of a short syllable
morae - duration of a long syllable
morpheme - minimal meaningful linguistic unit
morphology - study of forms, from Goethe
mot - brief saying (French for "word")
motif - conventional situation leading to a story
mot juste - Flaubert's term for using correct words
The Movement - 1950s British normality, traditional middle-class
mummery - performance by disguised actors
Muses - 9, inspire poets, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne
mysticism - theory of knowing God through faculty above logic and illect
mythical method - continuous parallel, Eliot from Joyce
narratology - analyze relation between story and its telling
Naturalistic and Symbolistic Period - 1900-1930, divided by World War I
near rhyme - consonance or assonance
negative capability - Keat's explanation for Shakespeare's greatness
nekuia - book about land of the dead
Neoclassicism - Restoration Age, 1700s, revival of Greek and Roman traditions, Augustan Age
neologism - new word, describe style
neoplatonism - movement in Alexandria 200s, Oreintal, Plato, Christian combination
new comedy - of manners, stock characters, plots, included Aristophanes, 4th - 3rd centuries BC
New Criticism - included Ransom, Tate, and Warren, and Eliot, Richards, and Compson
New Formalism - 1915-1980, recognizable features in poems
Newgate - infamous London prison
New Humanism - first movement of 1900s, focus on moral qualities
New Journalism - subjective reporting, included Hemingway, Mencken, and Dos Passos
new novel - antinovel
New York School - 1950-1970 group characterized by wit and urbanity, included O'Hara
Nine Worthies - Caxton's selection of 3 pre-Christians, 3 Jews, and 3 Christians
noh plays - Japanese from 240 AD, 1300-1600, praise, heros, man is woman, violent, solemn
nominalism - abstracts just names, included Roscellinus and Ockham
nonce word - used once
nonfiction novel - started with Capote's In Cold Blood
nostos - homecoming
nouvelle - short novel
novelette - short novel
novella - short tale, especially from Italy and France
nucleus - syllable has onset-nucleus-coda
numbers - regular verse
obiter dicta - incidental remarks
objective correlative - Eliot's term for a pattern evoking emotion indirectly
objective theory - Abram's criticism theory that a work is significant in itself
Ockham's Razor - entities not multiplied beyond necessity
ode - exalted lyric with one theme
Old Comedy - Greek 5th century BC, satire, religious, bawdy, for Dionysus
Old English Period - 428 - 1100
Old English verses - poems from before 1100 with an equal number of accented syllables per line with
varying numbers of unstressed in between
ollave - Irish poet
opera bouffe - French comic opera
operetta - contains some spoken words, comic opera
opsis - Aristotle's term for spectacle element of drama
organic form - grows in writer, not in mechanical mold
orphism - Brun's theory that poetry is the ground of all signification
ottava rima - abababcc iambic pentameter, developed by Boccaccio
outride - unstressed syllable added to a foot, by Hopkins
Oxford Movement - Tractarians, 1833, regain earlier dignity, included Newman
Oxford Reformers - humanist scholars, early Renaissance era, included More, Colet, and Eras
oxytone - acute accent on final syllable
paean - song of praise
paeon - one long and three short syllables in a foot
palimpsest - writing surface used more than once
palilogy - repeat words
palinode - writing recanting an old writing
panegyric - laud person's achievement
panoramic method - point of view with exposition not scenes
pantoum - quatrains, second and fourth lines of first verse are reused as first and third lines of second verse
parabasis - chorus talks for the author
paradiastole - distinguish two meanings; euphemism
paragoge - add extra syllable to end of word
paragram - word resembling word for which it substitutes
paraleipsis - pretend to say nothing while really saying much (eg "to say nothing of his rudeness...")
