Literary Terms

 

 

Major Literary Terms

 

allegory - device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in

      addition to the literal meaning

alliteration - the repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words

      (eg "she sells sea shells")

allusion - a direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an

      event, book, myth, place, or work of art

ambiguity - the multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or

      passage

analogy - a similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them

antecedent - the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun

aphorism - a terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general turht or moral principle

apostrophe - a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified

      abstraction, such as liberty or love

atmosphere - the emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting

      and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described

clause - a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb

colloquial - the use of slang or informalities in speech or writing

conceit - a fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between

      seemingly dissimilar objects

connotation - the nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning

denotation - the strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color

diction - refereing to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their

      correctness, clearness, or effectiveness

didactic - from the Greek, literally means "teaching"

euphemism - from the Greek for "good speech," a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a

      generally unpleasant word or concept

extended metaphor - a metaphor developed at great length, ocurring frequently in or throughout a work

figurative language - writing or speech that is not intended to carry litera meaning and is usually meant to

      be imaginative and vivid

figure of speech - a device used to produce figurative language

generic convntions - refers to traditions for each genre

genre - the major category into which a literary work fits (eg prose, poetry, and drama)

homily - literally "sermon", or any serious talk, speech, or lecture providing moral or spiritual advice

hyperbole - a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement

imagery - the sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent

      abstractions

infer (inference) - to draw a reasonable conclusion from the informaion presented

invective - an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language

irony - the contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant

      verbal irony - words literally state the opposite of speaker's true meaning

      situational irony - events turn out the opposite of what was expected

      dramatic irony - facts or events are unknown to a character but known to the reader or audience or

           other characters in work

loose sentence - a type of sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by dependent grammatical

      units

metaphor - a figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of

      one for the other, suggesting some similarity

metonomy - from the Greek "changed label", the name of one object is substituted for that of another

      closely associated with it (eg "the White House" for the President)

mood - grammatically, the verbal units and a speaker's attitude (indicative, subjunctive, imperative);

      literarily, the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a word

narrative - the telling of a story or an account of an event or sereis of events

onomatopoeia - natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words (eg buzz, hiss)

oxymoron - from the Greek for "pointedly foolish," author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest

      a paradox

paradox - a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer

      inspection contains some degree of truth or validity

parallelism - from the Greek for "beside one another," the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words,

      phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity

parody - a work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the speific aim of comic effect

      and/or ridicule

pedantic - an adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or

      bookish

periodic sentences - a sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end

personification - a figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animasl, or

      inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions

point of view - the perspective from which a story is told (first person, third person omniscient, or third

      person limited omniscient)

predicate adjective - one type of subject complement, an adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective cluase

      that follows a linking verb

predicate nominative - another type of subject complement, a noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that

      renames the subject

prose - genre including fiction, nonfiction, written in ordinary language

      repetition - the duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language

rhetoric - from the Greek for "orator," the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently,

      and persuasively

rhetorical modes - the variety, conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of writing (exposition explains

      and analyzes information; argumentation proves validity of an idea; description re-creates, invents,

      or presents a person, place, event or action; narration tells a story or recount an event)

sarcasm - from the Greek for "to tear flesh," involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or

      ridicule someone or something

satire - a work that targets human vices and follies or social institutinos and conventions for reform or

      ridicule

semantics - the branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological

      development (etymology), their connotations, and their relation to one another

style - an evaluation of the sum of the choices an author maks in blending diction, syntx, figurative

      language, and other literary devices;  or, classification of authors to a group and comparion of an

      author to similar authors

subject complement - the word or clause that follows a linking verb and complements, or completes, the

      subject of the sentence by either renaming it or describing it

subordinate clause - contains a subject and verb (like all clauses) but cannot stand alone; does not express

      complete thought

syllogism - from the Greek for "reckoning together," a deductive system of fromal logic that presents two

      premises (first "major," second "minor") that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion (eg All men are

      mortal, Socrates is a man, Socrates is mortal)

symbol (symbolism) - anything that represents or stands for something else (natural, conventional, literary)

syntax - the way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences

theme - the central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life

thesis - in expository writing, the thesis statement is the sentence or group of sentences that directly express

      the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition

tone - similar to mood, describes the author's attitude toward his material, the audience, or both

transition - a word or phrase that links different ideas

understatement - the ironic minimalizing of fact, presents something as less significant than it is

wit - intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights

 

Poetic Feet

 

U - unaccented syllable, A - accented syllable

 

amphimacer - AUA

anapest - UUA

antibacchus - AAU

bacchius - UAA

chouambus - AUUA

dactyl - AUU

iambus - UA

pyrrhic - UU

spondee - UU

trochee - AU

 

breve - symbol for unstressed syllable

macron - a "-" symbol to divide syllables

 

 

Minor Literary Terms

 

abecedarius - acrostic in ABC... order

acatalectic - metrically complete

accismus - pretended refusal

acmeism - Russian precise real

adonic - dactyl and a spondee

adversarius - addressed in satire

aetat - at his age

affective fallacy - judge results

agon - debate

agroikos - Frye's term for the fourth stock character, is easily deceived

alazon - braggart

alba - lament daybreak

alexandrine - 6 iambs

alloeostropha - Milton's term for an irregular stanza

ambages - misleading truth

ambo - both

amoebean - pastoral alternate

amphibology - 2 meanings

amphigory - sounds good, no meaning

amphisbaenic rhyme - switch order (eg step - pets)

