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Abstract language

Absurd, Theater of the

Act

Allegory

Alliteration

Allusion

Ambiguity

Analogy

Anapest

Anecdote

Antagonist

Anthropomorphism

Aphorism

Apostrophe

Archetype

Argument

Aside

Assonance

Atmosphere

Author

Author’s note

Author’s purpose

Autobiography

Abstract language Language that expresses an idea or intangible reality, as opposed to a specific object or occurrence or a concrete reality. See also CONCRETE LANGUAGE.

Absurd, Theater of the Drama, primarily of the 1950s and 1960s, that does not tell a story but instead presents a series of scenes in which the characters, confused and anxious, seem to exist in a meaningless world. See also SURREALISM.

Act A major unit of a drama, or play. Modern drama has one, two, or three acts. Older drama may have five acts. Acts may be divided into one or more scenes. See also DRAMA, SCENE.

Allegory A literary work in which all or most of the characters, settings, and events stand for ideas, qualities, or figures beyond themselves. The overall purpose of an allegory is to teach a moral lesson. See also SYMBOL.

Alliteration The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. It can be used to reinforce meaning or create a musical effect. See also SOUND DEVICES.

Allusion A reference to a well-known character, place, or situation from history or from music, art, or another work of literature. See pages 75, 657, 797, and 1152.

Ambiguity The state of having more than one meaning. The richness of literary language lies in its ability to evoke multiple layers of meaning.

Analogy A comparison that shows similarities between two things that are otherwise dissimilar. Writers often use an analogy to explain something unfamiliar by comparing it to something familiar. See page 490. See also METAPHOR, SIMILE.

Anapest A metrical foot of three syllables; two unaccented syllables are followed by an accented one (˘˘´). See also FOOT, METER, SCANSION.

Anecdote A brief account of an interesting event. Essayists often use anecdotes to support their opinions, clarify their ideas, get a reader’s attention, or entertain. Biographers often include one or more anecdotes in a biography to illustrate a point about their subject. See page 1154.

Antagonist A person or a force that opposes the protagonist, or central character, in a story or drama. The reader is generally meant not to sympathize with the antagonist. See also CONFLICT, PROTAGONIST.

Anthropomorphism The assignment of human characteristics to gods, animals, or inanimate objects.

Aphorism A short, pointed statement that expresses a wise or clever observation about human experience. See page 102. See also MAXIM.

Apostrophe A figure of speech in which a speaker addresses an inanimate object, an idea, or an absent person. See page 700. See also PERSONIFICATION.

Archetype A character type, descriptive detail, image, or story pattern that recurs frequently in the literature of a culture. It derives from a Greek word meaning “the original example.” See pages 23, 240, and 898.

Argument A type of persuasive writing in which logic or reason is used to try to influence a reader’s ideas or actions. See page 211. See also PERSUASION.

Aside In a play, a character’s comment that is directed to the audience or another character but is not heard by any other characters on the stage. Asides, which are rare in modern drama, reveal what a character is thinking or feeling.

Assonance The repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds, especially in a line of poetry. See also SOUND DEVICES.

Atmosphere The physical qualities that contribute to the mood of a literary work, such as time, place, and weather.

Author The original writer of a work. The word author comes from a Latin word meaning “to create.”

Author’s note A note accompanying a literary work and containing explanatory information. Author’s notes usually include helpful but nonessential information.

Author’s purpose An author’s intent in writing a literary work. Authors typically write for one or more of the following purposes: to persuade, to inform, to explain, to entertain, or to describe. See pages 48, 86, 414, 969, and 1011. See also DICTION, STYLE, THEME, TONE.

Autobiography The story of a person’s life written by that person. Autobiographies can give insights into the author’s view of himself or herself and of the society in which he or she lived. See pages 97, 338, 907, and 988. See also BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR, NONFICTION.

Ballad

Ballad Stanza

Bias

Biography

Blank Verse

Blues

Ballad A narrative song or poem. Folk ballads, which usually recount an exciting or dramatic episode, were passed down by word of mouth for generations before being written down. Literary ballads are written in imitation of folk ballads but have a known author. See also FOLKLORE, NARRATIVE POETRY, ORAL TRADITION.

Ballad stanza A quatrain, or four-line stanza, in which the first and third lines have four stressed syllables, and the second and fourth lines have three stressed syllables. Only the second and fourth lines rhyme. See also METER, QUATRAIN, SCANSION, STANZA.

Bias An inclination toward a certain opinion or position on a topic. See also NONFICTION.

Biography An account of a person’s life written by someone other than the subject. Biographies have been written about many of the writers in this text. See also AUTOBIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR, NONFICTION.