paralipomena - omitted but added in appendix
paralogism - faulty reasoning
parataxis - clauses in coordinate constructinos
paregmenon - two words with same root
parergon - done in addition to normal
Parnassians - 1800s French poets, aestetic
Parnassus - Greek mountain with Apollo and the Muses; anthology
parados - opening odes
paronomasia - pun
paroxytone - acute accent on next-to-last syllable
participatory journalism - by Gallico and Plimpton
Pasquinade - satire in public place
pastiche - French parody
pastowrelle - Medieval dialogue poem, shepherdess wooed by higher man
patent theaters - 1660, Davenant "York", Killigrew "King's"
pathetic fallacy - Ruskin's term
pathos - stimulates sorrow
patter song - comic solo with sketchy music
pedantry - show-off of learning
Pelagianism - belief that humans have no original sin
Period of Confession Self - 1960-?, revolt, cynic, little magazines
Period of Modernism and Consolidation 1930-1960, radical in 1930s
period style - Perkin's term for literary manners that distinguish period
periphrasis - roundabout way of stating ideas
perlocutionary act - utterance defined by effect (eg soothing)
peroration - end of oration
persona - "second self" by authro, tells narrative
personation - have dead return to talk, Hollander about Howard
personism - O'Hara's description of his own poetry but offered no definition
Petrarchan Conceit - exaggerated love comparisons in sonnet
phaleucian - spondee, dactyl, and 3 trochees
phanopoeia - Pound's imagism
phenomenology - imspect data of consciousness without presuppositions
epistemology - nature of knowledge
ontology - nature of being
pherecratean - 3-foot line
philippic - bitter speech
philology - study language and literature
phi phenomenon - perception of motion
phoneme - smalest sound unit
phonestheme - sound with meaning
picaresque novel - chronical of rascals living by their wits
Pindaric ode - regular (3-part)
plaint - lament, planh (southern France)
Platonic criticism - judge by usefulness
Platonism - mind over matter
play-poem - Woolf's Waves
pleiade - ancient 7 sisters, later groups, DuBellay
pleonasm- superfluous words
plurisignation - ambiguity of meaning
poesie - pre-1650 poem, archaic
poetaster - incompetent poet
poete maudit - doomed poet
poetic justic - Rymer's term for thinging turining out the way fairness would dictate
polemic - argumenative work
polyptoton - repeat words with same root
ploce - form of word woven together
polysyndeton - many conjuctions
portmanteau words - squish two words together
positivism - says goal of knowledge is to describe not to explain
postmodern - exisstentialism
Postmodern Period - 1965-present
poststucturalism - beyond locating value within text
posy - anthology
practical criticism - applied aesthetic
Pragmatic - Abram's criticism method of testing a work by its effect on audience, Peirce 1878
precis - abstract in same order
prelude - short poem at start of a work
Pre-Raphaelites - 1848 group mimicking style before Raphael, simple nature, included Rosetti, Hunt, and
Millais
preteritio - passing over smoothly
printing - copies at same time, an impression
printing - first in English Historyes of Troye, first in England Sayings of Philosophers, first in US 1639
Oath, almanac, and Bay Psalm Book; Caxton in England and Daye in US
prom - brief introduction
projective voice - meter and form artificial
prolegomenon - preface
prolepsis - anticipating, treat future as present
prolusion - introduction
promythium - moral at start of fable
proparalepsis - add syllable to end
proparoxytone - acute accent on antepenultimate syllable
prosopopoeia - personification
protasis - introductory act
prothalamion - Spenser's peoms before bridal chamber
prothesis - add syllable to start
pseudomorph - title of a different genre than is the work
allonym - actual person's name used as a pseudonym
psychoanalytical criticism - focus on symbols, language
Pulitzer Prize - established in 1917 at Columbia
pulp magazine - 1920s-1930s, after dime novels
purple patch - Horace's term for notably fine writing
Puseyism - Oxford Movement
Pushkin stanza - 14 tetrameter lines
putative author - fictional author
pyramidal line - symmetrical distribution of syllables per word
quadrivium - master's degree, study arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy
quanitative verse - rhythm determined by duration, Old English poems
Quarterly Review - Tory magazine established 1809
quarternion - 4 parts
quibble - pun; evade issue
quip - Herbert's term for a witty saying
Rahmengeschichte - German framework
Raissoneur - level-headed character
Rann - Irish verse quatrain
rap - informal conversation
ratiocination - data to conclusive reasoning
realistic comedy - during Elizabethan and Jacobean Ages, included Jonson, Chapman, and Middleton
Realistic Period - 1865-1900 US, 1870-1914 Britain
rebus - verbal symbols supplemented by pictures (eg "Xing")
recalcitrance - Wright's term for resistant parts of text
recension - text with best critical readings
reception theory - reader-response
recessive accent - shift from second syllable to first
recto - front of paper
redaction - revise manuscript
redende name - significant name
redondilla - Spanish octosyllabic line
Reform Bill of 1832 - would switch British districting for Parliament, give more votes to middle class, '
supported by Whigs
