| Term | Definition |
| frame narrative | a narrative in which a story is told within another story |
| free indirect discourse | writing in which the inner thoughts of a character are presented directly in an otherwise third-person narrative |
| free verse | verse written without a set meter, line length, stanza form, or rhyme scheme |
| genre | french for type or kind, refers to any one of the categories into which works of literature are divided |
| Gothic novel | a novel in which generally virtuous characters experience horror, danger, and violence at the hands of mysterious and villainous antagonists |
| hamartia | the primary error of judgement that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero |
| hendiadys | a rhetorical device in which a single idea is expressed using two nouns connected by "and," in stead of a single noun or a noun modified by an adjective |
| heptameter | line of metrical verse with seven feet |
| hexameter | line of metrical verse with six feet |
| hyperbole | overstatement or exaggeration |
| iamb | a metrical foot consisting of two syllables with the accent falling on the second |
| idiom | a common use of language that cannot be literally translated from one language to another |
| image | language referring to that which can be perceived by one or more of the five senses |
| in medias res | describes the technique of beginning a narrative at some point in the middle of the story's action |
| intentional fallacy | the mistaken belief that an author is appropriately considered the foremost authority on his or her own work |
| interior monologue | an extended passage of writing in which the inner thoughts of a character are presented as directly as possible |
| inversion | altering or reversing the normal order of words in a sentence |
| invocation | a poet's request to a muse or deity for help in writing the poem |
| irony | the effect created when an apparently direct statement, event, or situation is given a quite different significance due to its context |
| juvenilia | the works written by an author during his or her youth |