Blank verse Poetry or lines of dramatic verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Each line has five feet, with each foot made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Because it may attempt to imitate spoken English, every line need not be perfectly regular. See pages 705 and 723. See also FOOT, IAMBIC PENTAMETER, SCANSION.

Blues A melancholy style of music that originated among African Americans in the South. The blues stanza has three lines, and the first two lines are usually identical. Many writers have incorporated the idea of the blues into their work, among them See also STANZA.

Cadence

Caesura

Catalog

Character

Characterization

Classicism

Cliché

Climax

Colloquial language

Comedy

Comic relief

Conceit

Concrete language

Confessional poetry

Conflict

Connotation

Consonance

Couplet

Crisis

Cadence The rhythmic rise and fall of language when it is spoken or read aloud. See also FREE VERSE, METER.

Caesura A pause in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of a line, with two stressed syllables before and two after, creating a strong rhythm. A caesura is used to produce variations in meter and to draw attention to certain words. Some pauses are indicated by punctuation, others by phrasing or meaning. In the lines below, the caesuras are marked by double vertical lines. The pauses are indicated by punctuation. See also RHYTHM.

Catalog The listing of images, details, people, or events in a literary work. See page 1291.

Character A person portrayed in a literary work. A main character is central to the story and is typically fully characterized. A minor character displays few personality traits and is used to help develop the story. Characters who show varied and sometimes contradictory traits are called round. Characters who reveal only one personality trait are called flat. A stereotype, or stock character, is typically flat. A dynamic character grows and changes during the story. A static character remains basically the same throughout the story. See also CHARACTERIZATION, STEREOTYPE.

Characterization The methods a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character. In direct characterization, the writer makes explicit statements about a character. In indirect characterization, the writer reveals a character through his or her words, thoughts, and actions and through what other characters think and say about that character. See pages 229, 277, 505, 783, and 1248. See also CHARACTER.

Classicism A style that reflects the principles and concerns of the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Typically, a classical style displays simple, harmonious form.

Cliché A word or phrase that is so overused that it is virtually meaningless. “Dead as a doornail,” “piece of cake,” and “last but not least” are all clichés.

Climax The point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in a literary work. Usually the climax comes at the turning point in a story or drama, the point just before the resolution of the conflict. See also page 1067. See also CONFLICT, DÉNOUEMENT, PLOT, RESOLUTION.

Colloquial language Informal language used in everyday conversation but not in formal writing or speech. See also DIALECT, VERNACULAR.

Comedy A type of drama that is humorous and often has a happy ending. See also DRAMA, FARCE, HUMOR, PARODY, SATIRE, WIT.

Comic relief A humorous scene, event, or speech in a serious drama. It provides relief from emotional intensity, while at the same time highlighting the seriousness of the story.

Conceit An elaborate figure of speech that makes a comparison between two significantly different things. The conceit draws an analogy between some object from nature or everyday life and the subject or theme of a poem. See also ANALOGY, EXTENDED METAPHOR, IMAGERY.

Concrete language Specific language about actual things or occurrences. Words like dog and sky are concrete, while words like truth and evil are abstract. See also ABSTRACT LANGUAGE.

Confessional poetry A movement in poetry begun in the 1950s in which the poet writes about his or her own personal experiences. Confessional poets described their problems with mental illness, alcohol abuse, and troubled relationships in an open and direct style.

Conflict The central struggle between two opposing forces in a story or drama. An external conflict exists when a character struggles against some outside force, such as another person, nature, society, or fate. An internal conflict is a struggle that takes place within the mind of a character who is torn between opposing feelings, desires, or goals. See pages 547, 591, 760, and 1106. See also ANTAGONIST, PLOT, PROTAGONIST.

Connotation The suggested or implied meanings associated with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation. A word can have a positive, negative, or neutral connotation. See also AMBIGUITY, DENOTATION, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

Consonance The repetition of consonant sounds, typically at the end of nonrhyming words and preceded by different vowel sounds, as “met-cat” or “morn-barn.” See also SOUND DEVICES.

Couplet Two consecutive, paired lines of rhymed verse usually forming a stanza. See page 130. See also HEROIC COUPLET, RHYME, SONNET, STANZA.

Crisis In a narrative, a moment of high tension that requires a decision. See also CLIMAX, DRAMATIC STRUCTURE, RISING ACTION.

Dactyl

Deism

Denotation

Dénouement

Description

Dialect

Dialogue

Diary

Diction

Dimeter

Drama

Dramatic convention

Dramatic irony

Dramatic monologue

Dramatic poetry

Dramatic structure

Dynamic character

Dactyl A three-syllable metrical foot in which the first syllable is stressed and the following two are unstressed.

