Term
|
Definition
| A story in which persons, places, and things form a system of clearly labeled equivalents. In a simple allegory, characters and events often stand for definite meanings, often abstractions (e.g. Love, Faith, Perseverance). Allegories are usually of a moral, religious, or political nature. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A reference to a person, event, or literary work outside the story to evoke and atmosphere, a greater concept, a historical era, or an emotion. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A phrase, statement, or situation that can be interpreted in two or more ways. These multiple meanings and confusion, often deliberate, leave the reader uncertain about the intended significance. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The division of a literary work into its various parts or elements in order to better understand the entire work. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An image, character, or event recurrent in literature that suggests a mythological pattern of experience or universal meaning (i.e. a dark forest for confusion, the sun for illumination, the sea for change). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| German for a "novel of growth or development." Also called the apprenticeship novel, with one or more characters reaching maturity. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Emotional or cultural association surrounding words or phrases (not the dictionary definition). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The explicit meaning of a work (the dictionary definition). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The selection of words and vocabulary in a literary work. Good diction is characterized by accuracy of word choice to subject matter and weak diction is the use of inappropriate, vague, or trite words. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A moment of insight or revelation by which a character;s life is greatly altered, a realization or sudden understanding. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A novel composed almost entirely of fictional letter written by one or more characters, or fictional diary entries. Richardson's epistolary novel Pamela was the first novel of any kind ever published in 1740. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fine speech or nice words used to express something unpleasant. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A story that includes beasts or animals behaving like human, usually to express a moral or teach a lesson. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The use of words and phrases in a way the gives a new or unusual meanings to the language, used to ass freshness and suggest associations and comparisons that create effective images. Major figures of speech include hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy, personification, simile, and synecdoche. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When an author arranges events and information in such a way that later events are prepared for in advance, often unifying the work and heightening the reader's anticipation. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An established literary form. A kind or type of literature (e.g. novel, epic, poetry, sonnet, satire, fiction, drama, etc.). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Extreme exaggeration used for either comic or dramatic effect (e.g. dying for love, or hungry as a horse). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A kind of fiction that gives the impression of an inexhaustible text since it can be read in a nonsequential way and the reader can freely move from one place in the text to another to trace an idea or follow a character. Also called hyperfiction, most of this writing is published on CD-ROMs online. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| From the Greek eiron, a stock comic character who misled his listeners. A verbal device that implies an attitude opposite from that which is literally expressed. What is said and what is meant are different, or what happens and what is expected to happen are different. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Any old and popularly repeated story, usually false or exaggerated. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A narrative that attempts to explain human motivations and the nature of the world, usually through supernatural terms; they explain rituals, traditions, and cultural assumptions long forgotten, or are based on popular stories |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The one who tells the story (not the author), whose point of view we see and interpret events through, Narrators can be omniscient (all knowing), partial, biased, limited, or even unreliable. Contemporary authors often use unreliable narrators who are deliberately deceptive or biased, in order to show that truth is uncertain or even impossible. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Realistic studies of social relationships, dealing generally with the middle class or strata of society (less fantastical than a romance). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A contradictory phrase, putting two words together that would normally contradict one another (e.g. darkness visible, pure sin, sweet pain, thunderous silence, controlled hysteria). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A brief story or observation with one-dimensional characters that makes a strong moral point or explains an abstract idea. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An amusing imitation of another piece of literature. A device of ridicule that mocks another work, genre, or style of writing. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The feeling of sympathy, pity, or sorrow aroused by literary work using emotive language or emotional appeals. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Attributing human qualities or abilities to an inanimate object (e.g. the ground thirsts for rain, or the sunlight danced on the water). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| From the Spanish term picaro, meaning "rascal" or "rouge." A novel tracing the adventures and misadventures of a likable scoundrel, such as Don Quixote or Huckleberry Finn. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The episodes in a narrative or dramatic work, both what happens and how the author chooses to present the events to the reader. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The leading character of a story, drama, or poem, often in conflict with the antagonist. These terms do not guarantee good or evil, in fact often one or both can be non-human (e.g. man vs. nature). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A narrative of adventure, following a hero through the episodes of a quest towards his chosen or appointed goal, sometimes involving love. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A bitter form of irony, with a more deliberate and harsh reversal of meanings. Crudely mocking or contemptuous language, |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A bitter form of irony, with a more deliberate and harsh reversal of meanings. Crudely mocking or contemptuous language. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A literary method of diminishing a subject by making it laughable or contemptible, poking fun at a person or subject to effect reform. Used to criticize human misconduct and ridicule vice and stupidity. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The way language is used. How an author chooses words, arranges them in sentences and lines, and develops actions, ideas, and forms. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When an image is used to represent a concept or idea that is abstract (e.g. a fish representing Christianity, a snake symbolizing evil). An object or action that suggests a meaning beyond the mere literal meaning. This is different from allegory, because symbolism is not always definite; symbols often suggest multiple meanings. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Images drawn from one sense and applied to another, as when descriptions of a certain sound are applied to a color; a fusion of senses in writing. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The arrangement and order of words within a sentence or paragraph. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The general issue(s) the work explores, recurring subjects, or ideas. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The implied attitude, the manner in which the writer communicated his or her attitude towards the subject matter, often via diction and style. The author's tone should not be confused with the narrator's (e.g. the narrator may regard an event as sad, but there's a sense that the author finds it funny). To understand the tone of a story, one must look beyond what the characters or the narrator explicitly states. |
|
|
