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A Glossary of Literary Terms Robert Harris
Version Date: February 25, 2012
October 11, 2008
To find a particular term, use your browser's Find command. Note: Terms already in the Handbook of Rhetorical Devices have been deleted from this file.
Adventure novel. A novel where exciting events are more important than character development and sometimes theme. Adventure novels are sometimes described as "fiction" rather than "literature" in order to distinguish books designed for mere entertainment rather than thematic importance. Examples:
Here are some examples you likely won't see elsewhere:
At last,
The clouds consign their treasures to the fields,
And softly shaking on the dimpled pool
Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow
In large effusion o'er the freshened world.
--James Thomson, The Seasons, Spring, 172-176
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generouis purpose in the glowing breast.
--James Thomson, The Seasons, Spring, 1152-1156
How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful is man!
How passing wonder He, who made him such!
Who centred in our make such strange extremes?
. . . . . . . .
Distinguish'd link in being's endless chain!
Midway from nothing to the Deity!
--Edward Young, Night Thoughts, Night the First, 67-70, 73-74
Burlesque. A work designed to ridicule a style, literary form, or subject matter either by treating the exalted in a trivial way or by discussing the trivial in exalted terms (that is, with mock dignity). Burlesque concentrates on derisive imitation, usually in exaggerated terms. Literary genres (like the tragic drama) can be burlesqued, as can styles of sculpture, philosophical movements, schools of art, and so forth. See Parody, Travesty.
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth
Of theeves and murderers: there I him espied,
Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died. Canon. In relation to literature, this term is half-seriously applied to those works generally accepted as the great ones. A battle is now being fought to change or throw out the canon for three reasons. First, the list of great books is thoroughly dominated by DWEM's (dead, white, European males), and the accusation is that women and minorities and non-Western cultural writers have been ignored. Second, there is pressure in the literary community to throw out all standards as the nihilism of the late 20th and early 21st century makes itself felt in the literature departments of the universities. Scholars and professors want to choose the books they like or which reflect their own ideas, without worrying about canonicity. Third, the canon has always been determined at least in part by political considerations and personal philosophical biases. Books are much more likely to be called "great" if they reflect the philosophical ideas of the critic.
On the other hand, a great case can be made for reading through the traditional canon because over many years (hundreds or thousands in some cases) some works have emerged as the best--reaching the deep truths of human nature or discussing the greatest of ideas (who we are, why we live, what our purpose here is, why we go wrong) in the most intelligent, fruitful, and thoughtful ways. The canon works raise the most interesting questions, sometimes offer answers, and often present both Q and A in a beautiful way. You could do worse than read Aristotle, or Samuel Johnson, or Charles Dickens, or Epictetus, or George Herbert.
For some sample traditional lists, see the great books lists and programs at The Center for the Study of Great Ideas, The Great Books Index, and Robert Teeter's Great Books Lists.
Children's novel. A novel written for children and discerned by one or more of these: (1) a child character or a character a child can identify with, (2) a theme or themes (often didactic) aimed at children, (3) vocabulary and sentence structure available to a young reader. Many "adult" novels, such as Gulliver's Travels, are read by children. The test is that the book be interesting to and--at some level--accessible by children. Examples:
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat,
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home. Detective novel. A novel focusing on the solving of a crime, often by a brilliant detective, and usually employing the elements of mystery and suspense. Examples:
Coral is far more red than her lips red. --Shakespeare Enjambed. The running over of a sentence or thought into the next couplet or line without a pause at the end of the line; a run-on line. For example, all the lines here are enjambed: Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
Or bends with the remover to remove. . . . --Shakespeare
A hint to those who read poetry aloud: Don't pause a long time at the end of a line with no punctuation. Pause for a comma, pause longer for a semicolon, longer still for a period, but at the end of an enjambed line, if you pause at all, only the hemidemisemiquaver of a pause. On the other hand, don't go out of your way to join the lines together by a forceful lack of spacing.
Version Date: February 25, 2012
October 11, 2008
To find a particular term, use your browser's Find command. Note: Terms already in the Handbook of Rhetorical Devices have been deleted from this file.
Adventure novel. A novel where exciting events are more important than character development and sometimes theme. Adventure novels are sometimes described as "fiction" rather than "literature" in order to distinguish books designed for mere entertainment rather than thematic importance. Examples:
- H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
- Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel
- Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
- Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
- Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
- John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
- Dante, The Divine Comedy
- William Golding, Lord of the Flies (allegorical novel)
- Herman Melville, Moby Dick (allegorical novel)
- George Orwell, Animal Farm (allegorical novel)
- George Orwell, Animal Farm
- Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book
- James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel
Here are some examples you likely won't see elsewhere:
At last,
The clouds consign their treasures to the fields,
And softly shaking on the dimpled pool
Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow
In large effusion o'er the freshened world.