ana - scraps of information

anacoluthon - don't end sentence as it started

anacoenesis - question

anacreontic poetry - Bacchanalian

anacrusis - extra unaccented syllable at start

anadiplosis - last word of one line is first word of next line

anagnorsis - peripety

analepsis - Grave's term for the vivid unconscious

analogism vs. anomalism - language orgin debate

anaphone - anagram of sounds

anaphora - expression repeated at start of lines

anastomosis - interconnection

anathema - denounce

Angry Young Men - in Britain 1950s and 1960s

anisobaric - rhyme but with different accents

anthropomorphism - humanlike objects

antimeria - change part of speech

antimetabole - repeat words in opposite order

antiphon - sung verse

antiphrasis - opposite meaning

antiquarianism - study past relics

strophe - (ancient Greek chorus) moves left, then antistophe, epode

antonomasia - proper name for an idea

aparithmesis - list numbers

aphaeresis - omit first syllable

aphorism - wise saying with known author

apocopated rhyme - add unstressed syllable to a rhyme

apocope - omit sounds

apodictic - argue with proof

apo koinon - in common

apolelymenon - Milton's term for monostrophic

apologue - moral fable

apophasis - make an assertion while disproving it at the same time

apophrades - unlucky days

aporia - pretended indecision

aposiopesis - don't finish a sentence

apothegm - short aphorism

apotropaic - ward off evil

apposition - second phrase explains first

ara - long curse

areopagus - final court

aristophanic - dactyl, trochaic, trochaic

arsis - now means a stressed syllable

artificial comedy - Lamb's term for comedy of manners

asyndeton - omit conjuctions

attenyseration - softening previous statement

attic - clear style

aubade - lyric poem about dawn serenade

auteur theory - film judged by director's work

autotelic - not didactic

auxesis - pile on detail

axiom - obvious maxim

Bad Quartos - Pollard's term for false Shakespeare manuscripts

bagatelle - trifle

ballad stanza - abcb, 4343 stress

ballade - French with refrain, envoy, 3 rhymes

barbarism - mistake in word form

bard - Celtic, trouvere - Normandy, skald - Scandenavian, troubadour - Provence

baring device - Sklovskij's term for showing the play is artificial

basic English - 850 AD by Ogden

bathos - failed attempt at dignity

begging the question - can't prove major premise

Benthamism - goal of happiness

Bildungsroman - novel that deals with the development of a young person from adolescence to maturity

billingsgate - vulgar language as in fish market

Black Mountain School - NC group, projective verse, aesthetic, included Olson, Creele, and Duncan

blason - detailed praise or blame poem

Bloomsburg Group - group which enjoyed pretty things, included Virginia Woolf

blues - 3 lines, repeat

bluestockings - smart women

bob and wheel - Middle English alliterative verse

bombast - ranting

bon mot - witty repartee

boustrophedon - zig-zag reading

bouts-rimes - rhyme game

brachycatalectic - omit 2 syllables

broken rhyme - divide word to make it rhyme

bucolic - formal, about rural areas

burden - refrain

burlesque - lower style, parody - lower subject

burletta - ballad-opera

Burns stanza - aaabab 444343 syllables

Byronism - rich, charm, wit

cabal - acrostic

cadence - sound before pause

calque - loan transition

calypso - ballad with African rhythm, originated in Trinidad

canonical hours - 7 prayer times

canso - southern France love song

canticle - chant

canto - section of long poems

canzone - lyric poem with envoy

canzonet - little song, more than one movement

catachresis - misuse of word

catalexis - truncate final syllable of line

catastasis - rising action

catastrope - conclusion

catch - round of 3

catena - string of quotes

cauda - tail

caudate sonnet - add lines to Italian sonnet

causerie - informal literary essay

Cavelier lyric - light, polished

Celtic Revival - 1700s movement, two types of Celts: Brythonic and Gaelic

Gaelic Movement - 1890s movement, included Hyde

cento - scraps from several authors

chain rhyme - last word in one line is a homophone with first in next line

chanson - song (de geste - great deeds)

chant royal - 60 lines (5*11 plus an envoy)

chantey - sailor song

charientism - gloss over disagreeable

chartism - ideal of helping the poor, attacked by Carlyle

chiasmus - second phrase balances the first but reverses it

choliambus - scazon with last foot of iamb a trochee or dactyl

choreopoem - Shange's term for complementing dance and poem

chrestomathy - choice passages

chronotope - time-space world

Ciceronian style - ornamental

Cinema Verite - small crews

cinquain - invented by Crapsey, 5 line poem

claque - paid applauders

clerihew - 4-line poem about person, invented by Bentley

clinamen - swerving away

closet drama - read not acted, invented by Seneca

cock and bull - meandering tall tale

Cockney School - Blackwood's term for the bad diction of Hazlitt, Hunt, and Keats

coda - conclusion

codex - manuscript book

collate - compare texts

colloquy - formal discussion

colophon - publisher's symbol

comedy of humours - characters represent the humours (angry, sad, etc), Jonson and Chapman

comedy of manners - drama about high society, included Congreave, Goldsmith, Sheridan

comitatus - king's dependents

commedia dell'arte - improvised comedy

common meter - abab or abcb, iamb 4343

commonplace book - Milton's book of quotes for reference

compendium - condensation of work(s) without maintaining style

compositor - sets type by hand

compound rhyme - primary and secondary stressed syllables same

concatenation - chain verse

concrete poetry - way word is written looks like what word means

condensation - abridged version of a work which maintains its style

conspectus - outline

conte - French tale, has different meanings

copy text - basic text for comparisons

copyright - since 1976 in US applies for life plus 50 years and existing copyrights get 75 years, 1909-1976

    in US 28 years with one 28-year renewal, since 1911 in England life plus 50 years

