Aesthetics - philosophical investigation into the nature of beauty and the perception of beauty, especially in the arts; the theory of art or artistic taste

Allegory - a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. In written narrative, allegory involves a continuous parallel between two (or more) levels of meaning in a story, so that its persons and events correspond to their equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale.

Alliteration - the repetition of the same consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable

Allusion - an indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader’s familiarity with what is thus mentioned

Ambiguity - a statement which can contain two or more meanings

Analogy – a resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some circumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different

Anaphora - repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, e.g. “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France.”

Anecdote – a very short tale told by a character in a literary work.

Antagonist - the character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that opposes the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of the story

Anti-hero - a protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero - a character who may be bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, or merely pathetic

Aphorism - a brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation

Apostrophe – a figure of speech wherein the speaker speaks directly to something nonhuman in absentia

Archetype – a term used to describe universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes unconscious responses in a reader. In literature, characters, images, and themes that symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences.

Aside – a device in which a character in a drama makes a short speech which is heard by the audience but not by other characters in the play

Assonance – the repetition at close intervals of vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words (rent/vent)

Asyndeton - the omission of a conjunction from a list (‘chips, beans, peas, cheese, French fries, brownies’)

Ballad – a type of lyrical poetry that conveys sentimental emotion

Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter. Think Shakespeare

Canon - in literature, the most representative or central works considered influential in shaping a period or genre

Carpe Diem – a theme, especially common in lyric poetry, emphasizing that life is short, time is fleeting, and one should make the most of present pleasures. (Latin—Seize the day.)

Catharsis - describes the release of the emotions of pity and fear by the audience at the end of a tragedy. The audience faces the misfortunes of the protagonist, which elicit pity and compassion. Simultaneously, the audience also confronts the failure of the protagonist, thus receiving a frightening reminder of human limitations and frailties. Think Aristotle’s Poetics.

Character – any of the persons involved in a story/the distinguishing moral qualities and personal traits of a character

dynamic character– a character who, during the course of

the story, undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of

personality or outlook

static character– a character who is the same sort of person

at the end of the story as in the beginning (unchanging ideals,

appearance, etc.)

flat character– a character who has little to no distinguishing

traits or features

round character– a character who is complex and multi- dimensional

Chiasmus - a verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. (“Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”)

Climax - the decisive moment or turning point of a plot to which the rising action leads.

Colloquialism - spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech

Comedy - a literary work which is amusing and ends happily. Modern comedies tend to be funny, while Shakespearean comedies simply end well.

Comic relief – a humorous scene or incident that alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work. These moments tend to enhance the thematic significance in addition to providing laughter.

Conceit-also known as extended metaphor, a literary conceit consistently compares two highly dissimilar objects or ideas.

Connotation - the emotional implications and associations that words may carry, as distinguished from their denotative meanings

Consonance – the repetition at close intervals of the mid or final consonant sounds

Couplet – two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme

heroic couplet– a couplet written in rhymed iambic pentameter

Denotation - the basic dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to its connotative meaning

Denouement – the part of a plot that reveals the final outcome of its conflicts or the solution of its mysteries

Deus ex machina - an unrealistic or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonists or resolve a conflict. The term means “The god out of the machine,” and refers to stage machineryin Greek drama.

Diction - an author’s choice of words. Since words have specific meanings, and since one’s choice of words can affect feelings, a writer’s choice of words can greatly impact literary meaning.

Dystopia - a literary genre that explores a typically fictional society characterized by human misery, squalor, oppression, and authoritarian control, oftentimes disguised as utopian.

Elegy - a mournful or contemplative lyric poem written to commemorate someone who is dead, often ending in consolation

End-stopped line - a line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation

Enjambment - one line of poetry that ends without a pause and continues into to the next; a line which has no natural speech pause at its end, allowing the sense to flow uninterruptedly into the succeeding line

Epic - a long narrative poem, told in a formal elevated style, that focuses on a serious subject and chronicles heroic deeds and events important to a culture or nation

Epigram – a brief, pointed, and witty saying that usually makes a satiric or humorous point

Epiphany - some moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character's life of view of life is greatly altered

Existentialism – a form of literary criticism that emphasizes the struggle to define meaning and identity in the midst of isolation and alienation

Exposition - a narrative device, often at the beginning of a work, that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances

Farce - a type of drama related to comedy but emphasizing improbable situations, violent conflicts, physical action, and coarse wit over characterization or articulated plot

