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| A story’s narrator who offers comment, critique, interpretation, or additional information to readers about characters or events as he or she recounts the events in the story. Its opposite is an unintrusive narrator, who relates a story’s events with a minimum of commentary, observation, or interpretation. |
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| Broadly speaking, irony is an incongruity or contradiction between appearance and reality. Events, situations, statements, plots, or structures can be ironic. There are numerous kinds of irony found in literary works. Verbal or rhetorical irony is when there is a discrepancy between either what a character says and what that character believes to be true, or when a character says the opposite of what he or she means. Situational irony features a discrepancy between expectation and reality and appears in two forms: dramatic irony; where there is a discrepancy between what a character sees or perceives and what the audience knows is true; and tragic irony, which involves an imperfect interpretation of information or a situation resulting in a character's tragic downfall. Another form of irony is structural irony, which occurs when the author uses a structural element such as an unreliable narrator to create a discrepancy between what is perceived and what is true. One form of structural irony is cosmic irony, where there is a disparity between a character's belief that he or she is in control of his or her own destiny and the audience's or reader's understanding that the character's fate is determined by an external force, such as the hands of the gods. Another form of structural irony is romantic irony, where the author builds and then shatters the illusion of reality he or she has created. Romantic irony reveals the author as the creator and manipulator of this particular reality. |
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| Irregular (or Cowleyan) ode |
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| Generally, an ode is a lyric poem with an elaborate stanza structure and distinct tone of formality and stateliness, addressing either a person or an abstract idea or entity. Irregular odes are based upon Pindaric odes, originally public, choral celebrations of athletes but now more commonly known as odes with an unfixed number of stanzas that are arranged in groups that replicate movements of a chorus. The strophe and antistrophe are the same length and possess the same metrical pattern. They are followed by an epode of a different length and meter. Irregular or Cowleyan odes are more common than true Pindaric odes and contain varying lengths of strophes, line lengths, and rhyme schemes. |
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| The third era of the Renaissance period in British literature defined by the reign of James I (1603-1625). In this era, many Elizabethan writers, especially playwrights, continued to flourish. Drama remained prominent; significant writings in prose, including the King James Bible, and poetry were also written. |
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| In a literary context, a jeremiad refers to a prolonged lamentation that describes how misfortunes befalling a society are the result of social and moral evils. Frequently jeremiads express a sense of hope that these misfortunes can be overcome with social or moral change. |
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| A novel, or extended piece of fictional prose, which specifically traces the artistic development of a writer or other kind of artist. James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a classic Küntstlerroman, revolving around the young Stephen Dedalus as he pursues his calling as a poet. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening has also been called a Küntstlerroman—though perhaps a failed one—because Edna Pontellier develops confidence in her artistry and tries to live independently with room and time and freedom to paint; however, her struggles with society to live this independent, artistic life are unsuccessful. |
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| A traditional narrative handed down via oral culture. Unlike folktales, legends claim to be true and often feature a historical figure and a real setting. Usually legends celebrate a significant figure or historical event or attempt to explain an inexplicable event. Sometimes legends are distinguished from myths on the grounds that legends do not deal with gods. |
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| A recurring image, phrase, symbol, or situation in a literary work. A leitmotif is usually connected with a significant theme or idea in the work. |
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| The formal structural unit of a poem that is usually described by the number of feet. |
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| Language in which words are taken in their primary or denotative sense. Its contrast is figurative language, connotative language which uses figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, and alliteration and conveys the richness and complexity of language. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot, Prufrock worries about “The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase” so much that he imagines himself “formulated, sprawling on a pin, / When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall.” Literally, his language refers to an insect collection; it figuratively points to Prufrock’s fears about what others think about him. He imagines others looking at him with judgments so harsh that they feel like torture. Later, he asks, “Do I dare to eat a peach?” Reading this line literally would suggest the speaker is worried about eating fruit, but a figurative reading would reveal that he is too timid, too self-doubting to even consider himself sensual or sensuous, invoked by the image of the fleshy, juicy, messy experience of eating a peach. |
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| In literary criticism, the literary canon refers to a body of works that are given special cultural status. Works that are labeled "classics" or "Great Books" or that are frequently taught or anthologized are called "canonical." |
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| The system of principles or assumptions about literature, literary analysis, interpretations, readings, and how meaning is created. Theory helps to formulate approaches and articulate the questions critics ask about literature and the conclusions they reach. Theory, informally, has always been a central part of literary criticism but has moved to the forefront since poststructuralism. |
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| A figure of speech in which a statement is made indirectly by denying its opposite. Examples of litotes include "not uncommon" (meaning “common”), "not bad" (meaning “good”), or "no mean feat" (meaning “an easy task”). |
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| Descriptions in prose (usually prose fiction) which show particulars about setting, dialect, custom, habits, dress, mannerisms, and folklore about a specific region. Local color is used to create atmosphere or realism. |
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| After World War I, a group of American writers grew increasingly disillusioned by, and resistant to, what they saw as hypocrisy in dominant American ideology and culture. Many of these writers left America in search of a freer and more artistic life in London or Paris. |
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| In contemporary usage, lyric refers to a moderately short (usually 12-30 lines) poem expressing one speaker's emotions and thoughts. Lyric poems are not limited to a specific meter or form but are almost always about emotion, frequently concerning themes of love and grief. |
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