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| A verb form in which the subject performs the action expressed in the verb; the subject acts |
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| The term derives from the Greek allegoria, “speaking otherwise.” An allegory is a story in verse or prose with a double meaning: a primary or surface meaning; and a secondary or under-the-surface meaning. It is a story, therefore, that can be read and interpreted at two different levels |
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| a word, phrase, or clause to which a following pronoun refers (example: Iris tried, but she couldn’t find the book. Iris is the antecedent of she) |
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| (Gk ‘marking off by boundaries’) A terse/short statement of a truth or dogma; a generalization that may or may not be witty. A successful aphorism exposes and condenses at any rate a part of the truth, and is an insight. I.e. “Fish and visitors both stink in three days.” |
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| to strengthen an argument by citing an expert |
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| : to make an argument that relies on expressive language and other devices calculated to incite enthusiasm, excitement, anger, or hatred |
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| make an argument with emotional appeal that targets the audience’s altruism and mercy |
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| to use rational thinking to persuade by means of an argument “suitable to the case in question” |
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| appeal to character (ethos) |
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to make an argument that is a persuasive appeal to someone’s moral and ethical nature
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1. : (Gk ‘original pattern’) A basic model from which copies are made; therefore, a prototype. An archetype is universal with certain character or personality typed that have become established. The lion, the snake, the eagle, and the hare and the tortoise are archetypal characters, thus representing some personality type that has become recognized as universal. The villain, the typical snob, or the traitor can also be archetypal.
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1. the act or process of gathering data in order to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of student learning, as by observation, testing, etc.
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1. the effect created when words with the same vowel sound are used in close proximity- but where the consonants in these words are different (example: the use of the i sound in “Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies”
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| A study of the maturation of a youthhful character |
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| the most common meter of unrhymed poetry with five iambic feet per line |
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1. The melodic pattern preceding the end of a sentence; for instance, in an interrogation or an exhortation; and also the rhythm of accented units. In more general terms, it refers to the natural rhythm of language, its “inner tune,” depending on the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is present in both prose and verse. It helps to define a writer’s individual style.
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: (Gk ‘dance’) An essential and integral part of Greek tragic drama. Usually, the Chorus is reduced to one person (Shakespeare) that comments on the action and helps provide mood and atmosphere.
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| Detailed, balanced and rigorous critical examination of a text to discover its meanings and to assess its effects. |
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A colloquial word, phrase or expression is one in everyday use in speech and writing. The colloquial style is plain and relaxed. This sentence is colloquial: “The man, a dodgy customer with a shifty look in his eye, was clearly up to no good.”
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| (Gk ‘that which teaches’) Any work of literature which sets out to instruct may be called didactic. |
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1. A rather vague classification applied as a rule to the second half of the 16th century and the early part of the 17th. Elizabeth actually reigned from 1558 to 1603. Among the more famous writers of the age were: Marlowe, Sir Philip Sidney, Nashe, Spenser, Sir Francis Bacon, Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson.
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| When the audience understands the implication and meaning of a situation on stage, or what is being said, but the characters do not. Common in tragedy and comedy. |
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| (Gk ‘leaving out’) a rhetorical figure in which one or more words are omitted. Ellipsis are generally marked as a series of points ( . . . ). |
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| : a word or phrase preceding or following a name which serves to describe the character (example: Alexander the Great) |
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| one of the four traditional forms of composition in speech and writing. It is intended to set forth or explain. |
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| An essay of exposition. In an expository essay, the writer sets out to explain his or her point of view (opinion) on an issue. |
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- Usually a short introductory piece to a book. It is similar to a preface and an introduction, but is generally composed not by the author but by someone else.
