| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Canon | A Greek word that implies rule or law, and is used in literature as the source which regulates which selection of authors or works, would be considered important pieces of literature. |
| Catharsis | Meaning “purgation,” this describes the release of the emotions of pity and fear by the audience at the end of a tragedy. In his Poetics, Aristotle discusses the importance of this. The audience faces the misfortunes of the protagonist, which elicit pity and compassion. Simultaneously, the audience also confronts the failure of the protagonist, thus receiving a frightening reminder of human limitations and frailties. |
| Chiasmus | A term from classical rhetoric that describes a situation in which you introduce subjects in the order A, B, and C, and then talk about them in the order C, B, and A. |
| Aesthetics | Philosophical investigation into the nature of beauty and the perception of beauty, especially in the arts; the theory of art or artistic taste. |
| Allegory | A story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. In written narrative, this involves a continuous parallel between two (or more) levels of meaning in a story, so that its persons and events correspond to their equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale. |
| Allusion | An indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader’s familiarity with what is thus mentioned. |
| Ambiguity | A statement which can contain two or more meanings. For example, when the oracle at Delphi told Croesus that if he waged war on Cyrus he would destroy a great empire, Croesus thought the oracle meant his enemy’s empire. In fact, the empire Croesus destroyed by going to war was his own. |
| Analogy | A resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some circumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different. |
| Anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. |
| Anecdote | A very short tale told by a character in a literary work. In Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Carpenter’s Tale” are examples. |
| Antagonist | The character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that opposes the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of the story. |
| Anti-hero | A protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. [A character who] may be bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, or merely pathetic. |
| Aphorism | A brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation. Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac” contains numerous examples, one of which is Drive thy business; let it not drive thee. |
| Apostrophe | A figure of speech wherein the speaker speaks directly to something nonhuman. |
| Archetype | A term used to describe universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes unconscious responses in a reader. In literature, characters, images, and themes that symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences. |
| Aside | A device in which a character in a drama makes a short speech which is heard by the audience but not by other characters in the play. |
| Asyndeton | The omission of a conjunction from a list (‘chips, beans, peas, vinegar, salt, pepper’). |
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