--James Thomson, The Seasons, Spring, 172-176
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generouis purpose in the glowing breast.
--James Thomson, The Seasons, Spring, 1152-1156
How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful is man!
How passing wonder He, who made him such!
Who centred in our make such strange extremes?
. . . . . . . .
Distinguish'd link in being's endless chain!
Midway from nothing to the Deity!
--Edward Young, Night Thoughts, Night the First, 67-70, 73-74
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667)
- John Dryden, All for Love
- James Thompson, The Seasons
Burlesque. A work designed to ridicule a style, literary form, or subject matter either by treating the exalted in a trivial way or by discussing the trivial in exalted terms (that is, with mock dignity). Burlesque concentrates on derisive imitation, usually in exaggerated terms. Literary genres (like the tragic drama) can be burlesqued, as can styles of sculpture, philosophical movements, schools of art, and so forth. See Parody, Travesty.
- John Gay, The Beggar's Opera (1728), burlesques Italian opera by trivializing it
- Henry Fielding, Tom Thumb the Great (1730), burlesques heroic drama by trivializing it
- Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1711-14), burlesques the eighteenth century upper crust social mores by treating them with the machinery of epic poetry
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth
Of theeves and murderers: there I him espied,
Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died. Canon. In relation to literature, this term is half-seriously applied to those works generally accepted as the great ones. A battle is now being fought to change or throw out the canon for three reasons. First, the list of great books is thoroughly dominated by DWEM's (dead, white, European males), and the accusation is that women and minorities and non-Western cultural writers have been ignored. Second, there is pressure in the literary community to throw out all standards as the nihilism of the late 20th and early 21st century makes itself felt in the literature departments of the universities. Scholars and professors want to choose the books they like or which reflect their own ideas, without worrying about canonicity. Third, the canon has always been determined at least in part by political considerations and personal philosophical biases. Books are much more likely to be called "great" if they reflect the philosophical ideas of the critic.
On the other hand, a great case can be made for reading through the traditional canon because over many years (hundreds or thousands in some cases) some works have emerged as the best--reaching the deep truths of human nature or discussing the greatest of ideas (who we are, why we live, what our purpose here is, why we go wrong) in the most intelligent, fruitful, and thoughtful ways. The canon works raise the most interesting questions, sometimes offer answers, and often present both Q and A in a beautiful way. You could do worse than read Aristotle, or Samuel Johnson, or Charles Dickens, or Epictetus, or George Herbert.
For some sample traditional lists, see the great books lists and programs at The Center for the Study of Great Ideas, The Great Books Index, and Robert Teeter's Great Books Lists.
Children's novel. A novel written for children and discerned by one or more of these: (1) a child character or a character a child can identify with, (2) a theme or themes (often didactic) aimed at children, (3) vocabulary and sentence structure available to a young reader. Many "adult" novels, such as Gulliver's Travels, are read by children. The test is that the book be interesting to and--at some level--accessible by children. Examples:
- Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer
- L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
- Booth Tarkington, Penrod and Sam
- Charles Sheldon, In His Steps
- Lloyd C. Douglas, The Robe
- Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis
- Par Lagerkvist, Barabbas
- Catherine Marshall, Christy
- C. S. Lewis, Perelandra
- G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who was Thursday
- Bodie Thoene, In My Father's House
- ignorance to knowledge
- innocence to experience
- false view of world to correct view
- idealism to realism
- immature responses to mature responses
- Jane Austen Northanger Abbey
- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
- Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat,
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home. Detective novel. A novel focusing on the solving of a crime, often by a brilliant detective, and usually employing the elements of mystery and suspense. Examples:
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
- Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express
- Dorothy Sayers, Strong Poison
- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Coral is far more red than her lips red. --Shakespeare Enjambed. The running over of a sentence or thought into the next couplet or line without a pause at the end of the line; a run-on line. For example, all the lines here are enjambed: Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
Or bends with the remover to remove. . . . --Shakespeare
A hint to those who read poetry aloud: Don't pause a long time at the end of a line with no punctuation. Pause for a comma, pause longer for a semicolon, longer still for a period, but at the end of an enjambed line, if you pause at all, only the hemidemisemiquaver of a pause. On the other hand, don't go out of your way to join the lines together by a forceful lack of spacing.