coronach - funeral dirge

correlative verses - abbreviated linear sentences

corrigenda - to be corrected

cothurnus - buskin

counterpoint rhythm - developed by Hopkins

covenant theology - revised Calvinism in New England in 1600s

Cowleyan ode - irregular

Cratylism - names are necessary

criticism types - impressionist (how affects critic), historical, textual, formal (genre), judicial (based on standards),

    analytical (organization of parts), moral, mythic (archetypes), phenomenological (existential worlds)

cross-compound rhyme - first syllable of one word rhymes with second syllable of another word

crossed rhyme - rhyme in middle of lines (casesura)

crotchet - [ ]

crown of sonnets - repeat a line

Cruelty Theater - 1930s Artaud

crux - decision in text editing

cryptarithm - letters get number values

curtal sonnet - Hopkins changed octave to sestet in sonnet

cynghanedd - Hopkins's term for interlaced alliteration

Dadism - freedom movement, started in 1916 by Tzara in Zurich

Dandyism - exaggerated emotion

Dead Sea scrolls - 800 scrolls from 70 AD found in 1947

Debat - Medieval debate, to judge

Decadents - late 1800s movement, art is greater than nature, dying is pretty, included Oscar Wilde

De Casibus - fall from greatness

deconstruction - Derrida's term

composition in depth - deep focus (both near and far)

deep image - Bly's term for the subconscious

defamiliarization - human perception, Russian ostranenie

definition poem - rapid analogies

deictis - pronoun referring inwards

Della Cruscans - late 1700s movement, included Merry/Cowley, based in Florence

demotic - Frye's term for ordinary speech

determinism - all acts caused by reasons

deuteragonist - second actor, introduced by Aeschylus

dialectic - debate of eternal questions

dialogism - Bakhtin's term for many voices

diastich - use key and text for nonsense text

diasyrm - disparaging someone

diegesis - not explaining, concluding, or judging

dieresis - caesura

differance - Derrida's term for difference / deferring

dime novel - American penny dreadful

Diminishing Age - English 1940 - 1965

dipody - 2 different feet

dirge - wailing song

discordia concors - unlike images, Samuel Johnson

discourse - direct or indirect quote

dissemination - Derrida's theory that language's meaning is signed and unsigned

Dissociation of Sensibility - Eliot's theory that separates thought and feeling

dithyramb - wild language

divine afflatus - poetic inspiration

doggerel - rude verse

Dolce Stil Nuovo - sweet new style, from 1200s

donnee - James's term for the given

doppelganger - double-goer

double rhyme - feminine rhyme, similar stressed syllables, then same unstressed

drab - 1500s poetry, Lewis

dramatic conventions - accepted by audience but known to be false

dramatic propriety - judge words and acts in context

dramatism - Burke's critical mehtod of actions and grammar

drame - 1700s French tragedy / comedy cobination, problem play

drawing room comedy - high society comedy of manners

droll - substitute short plays used when full plays were outlawed

Drottkvaett - 8-line poem with internal rhyme from Medieval Iceland

druid - Celtic philosophical poet

dub - words with recorded music, from 1975 Jamaica

dubia - disputed authorship

dysphemism - opposite of euphemism

Early Tudor Age - 1500-1557, characterized by Humanism

Early Victorian Age - 1832-1870, realism grew

echelon - words printed stepwise

ecologue - formal pastoral poem (like Idylls of the King)

ecphonema - outcry

Edinburgh Review - 1802 published by Scott, included Jeffrey, Smith, and Brougham

edition - single typeset

Edwardian Age - 1901-1914, included Celtic Revival, critical questioning

eiron - character that is smarter than he appears

Eisteddfod - Welsh festival

ekphrasis - artwork in literature

elegiac - distitch for lamenting

elegiac stanza - abab iambic pentameter, develeped by Gray

elegy - solemn (oftern for death)

elision - omit part of word

Elizabethan Age - 1558-1603, growth of literature

ellipsis - omit word(s)

emendation - correct text

empiricism - rules come from experience not theory

enallage - substitute grammatical form

enchiridion - handbook

encomium - Greek praise for a living person

englyn - Welsh quatrain

ennead  - set of 9

enthymeme - syllogism without major or minor part

envoy - bcbc, repeat line from refrain, used in a ballade

epanalepsis - repeat word at start and end of a clause

epanodos - repeat word at start and middle of a clause

ephemera - short-lived writing

epicede - funeral ode

epideictic poetry - for special occasion

epigone - imitator of movements

epigram - pithy saying

epigraph - on stone or coin

epimyth - moral of a fable

epistrophe - repeat ending in several clauses

epitaph - inscription on burial place

epitasis - rising action

epithalamium - celebrate wedding

epithet - describe noun

epitrope - submit

eponym - name associated with attribute

epyllion - brief epic

equivoque - deceiving pun

erethism - exaggerated excitement

esemplastic - Coleridge's term for imagination uniting unlike things

Esperanto - international language, by Russian Zamenhof

ethos - character of speaker

Euhemerism - explain myths as exaggerated human stories

eulogy - praise person

Euphuism - Lyly's style of balance construction, unnatural natural, rhetorical questions

excursus - long digression

exegesis - explanation of text

exemplum - moralized tale

exergasia - same point made in many ways

exergue - place for inscription

existentialism - post-World War II style, existence over essence, no explanations, universe enigma

