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Definition
| The act of foreshadowing vaguely. |
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| A story with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. An allegory may be conceived as an extended metaphor in which objects and persons in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside of the narrative itself. |
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| The repetition of the same initial consonant sound in neighboring words. |
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| When there is a discrepancy between the order in which the events of a story occur in chronological time and the order in which these events are presented to the reader. |
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| A metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one. |
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| A rhetorical device involving the repetition of a word or a group of words in (and usually at the beginning of) successive lines, clauses, or sentences. |
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| A terse statement of truth or dogma; a pithy generalization which may or may not be witty. |
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| A figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality, an idea, or dead/absent person is addressed as if present and capable of understanding. |
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| The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in neighboring words. |
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| A folk song or orally transmitted poem telling in a direct and dramatic manner some popular story usually derived from a tragic incident in local history or legend. The story is told simply, impersonally, and often with vivid dialogue. |
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| Quatrains with alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, the second and fourth lines rhyming. |
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| A kind of novel that follows the development of the hero or heroine from childhood or adolescence into adulthood, through a troubled quest for identity. |
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| Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. |
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| A term adopted from the vocabulary of painters to denote a work which contains a mixture of allusions, references, quotations, and foreign expressions. |
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| The interruption of a serious work, especially a tragedy by a short humorous episode. |
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| An extended or elaborate metaphor or simile. |
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| The tension in a situation between characters, or the actual opposition of characters. |
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| The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds in neighboring words whose vowel sounds are different. |
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Definition
| A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones. |
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Definition
| The omission of a vowel, consonant, or syllable in pronunciation. |
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Definition
| brought to a punctuated pause at which the end of a verse line coincides with the completion of a sentence, clause, or other independent unit of syntax. |
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Definition
| The running over of the sense and grammatical structure from one verse line to the next without a punctuated pause. |
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Definition
| A short, witty statement in verse or prose which may be complimentary, satiric, or aphoristic. |
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Definition
| The quotation or motto placed at the beginning of a book, chapter, or poem as an indication of its theme. |
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Definition
| A sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in a memorable expression of the mind itself. |
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| A novel written in the form of a series of letters exchanged among the characters in the story. |
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| A struggle against some outside force - mother nature, society, fate, or a natural phenomenon. |
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| A character who serves as a contrast to another perhaps more primary character, so as to point out specific traits of the primary character. |
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Definition
| A group of syllables forming a metrical unit; a unit of rhythm. |
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Definition
| A story in which another story is embedded as a 'tale within a tale.' |
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| A story of terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old castle or monastery. |
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| A figure of speech which contains an exaggeration for emphasis. |
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Definition
| A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. |
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Definition
| A phrase peculiar to a language and often possessing a meaning other than its grammatical or logical one. |
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Definition
| A term applied to works of passages that concentrate on the description of transitory impressions as felt by an observer, rather than on the explanation of their external causes. |
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Definition
| The common technique of storytelling by which the narrator begins at some exciting point in the middle of the action, thereby gaining the reader's interest before explaining preceeding events by analepses (flashbacks). |
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Definition
| A word or group of words representing the person or thing with reference to which the action of the verb is performed. |
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Definition
| A struggle between opposing needs, desires, or emotions within a single character. |
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Definition
| A novel in which the central character is an artist of any kind. |
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Definition
| A frequently repeated phrase, image, symbol, or situation in a literary work, the recurrence of which usually indicates or supports a theme. |
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Definition
| The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse, which is named by the type and number of feet. |
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Definition
| A figure of speech in which the name of an attribute or thing is substituted for the thing itself. |
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Definition
| The deliberate departure from tradition and the use of innovative forms of expression that distinguish many styles in the arts and literature of the 20th century. These styles include stream-of-consciousness and anachrony. Modernist authors often deliberately sought to create an aesthetic of difficulty in their art. Modernist authors wished to recreate reality on the page. |