Literary Vocabulary Protagonist The central character of a narrative, the character through whom the lesson of the story is learned
Simile A comparison of two items using "like" or "as"
Point of View The vantage point from which a story is told (first and third person)
Connotation Another significant meaning of a word, often steeped in symbol or feeling
Characterization The manner by which an author develops a character within a narrative
Dialogue The spoken words of two or more character within a narrative
Imagery The picture in your mind that the words from the page create; can be figurative, symbolic, or literal
Situational Irony An EVENT where the opposite of what's expected happens
Dramatic Irony When the reader or audience knows something a character does not know, and that knowledge in important to the flow of events
Ego Represents and enforces principle reality. Oriented towards perceptions in the real world and associated with reason and sanity
Historical Fiction A narrative which tells the story of a real moment in history but embellishes it at least slightly (factual, dated)
Theme The main idea of a work of literature; the message is the author sending to the reader
Paradigm A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.
Dialect A regional variety of language, often with distinct accents and usage, including but not limited to whole phrases
Oedipus Complex A psychological aspect where a child, usually male, has strong, even desirous feelings for the parent of the opposite sex
Denotation The EXPLICIT meaning of a word or a particular meaning of a symbol
Allusion A reference to another work of literature or to a part of another work of literature or to a moment in history
Conflict The struggle between two opposing forces in a piece of literature, which the story is built around- The forces are the protagonist and the antagonist
Setting The time and the place of the action of the story
Catharsis The releasing of certain emotions in the audience: a feeling of pity and hatred for the actions of the tragic hero
Act A division within the drama, usually seen as the "chapter" of a novel
Autobiography A truthful account of the life of a person, as told and written by that person
Tone The attitude the author has toward the work, displayed through the language being used
Colloquialism A local variation of language, as in a word or phrase, found within particular dialects
Paradox A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true
Dynamic Character A character who undergoes growth and development during the literary work in which he/she resides
Static Character A character of one dimension and personality trait who remains unchanged by the events of the literary work in which he/she resides
Biography A truthful account of the life a person, told and written by another person
Scene A small division of drama within an act, usually of the same setting as the act, but not by definition
Stereotype A conventional and oversimplified opinion or belief about a person or group of people who may share similar characteristics; taking one characteristic of an individual and spreading that characteristic over the group that individual belongs to
Virtue The quality of moral excellence, righteousness, and responsibility, probity; goodness
Vice An evil, degrading or immoral practice of habit; a serious moral failing
Complex Character A character w/ different traits and aspects of personality but who neither grows nor changes during the literary work in which he resides
Superego The part of the personality which acts as a moral monitor to the behaviors of the individual. It is the faculty that seeks to police what it deems unacceptable desires; it represent all moral restrictions
Direct Quotation Using the words of a source directly, in a word-for-word borrowing
Plot The events which make up a story line, in order of their happening
Style The language used by the writer, as well as the narrative techniques used, working together to form the full aspect of the printed material in front of us
Omniscient The third person narrator who sees all and know all -even the thoughts- about the character of the story
Nemesis That force which restores order within a tragedy, named for the goddess of retributive justice
Metaphor A comparison of unlike things without using 'like' or 'as'
Irony A contrast between what is stated and what is meant; there are verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony
Foreshadow To use details and images to hint at events to come in the narrative
Analysis The separation of an intellectual whole into its component parts in order to better understand and to reach a truth
Indirect Quotation Using the words of the author, though not in a direct, word-for-word borrowing
Paraphrase To put the words of the author into your own words
Novella A prose fictional narrative containing all the elements of a novel but much shorter
Tragic Hero A person of noble birth whose personal destruction is in some way involved w/ the well being of his/her world and who faces a battle of morals; her/his destruction comes from a flaw with his/her personality
Insight The act of outcome of grasping the inward or hidden nature of things which in turn tells the grasper a significant message about herself/himself; makes the learning personal, owned
Stream-of-consciousness The unbroken flow of thought and awareness of the waking mind; a special mode of narration that undertakes to capture the full spectrum and the continuous flow of a character's mental processes
Rhetoric The body of principles and theory having to do with the presentation of the facts and ideas in clear, convincing, and attractive language
Ad hominem Appealing to persona considerations rather than to logic or reason
A priori Involving deductive reasoning from a general principle to a necessary effect; not supported by facts
Purple patch A selection of writing which contains an unusual piling up devices in such a way as to evidence a self-conscious literary effort; a colorful passage standing out from the writing around it
Euphemism The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive
Apostrophe When an absent person, an abstract concept, or an important object is directly addressed.