exordium - first of seven oration parts; the introduction

expressionism - objectify inner experience

expressive theory - Abram's style of analyzing author's expression

extravaganze - Planche's term

fabliau - funny Medieval tale in France in an eight-syllable couplet

fantastic - rely on imagination for realization

Fantastic Poets - Milton and the metaphysicals

fantasy - break from reality

feminine ending - unstressed syllable added to end of iamb or anapest

la femme inspiratrice - woman who inspires and author

festschrift - volume of a scholar's essays compiled by his student

ficelle - puppet string; James's term for a confidante

Field Day - Norther Ireland 1980

filidh - professional Irish poets

film noir - somber, crime-filled, urban film of 1940-1960

fin de Siecle - 1890s

flat character - Forester's term for a character with a single quality

Fleshly School - Maitland (Buchanan)'s term for Rossetti, Swinburn, and Morris in 1871

flyting - vigorous verbal exchange

folio - standard size sheet of paper folded in half

     Folds     Leaves     Pages     Name

     1/2 x     x     2*x     x-mo

folklore - 1850s Thoms defined as popular antiquities

foregrounding - unusual prominence given to something

form - organization of parts relating to whole

Russian formalism - form over content, phenomenology, linguistics, from 1920s

formative theory - how world raw manipulated

four ages - gold/silver/brass/iron

Four Master Tropes - Burke's grouping of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony

Four Senses of Interpretation - literal, allegorical, moral, anagogical

fractal - word as a part of another word

Frankfurt School - Marxists

Freytag's Pyramid - exposition, complication, reversal, catastrophe

fu - violence in Briggsian films

Fugitives - group at Vanderbilt in 1920s, agarians

fused rhyme - sound ended on next line

fustian - overblown diction

galliambic - 4 4-syllable feet

Gallicism - French diction

gasconade - boastful

gematric - give numerical values to letters

generative metrics - based on positions not feet

Geneva School - critics see existential expressions, included Miller

genteel comedy - comedy of manners, early 1700s, included Addison

Georgian Ages - 1714-1830 and 1910-1936

georgic - about farming, Vergil

gest - war or adventure tale

gestalt - sum is greater than parts

Ghazal - lyric from Middle East

glee - poem sung by group

gleeman - Anglo-Saxon musician

gloss - explanation

glyconic - 3 to 4 feet, trochee, trochee, trochee, dactyl

gnomic - moralistic

gnosticism - know truth through faith

goliardic verses - 1000-1300 satiric university student

Gongorism - Spanish extravagent style

Gothic - magic, mystery, chivalry

Gotterdammerung - violent destruction

Graces - 3 Greek goddesses

Graveyard School - 1722-1817, included Gray and his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Grub street - now Milton, tribe of poor hacks

Mrs. Grundy - all in Morton's book afraid of her but she does not appear

hagiography - about saints

haiku - 5-7-5 but too long

hapax legomenon - something said once

Hardy stanza - 8 lines aa'abcccb, mostly tetrameter

Hartford wits - Barlow, Dwight, and Trumbull

headless line - catalexis

hebraism - obedient and ethical

Hedge Club - transcendentalists, near Boston

Hegelianism - everything logically related

hendiadys - connect components with conjuction, "try and do better"

Heresy of Paraphrase - Frost's term

Hermeneutic circle - must know part and whole

Hermeneutics - nothing to interpret

Hermeticism - Bruns's theory that "language deviates to arrest function"

heteroglossia - Bakhtin's term for multiple voice in narrative

heteromerous rhyme - one word rhymed with multiple words together

hiatus - pause between vowel sounds

Hieratic style - self-consciously formal, Egyptian

Hieronymy - sacred names

holograph - handwritten manuscript by author

homily - practical sermon

homeoarchy - same unstressed syllabe before rhyming syllable

homoeoteleuton - same endings of words near each other (eg "really easily")

homostrophic - same stanza patterns

Horatian satire - tolerant, witty

howler - embarrassing innocent error

Hudibrastic verse - Butler's 8-syllable couplet

humanism - exalt human over divine and animals

new humanism - 1910-1930 US movement, included Arnold

hypallage - epithet put in unusual grammatical positions

hyperbaton - change senctence order

hypercatalectic - extra syllable at end

hypermonosyllabic - read as 1 or 2 syllables

hypertext - Nelson's paper for something that can't fit on paper

hypocorism - pet name

hypotaxis - words in dependent relationships

hypotyposis - vivid description

hysteron proteron - latter placed before

ictus - a stress

identical rhyme - same sound, different words

idiotism - depart from linguistic norms

idyll - short, pastoral, descriptive narrative

illocutionary act - speech act in act of speaking

Imagists - 1909-1918, intellect visual emotional auditory, included Pound, Doolittle, Flint

implied author - Booth's human agency

impression - copies printed at one time

imprimatur - license to print

incantation - chant for emotion or magic

incunabulum - printed before 1501

induction - introduction

inkhorn - needlessly pedantic, 450 years old

in medias res - in the middle of, from Horace

in memorium stanza - iambic tetrameter quatrain; abba

Inns of Court - Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn

inscape - Hopkins's term for inner nature

instess - creates inscape

intentional fallacy - judge by how a work meets its goals, from Wimsatt and Beardsley

interlude - short 1500s English movement, led to realistic comedy

interpretive community - readers with similar strategies, from Fish

inversion - place sentence element out of order

ionic - 2 long and 2 short syllables, "lesser" pyrrhic and spondee

isobaric - same stress

issue - distinct copies of an edition

Jacobean Age- 1603-1625, realist-cynic growth

jest books - 1500s joke books

Jesuits - Loyola 1534, Southwell and Hopkins

jeu d'espirit - clever word play

jongleur - French Medieval professional mucisian

Juvenalian satire - contempluous formal satire

Kabuki - mid-1600s Japanese theater

Kailyard School - 1800s Scottish moviement with focus on village life, included Barrie and Maclaren

keen - Irish funeral song

kenning - synonym for simple noun

kenosis - emptying;  Jesus becoming human

kind - genre (neoclassical)