Figurative language - language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally

Flashback – a device that allows the writer to present events that happened before the time of the current narration or the current events in the fiction

Foil – a character used to contrast with another character (usually the protagonist) to highlight particular qualities

Foot - the basic syllabic unit used in the scansion of verse

Form - the external pattern or shape of a poem without reference to actual content (aka structure)

Free verse – poetry that follows neither form nor rhyme

Freudianism – a form of literary criticism that uses Freud’s psychoanalytical theories to interpret a work in terms of known psychological conflicts of the author and/or characters

Genre - a recognizable and established category of written work (stylistic and/or historical) employing common conventions recognizable to readers Gothic – genre or characterization characterized by gloom, mystery and the grotesque

Gothic – genre or characterization characterized by gloom, mystery and the grotesque

Hamartia – a protagonist’s serious character flaw (typically hubris) that often results in self-fulfilling

tragedy(aka tragic flaw)

Hubris –arrogance or excessive self-pride and confidence serving as a common conflict in Greek tragedies and mythology, whose stories often featured protagonists suffering from hubris and subsequently being punished by the gods for it

Humanism – the Renaissance social philosophy that favored a more secular return to classics, appreciation of worldly pleasures, and emphasis on individual expression

Hyperbole - a figure of speech in which extravagant exaggeration is used in the service of truth

Iambic pentameter – a common poetic meter consisting of five iambs (two-syllable patterns of unstressed/stressed = 10 syllables)

Imagery - the collection of images within a literary work used to evoke atmosphere, mood, and/or tension

In media res - in or into the middle of a sequence of events, as in a literary narrative

Invective – insulting, abusive, or highly critical language commonly used in Juvenalian satire

Irony - a situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy contrary to expectation

verbal irony- a figure of speech in which what is said is the

opposite of what is meant

dramatic irony- an incongruity or discrepancy between what a

character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true

situational irony- a situation in which there is an incongruity

between appearance and reality, or between expectation and

fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would

seem appropriate

Juxtaposition - deliberately placing dissimilar ideas or statements side by side for comparison

Litote - understatement that occurs by claiming the opposite of what is intended (e.g. he is not ugly.)

Metaphor - a figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike

Metaphysical Poetry - although sometimes used in the broad sense of philosophical poetry, the term usually applies to the work of seventeenth-century poets, such as John Donne. Metaphysical poetry is characterized by the use of conceits, condensed metaphorical language, unusual comparisons between medicine, love, death, and religion, and complex imagery.

Meter – regular patterns of rhythm, an arrangement of language in which the accents occur at apparently equal intervals in time. The number of feet in a line forms a means of describing the meter.

*The standard meters are as follows:

monometer - a metrical line containing one foot

dimeter - a metrical line containing two feet

trimeter - a metrical line containing three feet

tetrameter - a metrical line containing four feet

pentameter - a metrical line containing five feet

hexameter – a metrical line containing six feet

heptameter – a metrical line containing seven feet

octameter – a metrical line containing eight feet

*The rhythmic unit within the line is called a foot. The

standard feet are:

iamb - (u') A metrical foot consisting of one unaccented

syllable followed by one accented syllable (to-day)

trochee - ('u) A metrical foot consisting of one accented

syllable followed by one unaccented syllable (hap-py)

anapest - (uu') A metrical foot consisting of two

unaccented syllables followed by one accented

syllable (un-der-stand)

dactyl - ('uu) A metrical foot consisting of one accented

syllable followed by two unaccented syllables

(mer-ri-ly)

Metonymy - A figure of speech in which a word represents something else which it suggests. For example, when referring to the President of the United States, a statement might be issued by the White House.)

Modernism – a genre usually considered within the 20th century. Modernism is marked by radical new innovations and the subsequent sense of dislocation and alienation, as well as the idea that centuries-old accepted ways of understanding the world were disintegrating; standards of religion, politics, family, gender, science, economic progress, and increased urbanization were all called into question.

Moral - a rule of conduct or maxim for living expressed or implied as the "point" of a literary work

Motif - a recurring image, word, phrase, represented object or action that tends to unify the literary work or that may be elaborated into a more general

theme

Narrator - one who tells a story, the speaker or the “voice” of an oral or written work that may

demonstrate bias depending on the presented point of view. Never ever ever confuse author with speaker.