Dichotomy Division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions
Tragedy A literary work, usually a drama, which deals with human themes; several elements are involved: hamartia, hubris, catharsis, nemesis; in a tragedy, a hero will fall due to elements within the personality
Hubris Excessive pride, especially found within the tragic hero
Local color The interests or flavor of a specific locality as expressed in a story through language
Narrative The story of a fictional or actual events as told by the teller
Naturalism A factual representation, conforming to nature, especially in art and literature
Realism A truthful representation, with an inclination toward pragmatism, that is accurate to life's xpression
Short Story A fictional prose, dealing essentially with a single conflict, which can be read in a single session
Pleasure Principle The concept that pleasure is the only thing that matters and any manner of attaining it is fine; often this is the role of the Id, the earliest part of the developing personality
Reality Principle The function which monitors the Id; the concept that some things are more important than immediate pleasure, namely, the continuation of pleasure after the initial gaining of it.
Denouement The point in the story after the conflict is resolved
Drama A full-length work of fiction that is written in dialogue, meant to be performed upon a stage
Flashback Stopping the flow of the narrative to return to a setting or even earlier in the tale, even to events that predate the earliest part of the plot
Hamartia The tragic flaw of a tragic hero; that which will make the hero fall; this needs to be a trait that is generally considered a good thing
Description The words the author uses to fully detail a place or thing; these words will bring pictures to the mind
Symbol Something which stands for and represents itself but also stands for something much greater than itself
Climax The point in the story when the conflict is resolved- where we know who wins this conflict, the protagonist or the antagonist
Novel A full-length prose fiction where the narrative is the chief story-telling element and several conflicts, settings, and characters will dwell
Parallelism A structural arrangement of parts of a sentence, sentences, paragraphs, and larger units of composition by which one element of equal importance with another is similarly developed and phrased
Pathetic Fallacy False emotionalism in writing resulting in a too impassioned description of nature; it is the carrying over to inanimate objects the moods and passions of a human being
Histrionics A deliberate display of emotion for effect
Hagiography A biography that idealizes or idolizes the person (especially a person who is a saint)
Idiomatic Of or pertaining to, or conforming to, the mode of expression peculiar to a language
Metonymy Substituting a word for another word closely associated with it
Simile A comparison of two items using "like" or "as"
Point of View The vantage point from which a story is told (first and third person)
Connotation Another significant meaning of a word, often steeped in symbol or feeling
Characterization The manner by which an author develops a character within a narrative
Dialogue The spoken words of two or more character within a narrative
Imagery The picture in your mind that the words from the page create; can be figurative, symbolic, or literal
Situational Irony An EVENT where the opposite of what's expected happens
Dramatic Irony When the reader or audience knows something a character does not know, and that knowledge in important to the flow of events
Ego Represents and enforces principle reality. Oriented towards perceptions in the real world and associated with reason and sanity
Historical Fiction A narrative which tells the story of a real moment in history but embellishes it at least slightly (factual, dated)
Theme The main idea of a work of literature; the message is the author sending to the reader
Paradigm A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.
Dialect A regional variety of language, often with distinct accents and usage, including but not limited to whole phrases
Oedipus Complex A psychological aspect where a child, usually male, has strong, even desirous feelings for the parent of the opposite sex
Denotation The EXPLICIT meaning of a word or a particular meaning of a symbol
Allusion A reference to another work of literature or to a part of another work of literature or to a moment in history
Conflict The struggle between two opposing forces in a piece of literature, which the story is built around- The forces are the protagonist and the antagonist
Setting The time and the place of the action of the story
Catharsis The releasing of certain emotions in the audience: a feeling of pity and hatred for the actions of the tragic hero
Act A division within the drama, usually seen as the "chapter" of a novel
Autobiography A truthful account of the life of a person, as told and written by that person
Tone The attitude the author has toward the work, displayed through the language being used
Colloquialism A local variation of language, as in a word or phrase, found within particular dialects
Paradox A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true
Dynamic Character A character who undergoes growth and development during the literary work in which he/she resides
Static Character A character of one dimension and personality trait who remains unchanged by the events of the literary work in which he/she resides
Biography A truthful account of the life a person, told and written by another person
Scene A small division of drama within an act, usually of the same setting as the act, but not by definition
Stereotype A conventional and oversimplified opinion or belief about a person or group of people who may share similar characteristics; taking one characteristic of an individual and spreading that characteristic over the group that individual belongs to