Kit-Cat Club - 1703-1733 English club, Protestant Whigs in London, included Addison, Steele, and

Congreave

kitsch - shallow commercial art

Knickerbocker Group - early 1800s New York group, included Irving, Cooper and Bryant

Koine - ancient Greek

Kunstlerroman - Bildungsroman about struggling artist

kyrielle - French couplets with refrain

Lake Poets - included Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey, attacked by Edinburgh

lampoon - bitter satire of person

Lanuage Poets - 1980s American suspicious of language

Late Victorian Age - 1870-1901, realistic

lay - song or short narrative poem

leitmotif - recurrent phrase

Leonine rhyme - last stressed syllable before caesura rhymed with last stressed syllable of line

letterpress - words not illustrations

level - metaphor with dignity

libretto - text of opera

life and letters - 1800s style

limerick - 5 anapestic  aabba  33223 feet

liminality - threshold of space or time

link sonnet - use second line rhyme for first; Spenserian

linked rhyme - fused rhyme

lipogram - exclude letter(s) of alphabet

Literary Club (Dr. Johnson's Circle) - 1764 London club founded by Reynolds

litterateur - literary person

little theater movement - 1887 Paris movement by Antoine, in England Independent Theater

locus classicus - classical example

locutionary act - say something with verb of phenomena beyond itself

logaoedic - mixed rhythms

logical positivism - empirical sensory observation

logocentrism - centering of though, truth, and logic in Western thought since Plato

logogriph - puzzle, clue is a synonym

Lollards - 1300s English group, included Wycliffe, led to Reformation, wanted purer religion

long measure - 4 lines iambic tetrameter abab or abcb

loose sentence - complete idea before end of sentence

lunulae - ( ), term from Erasmus

lyric present - Wright advocates using present tense not progressive (eg "I use it" instead of "I am using it")

Mabinogion - Welsh tales, translated by Guest

macaronic - blockhead;  language combination

macedoine - grammar example

MacGuffin - MacPhail's term for a scene used to move along the plot

machinery - Pope's term for diety in poem

madrigal - musical, pastoral

maggot - fanciful, morbid

manichaeism - 250 AD Oriental movement by Mani, says God-Satan coeval

mannerism - 1500s style, affected style

marchen - Germen fairy tales

marinism - Italian affected style, shocking, by Marino

Marprelate Controversy - 1580s Puritans opposed bishops

Martian School - fresh view, Fenton from Raine

masked comedy - commedia dell'arte

masorah - commentary on Scripture

matin - bird morning song

meaning - Richards defines as sense, feeling, tone, and intention

meiosis - funny understatement

melic poetry - with lyre and flute

meliorism - 1800s tendency to improvement

melopoeia - Pound's term for the whole sound of poem

mesostich - acrostic in middle

metalepsis - adding tropes to get literal nonsense

metaphysical poetry - 1600s, analyze love and religion, taken to the extreme

metaplasm - moving a language element from its common place

metathesis - switch sounds in a word

Middle English Period - 1350-1500, included Chaucer and the Lollards

midrash - commentary on Scriptures by rabis

Miles Georiosus - braggart soldier, from Plautus

milieu - environment in which work is produced

Miltonic sonnet - Italian sonnet without twist

mime - developed in the 5th century BC in southern Italy

mimesis - theory of imitation

mimetic theory - the actuality that is imitated

minnesinger - German lyric poet

minstrel - bards during late Middle Ages

minstrel show - imitate blacks

mise en Abyme - small text on a big text

mise en Scene - stage setting

Modernist Period - 1914-1965 England, best work from 1920s

monody - dirge by one mourner

monologism - Bakhtin's term for a single voice in a work

monosemy - one meaning

monostrophic - invented by Milton

montage - editing camera shots, originated by Eisenstein

mora - duration of a short syllable

morae - duration of a long syllable

morpheme - minimal meaningful linguistic unit

morphology - study of forms, from Goethe

mot - brief saying (French for "word")

motif - conventional situation leading to a story

mot juste - Flaubert's term for using correct words

The Movement - 1950s British normality, traditional middle-class

mummery - performance by disguised actors

Muses - 9, inspire poets, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne

mysticism - theory of knowing God through faculty above logic and illect

mythical method - continuous parallel, Eliot from Joyce

narratology - analyze relation between story and its telling

Naturalistic and Symbolistic Period - 1900-1930, divided by World War I

near rhyme - consonance or assonance

negative capability - Keat's explanation for Shakespeare's greatness

nekuia - book about land of the dead

Neoclassicism - Restoration Age, 1700s, revival of Greek and Roman traditions, Augustan Age

neologism - new word, describe style

neoplatonism - movement in Alexandria 200s, Oreintal, Plato, Christian combination

new comedy - of manners, stock characters, plots, included Aristophanes, 4th - 3rd centuries BC

New Criticism - included Ransom, Tate, and Warren, and Eliot, Richards, and Compson

New Formalism - 1915-1980, recognizable features in poems

Newgate - infamous London prison

New Humanism - first movement of 1900s, focus on moral qualities

New Journalism - subjective reporting, included Hemingway, Mencken, and Dos Passos

new novel - antinovel

New York School - 1950-1970 group characterized by wit and urbanity, included O'Hara

