| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Foreshawdoing | An event or statement in a narrative that in miniature suggests a large event that comes later. |
| Form | Either the general type or the unique structure of literary work. When used synoymously w/ general type, or genre, it refers to the categories according to which literary works are commonly classified (EX: the ballad form, the sonnet form, etc.) and may imply a set of conventions related to a particular genre. Form can also be used generally to refer to rhyme patters, metrical arrangements, and so forth. |
| Free verse | Poetry written w/out a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. |
| Genre | A sub-category literature. Science-fiction and detective stores are genres of fiction. |
| Half-rhyme | A form of rhyme in which words contain similar sounds but do not rhyme perfectly. Most half-rhyme is the result of either consonance or assonance. |
| Heroic couplet | A pair of rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter. |
| Hero's Journey | Most protagonists go thru the typical four steps of a journey (Innocence, Inititation, Chaos, Resolution) |
| Hubris | The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall (another term from Aristotles discussion of tragedy). |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement |
| Imagery | A word or phrase that appeals to one of more of the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell |
| Implicit | To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly. "Meaning" is definately present, but it's in the imagery, or "between the lines." |
| In medias res | Latin for "in the midst of thigns." One of the conversations of epic poetry is that the action begins in medias res. EX: when the Illiad begins, the Trojan war has already been going on for seven years. |
| Interior monologue | This is a term for novels and poetry, not dramatic literature. It refers to writing that records the meantal talking that goes on inside a character's head. It is related, but not identical to stream of consciousness. Interior monologue tends to be coherent, as though the character were actually talking. Stream of consciousness is looser and much more given to fleeting mental impressions. |
| Inversion | Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence of phrase. When done badly it can give a stilted, articial, look-at-me-I'm poetry feel to the verse, but poets do it all the time. This type of messing w/ syntax is called poetic license. I'll have one large pizza w/ all the fixin's - presto chango instant poetry - A pizza large I'll have. One w/ the fixin's all. |
| Irony | An undertow of meaning, sliding against the literal meaning of the words. Irony insinuates (suggests or hints slyly). It whispers underneath the explicit statement, Do you understand what I really mean? Think of the way Marc Anthony says again and again of Brutus, "but he is an honorable man." At first id doesn't seem like much, but w/ each repetition the undertone of irony becomes ever more insistent. |
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