Virtue The quality of moral excellence, righteousness, and responsibility, probity; goodness
Vice An evil, degrading or immoral practice of habit; a serious moral failing
Complex Character A character w/ different traits and aspects of personality but who neither grows nor changes during the literary work in which he resides
Superego The part of the personality which acts as a moral monitor to the behaviors of the individual. It is the faculty that seeks to police what it deems unacceptable desires; it represent all moral restrictions
Direct Quotation Using the words of a source directly, in a word-for-word borrowing
Plot The events which make up a story line, in order of their happening
Style The language used by the writer, as well as the narrative techniques used, working together to form the full aspect of the printed material in front of us
Omniscient The third person narrator who sees all and know all -even the thoughts- about the character of the story
Nemesis That force which restores order within a tragedy, named for the goddess of retributive justice
Metaphor A comparison of unlike things without using 'like' or 'as'
Irony A contrast between what is stated and what is meant; there are verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony
Foreshadow To use details and images to hint at events to come in the narrative
Analysis The separation of an intellectual whole into its component parts in order to better understand and to reach a truth
Indirect Quotation Using the words of the author, though not in a direct, word-for-word borrowing
Paraphrase To put the words of the author into your own words
Novella A prose fictional narrative containing all the elements of a novel but much shorter
Tragic Hero A person of noble birth whose personal destruction is in some way involved w/ the well being of his/her world and who faces a battle of morals; her/his destruction comes from a flaw with his/her personality
Insight The act of outcome of grasping the inward or hidden nature of things which in turn tells the grasper a significant message about herself/himself; makes the learning personal, owned
Stream-of-consciousness The unbroken flow of thought and awareness of the waking mind; a special mode of narration that undertakes to capture the full spectrum and the continuous flow of a character's mental processes
Rhetoric The body of principles and theory having to do with the presentation of the facts and ideas in clear, convincing, and attractive language
Ad hominem Appealing to persona considerations rather than to logic or reason
A priori Involving deductive reasoning from a general principle to a necessary effect; not supported by facts
Purple patch A selection of writing which contains an unusual piling up devices in such a way as to evidence a self-conscious literary effort; a colorful passage standing out from the writing around it
Euphemism The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive
Apostrophe When an absent person, an abstract concept, or an important object is directly addressed.
Dichotomy Division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions
Tragedy A literary work, usually a drama, which deals with human themes; several elements are involved: hamartia, hubris, catharsis, nemesis; in a tragedy, a hero will fall due to elements within the personality
Hubris Excessive pride, especially found within the tragic hero
Local color The interests or flavor of a specific locality as expressed in a story through language
Narrative The story of a fictional or actual events as told by the teller
Naturalism A factual representation, conforming to nature, especially in art and literature
Realism A truthful representation, with an inclination toward pragmatism, that is accurate to life's xpression
Short Story A fictional prose, dealing essentially with a single conflict, which can be read in a single session
Pleasure Principle The concept that pleasure is the only thing that matters and any manner of attaining it is fine; often this is the role of the Id, the earliest part of the developing personality
Reality Principle The function which monitors the Id; the concept that some things are more important than immediate pleasure, namely, the continuation of pleasure after the initial gaining of it.
Denouement The point in the story after the conflict is resolved
Drama A full-length work of fiction that is written in dialogue, meant to be performed upon a stage
Flashback Stopping the flow of the narrative to return to a setting or even earlier in the tale, even to events that predate the earliest part of the plot
Hamartia The tragic flaw of a tragic hero; that which will make the hero fall; this needs to be a trait that is generally considered a good thing
Description The words the author uses to fully detail a place or thing; these words will bring pictures to the mind
Symbol Something which stands for and represents itself but also stands for something much greater than itself
Climax The point in the story when the conflict is resolved- where we know who wins this conflict, the protagonist or the antagonist
Novel A full-length prose fiction where the narrative is the chief story-telling element and several conflicts, settings, and characters will dwell
Parallelism A structural arrangement of parts of a sentence, sentences, paragraphs, and larger units of composition by which one element of equal importance with another is similarly developed and phrased
Pathetic Fallacy False emotionalism in writing resulting in a too impassioned description of nature; it is the carrying over to inanimate objects the moods and passions of a human being
Histrionics A deliberate display of emotion for effect
Hagiography A biography that idealizes or idolizes the person (especially a person who is a saint)
Idiomatic Of or pertaining to, or conforming to, the mode of expression peculiar to a language
Metonymy Substituting a word for another word closely associated with it