Unreliable narrator – a speaker typically displaying characteristics or tendencies that indicate a lack of

credibility or understanding; common with 1st person

POV, an unreliable narrator may provide the reader with incomplete or inaccurate information.

Onomatopoeia - the use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound (boom, click, plop).

Oxymoron - a compact paradox, one in which two successive words apparently contradict each other

Parallelism- the repetition of words, phrases, or sentences that have the same grammatical structure or that restate a similar idea

Paradox - a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements, a figure of speech in which an apparently self-contradictory statement is nevertheless found to be true

Paraphrase - a restatement of the content of a poem designed to make its prose meaning as clear as possible

Parody- a literary form in which the style of an author or particular work is mocked in its style for the sake of comic effect

Pastoral - of, relating to, or being a literary or other artistic work that portrays or evokes rural life, usually in an idealized way

Pathos - the rhetorical quality in art and literature that stimulates pity, tenderness, or sorrow

Personification – a figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept

Point of view - the narrative angle from which a story is told:

first person - the story is told by one of its characters,

using the first person (I/we, etc.)

second person - the story is told by one of its

characters using second-person pronouns (you.)

third person omniscient - the author tells the story

knowing all and is free to tell anything, including what

the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act

as they do.

third person limited omniscient - the author tells the story

but limits her/himself to a complete knowledge of one

character in the story and tells only what that one

character thinks, feels, sees, or hears.

third person objective - the author tells the story but limits

her/himself to reporting what his characters say or do;

s/he does not interpret their behavior or tell their private

thoughts or feelings.

Prose - non-metrical language, the opposite of verse

Prose poem - usually a short composition having the intentions of poetry but written in prose rather than verse

Pun – a play on words based on the similarity of sound between two different words with different meanings

Quatrain - a four-line stanza or a four-line division of a sonnet marked off by its rhyme scheme

Realism- a literary technique depicting the struggles and accurate portrayals of middle-class life

Refrain -a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines

Rhetoric- the art of persuasive argument through writing or speech. Common appeals include logos (logic,) ethos (reputation)and pathos (emotion)

Rhetorical question - a question with an obvious answer, so no response is expected; used for emphasis or to make a point

Rhyme - the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds

end rhyme – occurs when both rhyming words are at the end of the lines

feminine rhyme – occurs when the rhyming sounds involve more than one syllable (turtle-fertile, spitefully-

delightfully)

internal rhyme - occurs when one or both rhyming words are within a line

masculine rhyme – occurs when the sounds involve only one syllable (decks-wrecks or support-retort)

eye rhyme - occurs when words physically look the same but are pronounced differently (move/love)

Rhyme scheme - any fixed pattern of rhymes characterizing a whole poem or its stanzas. Scheme is notated through the use of lowercase alphabet letters matching each end rhyme

Romanticism - a genre that was a reaction to the classicism of the early 18th century, which favored feeling over reason and placed great emphasis on the subjective, or personal, experience of the individual. Nature and spirituality were also major themes.

Sarcasm - bitter or cutting speech; speech intended by its speaker to give pain to the person addressed

Satire – a kind of literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the purpose of bringing about reform or of keeping others from falling into similar folly or vice: Juvenalian (bitter) or Horatian (gentle)

Scansion - the process of measuring verse, that is, of marking accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the lines into feet, identifying the metrical pattern, and noting significant variations from that pattern

Sestet - a six-line stanza or the last six lines of a sonnet

Setting - the context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs

Simile - a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. The comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrase as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems.

Soliloquy – a speech in which a character, alone on the stage, addresses himself; a soliloquy is a "thinking out loud," a dramatic means of letting an audience know a character's thoughts and feelings

Sonnet – a type of poetic structure using 14 lines in iambic pentameter to express a uniform thought with a reversal or answer at the end

Italian/Petrarchan sonnet – original form where the 14 lines are divided such that the octave uses a rhyme

scheme of abbaabba and the sestet as a combination of

cdecde. This typically includes a volta (turn or shift) from the octave to the sestet

English/Shakespearean sonnet – three quatrains followed by a couplet with an alternating rhyme

scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. The quatrains typically set up an argument that the couplet addresses.

Stream of consciousness – a technique that records the multifarious thoughts and feelings of a character without regard to logical argument or narrative sequence

Structure - the internal organization of a poem's content

Symbolism - a figure of speech in which something (object, person, situation, or action) means more than what it is. A symbol, in other words, may be read both literally and metaphorically.