Literary terms

Accentual Syllabic Verse: in which both stressed and unstressed syllables are counted: thus an
iambic pentameter should normally have five stresses distributed among its ten syllables (or, with
a feminine ending , eleven syllables).
Accentual verse: Verse in which the metre is based on counting only the number of stressed
syllables in a line, and in which the number of unstressed syllables in the line may therefore vary.
Most verse in Germanic languages (including Old nglish) is accentual, and much nglish poetry
of later periods has been written in accentual verse, especially in the popular tradition of songs,
ballads , nursery rhymes, and hymns.
Allegory: ! story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal
or visible meaning. "he principal techni#ue of allegory is personification , whereby abstract
#ualities are given human shape. !n allegory may be conceived as a metaphor that is e$tended
into a structured system.
Alliteration: "he repetition of the same sounds%usually initial consonants of words or of
stressed syllables%in any se#uence of neighbouring words: &'andscape(lover, lord of language)
("ennyson). *uch poetry, in which alliteration rather than rhyme is the chief principle of
repetition, is +nown as alliterative verse
Anagnorisis: "he Gree+ word for &recognition) or &discovery), used by !ristotle in his ,oetics to
denote the turning point in a drama at which a character (usually the protagonist ) recogni-es the
true state of affairs, having previously been in error or ignorance, e.g.: in Oedipus Tyrannus, that
he himself has killed his own father Laius , married his mother Jocasta , and brought the plague
upon Thebes. "he anagnorisis is usually combined with the play.s peripeteia or reversal of
fortunes, in comedy as in tragedy. *imilarly, the plots of many novels involve crucial anagnorises,
e.g. Pip's discoery, in !harles "ickens's #reat $%pectations & '()* + )' ,
Anapaestic: ! metrical foot made up of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable,
as in the word &interrupt) (or, in #uantitative verse , two short syllables followed by a long one).
'ines made up of anapaests alone are rare in nglish verse, though/ more often they are used in
combination with other feet, e.g.: -obert .rowning's /0ow they .rought the #ood 1ews from
#hent to 2i%3 & '(45 ,:.
Antonym: a word opposite in meaning to another (e.g. bad and good).
Assonance: "he repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables (and
sometimes in the following unstressed syllables) of neighbouring words/ it is distinct from rhyme
in that the consonants differ although the vowels or diphthongs match: sweet dreams, hit or miss.
!s a substitute for rhyme at the ends of verse lines, assonance in nglish it has been an optional
poetic device used within and between lines of verse for emphasis or musical effect, e.g.: in these
lines from Tennyson's /The Lotos6$aters3.
Blank verse: 0nrhymed lines of iambic pentameter, a very fle$ible nglish verse form which can
attain rhetorical grandeur while echoing the natural rhythms of speech and allowing smooth
en1ambment . 2lan+ verse should not be confused with free verse , which has no regular metre.
.g.: Much of the finest verse in nglish%by *ha+espeare , Milton , 3ordsworth , "ennyson , and
*tevens %has been written in blan+ verse.
Canon: ! body of writings recogni-ed by authority. "hose boo+s of holy scripture which religious
leaders accept as genuine are canonical , as are those wor+s of a literary author which scholars
regard as authentic. "he canon of a national literature is a body of writings especially approved by
critics or anthologists and deemed suitable for academic study.
Catharsis: "he effect of &purgation) or &purification) achieved by tragic drama, according to
!ristotle.s argument in his ,oetics (4th century 25).
Characterization: "he representation of persons in narrative and dramatic wor+s. "his may
include direct methods li+e the attribution of #ualities in description or commentary, and indirect
(or &dramatic)) methods inviting readers to infer #ualities from characters. actions, speech, or
appearance.
Comedy: ! play (or other literary composition) written chiefly to amuse its audience by appealing
to a sense of superiority over the characters depicted. ! comedy will normally be closer to the
representation of everyday life than a tragedy , and will e$plore common human failings rather
than tragedy.s disastrous crimes. 6ts ending will usually be happy for the leading characters. 6n
another sense, the term was applied in the Middle !ges to narrative poems that end happily: the
title of 7ante.s 7ivine 5omedy ( c.89:; ) carries this meaning.
Consonance: "he repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighbouring words whose
vowel sounds are different (e.g. coming home , hot foot ). 5onsonance may be regarded as the
counterpart to the vowel(sound repetition +nown as assonance. "he term is most commonly used,
though, for a special case of such repetition in which the words are identical e$cept for the
stressed vowel sound &group7grope, middle7muddle, wonder7wander.