reggae - from 1970s Jamaica
reification - treat abstract as concrete
relativism - deny that anything is absolute or permanent
repetend - full or partial repetition throughout stanza or poem
report song - poem with echo
requiem - chant for the dead
Restoration - Stuarts restored 1660, reaction against Puritans
revenge tragedy - developed by Kyd
Revolutionary Age - 1765-1790
Revolutionary Period - 1765-1830
revue - plotless musical entertainment
rhapsody - part of epic sung by minstrel
rhetoric - art of persuasion
rhetorical accent - accentuation from meaning of sentence, not metrical
rhetorical criticism - criticism approach involving author-reader communicate
rhopalic - each word is one syllable longer than previous
rhyme royal - 7-line iambic pentameter ababbcc
rime couee - tail-rhyme stanza, with rhyming trimeter lines
rime retournee - words which are backward spellings of each other
rollrock - 1800s Hopkins style
rocking rhythm - amphibrach
rodomontade - bragging
Roman a Clef - real people in a novel disguised as fictional
Roman a These - thesis novel
Roman-Fleuve - river novel, slow developing
Romantic Period - US 1830-1865, Britain 1798-1870
romany - gypsy language
rondeau - French 15-line poem with 9 and 15 a refrain, 5-4-6
rondel - French 13-14 line poem, complete line refrain
rondelet - 7-line stanza of a rondel
roundel - 11-line poem with 4 and 11 a refrain, developed by Swinburne
roundelay - like a rondel, 14 lines with frequent refrain; music
rubaiyat - Arab quatrain, iambic pentameter aaba
rubric - red, explain text
rune - alphabet character from 200 AD in Germany
Sapphic - 3 lines with 11 syllables and fourth with five, developed by Sappho
Satanic School - Southey's label for Byron, Shelley, and Hunt
Saturday Club - mid-1800s Boston talk group, included Emerson, Longfellow, Whitter, and Holmes
satyr play - goat-men, fourth (final) in Greek play bill, provided comic relief
Saussurean linguistics - abstract scientific underlying system
scazon - chliamb; trochee or dactyl replaces iamb or anapest
Scene a faire - obligatory scene
scenic method - construct story in dramatic novel self-explanatory
schema - outline, from Joyce
scheme - unusual word arrangement
Schlusselromas - Roman a clef
scholasticism - logic; reconcile reason and Christianity
schoolmen - Bacon's term for "hair splitters"
School of Donne - metaphysical poets
School of Night - atheists, included Raleigh, Marlowe, and Chapman
School of Spenser - 1600s, sensuousness, included Fletcher and Browne
scop - Anglo-Saxon poet
Scottish Chaucerians - 1400s-1500s, Hnryson / James I
Scottish literature - began with Barbour's Bruce epic
Scriblerus Club - 1714 London club, satire incompetent, included Swift and Pope
scythism - favor Russian Asia primitivism, from 1910
semantics - study of meaning
semiotics - study of rules allowing signs to have meaning
Senecan style - anti-Cicero, from late 1500s-1600s, abrupt, uneven, attic
Senecan tragedy - Latin, model Euripides, 5-acts, include chorus, action, mythological themes, rhetorical
sensibility - rely on feelings for truth
sensual - carnal
sensuous - plays on readers' senses
sententia - maxim, sentence
sentimental comedy - reject manners immorality, 1688-1771
sentimentalism - over emotion; optimistic about humanity
series - linked but desing not quite a sequence
serpentine verse - line ends with the same word with which it started
sesquipedalian - excessive syllables
set piece - conventional work to impress
Shakespeare editions - half in quartos, made by Rowe, Pope, Theobald, and Johnson
short couplet - iambic octasyllabic
short novel - 15000-50000 words
short story - less than 15000 words, from Cheops in 4000 BC
short short story - less than 2000 words
short title catalogue - made by Pollard and Redgrave
sigla - shorthand for text versions
sigmatism - using hissing sounds
signifier - concrete and signified abstract
Silver Fork School - 1800s British group with focus on etiquette, included Trollope and Hook
Simpsonian rhyme - anisobaric, Lewis about Simpson
Skeltonic - rollicking poems of revolt, doggerel
slack syllable - unstressed syllable
slam - informal public poetic contest
sleight of "and" - tropes with conjunctions
slick magazine - popular appeal magazines from 1920s and 1930s
Socratic method - argument or explanation with questions and answers
solecism - violate grammar rules
sotadic - 3 ionic and a spondee
Spasmodic School - 1854 group, discontented, unrest, jerky, term by Aytoun about Dobell and Smith
speculum - reflection in Medieval literature for mimesis and instructor
speech act - constative (describe affairs) and perfomative (perform as uttered)
Spenserian sonnet - linked rhyme abab bcbc cdcd ee
Spenserian stanza - 9 iambic lines, 8 pentameter and one hexameter, abcbbcbcc
spondee - AA
spoof - light parody
sprung rhythm - only count stressed syllables, invented by Hopkins
state - exact condition
Stationers' Company - 1557 only publisher
stave - stanza
stich - line
stichomythia - line-by-line verbal fencing
Stoffgeschichte - German thematics
Stoicism - endurance, from 4 century BC Zeno
straight man - makes serious remards in minstrel show
stream of consiousness - developed in 1855 by Bain, James
stress - metrical; accent depends on meaning
structuralism - Barthes's term for an account of modes of discourse and their operation
