| Term | Definition |
|---|
| biography | a written account of a person's life that focuses on the character and career of the subject |
| drama | a literary work written in a dialogue to be performed before an audience by actors on a stage |
| epic poem | a long narrative poem in a lofty style, set in a remote time and place, and dealing with heroic characters and deeds important in legends and history of a nation or race |
| essay | a composition on a particular theme or topic |
| historical | sub-genre of fiction that often portrays fictional accounts or dramatization of historical figures or events |
| lyric | a short personal poem expressing the poets emotions and thoughts rather than telling a story |
| novel | a lengthy, fictional narrative in prose dealing with characters, incidents, and settings that imitate those found in life |
| prose poem | a short composition printed in prose paragraphs, yet containing the striking imagery, calculate rhythmic effects, and other devices of poetry |
| bildungsroman | a German word that, translated literally, means "development novel;" applied to a novel that traces early education of its hero from youth to experience |
| comedy | any literary work that aims to amuse by dealing with humorous, familiar situations involving ordinary people speaking everyday language |
| gothic | barbaric; from the middle ages; in novel form, a type that's characterized by mystery, horror, and the supernatural, often with haunted castles, secret passages, grisly visions, all of the paraphernalia of the tale of terror |
| pastoral | a poem having to do with shepards and rural life |
| romance | an extended work of fiction that deals with adventure, extravagant characters, strange or exotic places, mysterious or supernatural incidents, heroic or marvelous achievements, or passionate love |
| satire | a term used to describe any form of literature that blends ironic humor and wit with criticism for the purpose of ridiculing folly, vice, stupidity-the whole range of human foibles and frailties--in individuals and institutions |
| tragedy | broadly a serious work of fiction, especially a drama, that presents the downfall of its protagonist, a person "better than ourselves" who through some error in judgment, weakness of character, or twist of fate suffers crushing defeat or death |
| types of satires | exaggeration, juxtaposition, parody, dimunition |
| satire devices | sarcasm, innuendo, burlesque/parody, caricature |
| types of novels | allegorical, autobiographical, dystopian, fantasy, novella, historical, science fiction, bildungsroman, gothic, pastoral, picaresque, problem, sociological, stream of consciousness |
| elements of a novel | setting, atmosphere, characterization, conflict, plot, theme, dialogue, point of view |
| types of dramas | tragedy, comedy, problem play, farce, comedy of manners, fantasy, melodrama |
| autobiography | an account of all or part of a person's life written by that person, usually with publication in mind |
| memoir | focuses on a single period in the writer's life--often a time that coincides with important events--and on notable people known to the writer |
| journal | a diary; a personal record of experience, ideas, and reflections kept regularly |
| problem play | a type of drama which was popularized by the great Norwegian playwright Henrick Ibsen; the situation faced by the protagonist is present by the author as a representative instance of a contemporary social problem |
| renga | linked verse |
| myth | any story or plot, whether true or invented |
| serialization | installment to fit a predetermined number of pages; served as a medium which verified middle class views of capitalism and history |
| short story | a fictional narrative in prose ranging in length from @500 words to @15000 words, though certainly not always, limited to a few characters, single setting, and single incident |
| meter | in poetry, basic rhythmic structure of a verse |
| feet | meter of a verse can be described in a sequence of feet, each foot being a sequence of syllable types |
| iambic pentameter | a line of poetry consisting of five metrical feet |
| trimeter | a line of poetry consisting of three metrical feet |
| tetrameter | a line of poetry consisting of four metrical feet |
| stress | relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word |
| couplet | a pair of lines of verse |
| free verse | various styles of poetry written without strict meter or rhyme |
| sonnet | fourteen line poem following strict rhyme scheme and specific structure |
| Shakespearean sonnet | ABAB CDCD EFEF GG |
| haiku | Japenese poem composed of three un-rhymed lines of five, seven, five syllables |
| ballad | tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain |
| legend | a story, part fact and part fiction, about the life and deeds of a saint, folk hero, or historical figure, that is handed down from generation to generation and is popularly accepted as true |
| enjambment | continuation of a sentence from one line or couplet into the next |
| tanka | Japanese poetry of five lines, the first and third lines composed of five syllables, the rest seven |
| allegory | narrative having a second meaning beneath the surface one--a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning |
| limerick | a short, sometimes vulgar, humorous poem consisting of five anapestic lines; follows AABBA pattern |
| quatrain | a stanza or poem consisting of four lines; lines 2 and 4 must have similar syllables; follows ABCB pattern |
| iambic | two syllables, with long/stressed syllables following short/unstressed syllables; example: garland, kerplop |
| trochaic/trochee | two syllables, with short/unstressed syllables following long/stressed syllables; example: repose |