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| : A vague and general term for an imaginative work, usually in prose. At any rate, it does not normally cover poetry and drama though both are a form of fiction in that they are molded and contrived – or feigned. Fiction is now used in general of the novel, the short story, the novella, and related genres. |
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| any language which deviates from the literal language so as to furnish novel effects or fresh insights into the subject being discussed. The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, personification and hyperbole. |
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| a term for different kinds of literary work: epic, novel, drama, etc. |
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| : (Gk ‘same name’) A word having the same sound and spelling as another, but a different origin and meaning. I.e. rest ‘repose’/rest ‘remainder’ |
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| (Gk ‘same sound’) A word which is pronounced the same as another but has a different spelling and meaning. I.e. foul/fowl; wood/would |
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| The term derives from a Greek word of unknown etymology and denotes a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. For instance, defeat – de feat. De is unstressed; feat is stressed. |
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| a Latin term that refers to the narrative tactic of beginning a story midway in the events it depicts before explaining the context and preceding actions |
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| a reasonable and intelligent conclusion drawn from hints provided by an author |
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The contrast between what is expected, or what appears to be, and what actually is.
1. the contrast between what a character or reader thinks will happen and what actually happens
2. to say one thing, when the exact opposite is intended
3. the contrast between the nature of a subject and the language used to describe it.
- Verbal irony is the contrast of saying the opposite of what is actually meant (also called sarcasm).
- Irony of situation (Situational Irony) is based on the difference between the way events work out and what is expected to happen.
- Irony of tone extends verbal irony to include lengthy passages or work in which an author expresses an attitude opposite to what he feels.
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| the level of formality in word choice. The least formal is colloquial English (slang) followed by general English and finally, formal English (speeches, professional jargon). |
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| the study of a literary work by a critic, student, or scholar and the careful, detailed reading and report thereof |
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| The analysis and judgment of works of literature. The body of principles by which the work of writers is judged. Note: The principles used in judging a literary work may vary from the highly personal to the relatively objective; they may involve specific consideration of moral values, historical accuracy, and literary form and type; they may be different from one literary period to another. |
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| flowery language often used in prose that can easily be seen as poetic. Employs the use of constant figurative language and is often found in vivid setting descriptions. |
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| (Gk ‘song drama’) The origins of melodrama coincide roughly with the origins of opera in Italy very late in the 16th Century. Melodrama in literature makes use of sensationalism and extravagant emotional experiences. Characters may be excessively virtuous or exceptionally evil. |
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| (Gk mneme, ‘memory’) A device in verse or prose. Mnemonic devices are those that aid one’s memory. I.e. Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 |
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| the values, desires, or beliefs which cause a character to act as he does. |
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| (Gk muthos, ‘anything uttered by word of mouth’) Homer used the word muthos to mean narrative and conversation, but not a fiction. Odysseus tells false stories about himself and uses the term muthologenevein to signify ‘telling a story.’ Later, Greek muthos is used to mean fiction. In general, a myth is a story which is not true and which involves, as a rule, supernatural beings. A myth also often includes the following: the creation of something, how something came to exist, & embodies feeling and concept. |
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| In literary criticism, a word sometimes used loosely as a synonym for realism, and also in reference to works that show a pronounced interest in, sympathy with and love of natural beauty. In literature, naturalism developed out of realism. |
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| (Italian ‘tale, piece of news’) Originally, a novella was a kind of short story, a narrative in prose of the genre developed by Boccaccio. Basically, a novella is a fictional narrative of indeterminate length (a few pages to two or three hundred), restricted to a single event, situation or conflict, which produces an element of suspense and leads to an unexpected turning point so that the conclusion surprises even while it is a logical outcome. |
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| Poetry belonging to this tradition is composed orally, or made up as the poet goes along. As a rule, it is the product of illiterate or semi-literate societies. It is usually sung or chanted (often to musical accompaniment) and is the earliest of all poetry, in the sense that it precedes written poetry |
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| (Gk ‘running back again’) A word or sentence (occasionally a verse) which reads the same both ways. Common words are: civic, level, minim, radar, and rotor. A common phrase is, “A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!” |