Sturm und Drang - storm and stress, German late 1700s movement, included Klinger and Goethe
style - idea and individuality
subjective camera - point of view shot
summa - compendium
supernumerary - bit part in a troupe
surrealism - express imaginatino, from French Breton 1924
surrogate - substituted for another
suspension of disbelief - Coleridge's term for audience accepting what is know to be false
sweetness / light - beauty, intelligence, Arnold from Swift
syllabism - Fussell's theory that the number of syllables is main structure base
syllepsis - one word related to two words in different senses
symploce - anaphora / epistrophe combination
synaeresis - make two syllables into one
synaesthesia - several senses respond when one is stimulated
synathroesmus - list of items
synchoresis - agreeing with opponent
syncopation - effect of substituting and of 2 simultaneous metric patterns
syncope - omit letter of syllable from within a word
synoeceiosis - associating opposites
syzygy - Lanier's term for consonent sounds that end one word and start the next
tableau - actors freeze
tail rhyme - rime couee
talking blues - blues with a narrative dimension
tanka - Japanese poem with 31 syllables - 5-7-5-7-7
tapinosis - using low term to belittle
tautology - using repetitive words
technopaegnion - craft trick
telestich - acrositic with last letters
teleuton - terminal element
tenor - Richards' term for subject that vehicle illustrates
tension - Tate's definition: unity from resolving concrete / abstract conflict
terza-rima - 3-line aba bcb interlocking stanza, developed by Dante
textual criticism - critical approach involving establishing authoritative text, Bowers says steps are analyze,
recover, study, present
texture - elements remaining after paraphrasing
thematics - study recurrent themes
topographical poetry - topic is landscape, Johnson's term for Jonson and Denham
topos - commonplace
touchstone - Arnold's approach of testing quality
tragic irony - speaker's words have different meaning to those aware of what will happen
Transcendtal Club - 1836 Boston club, included Ripley and Emerson
transferred epithet - illogic modifying
transliteration - word-for-word translation
transvoclaization - preserve sound, not meaning, in translation
Tribe of Ben - 1600s group, classical polish, included Herrick and Cavaliers
tribrach - foot with 3 unstressed syllables
triolet - French form with 8-lines abaaabab (underlined lines are same)
triple rhyme - stressed and 2 identical unstressed syllables
triplet - 3-line couplet
trivium - bachelor's degree, study grammar, logic, rhetoric
trochee - SU
trope - figure of speech using word in nonliteral sense
troubadour - bards in Provence 1100-1400, means "to find"
trouvere - Northern French poets 1100-1300, love
Tudor Age - 1485-1603, reigns of Henry VIII to Elizabeth I
tumbling verse - Skeltonic verse
turpiloquence - shameful speech
twiner - double limerick by de la Mare
typsologoy - study allegorical symbols, especially in Bible
ubi sunt formula - "where are those before us?"
ultima thule - farthest possible place
unanimism - collective spirit, "Jules Romains"
unical - large round letters
Unitarianism - 1820s US, Jesus not in Trinity, saved by character, joined Universalists in 1961
University Wits - 1580s London group, Bohemians, included Marlowe, Nashe, and Greene
utilitarianism - Bentham's approach in 1700s Britain of judging a work by its usefulness
vade mecum - handbook
vapours - 1700s eccentricity
variorum edition - include possible texts and commentaries with the work
Varronian satire - indirect satire; anatomy / menippean
vatic - prophetic poets
vaudeville - circus-like entertainment, from Normandy
Venus and Adonis stanza - 6-line iambic pentameter ababcc
verbum infas formula - "unspeaking word" paradox
Verfremdungseffekt - German alienation effect
verisimilitude - Scott's term for semblance of Truth
vers libre - 1800s French movement to make poetry less strict
verso - back (left) of page
verticalism - 1800s architecture, consciousness fourth dimension, Jolas about Transition work
vice - tempter in morality play
Victorian Age - 1837-1901, complacent, hypocritical, squeamish
vignette - precise, delicate sketch
villanelle - 19-line French poem with 2 rhymes
virgule - mark used to divide feet
voice-over - speaker not seen (or at least not involved in the action)
vorticism - Descarte's term for binomial epistemology and 1914 Lewis spatial forms, clear
vulgate - Latin for "commonly used"
Wardour Street - insincere speech with archaisms
War of Theaters - 1598-1602, public vs. child theaters, Jonson vs. Marston
weak ending - a usually unstressed syllable at end of line is metrically stressed
Wellerism - utterance, speaker, and situation, like a pun, from Dickens
whitespace - isolate important text
widow - isolated text
wildtrack - soundtrack before video made
word accent - normal stress (rhetorical)
wrenched accent - change word accent for metrical accent
Yeats stanza - 8-line aabbcddc iambic penatameter except 4-6-7 are short
zeugma - yoke together different meanings (eg "bolt door and dinner", "cultivate matrimony and estate", "either you or he was")
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE
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Literature
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Literary Terms in English Literature