| anapestic | three syllables, with the first two short/unstressed and last long/stressed; example: on the road |
| dactylic | three syllables, with the first one long/stressed and other two short/unstressed; example: happiness |
| spondee | equal accent; example: heartbreak, die die |
| essay | a composition on a particular theme or topic |
| elegy | a poem of sorrow or mourning for the dead; also a reflective poem in a solemn or sorrowful mood |
| history | fiction that attempts to recreate past events, events that occurred before the author's time |
| science fiction | novels and short stories set either in the future or in some imaginary world, their settings, plots, characters, and themes the result of scientific or technological speculation |
| fable | usually a short and fairly simple story designed to illustrate a moral lesson |
| folklore | the traditional songs, legends, beliefs, crafts, and customs of people that are passed form one generation to the next by word of mouth and usually not written down until they are collected by scholars |
| fairy tale | a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and talking animals, and usually enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events |
| frame tale | narrative technique whereby an introductory main story is composed, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage for a fictive narrative or organizing a set of shorter stories, each of which is a story within a story |
| mystery | loosely-defined term that is often used as a synonym of detective fiction — in other words a novel or short story in which a detective (either professional or amateur) solves a crime |
| prose | is writing that resembles everyday speech |
| fiction | is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes |
| non fiction | is an account or representation of a subject which is presented as fact |
| drama | is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance |
| poetry | is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning |
| verse | is formally a single line in a metrical composition |
| allegory | an extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities in which the the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface story |
| alliteration | the repetition of initial consonant sounds in words, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." |
| allusion | a reference to a familiar person, place, thing, or event--for example, Don Juan, brave new world, Everyman, Machiavellian, utopia |
| analogy | a comparison of objects or ideas that appear to be different but are alike in some important way |
| anecdote | a brief story that illustrates or makes a point |
| antagonist | a person or thing working against the hero of a literary work |
| aphorism | a wise saying, usually short and written |
| apostrophe | a turn from general audiences to address a group of persons (or personified abstraction) who is present or absent |
| assonance | a repetition of the same sound in words close to one another; example: white stripes |
| blank verse | unrhymed verse, often occurring in iambic pentameter |
| caesura | a break in the rhythm of language, particularly a natural pause in a line of verse, marked in prosody by a double vertical line |
| characterization | a method an author uses to let readers know more about the characters and their personal traits |
| cliche | an expression that has been used so often that it loses its expressive power; example: "dead as a doornail" |
| consonance | repetition of the final consonant sounds in words containing vowels: example: "stroke of luck" |
| diction | an author's choice of words based on their clearness, conciseness, effectiveness, and authenticity |
| end rhyme | rhyming of the ends of lines of verse |
| Existentialism | a philosophy that values human freedom and personal responsibility; writers include Albert Camus, Freidrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka |
| flashback | a literary device in which the author jumps back in time in the chronology of a narrative |
| foreshadowing | a literary technique in which the authors gives hints or clues about what is to come at some point later in the story |
| genre | a category of literature defined by its style, form, and content |
| heroic couplet | a pair of verse written in iambic pentameter |
| hubris | the flaw that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero; comes from Greek word "hybris," which means "excessive pride" |
| hyperbole | an exaggeration for emphasis or rhetorical effect |
| imagery | the use of words to create pictures in the reader's mind |
| internal rhyme | rhyme that occurs within a line of verse |
| irony | the use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or expected meaning |
| malapropism | a type of pun, or play on words, that results when two words become mixed up in the speakers mind; example: "don't put the horse before the cart" |
| metaphor | a figure of speech in which a comparison is implied but not stated, such as "The winter is a bear." |
| mood | the feeling a text evokes in the reader, such as sadness, tranquility, or elation |
| moral | a lesson a work of literature is teaching |
| narration | the telling of a story |
| onomatopoeia | the use of sounds to suggest meaning: example: buzz, click, or vroom |
| oxymoron | a phrase that consists of two contradictory terms; example: "deafening silence" |
| paradox | a contradictory statement that makes sense; for example: "Man learns from history that man learns nothing from history." |
| personification | a literary device in which animals, ideas, and things are represented as having human traits |
| point of view | the perspective from which a story is told |