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Definition
| A type of situation, incident, idea, image, or character-type that is found in many literary works; or any element of a work that is elaborated into a more general theme. |
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Definition
| An external equivalent for an internal state of mind. |
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Definition
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Definition
| The use of words that seem to imitate the sounds they refer to. |
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Definition
| A figure of speech that combines two usually contradictory terms in a compressed paradox. |
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Definition
| A self-contradictory statement. |
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Definition
| The arrangement of similarly constructed clauses, sentences, or verse lines in a pairing or other sequence suggesting some correspondence between them. |
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Definition
| A mocking imitation of the style of a literary work, ridiculing the stylistic habits of an author or school by exaggerated mimicry. |
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Term
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Definition
| A patchwork of words, sentences, or complete passages from various authors or one another. |
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| The poetic convention whereby natural phenomenon which cannot feel as humans do are described as if they could. |
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Definition
| A novel in which several different voices or points of view interact on more or less equal terms. |
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Definition
| The study of versification, covering the principles of meter, rhythm, rhyme, and stanza forms. |
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Definition
| A stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternate rhymes. |
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Definition
| A phrase, line, or lines repeated at intervals during a poem and especially at the end of a stanza. |
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Definition
| A kind of tragedy popular in England from the 1590s to the 1630s, following the success of Thomas Kyd's play "The Spanish Tragedy" (1589). Its action is typically centered upon a leading character's attempt to avenge the murder of a loved one, sometimes at the prompting of the victim's ghost; it involves complex intrigues and disguises, and usually some explanation of the morality of revenge. |
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Definition
| The shift in Western attitudes to art and human creativity that dominated much of the European culture in the first half of the 19th century. Its chief emphasis was upon freedom of individual self-expression: sincerity, spontaneity, and originality. The Romantics turned to the emotional directness of personal experience and to the boundlessness of individual imagination and aspiration. |
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Term
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Definition
| The analysis of the metrical patterns of verse. |
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Term
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Definition
| A lyric poem comprising fourteen rhyming lines of equal length, written in iambic pentameter. |
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Term
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Definition
| Comprises an octet of two quatrains, rhymed abbaabba, followed by a sestet. The transistion from octave to sestet usually coincides with a 'turn' (volta) in the argument or mood of the poem. |
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Term
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Definition
| Comprises three quatrains and a final couplet, rhyming ababcdcdefefgg. The 'turn' comes with the final couplet. |
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Term
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Definition
| A metrical foot consisting of two stressed syllables. |
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Term
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Definition
| The continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind. |
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Term
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Definition
| Any specific way of using language, which is characteristic of an author, school, period, or genre. Particular styles may be defined by their diction, syntax, imagery, rhythm, and use of figures, or by any other linguistic features. |
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Term
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Definition
| A kind of verbal construction by which a letter or syllable is omitted from within a word. |
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Term
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Definition
| A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part. |
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Definition
| The mixing of sensations; the concurrent appeal to more than one sense. |
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Definition
| The reflection of a writer's attitude (especially towards his readers), manner, mood, and moral outlook in his work. |
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Definition
| A serious play representing the disastrous downfall of a central character, the protagonist. The tragic effect normally depends on our awareness of the admirable qualities - manifest or potential - in the protagonist, which are wasted away terribly in the fated disaster. |
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Definition
| A three-syllable rhyme used chiefly for comic purposes and in bawdy verse. |
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Term
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Definition
| A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. |
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Term
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Definition
| The semblance of truth or reality in literary works; likeness to the truth, and therefore the appearance of being true or real even when fantastic. |
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Definition
| A period marked by a shift from a way of life based upon ownership of land to an urban economy based upon trade and manufacturing. Accompanying the industrialization of England came a number of social and economic problems that many victorian authors addressed in their novels: class tensions, economic stratification, the mechanization of society... Feature a protagonist who stuggles to define himself/herself in relation to other people; in love or marriage; or in her/her career. Victorian novelists set their works in contemporary society or in the recent past. The Victorians's audience was exceptionally diverse. |
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Definition
| A poem composed of an uneven number (usually five) of tercets rhyming aba, with a final quatrain rhyming abaa. |
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Term
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Definition
| A punctuated pause within a line of poetry. |
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