Deism The belief that God created the world but no longer has influence or control over life or nature. Many of America’s founders were deists.

Denotation The literal, or dictionary, meaning of a word. See also CONNOTATION, LITERAL LANGUAGE.

Dénouement The outcome, or resolution, of the plot. The climax and dénouement may come close together. See also CLIMAX, CONFLICT, PLOT, RESOLUTION.

Description A detailed portrayal of a person, a place, an object, or an event. Good descriptive writing appeals to the senses through imagery. See pages 135, 384, and 891. See also FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, IMAGERY.

Dialect A variation of a language spoken within a particular region or class. Dialects may differ from the standard form of a language in vocabulary, pronunciation, or grammatical form. See pages 483 and 941. See also COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE, LOCAL COLOR, REGIONALISM, VERNACULAR.

Dialogue Conversation between characters in a literary work. Dialogue can contribute to characterization, create mood, advance the plot, and develop theme. See pages 914, 1023, and 1266.

Diary An individual’s daily record of impressions, events, or thoughts, written for personal use rather than for publication. See also JOURNAL.

Diction A writer’s choice of words. Diction is an important element in the writer’s “voice” or style. Skilled writers choose their words carefully to convey a particular tone and meaning. See pages 61, 127, and 369. See also AUTHOR’S PURPOSE, STYLE, VOICE.

Dimeter A line of verse consisting of two feet. See also FOOT, METER.

Drama A story intended to be performed before an audience by actors on a stage. The script of a dramatic work may include stage directions that explain how characters should look, speak, move, and behave. The script might also specify details of the setting and scenery, such as lighting, props, and sound effects. A drama may be divided into acts, which may also be broken up into scenes, indicating changes in location or the passage of time. See also COMEDY, PLAY, STAGE DIRECTIONS, TRAGEDY.

Dramatic convention Any of several devices that a theater audience accepts as a substitute for reality. For example, an audience accepts that a wood floor is a beach or a meadow, that a recording of birdsong is the real thing, or that the fifteen-minute interval between acts is a substitute for a longer passage of time.

Dramatic irony See IRONY.

Dramatic monologue A form of dramatic poetry in which a speaker addresses a silent listener. See pages 500 AND 664. See also DRAMATIC POETRY, MONOLOGUE.

Dramatic poetry Poetry in which characters are revealed through dialogue and monologue, as well as through description. See also DIALOGUE, DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE.

Dramatic structure The structure of a serious play. Common elements are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. See also PLOT.

Dynamic character See CHARACTER.

Elegy

Empathy

End rhyme

Enjambment

End-stopped line

Epic

Epigram

Epigraph

Epiphany

Epistle

Epitaph

Epithet

Essay

Exaggeration

Exposition

Extended metaphor

Elegy A poem mourning a death or another great loss.

Empathy Close identification with a person, a place, or an event, as when audience members experience the same emotions as a character in a play.

End rhyme The rhyming of words at the ends of lines.

Enjambment See RUN-ON LINE.

End-stopped line A line of poetry that contains a complete thought, thus requiring a semicolon or period at the end. See also RUN-ON LINE.

Epic A long narrative poem that traces the adventures of a hero. Epics intertwine myths, legends, and history, reflecting the values of the societies in which they originate. See also LEGEND, MYTH, ORAL TRADITION.

Epigram A short, witty verse or saying. See also APHORISM, MAXIM.

Epigraph A quotation from another work that suggests the theme, or main idea, of the work at hand. It is often up to the reader to determine how the quoted work relates to the literature it introduces.

Epiphany A sudden intuitive recognition of the meaning or essence of something.

Epistle Any letter. Often the term is applied to a more literary work than the informal communication written by most people. Travel letters are common and usually intended for publication.

Epitaph A brief statement commemorating a dead person, often inscribed on a gravestone.

Epithet A brief phrase used to characterize a person, place, or thing.

Essay A short piece of nonfiction writing on any topic. The purpose of the essay is to communicate an idea or opinion. A formal essay is serious and impersonal, often with the purpose of instructing or persuading. Typically, the author strikes a serious tone and develops a main idea, or thesis, in a logical, highly organized way. An informal, or personal, essay entertains while it informs, usually in light, conversational style. See page 1303. See also NONFICTION.

Exaggeration See HYPERBOLE.

Exposition See PLOT.

Extended metaphor A metaphor that compares two unlike things in various ways throughout a paragraph, a stanza, or a literary work. See pages 83 and 827. See also METAPHOR.