Nine Worthies - Caxton's selection of 3 pre-Christians, 3 Jews, and 3 Christians

noh plays - Japanese from 240 AD, 1300-1600, praise, heros, man is woman, violent, solemn

nominalism - abstracts just names, included Roscellinus and Ockham

nonce word - used once

nonfiction novel - started with Capote's In Cold Blood

nostos - homecoming

nouvelle - short novel

novelette - short novel

novella - short tale, especially from Italy and France

nucleus - syllable has onset-nucleus-coda

numbers - regular verse

obiter dicta - incidental remarks

objective correlative - Eliot's term for a pattern evoking emotion indirectly

objective theory - Abram's criticism theory that a work is significant in itself

Ockham's Razor - entities not multiplied beyond necessity

ode - exalted lyric with one theme

Old Comedy - Greek 5th century BC, satire, religious, bawdy, for Dionysus

Old English Period - 428 - 1100

Old English verses - poems from before 1100 with an equal number of accented syllables per line with

varying numbers of unstressed in between

ollave - Irish poet

opera bouffe - French comic opera

operetta - contains some spoken words, comic opera

opsis - Aristotle's term for spectacle element of drama

organic form - grows in writer, not in mechanical mold

orphism - Brun's theory that poetry is the ground of all signification

ottava rima - abababcc iambic pentameter, developed by Boccaccio

outride - unstressed syllable added to a foot, by Hopkins

Oxford Movement - Tractarians, 1833, regain earlier dignity, included Newman

Oxford Reformers - humanist scholars, early Renaissance era, included More, Colet, and Eras

oxytone - acute accent on final syllable

paean - song of praise

paeon - one long and three short syllables in a foot

palimpsest - writing surface used more than once

palilogy - repeat words

palinode - writing recanting an old writing

panegyric - laud person's achievement

panoramic method - point of view with exposition not scenes

pantoum - quatrains, second and fourth lines of first verse are reused as first and third lines of second verse

parabasis - chorus talks for the author

paradiastole - distinguish two meanings; euphemism

paragoge - add extra syllable to end of word

paragram - word resembling word for which it substitutes

paraleipsis - pretend to say nothing while really saying much (eg "to say nothing of his rudeness...")

paralipomena - omitted but added in appendix

paralogism - faulty reasoning

parataxis - clauses in coordinate constructinos

paregmenon - two words with same root

parergon - done in addition to normal

Parnassians - 1800s French poets, aestetic

Parnassus - Greek mountain with Apollo and the Muses;  anthology

parados - opening odes

paronomasia - pun

paroxytone - acute accent on next-to-last syllable

participatory journalism - by Gallico and Plimpton

Pasquinade - satire in public place

pastiche - French parody

pastowrelle - Medieval dialogue poem, shepherdess wooed by higher man

patent theaters - 1660, Davenant "York", Killigrew "King's"

pathetic fallacy - Ruskin's term

pathos - stimulates sorrow

patter song - comic solo with sketchy music

pedantry - show-off of learning

Pelagianism - belief that humans have no original sin

Period of Confession Self - 1960-?, revolt, cynic, little magazines

Period of Modernism and Consolidation 1930-1960, radical in 1930s

period style - Perkin's term for literary manners that distinguish period

periphrasis - roundabout way of stating ideas

perlocutionary act - utterance defined by effect (eg soothing)

peroration - end of oration

persona - "second self" by authro, tells narrative

personation - have dead return to talk, Hollander about Howard

personism - O'Hara's description of his own poetry but offered no definition

Petrarchan Conceit - exaggerated love comparisons in sonnet

phaleucian - spondee, dactyl, and 3 trochees

phanopoeia - Pound's imagism

phenomenology - imspect data of consciousness without presuppositions

epistemology - nature of knowledge

ontology - nature of being

pherecratean - 3-foot line

philippic - bitter speech

philology - study language and literature

phi phenomenon - perception of motion

phoneme - smalest sound unit

phonestheme - sound with meaning

picaresque novel - chronical of rascals living by their wits

Pindaric ode - regular (3-part)

plaint - lament, planh (southern France)

Platonic criticism - judge by usefulness

Platonism - mind over matter

play-poem - Woolf's Waves

pleiade - ancient 7 sisters, later groups, DuBellay

pleonasm- superfluous words

plurisignation - ambiguity of meaning

poesie - pre-1650 poem, archaic

poetaster - incompetent poet

poete maudit - doomed poet

poetic justic - Rymer's term for thinging turining out the way fairness would dictate

polemic - argumenative work

polyptoton - repeat words with same root

ploce - form of word woven together

polysyndeton - many conjuctions

portmanteau words - squish two words together

positivism - says goal of knowledge is to describe not to explain

postmodern - exisstentialism

Postmodern Period - 1965-present

poststucturalism - beyond locating value within text

posy - anthology

practical criticism - applied aesthetic

Pragmatic - Abram's criticism method of testing a work by its effect on audience, Peirce 1878

precis - abstract in same order

prelude - short poem at start of a work

Pre-Raphaelites - 1848 group mimicking style before Raphael, simple nature, included Rosetti, Hunt, and

Millais

preteritio - passing over smoothly

printing - copies at same time, an impression

printing - first in English Historyes of Troye, first in England Sayings of Philosophers, first in US 1639

Oath, almanac, and Bay Psalm Book;  Caxton in England and Daye in US

prom - brief introduction

projective voice - meter and form artificial

prolegomenon - preface

prolepsis - anticipating, treat future as present

prolusion - introduction

promythium - moral at start of fable

proparalepsis - add syllable to end

proparoxytone - acute accent on antepenultimate syllable

prosopopoeia - personification

protasis - introductory act

prothalamion - Spenser's peoms before bridal chamber

prothesis - add syllable to start

pseudomorph - title of a different genre than is the work

allonym - actual person's name used as a pseudonym

psychoanalytical criticism - focus on symbols, language

Pulitzer Prize - established in 1917 at Columbia

pulp magazine - 1920s-1930s, after dime novels

purple patch - Horace's term for notably fine writing

Puseyism - Oxford Movement

Pushkin stanza - 14 tetrameter lines

putative author - fictional author

pyramidal line - symmetrical distribution of syllables per word

quadrivium - master's degree, study arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy

quanitative verse - rhythm determined by duration, Old English poems

Quarterly Review - Tory magazine established 1809

quarternion - 4 parts

quibble - pun;  evade issue

quip - Herbert's term for a witty saying

Rahmengeschichte - German framework

Raissoneur - level-headed character

Rann - Irish verse quatrain

rap - informal conversation

ratiocination - data to conclusive reasoning

realistic comedy - during Elizabethan and Jacobean Ages, included Jonson, Chapman, and Middleton