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Gk ‘alongside one another’) A very common device in poetry and not uncommon in prose. It consists of phrases or sentences of similar construction and meaning placed side by side, balancing each other, as in Isaiah (9:2), a common biblical example of parallelism:
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Thou has multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
- Parallelism is common in poetry of the oral tradition such as Beowulf
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| (Gk ‘beside, subsidiary or mock song’) The imitative use of the words, style, attitude, tone and ideas of an author in such a was as to make them ridiculous. This is usually achieved by exaggerating certain traits, using more or less the same technique as the cartoon caricaturist. Its purpose may be corrective as well as derisive |
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| (Gk ‘of five measures’) The five-foot line and the basic line in much English verse; especially in blank verse and the heroic couplet. It was probably introduced by Chaucer, and was certainly established by him. I.e. I saw the spiders marching through the air |
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| (Gk ‘speech sound’) A basic sound unit in a language. For example, in English ‘t’ and ‘d’ are separate phonemes; ‘c’ and ‘k’ may be the same or different (compare cider, caulk and kirk); ‘c’ and ‘s’ may be the same or different (compare sump, cork and civet); ‘ph’ and ‘f’ in English are the same |
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| (L plagiarius, ‘kidnapper, seducer, literary thief’) Hence plagiary, the noun; and plagiarize, the verb. It is the wrongful appropriation and publication of another’s work as one’s own |
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| (Gk ‘before speech’) The opening section of a work; a kind of introduction which is part of the work and prefatory. It is/was most common in drama, but can occasionally be found in novels. In play the prologue is usually a Chorus. The most famous example in English is Chaucer’s General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. See also EPILOGUE; INDUCTION |
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| The word derives from the Latin prosa or proversa oratio, ‘straightforward discourse.’ Thus, a direct, unadorned form of language, written or spoken, in ordinary usage. It differs from poetry or verse in that it is not restricted in rhythm, measure or rhyme. However, there are such things as poetic prose and the prose poem |
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| A short pithy saying which embodies a general truth. It is related in form and content to the maxim and aphorism. Some well-known proverbs include the following: Send a fool to close the shutters and he’ll close them all over the town (Yiddish); We cannot step twice into the same river (Classical Greek); When you want a drink of milk you don’t buy the cow (Cretan); If vinegar is free it is sweeter than honey (Serbian) |
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| (Gk ‘false name’) A name other than his or her own taken by a writer. Also known as a pen-name and a nom de plume |
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A stanza of four lines, rhymed or unrhymed. The most common of all stanzaic forms in European poetry, it lends itself to wide variation in meter and rhyme. The most common rhyming quatrain falls into the following pattern:
abab: Trapped in their tower, the prisoners of love (a)
Loose their last message on the falling air. (b)
The troops of Tyre assault with fire the grove (a)
Where Venus veils with light her lovely hair. (b) |
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| Fundamentally, in literature, realism is the portrayal of life that is not concerned with idealization, with rendering things as beautiful when they are not; nor, as a rule, is realism concerned with presenting the supranormal or transcendental. As the word suggests, realism’s main concern is based in reality. |
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| a phrase repeated at intervals throughout a poem |
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| an interpretation and analysis of a literary selection |
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| (Gk rhetor, ‘speaker in the assembly’) Rhetoric is the art of using language for persuasion, in speaking or writing; especially in oratory |
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| the study of meaning in language, as the analysis of the meanings of words, phrases, sentences, discourse, and whole texts |
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| The abstract pattern of end-rhymes in a stanza, usually notated with lower-case letters (abab) |
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| The sub-division or last six lines of the Italian sonnet following the octave. Sometimes the sestet resolves the proposition made in the octave, just as the final couplet in the Shakespearean sonnet rounds off the propositions in the three preceding quatrains |
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A rhyme that is not true. It may be deliberate or the result of incompetence. In this stanza from Peter Redgrove’s “The Archaeologist,” the second and third line contain a form of slant rhyme, and the first and fourth have pure rhymes:
So I take one of those thin plates
And fit it to a knuckled other,
Carefully, for it trembles on the edge of powder,
Restore the jaw and find the fangs their mates |
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| a character who fits a set form and lacks individual characteristics |
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| The characteristic manner of expression in prose or verse; how a particular writer says things. The analysis and assessment of style involves examination of a writer’s choice of words, his or her figures of speech, the devices (rhetorical and otherwise), the shape of his or her sentences, the shape of his or her paragraphs – indeed, of every conceivable aspect of his or her language and the way in which he or she uses it. Style is the tone and ‘voice’ of the writer |