Fable

Fairy tale

Falling action

Fantasy

Farce

Fiction

Figurative language

Figure of speech

Flashback

Flash-forward

Flat character

Foil

Folklore

Folktale

Foot

Foreshadowing

Form

Formal essay

Formal speech

Fourth wall

Frame story

Free verse

Fable A short, often humorous, tale intended to teach a lesson about human behavior or to give advice about how to behave. Many fables end by stating the moral or lesson to be learned, while others leave it up to the reader to infer the moral. In a beast fable, animals talk and act like humans. See also LEGEND, PARABLE, THEME.

Fairy tale A type of folktale that features supernatural elements, such as spirits, talking animals, and magic. See also FOLKTALE.

Falling action See PLOT.

Fantasy A literary work that is set in an unfamiliar world and that often features unbelievable characters and events. See also SCIENCE FICTION.

Farce A type of comedy with ridiculous situations, characters, or events. See also COMEDY, HUMOR, PARODY, SATIRE.

Fiction A narrative in which situations and characters are invented by the writer. Some aspects of a fictional work may be based on fact or experience, however. Fictional works include short stories, novels, and plays. See also DRAMA, NONFICTION, NOVEL, SHORT STORY.

Figurative language Language used for descriptive effect in order to convey ideas or emotions. Figurative expressions are not literally true but express some truth beyond the literal level. Figurative language is especially common in poetry. See pages 183, 1183, and 1224.

Figure of speech A specific kind of figurative language such as metaphor, personification, or simile.

Flashback An interruption in the chronological order of a narrative to show an event that happened earlier. A flashback gives readers information that may help explain the main events of a story. See pages 535 and 888. See also FLASH-FORWARD.

Flash-forward An interruption in the chronological sequence of a narrative to leap forward in time. See page 901. See also FLASHBACK.

Flat character See CHARACTER.

Foil A minor character whose contrast with a main character highlights particular characteristics, often flaws, of the main character. See page 958. See also ANTAGONIST, CHARACTER, CHARACTERIZATION, PROTAGONIST.

Folklore Traditional beliefs, customs, stories, songs, and dances of a culture. Folklore is passed down through oral tradition and is based on the concerns of ordinary people. See also BALLAD, EPIC, FOLKTALE, LEGEND, MYTH, ORAL TRADITION, TALL TALE.

Folktale An anonymous traditional story passed down orally long before being written down. Folktales include animal stories, trickster stories, fairy tales, myths, legends, and tall tales. See also EPIC, FAIRY TALE, FOLKLORE, LEGEND, MYTH, ORAL TRADITION, TALL TALE.

Foot The basic unit in the measurement of a line of metrical poetry. A foot usually contains one stressed syllable ( ´ ) and one or more unstressed syllables ( ˘ ). The basic metrical feet are the anapest (˘ ˘ ´ ), the dactyl (´ ˘˘ ), the iamb (˘ ´ ), the spondee (´ ´ ), and the trochee (´ ˘ ). See also METER, RHYTHM, SCANSION, STANZA.

Foreshadowing An author’s use of clues to prepare readers for events that will happen later in a story. See pages 877 and 924. See also PLOT, SUSPENSE.

Form The structure of a poem. Many modern writers use loosely structured poetic forms instead of following traditional or formal patterns. These poets vary the lengths of lines and stanzas, relying on emphasis, rhythm, pattern, or the placement of words and phrases to convey meaning. See page 667. See also RHYTHM, STANZA, STRUCTURE.

Formal essay See ESSAY.

Formal speech A speech whose main purpose is to persuade, although it may also inform and entertain. The four main types of formal speech are legal, political, ceremonial, and religious.

Fourth wall The imaginary wall that separates the performers onstage in a play from the audience watching the performance.

Frame story A story that surrounds another story or that serves to link several stories together. The frame is the outer story, which usually precedes and follows the inner, more important story. Some literary works have frames that bind together many different stories. See page 1269.

Free verse Poetry that has no fixed pattern of meter, rhyme, line length, or stanza arrangement. Although poets who write free verse ignore traditional rules, they use techniques such as repetition and alliteration to create musical patterns in their poems. See pages 395, 1186, and 1252. See also RHYTHM, RHYME, METER.

Genre

Gothic novel

Genre A category or type of literature. Examples of genres are poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.

Gothic novel A novel that has a gloomy, ominous setting and contains strong elements of horror, mystery, and the supernatural.

Haiku

Harlem Renaissance

Heptameter

Hero

Heroic couplet

Hexameter

Historical fiction

Historical narrative

History

Humor

Hymn

Hyperbole

Haiku A traditional Japanese form of poetry that has three lines and seventeen syllables. The first and third lines have five syllables each; the middle line has seven syllables. Usually about nature, a haiku presents striking imagery to evoke a variety of feelings and associations.