Couplet: ! pair of rhyming verse lines, usually of the same length/ one of the most widely used
verse forms in uropean poetry. 5haucer established the use of couplets in nglish, notably in the
5anterbury "ales, using rhymed iambic pentameters later +nown as heroic couplets. ! couplet
may also stand alone as an epigram , or form part of a larger stan-a , or (as in *ha+espeare) round
off a sonnet or a dramatic scene.
Dactylic: 7actyl is a metrical unit ( foot ) of verse, having one stressed syllable followed by two
unstressed syllables, as in the word carefully (or, in quantitative verse , one long syllable and two
short ones). dactylic verse is rare in nglish: Tennyson's /The !harge of the Light .rigade3 uses it,
as does Thomas 0ardy's /The 8oice3.
Dead etaphor: Much of our everyday language is also made up of metaphorical words and
phrases that pass unnoticed as &dead) metaphors, li+e the branch of an organi9ation.
Defamiliarization: "he distinctive effect achieved by literary wor+s in disrupting our habitual
perception of the world, enabling us to &see) things afresh, according to the theories of some
nglish <omantic poets and of !ussian "ormalism .
#n$ambment: "he running over of the sense and grammatical structure from one verse line or
couplet to the ne$t without a punctuated pause. 6n an en1ambed line (also called a &run(on line)),
the completion of a phrase, clause, or sentence is held over to the following line so that the line
ending is not emphasi-ed as it is in an end(stopped line.
#ye%rhyme: ! +ind of rhyme in which the spellings of paired words appear to match but without
true correspondence in pronunciation: die7gie, said7maid.
"eminine rhyme: ! rhyme on two syllables, the first stressed and the second unstressed (e.g.
mother=another), commonly found in many +inds of poetry but especially in humorous verse, as
in .yron's "on Juan.
"ocalization& "he term used in modern narratology for & point of view )/ that is, for the +ind of
perspective from which the events of a story are witnessed
"ree verse: ! +ind of poetry that does not conform to any regular metre: the length of its lines is
irregular, as is its use of rhyme%if any. >ree verse should not be confused with blan+ verse,
which does observe a regular metre in its unrhymed lines.
'enre: "he >rench term for a type, species, or class of composition. ! literary genre is a
recogni-able and established category of written wor+ employing such common conventions as
will prevent readers or audiences from mista+ing it for another +ind.
(amartia: "he Gree+ word for error or failure, used by !ristotle in his ,oetics (4th century 25)
to designate the false step that leads the protagonist in a tragedy to his or her downfall.
(eroic couplet: ! rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines.
(ubris: "he Gree+ word for &insolence) or &affront), applied to the arrogance or pride of the
protagonist in a tragedy in which he or she defies moral laws or the prohibitions of the gods.
)ambic: ! metrical unit (foot) of verse, having one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed
syllable. 'ines of poetry made up predominantly of iambs are referred to as iambics or as iambic
verse, which is by far the most common +ind of metrical verse in nglish. 6ts most important form
is the 8;(syllable iambic pentameter, either rhymed (as in heroic couplets, sonnets etc.) or
unrhymed in blan+ verse.
)mplied author: ! term coined by 3ayne 5. 2ooth in "he <hetoric of >iction (8?@8) to designate
that source of a wor+.s design and meaning which is inferred by readers from the te$t, and
imagined as a personality standing behind the wor+. !s an imaginary entity, it is to be
distinguished clearly from the real author. "he implied author is also to be distinguished from the
narrator, since the implied author stands at a remove from the narrative voice, as the personage
assumed to be responsible for deciding what +ind of narrator will be presented to the reader/ in
many wor+s this distinction produces an effect of irony at the narrator.s e$pense.
)mplied reader: to denote the hypothetical figure of the reader to whom a given wor+ is designed
to address itself. "his implied reader is to be distinguished from actual readers, who may be
unable or unwilling to occupy the position of the implied reader. "he implied reader is also not the
same thing as the narratee.
asculine rhyme: "he commonest +ind of rhyme, between single stressed syllables (e.g.
delay=stay) at the ends of verse lines. masculine rhyme matches only the final syllable with its
e#uivalent in the paired line, as in 5hristina <ossetti.s couplet.
etaphor: "he most important and widespread figure of speech, in which one thing, idea, or
action is referred to by a word or e$pression normally denoting another thing, idea, or action, so
as to suggest some common #uality shared by the two. 6n metaphor, this resemblance is assumed
as an imaginary identity rather than directly stated as a comparison: referring to a man as that pig.