Realistic Period - 1865-1900 US, 1870-1914 Britain

rebus - verbal symbols supplemented by pictures (eg  "Xing")

recalcitrance - Wright's term for resistant parts of text

recension - text with best critical readings

reception theory - reader-response

recessive accent - shift from second syllable to first

recto - front of paper

redaction - revise manuscript

redende name - significant name

redondilla - Spanish octosyllabic line

Reform Bill of 1832 - would switch British districting for Parliament, give more votes to middle class, '

supported by Whigs

reggae - from 1970s Jamaica

reification - treat abstract as concrete

relativism - deny that anything is absolute or permanent

repetend - full or partial repetition throughout stanza or poem

report song - poem with echo

requiem - chant for the dead

Restoration - Stuarts restored 1660, reaction against Puritans

revenge tragedy - developed by Kyd

Revolutionary Age - 1765-1790

Revolutionary Period - 1765-1830

revue - plotless musical entertainment

rhapsody - part of epic sung by minstrel

rhetoric - art of persuasion

rhetorical accent - accentuation from meaning of sentence, not metrical

rhetorical criticism - criticism approach involving author-reader communicate

rhopalic - each word is one syllable longer than previous

rhyme royal - 7-line iambic pentameter ababbcc

rime couee - tail-rhyme stanza, with rhyming trimeter lines

rime retournee - words which are backward spellings of each other

rollrock - 1800s Hopkins style

rocking rhythm - amphibrach

rodomontade - bragging

Roman a Clef - real people in a novel disguised as fictional

Roman a These - thesis novel

Roman-Fleuve - river novel, slow developing

Romantic Period - US 1830-1865, Britain 1798-1870

romany - gypsy language

rondeau - French 15-line poem with 9 and 15 a refrain, 5-4-6

rondel - French 13-14 line poem, complete line refrain

rondelet - 7-line stanza of a rondel

roundel - 11-line poem with 4 and 11 a refrain, developed by Swinburne

roundelay - like a rondel, 14 lines with frequent refrain; music

rubaiyat - Arab quatrain, iambic pentameter  aaba

rubric - red, explain text

rune - alphabet character from 200 AD in Germany

Sapphic - 3 lines with 11 syllables and fourth with five, developed by Sappho

Satanic School - Southey's label for Byron, Shelley, and Hunt

Saturday Club - mid-1800s Boston talk group, included Emerson, Longfellow, Whitter, and Holmes

satyr play - goat-men, fourth (final) in Greek play bill, provided comic relief

Saussurean linguistics - abstract scientific underlying system

scazon - chliamb; trochee or dactyl replaces iamb or anapest

Scene a faire - obligatory scene

scenic method - construct story in dramatic novel self-explanatory

schema - outline, from Joyce

scheme - unusual word arrangement

Schlusselromas - Roman a clef

scholasticism - logic;  reconcile reason and Christianity

schoolmen - Bacon's term for "hair splitters"

School of Donne - metaphysical poets

School of Night - atheists, included Raleigh, Marlowe, and Chapman

School of Spenser - 1600s, sensuousness, included Fletcher and Browne

scop - Anglo-Saxon poet

Scottish Chaucerians - 1400s-1500s, Hnryson / James I

Scottish literature - began with Barbour's Bruce epic

Scriblerus Club - 1714 London club, satire incompetent, included Swift and Pope

scythism - favor Russian Asia primitivism, from 1910

semantics - study of meaning

semiotics - study of rules allowing signs to have meaning

Senecan style - anti-Cicero, from late 1500s-1600s, abrupt, uneven, attic

Senecan tragedy - Latin, model Euripides, 5-acts, include chorus, action, mythological themes, rhetorical

sensibility - rely on feelings for truth

sensual - carnal

sensuous - plays on readers' senses

sententia - maxim, sentence

sentimental comedy - reject manners immorality, 1688-1771

sentimentalism - over emotion;  optimistic about humanity

series - linked but desing not quite a sequence

serpentine verse - line ends with the same word with which it started

sesquipedalian - excessive syllables

set piece - conventional work to impress

Shakespeare editions - half in quartos, made by Rowe, Pope, Theobald, and Johnson

short couplet - iambic octasyllabic

short novel - 15000-50000 words

short story - less than 15000 words, from Cheops in 4000 BC

short short story - less than 2000 words

short title catalogue - made by Pollard and Redgrave

sigla - shorthand for text versions

sigmatism - using hissing sounds

signifier - concrete and signified abstract

Silver Fork School - 1800s British group with focus on etiquette, included Trollope and Hook

Simpsonian rhyme - anisobaric, Lewis about Simpson

Skeltonic - rollicking poems of revolt, doggerel

slack syllable - unstressed syllable

slam - informal public poetic contest

sleight of "and" - tropes with conjunctions

slick magazine - popular appeal magazines from 1920s and 1930s

Socratic method - argument or explanation with questions and answers

solecism - violate grammar rules

sotadic - 3 ionic and a spondee

Spasmodic School - 1854 group, discontented, unrest, jerky, term by Aytoun about Dobell and Smith

speculum - reflection in Medieval literature for mimesis and instructor

speech act - constative (describe affairs) and perfomative (perform as uttered)