Harlem Renaissance A cultural and literary movement among African Americans during the 1920s. The center of the movement was the Harlem section of Manhattan, in New York City, which attracted artists, musicians, and writers. See page 785.

Heptameter A metrical line of seven feet. See also FOOT, METER.

Hero The chief character in a literary work, typically one whose admirable qualities or noble deeds arouse admiration. Although the word hero is applied only to males in traditional usage—heroine being the term used for females— contemporary usage applies the term to either gender. See also EPIC, LEGEND, MYTH, PROTAGONIST, TALL TALE, TRAGEDY.

Heroic couplet A pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter that work together to express an idea or make a point. A heroic couplet is based on the poetic form used by ancient Greek and Roman poets in their heroic epics. See page 130. See also IAMBIC PENTAMETER, METER, RHYTHM.

Hexameter A line of verse consisting of six feet. See also FOOT, METER.

Historical fiction Fiction that sets characters against the backdrop of a period other than the author’s own. Some works of historical fiction include actual historical people along with fictitious characters. See also FICTION.

Historical narrative A work of nonfiction that tells the story of important historical events or developments. See pages 402 and 820.

History A factual account of real events that occurred in the past. Typically, a history is arranged chronologically and seeks to provide an objective description of what happened.

Humor The quality of a literary work that makes the characters and their situations seem funny, amusing, or ludicrous. Humor often points out human failings and the irony found in many situations. Humorous language includes sarcasm, exaggeration, puns, and verbal irony. See also COMEDY, FARCE, PARODY, PUN, SATIRE, WIT.

Hymn A lyric poem or song addressed to a divine being or expressing religious sentiments. See also LYRIC.

Hyperbole A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, to make a point, or to evoke humor. See also FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, UNDERSTATEMENT.

Iamb

Iambic pentameter

Idiom

Imagery

Imagism

Impressionism

Informal essay

Interior monologue

Internal conflict

Internal rhyme

Inversion

Irony

Iamb A two-syllable metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable and one accented syllable, as in the word divide.

Iambic pentameter A poetic meter in which each line is composed of five feet (pentameter), most of which are iambs. See also BLANK VERSE, FOOT, HEROIC COUPLET, METER, RHYTHM, SCANSION.

Idiom An expression whose meaning is different from the literal meaning of the words that make it up. Phrases such as “catch his eye,” “turn the tables,” “over the hill,” and “keep tabs on” are idiomatic expressions understood by native speakers but often puzzling to non-native speakers. Idioms can add realism to dialogue in a story and contribute to characterization. See page 1014. See also DIALECT.

Imagery The “word pictures” that writers create to evoke an emotional response. In creating effective images, writers use sensory details, or descriptions that appeal to one or more of the five senses. See pages 89, 653, 975, and 1299. See also FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, SENSORY DETAILS.

Imagism A movement among early twentieth-century poets who believed that the image was the essence of poetry, conveying a poem’s meaning and emotion. The language of poetry, they believed, should be brief, clear, concrete, and similar to spoken language. See also MODERNISM.

Impressionism A nineteenth-century movement in art and literature. In literature, characters and scenes are presented as the author’s or a particular character’s impressions rather than as they actually are. See also POINT OF VIEW.

Informal essay See ESSAY.

Interior monologue A technique that records a character’s emotions, memories, and opinions. Interior monologue is a characteristic of the stream-of-consciousness style of writing. See also STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

Internal conflict See CONFLICT.

Internal rhyme Rhyme that occurs within a single line of poetry. Poets use internal rhyme to convey meaning, to evoke mood, or simply to create a musical effect. See also RHYME.

Inversion Reversal of the usual word order for emphasis or variety. Writers use inversion to maintain rhyme scheme or meter, or to emphasize certain words.

Irony A contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality. Situational irony exists when an occurrence is the opposite of someone’s expectations. Verbal irony occurs when the meaning of a statement is the reverse of what is meant, as when someone says of a mean person, “Nice guy!” Dramatic irony occurs when playgoers have information unknown to characters onstage. See pages 568 and 933.

Journal

Juxtaposition

Journal A daily record of events kept by a participant in those events or a witness to them. See page 361.

Juxtaposition The placing of two or more distinct things side by side in order to contrast or compare them. It is commonly used to evoke an emotional response in the reader. See page 814.

Legend

Legendary Heroes

Literal language

Literary criticism

Local color

Lost Generation

Lyric

Legend A traditional story handed down from the past, based on actual people and events, and tending to become more exaggerated and fantastical over time. See also FABLE, FOLKLORE, FOLKTALE, HERO, MYTH, ORAL TRADITION, TALL TALE.