Metaphors may also appear as verbs (a talent may blossom) or as ad1ectives (a novice may be
green), or in longer idiomatic phrases, e.g. to throw the baby out with the bath6water. "he use of
metaphor to create new combinations of ideas is a ma1or feature of poetry, although it is #uite
possible to write poems without metaphors.
etonymy: ! figure of speech that replaces the name of one thing with the name of something
else closely associated with it, e.g. the bottle for alcoholic drink, the press for :ournalism, skirt for
woman. !n important +ind of metonymy is synecdoche.
*arrative: ! telling of some true or fictitious event or connected se#uence of events, recounted
by a narrator to a narratee (although there may be more than one of each). Aarratives are to be
distinguished from descriptions of #ualities, states, or situations, and also from dramatic
enactments of events (although a dramatic wor+ may also include narrative speeches).
*arrator: One who tells, or is assumed to be telling, the story in a given narrative. 6n modern
analysis of fictional narratives, the narrator is the imagined &voice) transmitting the story, and is
distinguished both from the real author (who may have written other tales with very different
narrators) and from the implied author (who does not recount the story, but is inferred as the
authority responsible for selecting it and inventing a narrator for it).
*ovel: Aearly always an e$tended fictional prose narrative, although some novels are very short,
some are non(fictional, some have been written in verse, and some do not even tell a story. Aovels
can be distinguished from short stories and novellas by their greater length, which permits fuller,
subtler development of characters and themes.
*ovella: ! fictional tale in prose, intermediate in length and comple$ity between a short story and
a novel , and usually concentrating on a single event or chain of events, with a surprising turning
point.
+nomatopoeia: "he use of words that seem to imitate the sounds they refer to (whack, fi99,
crackle, hiss)/ or any combination of words in which the sound gives the impression of echoing
the sense.
+,ymoron: ! figure of speech that combines two usually contradictory terms in a compressed
parado$, as in the word bittersweet or the phrase living death.
-eripeteia: ! sudden reversal of a character.s circumstances and fortunes, usually involving the
downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy, and often coinciding with the &recognition) or anagnorisi.
6n a comedy, however, the peripeteia abruptly restores the prosperity of the main character(s).
-ersonification: ! figure of speech by which animals, abstract ideas, or inanimate things are
referred to as if they were human.

-etrarchan Sonnet: 5haracteristic of, or derived from, the wor+ of the ma1or 6talian poet
,etrarch (>rancesco ,etrarca , 89;4 B C4 ), especially his sonnets and other love lyrics in 6talian.
"he ,etrarchan sonnet, also +nown as the 6talian sonnet, is divided into an octave rhyming
abbaabba and a sestet normally rhyming cdecde, and thus avoids the final couplet found in the
nglish or &*ha+espearean) sonnet.
-lagiarism: theft of ideas (such as the plots of narrative or dramatic wor+s) or of written passages
or wor+s, where these are passed off as one.s own wor+ without ac+nowledgement of their true
origin/ or a piece of writing thus stolen. ,lagiarism is not always easily separable from imitation,
adaptation, or pastiche, but is usually distinguished by its dishonest intention. ! person practising
this form of literary theft is a plagiarist. "he older term plagiary was applied both to plagiarisms
and to plagiarists.
-lot: "he pattern of events and situations in a narrative or dramatic wor+, as selected and arranged
both to emphasi-e relationships%usually of cause and effect%between incidents and to elicit a
particular +ind of interest in the reader or audience, such as surprise or suspense. !lthough in a
loose sense the term commonly refers to that se#uence of chief events which can be summari-ed
from a story or play, modern criticism often ma+es a stricter distinction between the plot of a wor+
and its story: the plot is the selected version of events as presented to the reader or audience in a
certain order and duration.
.uatrain: ! verse stan-a of four lines rhymed or (less often) unrhymed. "he #uatrain is the most
commonly used stan-a in nglish and most modern uropean languages.
Sestet: ! group of si$ verse lines forming the second part of a sonnet (in its 6talian or ,etrarchan
form), following the opening octave . More rarely, the term may refer to a stan-a of si$ lines (also
called a se$ain, se$tain, or se$tet), such as the 2urns stan-a or the stan-a used in a sestina.
Shakespearean sonnet: "he nglish sonnet (also called the *ha+espearean sonnet after its
foremost practitioner) comprises three #uatrains and a final couplet, rhyming ababcdcdefefgg.