Spenserian sonnet - linked rhyme abab bcbc cdcd ee

Spenserian stanza - 9 iambic lines, 8 pentameter and one hexameter, abcbbcbcc

spondee - AA

spoof - light parody

sprung rhythm - only count stressed syllables, invented by Hopkins

state - exact condition

Stationers' Company - 1557 only publisher

stave - stanza

stich - line

stichomythia - line-by-line verbal fencing

Stoffgeschichte - German thematics

Stoicism - endurance, from 4 century BC Zeno

straight man - makes serious remards in minstrel show

stream of consiousness - developed in 1855 by Bain, James

stress - metrical;  accent depends on meaning

structuralism - Barthes's term for an account of modes of discourse and their operation

Sturm und Drang - storm and stress, German late 1700s movement, included Klinger and Goethe

style - idea and individuality

subjective camera - point of view shot

summa - compendium

supernumerary - bit part in a troupe

surrealism - express imaginatino, from French Breton 1924

surrogate - substituted for another

suspension of disbelief - Coleridge's term for audience accepting what is know to be false

sweetness / light - beauty, intelligence, Arnold from Swift

syllabism - Fussell's theory that the number of syllables is main structure base

syllepsis - one word related to two words in different senses

symploce - anaphora / epistrophe combination

synaeresis - make two syllables into one

synaesthesia - several senses respond when one is stimulated

synathroesmus - list of items

synchoresis - agreeing with opponent

syncopation - effect of substituting and of 2 simultaneous metric patterns

syncope - omit letter of syllable from within a word

synoeceiosis - associating opposites

syzygy - Lanier's term for consonent sounds that end one word and start the next

tableau - actors freeze

tail rhyme - rime couee

talking blues - blues with a narrative dimension

tanka - Japanese poem with 31 syllables - 5-7-5-7-7

tapinosis - using low term to belittle

tautology - using repetitive words

technopaegnion - craft trick

telestich - acrositic with last letters

teleuton - terminal element

tenor - Richards' term for subject that vehicle illustrates

tension - Tate's definition: unity from resolving concrete / abstract conflict

terza-rima - 3-line aba bcb interlocking stanza, developed by Dante

textual criticism - critical approach involving establishing authoritative text, Bowers says steps are analyze,

recover, study, present

texture - elements remaining after paraphrasing

thematics - study recurrent themes

topographical poetry - topic is landscape, Johnson's term for Jonson and Denham

topos - commonplace

touchstone - Arnold's approach of testing quality

tragic irony - speaker's words have different meaning to those aware of what will happen

Transcendtal Club - 1836 Boston club, included Ripley and Emerson

transferred epithet - illogic modifying

transliteration - word-for-word translation

transvoclaization - preserve sound, not meaning, in translation

Tribe of Ben - 1600s group, classical polish, included Herrick and Cavaliers

tribrach - foot with 3 unstressed syllables

triolet - French form with 8-lines abaaabab   (underlined lines are same)

triple rhyme - stressed and 2 identical unstressed syllables

triplet - 3-line couplet

trivium - bachelor's degree, study grammar, logic, rhetoric

trochee - SU

trope - figure of speech using word in nonliteral sense

troubadour - bards in Provence 1100-1400, means "to find"

trouvere - Northern French poets 1100-1300, love

Tudor Age - 1485-1603, reigns of Henry VIII to Elizabeth I

tumbling verse - Skeltonic verse

turpiloquence - shameful speech

twiner - double limerick by de la Mare

typsologoy - study allegorical symbols, especially in Bible

ubi sunt formula - "where are those before us?"

ultima thule - farthest possible place

unanimism - collective spirit, "Jules Romains"

unical - large round letters

Unitarianism - 1820s US, Jesus not in Trinity, saved by character, joined Universalists in 1961

University Wits - 1580s London group, Bohemians, included Marlowe, Nashe, and Greene

utilitarianism - Bentham's approach in 1700s Britain of judging a work by its usefulness

vade mecum - handbook

vapours - 1700s eccentricity

variorum edition - include possible texts and commentaries with the work

Varronian satire - indirect satire;  anatomy / menippean

vatic - prophetic poets

vaudeville - circus-like entertainment, from Normandy

Venus and Adonis stanza - 6-line iambic pentameter  ababcc

verbum infas formula - "unspeaking word" paradox

Verfremdungseffekt - German alienation effect

verisimilitude - Scott's term for semblance of Truth

vers libre - 1800s French movement to make poetry less strict

verso - back (left) of page

verticalism - 1800s architecture, consciousness fourth dimension, Jolas about Transition work

vice - tempter in morality play

Victorian Age - 1837-1901, complacent, hypocritical, squeamish

vignette - precise, delicate sketch

villanelle - 19-line French poem with 2 rhymes

virgule - mark used to divide feet

voice-over - speaker not seen (or at least not involved in the action)

vorticism - Descarte's term for binomial epistemology and 1914 Lewis spatial forms, clear

vulgate - Latin for "commonly used"

Wardour Street - insincere speech with archaisms

War of Theaters - 1598-1602, public vs. child theaters, Jonson vs. Marston

weak ending - a usually unstressed syllable at end of line is metrically stressed

Wellerism - utterance, speaker, and situation, like a pun, from Dickens

whitespace - isolate important text

widow - isolated text

wildtrack - soundtrack before video made

word accent - normal stress (rhetorical)

wrenched accent - change word accent for metrical accent

Yeats stanza - 8-line aabbcddc iambic penatameter except 4-6-7 are short

zeugma - yoke together different meanings (eg "bolt door and dinner", "cultivate matrimony and estate",

    "either you or he was")