Legendary Heroes Idealized figures, sometimes based on real people, who embody qualities admired by the cultural group to which they belong. The adventures and accomplishments of these heroes are preserved in legends or tales that are handed down from generation to generation. See also FOLKTALE.

Literal language Language that is simple, straightforward, and free of embellishment. It is the opposite of figurative language, which conveys ideas indirectly. See also DENOTATION.

Literary criticism A type of writing in which the writer analyzes and evaluates a literary work.

Local color The evocative portrayal of a region’s distinctive ways of talking and behaving. See page 480. See also DIALECT, REGIONALISM, VERNACULAR.

Lost Generation A term attributed to writer Gertrude Stein describing a group of American writers, many of whom lived abroad, who became disillusioned at the end of World War I. Included in this “generation” were Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Lyric A poem that expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts and feelings. Lyrics are usually short and musical. See also POETRY.

Magical realism

Maxim

Memoir

Metaphor

Meter

Metonymy

Minimalism

Modernism

Monologue

Mood

Moral

Motif

Motivation

Muckrakers

Myth

Magical realism A literary style in which the writer combines realistic events, settings, characters, dialogue, and other details with elements that are magical, supernatural, fantastic, or bizarre. See page 1313.

Maxim A short saying that contains a general truth or gives practical advice, particularly about morality and behavior. Also known as an adage or aphorism.

Memoir A type of narrative nonfiction that presents the story of a period in the writer’s life. It is usually written from the first-person point of view and emphasizes the narrator’s own experience of this period. It may also reveal the impact of significant historical events on his or her life. See also AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY.

Metaphor A figure of speech that compares or equates two seemingly unlike things. In contrast to a simile, a metaphor implies the comparison instead of stating it directly; hence there is no use of connectives such as like or as. See also EXTENDED METAPHOR, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

Meter A regular pattern of stressed ( ´ ) and unstressed ( ˘ ) syllables that gives a line of poetry a more or less predictable rhythm. The basic unit of meter is the foot. The length of a metrical line can be expressed in terms of the number of feet it contains: dimeter, two feet; trimeter, three feet; tetrameter, four feet; pentameter, five feet; hexameter, six feet; heptameter, seven feet. See page 801. See also FOOT, IAMBIC PENTAMETER, SCANSION.

Metonymy A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is substituted for another that is related. For example, the executive branch of the U.S. government is often referred to as the White House. See page 187. See also FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

Minimalism A movement in visual arts, music, architecture, and literature. Minimalist writers include the fewest words possible in their works and depict ordinary people.

Modernism A term applied to a variety of twentieth-century artistic movements that shared a desire to break with the past. In addition to technical experimentation, modern playwrights, writers, and artists in the first half of the twentieth century were interested in the irrational or inexplicable, as well as in the workings of the unconscious mind. See also IMAGISM, STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS, SYMBOLIST POETRY.

Monologue A long speech by a character in a literary work. See also DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE, SOLILOQUY.

Mood The emotional quality of a literary work. A writer’s choice of language, subject matter, setting, and tone, as well as sound devices such as rhyme and rhythm, contribute to creating mood. Mood is a broader term than tone, which refers to the attitude of a speaker or narrator toward the reader. It also differs from atmosphere, which is concerned mainly with the physical qualities that contribute to a mood, such as time, place, and weather. See pages 823, 1173, 1200, and 1221. See also ATMOSPHERE, SETTING, TONE.

Moral A practical lesson about right and wrong conduct, often taught in a fable or parable.

Motif A significant word, phrase, image, description, idea, or other element repeated throughout a literary work and related to the theme. See pages 690 and 1330.

Motivation The stated or implied reason or cause for a character’s actions. See pages 281, 515, 743, and 955. See also PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM.

Muckrakers American writers who searched for and exposed dishonesty in American government and business in the early 1900s. See page 533.

Myth A traditional story that deals with goddesses, gods, heroes, and supernatural forces. A myth may explain a belief, a custom, or a force of nature. See also EPIC, FOLKLORE, FOLKTALE, LEGEND, ORAL TRADITION.

Narrative

Narrative poetry

Narrator

Naturalism

Nobel Prize

Nonfiction

Novel

Narrative Writing or speech that tells a story. Narratives may be fiction or nonfiction, prose or poetry. See also NARRATIVE POETRY.

Narrative poetry Verse that tells a story. Narrative poetry includes ballads and epics as well as shorter forms that are usually more selective and concentrated than are prose stories. See pages 243 and 1325. See also BALLAD, EPIC, NARRATIVE.

Narrator The person who tells a story. The narrator may be a character in the story, as in See also NARRATIVE, POINT OF VIEW.

