Term
|
Definition
| In Greek and Roman times, elegies were poems that used elegiac meter (alternating hexameter and pentameter lines). In the European tradition, elegy has become a term referring to poems lamenting the loss of someone or something. Elegies are poems of mourning, loss, and lament and are often, but not always, about love. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The second era of the Renaissance period in British literature, spanning the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). The Elizabethan Age was a period marked by developments in English commerce, nationalism, exploration, and maritime power. It is considered a great age in literary history, particularly for drama. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The similar sound in syllables or paired groups of syllables at the end of a line of verse. Less common is internal rhyme in which the rhyme occurs within a line of verse |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Generally, a sonnet is a one-stanza lyric poem of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter with a specific rhyme scheme. Sonnets address a range of themes, but love is the most common. The English (or Shakespearean) sonnet has three quatrains (4 lines) and a concluding couplet (two lines) with an abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme. The Spenserian sonnet offers a variant rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee. In the English sonnet, the sestets describe a problem or situation that is repeated in each sestet with some variation; the remaining couplet offers a summary, usually with a turn of thought. |
|
|
Term
| Enjambement (or enjambment) |
|
Definition
| French for "striding over," enjambement occurs when the sense and/or grammatical structure of a sentence moves from one verse line to the next without a punctuated pause. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| In literature, it is a moment of insight, discovery, revelation, or understanding that alters a character's life in a meaningful way. Originally, epiphany had only spiritual implications but now it is frequently used in secular situations. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A long, formal narrative poem with elevated style. Epics narrate a story of national importance based on the life and actions of a hero. Frequently the fate of the nation depends upon the hero and his actions. Often the hero is either descended from or protected by the gods. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Either a concluding section of a play or other literary work; a recitation by an actor at the end of a play asking for applause or favorable reviews; or the end of a fable where the moral is stated. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A novel, or extended piece of fictional prose, told through the characters’ writing and exchange of letters. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An adjective or adjectival phrase used to define a person or a thing. It can also refer to a characteristic attribute or quality of a person or thing. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A novel, or extended piece of fictional prose, which chronicles a character's education. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A short, written prose composition that discusses a subject or proposes an argument without claiming to be an exhaustive or complete study of the subject. Frequently, essays attempt to persuade or express a particular point of view. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Words that sound pleasant, smooth, or musical and whose meanings also evoke pleasant feelings. Euphonic sounds include long vowel and liquid consonants like l's and r's. Euphony's opposite is cacophony. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A type of allegory (narrative in which abstract concepts are represented as something concrete, typically major elements in the story, such as characters, objects, actions, or events) used in sermons to illustrate and validate a particular theme or idea. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Also called close reading. A thorough and detailed analysis of a literary text and the elements that make up that text. Explication involves examining all aspects and complexities of a specific text, including style, content, form, imagery, symbolism, and diction. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| In literature and visual art, expressionism was a reaction to realism and naturalism. Rather than expressing verisimilitude and external reality, expressionism seeks to convey subjectivity, feeling, imagination, and emotional states of mind. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A form of low comedy that relies upon exaggerated character and physical action and unpredictable or improbable plot situations. Farce aims at entertaining, often with elements of panic, surprise, and cruelty. More specific than the broader sense of anything amusing or entertaining, comedy usually involves a movement from unhappiness to happiness and often relates to themes of regeneration, renewal, and human triumph over chance. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Generally, rhyme refers to the similar sound in syllables or paired groups of syllables. Feminine rhymes are rhyming stressed syllables followed by identical unstressed syllables. Masculine rhymes are rhymes with single-syllable stressed words. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A school of literary criticism emerging in the late 1960s, feminist criticism examines literary depictions of gender and gender issues. Although there are many subsets of feminist criticism, they are related in their attention to their analysis of gender in relation to literature, language, and culture. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Figurative language uses figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, and alliteration. In contrast to literal language wherein words are taken in their primary or denotative sense, figurative language is connotative and conveys the richness and complexity of language. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot, Prufrock worries about “The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase” so much that he imagines himself “formulated, sprawling on a pin, / When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall.” Literally, his language refers to an insect collection; it figuratively points to Prufrock’s fears about what others think about him. He imagines others looking at him with judgments so harsh that they feel like torture. Later, he asks, “Do I dare to eat a peach?” Reading this line literally would suggest the speaker is worried about eating fruit, but a figurative reading would reveal that he is too timid, too self-doubting to even consider himself sensual or sensuous, invoked by the image of the fleshy, juicy, messy experience of eating a peach. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The narrator of a story told from the perspective of a persona who uses "I" or "me" to recount the story’s events. Usually a first person is involved in the plot, but not always. Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick begins “Call me Ishmael,” immediately introducing its first-person narrator. Mark Twain’s titular narrator of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins, “You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A short story under 1000 words. Also called sudden fiction. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A scene used to show events that occur before the opening scene. Flashbacks are used to provide insight into or background about events, settings, characters, or context and can take the form of a character's dreams, remembrances, or reflections or a narrator's comments. Also called analepsis. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A specific type of character, or fictional or imagined person, in a narrative or literary text. A flat or static character is typically a minor character with a single outstanding trait and is often based on a stock character, or a common, stereotypical character. A flat character doesn’t change in the text, distinguishing it from a round (also called dynamic) character, who is usually one of the main characters, is presented in a complex and detailed manner, and usually undergoes a significant change in response to the events or circumstances described in the plot. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A character whose qualities or actions are in stark contrast with those of another character, usually the protagonist. Foils are often used to convey or develop the protagonist's character. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A short narrative, usually of unknown authorship, that is passed down and preserved by oral tradition. Folktales can include genres such as legends, fables, tall tales, and fairy tales. |
|
|