| refrain | the repetition of a line or a phrase or a poem at regular intervals, particularly at the end of each stanza |
| repetition | the multiple use of a word, phrase, or idea for emphasis or rhythmic effect |
| rhetoric | persuasive writing |
| rhythm | the regular or random occurrence of sound in poetry |
| setting | the time and place in which the action of the story takes place |
| simile | a comparison of two unlike things, usually including the work "like" or "as" |
| style | how the author uses words, phrases, and sentences to form ideas |
| symbol | a person, place, thing, or event used to represent something else, such as the white flag that represents surrender |
| tone | the overall feeling created by the author's use of words |
| Transcendentalism | during the the mid-19th century in New England, several writers and intellectuals worked together to write, translate works, and publish; their philosophy focused on protesting the Puritan ethic and materialism; they valued individualism, freedom, experimentation, and spirituality; noted authors include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes |
| verse | a metric line of poetry |
| voice | distinctive features of a person's speech and speech patterns |
| ballad | a short poem, often written by an anonymous author, comprised of short verses intended to be sung or recited |
| canto | the main section of a long poem |
| elegy | a poem that is a mournful lament for the dead: example: William Shakespeare's "Elegy," Robert Louis Stevenson's "Requiem," and Alfred Lord Tennyson's "In Memoriam" |
| epic | a long narrative poem detailing a hero's deeds; example: "The Aeneid" by Virgil, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" by Homer, "Beowulf," and "Don Quixote" by Miguel Cervantes |
| haiku | a type of Japanese poem that is written in 17 syllables with three lines of five, seven, and five syllables |
| limerick | a humorous verse of five anapestic lines with a rhyme scheme of AABBA |
| lyric | a short poem about personal feelings or emotions |
| sonnet | a 14-lined poem, usually written in iambic pentameter, with a varied scheme |
| stanza | a division of poetry named for the number of lines it contains |
| fable | a short story or folklore that contains a moral, which may be expressed explicitly at the end as a maxim; examples include Aesop's "The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse," "The Tortoise and the Hair," and "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" |
| fairy tale | a narrative that is made of fantastic characters and creatures, such as witches, goblins, and fairies, and usually with the phrase "Once upon a time..." examples: 'Cinderella,' 'Rapunzel,' and 'Sleeping Beauty' |
| fantasy | a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as the primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting; examples include: JRR Tolkein's 'The Lord of the Rings' and CS Lewis's 'The Chronicles of Narnia' |
| folktale | a narrative form, such as an epic, legend, myth, song, poem, or fable, that has been retold within a culture for generations |
| frame tale | a narrative technique in which the main story is composed primarily for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories, each of which is a story within a story; examples include Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' and Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' |
| historical fiction | narrative fiction that is set in some earlier time and often contains historically authentic people, places, or events |
| horror | fiction that is intended to frighten, unsettle, or scare the reader; example: Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' |
| legend | a narrative about human actions that is perceived by both the teller and the listeners to have taken place within human history that possesses certain qualities that give the tale of the appearance of truth or reality; example: Washington Irving's 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' |
| mystery | a suspenseful story that deals with a puzzling crime |
| myth | narrative fiction that involves gods and heroes or has a theme that expresses a culture's ideology |
| novel | an extended fiction prose narrative |
| novella | a short story, usually between 50-100 pages long; examples include George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and Frank Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' |
| parody | a text or performance that imitates and mocks an author or work |
| romance | a novel comprised of idealized events far removed from everyday life |
| satire | literature that makes fun of social conventions or conditions, usually to evoke change |
| science fiction | fiction that deals with current or future development of technological advances |
| short story | a brief fictional prose narrative |
| tragedy | literature, often drama, ending in catastrophic events for the protagonist(s) after he or she faces several problems or conflicts |
| western | a novel set in the western US featuring experiences of cowboys and frontiersmen |
| autobiography | a person's account of his or her own life |
| biography | a story about a person's life written by another person |
| document (letter, diary, journal) | expository piece written with eloquence that it becomes part of the recognized literature of an era |
| essay | a document organized in paragraph form that can be long or short in the form of a letter, dialogue, or discussion |
| euphemism | an inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive |
| idiom | a phrase whose meaning cannot be determined by the literal definition of the phrase itself, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use |
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