Naturalism The literary movement characterized by a belief that people have little control over their own lives. See pages 476 and 573. See also PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM.

Nobel Prize A very prestigious award established in 1901 by Alfred Bernhard Nobel, a Swedish chemist and inventor, to honor individuals’ achievements in many fields, including medicine, physics, and literature.

Nonfiction Literature that deals with real people, places, and events. Written from either the first- or third-person point of view, works of narrative nonfiction tell a story and commonly have characteristics of fiction, such as setting, characters, theme, and plot. Biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and essays are types of narrative nonfiction. Works of informative nonfiction include essays, speeches, and articles that explain a topic or promote an opinion. See also AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, ESSAY, FICTION.

Novel A book-length fictional prose narrative, typically having a plot, character, setting, and theme. A short novel is called a novelette or novella. See also FICTION, SHORT STORY.

Octave

Octet

Ode

Onomatopoeia

Oral history

Oral tradition

Oratory

Oxymoron

Octave The first eight lines of a Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet. The octave usually presents a situation, an idea, or a question. See also SONNET.

Octet A group of eight lines in a poem.

Ode An elaborate lyric poem expressed in a dignified and sincere way. Some odes celebrate a person or an event; others are more private meditations. See also LYRIC.

Onomatopoeia The use of a word or phrase that imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes. The words mew, hiss, caw, and buzz are onomatopoetic words. See also SOUND DEVICES.

Oral history The recording of people’s memories and feelings. Oral history creates a more vivid and personal picture of the past and gives a voice to people who might have been hidden from ordinary historical records. It is the oldest form of historical inquiry, preceding the written word, and has become a crucial tool, following the invention of tape recorders in the 1940s.

Oral tradition Literature that passes by word of mouth from one generation to the next. Oral literature was a way of recording the past, glorifying leaders, and teaching morals and traditions to young people. See page 34. See also BALLAD, EPIC, FOLKLORE, FOLKTALE, LEGEND, MYTH, TALL TALE.

Oratory The art of effective public speaking, or the use of persuasive skills when speaking. Oratory is common in politics, law, and religion. Today, oratory is usually called “public speaking.” See page 355.

Oxymoron A figure of speech in which opposite ideas are combined. Examples are “bright darkness,” “wise fool,” and “hateful love.” See also FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, PARADOX.

Parable

Paradox

Parallelism

Parody

Pastoral

Pentameter

Persona

Personification

Persuasion

Petrarchan sonnet

Plain style

Play

Plot

Poetic license

Poetry

Point of view

Postmodernism

Propaganda

Props

Prologue

Prose

Prose poem

Protagonist

Proverb

Psalm

Psychological realism

Pun

Punctuation mark

Parable A simple story pointing to a moral or religious lesson. It differs from a fable in that the characters are people instead of animals. See also FABLE.

Paradox A situation or statement that seems to be impossible or contradictory but is nevertheless true, literally or figuratively. See also OXYMORON.

Parallelism The use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical structure. Parallelism emphasizes relationships between ideas. See pages 113, 387, and 1307. See also REPETITION.

Parody A humorous imitation of a literary work that aims to point out the work’s shortcomings. A parody may imitate the plot, characters, or style of another work, usually through exaggeration. See also COMEDY, FARCE, HUMOR, SATIRE.

Pastoral Poetry that idealizes the simple lives of shepherds in a rural setting. Pastoral poems often exaggerate the rural pleasures and the innocence of country people living in harmony with nature.

Pentameter A metrical line of five feet. See also FOOT.

Persona The mask or voice through which an author speaks.

Personification A figure of speech in which an animal, an object, a force of nature, or an idea is given human characteristics. See pages 434, 439, 1227, and 1286. See also APOSTROPHE, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

Persuasion Writing, usually nonfiction, that attempts to move readers to a particular viewpoint. Writers of persuasive works use appeals to logic or emotion, and other techniques to sway their readers. See also ARGUMENT.

Petrarchan sonnet See SONNET.

Plain style A style of writing common among the Puritan settlers that focused on communicating ideas as clearly as possible. This marked a change from the ornate style used by European writers of that time. Colonial writers such as William Bradford thought of writing as a practical tool for spiritual self-examination and religious instruction, not as an opportunity to demonstrate cleverness.

Play A literary work of any length intended for performance on a stage with actors assuming the roles of the characters and speaking from a playwright’s script. See also DRAMA.