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| The word symbol derives from the Greek verb symballein, ‘to throw together,’ and its noun symbolon, ‘mark,’ ‘emblem,’ ‘token,’ or ‘sign.’ It is an object, animate or inanimate, which represents or ‘stands for’ something else. A symbol differs from an allegorical sign in that it has a real existence, whereas an allegorical sign is arbitrary |
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| (Gk ‘together name’) A word similar in meaning to another. It is rare to find an exact synonymous meaning. It is usually a manner of shades of meaning, as in: insane, mad, demented, loopy, psychotic, crazy, nutty, etc. |
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| the study of how sentences are formed and of the grammatical rules that govern their formation; the pattern or structure of word order in sentences, clauses, and phrases. Understanding syntactical patterns is critical for comprehension of higher-level texts as well as for good writing |
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1. a word formed from or based on the initial letters or syllables of other words (i.e. NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
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| a bound (non-word) morpheme that changes the meaning or function of a root or stem to which it is attached, such as the prefix ad- and the suffix –ing in adjoining |
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1. : the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other or at short intervals. (Example: The repetition of the s in “silver sweet the sounds…”)
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1. a reference to a historical person or event or to a literary work or figure that is known well enough to be recognized by a well-read person.
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| a figure of speech that gives human qualities to abstract ideas, animals, and inanimate objects |
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1. : The plan, design, scheme, or pattern of events in a play, poem, or work of fiction; and further, the organization of incident and character in such a way as to induce curiosity and suspense in the spectator or reader.
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| The author’s choice of a narrator for his story. The major points of view are: 1.Personal or first person- the narrator is a character in the story who can reveal only his own thoughts and feelings and what he sees and is told by other characters. 2.Third person objective/limited- the narrator is an outsider who can report only what he sees and hears. 3. Third Person- the narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of one or all of the characters. 4. Omniscient Point of View – |
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1. An introduction to a literary work.
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| an affix attached before a base word or root, as re-in reprint. |
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1. the main character or hero in a story or play
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1. : a play on words wherein a word is used to convey two meanings at the same time.
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1. the meaningful base form of a complex word after all affixes are removed
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| The time and place in which the events of a narrative occur. Setting also includes any elements of a story that result from the place or time (such as weather, historical events, or the kinds of environment in which the characters live; it may emphasize the mood of a character or have important effects upon actions of characters; it may be introduced at the beginning of the story, or it my be merely suggested through the use of details scattered throughout. |
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| : a figure of speech in which the comparison is expressed using like or as |
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1. : a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud in drama
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| a lyric poem consisting of fourteen lines, generally written in iambic pentameter. In English, generally the two basic kinds of sonnets are the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet and the Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet. |
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| a group of lines of verse arranged and repeated according to a fixed plan |
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1. : an affix attached to the end of a base, root, or stem, that changes the meaning or grammatical function of the word, as –en added to ox to form oxen.
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| a topic of discussion or writing; a major idea or proposition broad enough to cover the entire scope of a literary or other work of art; theme may be stated or implicit, but clues to it may be found in the ideas that are given special prominence or tend to recur |
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| the basic argument advanced by a speaker or writer who then attempts to prove it; the subject or major argument of a speech or composition |
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1. : the feeling conveyed by the way the author writes about his subject; what corresponds in a literary work to the tone of voice a speaker uses. It results from the author’s attitude toward his subject and the kind of approach toward his material he has decided upon, and sometimes from his attitude toward his readers.
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1. the sentence in a paragraph that is intended to express the main idea of the paragraph.
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1. the representation of serious actions that lead to a disastrous end for the protagonist in a story or play.
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1. : a fatal weakness or ignorance in the protagonist that brings him or her to his or her downfall.
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1. : a comparison between two different things to highlight some similarity
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