| Term | Definition |
|---|
| allegory | A story in which each aspect has a symbolic meaning outside the story itself. |
| allusion | A reference in a literary work to another work or famous figure. |
| antagonist | The character or force who works against the main character |
| apology | A defense of one's position |
| apostrophe | A poem directly addressing a person or thing, often absent. |
| aubade | a poem addressing the dawn |
| bildungsroman | A "coming of age" novel |
| cacophony | An unpleasant sound |
| connotation | the emotions associated with a word |
| consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds within words (not beginning). |
| couplet | A pair of lines that end in rhyme |
| conceit | A startling or unusual metaphor. |
| doggerel | crude, simplistic verse. |
| elegy | a type of poem that meditates on death or mortality. |
| epistolary novel | a novel written as a series of letters |
| fabliau | a "dirty story", such as Chaucer's The Miller's Tale |
| foil | a secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast |
| foot | The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry. Formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed. |
| free verse | poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern |
| genre | a "type" or kind of literature |
| gothic novel | a novel that is characterized by gloomy castles, the supernatural, etc. |
| Horatian satire | Satire that pokes fun in a gentle or comical way |
| hyperbole | exaggeration or deliberate overstatement |
| In medias res | Latin term for "in the midst of things." One of the conventions of the epic, denoting that the action begins in the middle of the story. |
| Juvenalian satire | Satire that is bitter or biting |
| juxtaposition | the deliberate positioning of two elements (words, ideas, etc.) in order to emphasize the relationship between the two |
| interior monologue | Writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head. Tighter than stream of consciousness |
| lyric | A type of poetry that deals with a poet's interpretations of and feelings about the world. |
| masculine rhyme | A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable. |
| metaphor | A direct comparison between two things. ("my love is a red, red rose") |
| novella | A short novel |
| Oedipus complex | The term given for an unnatural obsession with one's mother by her son. |
| Electra complex | The term given for an unnatural obsession with one's father by his daughter. |
| onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean. "boom", "splat", "arrgh", etc. |
| oxymoron | A phrase composed of opopsition; a contradition |
| paradox | A seeming contradition |
| parody | The work that results when a specific work is exaggerated to ridiculousness. |
| protagonist | The main character in a work of fiction |
| pseudonym | a "false" (or pen) name |
| pastoral | A poem set in the countryside or even more specifically, one about shepherds. |
| refrain | A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem |
| ode | A poem of praise. |
| mock epic | a poem that treats a trivial subject in a lotfy way and pokes fun at the conventions of heroic poetry |
| villanelle | a 19 line poem with 6 stanzas; stanzas 1-5 have 3 lines each, stanza 6 has 4 lines (aba, aba, aba, aba, aba, abaa) |
| dramatic monologue | a lyric poem with a silent but identifiable listener in which the speaker tells about a dramatic moment in his life, and in doing so, reveals character. |
| meter | a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry |
| heroic couplet | Consists of two successive rhyming lines that contain a complete thought |
| ballad | specific type of narrative poem based on the ancient custom of telling stories in songs. |
| caesura | a pause in a line of poetry |
| epic | a long narrative poem told in high, formal language. contains a hero and events important to a specific group. |
| sonnet | a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme |
| synecdoche | understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole or the whole for the part |
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