Short story: ! fictional prose tale of no specified length, but too short to be published as a
volume on its own, as novellas sometimes and novels usually are. ! short story will normally
concentrate on a single event with only one or two characters, more economically than a novel.s
sustained e$ploration of social bac+ground.
Simile: !n e$plicit comparison between two different things, actions, or feelings, using the words
&as) or &li+e), ! very common figure of speech in both prose and verse, simile is more tentative
and decorative than metaphor . ! lengthy and more elaborate +ind of simile, used as a digression
in a narrative wor+, is the epic simile.
Spondee: ! metrical unit (foot) consisting of two stressed syllables (or, in #uantitative verse, two
long syllables). 6n nglish the spondee is an occasional device of metrical variation. "he normal
alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in nglish speech ma+es it virtually impossible to
compose a complete line of true spondees.
Story: 6n the everyday sense, any narrative or tale recounting a series of events. 6n modern
narratology, however, the term refers more specifically to the se#uence of imagined events that we
reconstruct from the actual arrangement of a narrative (or dramatic) plot, the story is the full
se#uence of events as we assume them to have occurred in their li+ely order, duration, and
fre#uency, while the plot is a particular selection and (re()ordering of these.
Stream of consciousness: "he term is often used as a synonym for interior monologue, but they
can also be distinguished, in two ways. 6n the first (psychological) sense, the stream of
consciousness is the sub1ect(matter while interior monologue is the techni#ue for presenting it, 6n
the second (literary) sense, stream of consciousness is a special style of interior monologue: while
an interior monologue always presents a character.s thoughts &directly), without the apparent
intervention of a summari-ing and selecting narrator, it does not necessarily mingle them with
impressions and perceptions, nor does it necessarily violate the norms of grammar, synta$, and
logic/ but the stream(of(consciousness techni#ue also does one or both of these things.
Symbol: 6n the simplest sense, anything that stands for or represents something else beyond it%
usually an idea conventionally associated with it. Ob1ects li+e flags and crosses can function
symbolically/ and words are also symbols. 6n literary usage, however, a symbol is a specially
evocative +ind of image (see imagery)/ that is, a word or phrase referring to a concrete ob1ect,
scene, or action which also has some further significance associated with it: roses, mountains,
birds, and voyages have all been used as common literary symbols. ! symbol differs from a
metaphor in that its application is left open as an unstated suggestion.
Synecdoche: ! common figure of speech (or trope ) by which something is referred to indirectly,
either by naming only some part or constituent of it (e.g. hands for manual labourers) or%less
often%by naming some more comprehensive entity of which it is a part (e.g. the law for a police
officer). 0sually regarded as a special +ind of metonymy, synecdoche occurs fre#uently in
political 1ournalism (e.g. ;oscow for the -ussian goernment) and sports commentary (e.g.
Lierpool for one of that city's football teams), but also has literary uses li+e "ickens's habitual
play with bodily parts: the character of ;rs ;erdle in Little "orrit is referred to as /the .osom3.
Synaesthesy: ! blending or confusion of different +inds of sense(impression, in which one type
of sensation is referred to in terms more appropriate to another. 5ommon synaesthetic e$pressions
include the descriptions of colours as &loud) or &warm), and of sounds as &smooth).
Synonym: ! word that has the same%or virtually the same%meaning as another word, and so
can substitute for it in certain conte$ts. "his identity of meaning is called synonymy.
/ercets: ! unit of three verse lines, usually rhyming either with each other or with neighbouring
lines. "he three(line stan-as of ter-a rima and of the villanelle are +nown as tercets. "he sestet of
an 6talian sonnet is composed of two tercets.
/ragedy: ! serious play (or, by e$tension, a novel) representing the disastrous downfall of a
central character, the protagonist. 6n some ancient Gree+ tragedies such as the umenides of
!eschylus, a happy ending was possible, provided that the sub1ect was mythological and the
treatment dignified, but the more usual conclusion, involving the protagonist.s death, has become
the defining feature in later uses of the term.
/rochaic: ! metrical unit (foot) of verse, having one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed
syllable, as in the word &tender) (or, in Gree+ and 'atin #uantitative verse, one long syllable
followed by one short syllable). 'ines of verse made up predominantly of trochees are referred to
as trochaic verse or trochaics. *ince the trochee is often found as a variation at the beginning of
iambic lines (see substitution). "his sort of trochaic line beginning and ending with a stressed
syllable can be difficult to distinguish from iambic verse.
Versification: "he techni#ues, principles, and practice of composing verse, especially in its
technical aspects of metre, rhyme, and stan-a form/ or the conversion of a prose passage or wor+
into metrical verse form.