Plot The sequence of events in a short story, novel, or drama. Most plots deal with a problem and develop around a conflict, a struggle between opposing forces. An external conflict is a struggle between a character and an outside force, such as another character, society, nature, or fate. An internal conflict takes place within the mind of a character who struggles with opposing feelings. The plot begins with exposition, which introduces the story’s characters, setting, and situation. The rising action adds complications to the conflicts, or problems, leading to the climax, or the point of highest emotional pitch. Falling action is the logical result of the climax, and the resolution, or dénouement, presents the final outcome. See pages 928, 1018, and 1067. See also CLIMAX, CONFLICT, DÉNOUEMENT, EXPOSITION, FALLING ACTION, RESOLUTION, RISING ACTION.

Poetic license The freedom given to poets to ignore standard rules of grammar or proper diction in order to create a desired artistic effect.

Poetry A form of literary expression that differs from prose in emphasizing the line, rather than the sentence, as the unit of composition. Many other traditional characteristics of poetry apply to some poems but not to others. Some of these characteristics are emotional, imaginative language; use of figures of speech; division into stanzas; and the use of rhyme and regular patterns of meter.

Point of view The standpoint from which a story is told. In a story with first-person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story and uses the words I and me. In a story told from thirdperson point of view, the narrator is someone who stands outside the story and describes the characters and action. Third-person omniscient, or all-knowing point of view, means that the narrator knows everything about the characters and events and may reveal details that the characters themselves could not reveal. If the narrator describes events as only one character perceives them, the point of view is called third-person limited. See pages 55, 262, 374, 519, 1000, and 1277. See also NARRATOR, SPEAKER.

Postmodernism A movement in art, music, film, literature, and other disciplines in the late twentieth century. Unreliable narration, the blending of multiple styles and genres within a single work, and magical realism are all features of postmodern literature. See also MODERNISM.

Propaganda Written or spoken material designed to bring about a change or to damage a cause through use of emotionally charged words, name-calling, or other techniques.

Props A theater term (a shortened form of properties) for objects and elements of the scenery of a stage play or movie or television set. See also DRAMA.

Prologue An introductory section of a play, speech, or other literary work.

Prose Written language that is not versified. Novels, short stories, and essays are usually written in prose.

Prose poem A short prose composition that uses rhythm, imagery, and other poetic devices to express an idea or emotion. Prose poetry does not have line breaks; instead, the sentences appear in standard paragraph form.

Protagonist The central character in a literary work, around whom the main conflict revolves. Generally the audience is meant to sympathize with the protagonist. See also ANTAGONIST, CONFLICT, HERO.

Proverb A saying that expresses some truth about life or contains some bit of popular wisdom such as “faint heart never won fair lady,” “marry in haste, repent at leisure,” or “out of sight, out of mind.”

Psalm A song of praise most commonly found in the biblical book of Psalms. David, king of Israel around 1000 B.C., wrote many of these psalms. Occasionally a modern poet will title his or her poem a psalm.

Psychological realism An attempt to portray characters in an objective, plausible manner. Above all else, psychological realism insists that characters be clearly motivated; they should not act without apparent reason. See also MOTIVATION, NATURALISM, REALISM.

Pun A humorous use of words that are similar in sound (merry and marry) or of a word with several meanings.

Punctuation mark Any standard mark, such as a period, semicolon, hyphen, or comma, inserted to clarify meaning.

Quatrain

Quatrain A stanza of four lines. Edwin Arlington Robinson’s poems “Richard Cory” and “Miniver Cheevy,” pages 569 and 570, are written in four-line stanzas. See also COUPLET, OCTAVE, SESTET, STANZA.

Rationalism

Realism

Refrain

Regionalism

Repetition

Resolution

Rhetorical question

Rhyme

Rhyme scheme

Rhythm

Rising action

Romanticism

Round character

Run-on line

Rationalism A philosophy that values reason over feeling or imagination. See also ROMANTICISM.

Realism A literary movement first prominent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Realism seeks to portray life as it is really lived. Realistic fiction often focuses on middle- or working-class settings and characters, often with reformist intent. See page 474. See also NATURALISM, PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM.

Refrain A line or lines repeated regularly, usually in a poem or song. See page 331. See also REPETITION.

Regionalism An emphasis on themes, characters, customs, and settings of a particular geographical region. See page 472. See also DIALECT, LOCAL COLOR, VERNACULAR.

Repetition The recurrence of sounds, words, phrases, lines, or stanzas in a speech or literary work. Repetition increases the sense of unity in a work and can call attention to particular ideas. See page 810. See also PARALLELISM, REFRAIN.

Resolution See PLOT.

Rhetorical question A question to which no answer is expected or the answer is obvious. See page 107.

Rhyme The repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds and any succeeding sounds in two or more words. End rhyme occurs at the ends of lines of poetry. Internal rhyme occurs within a single line. Slant rhyme occurs when words include sounds that are similar but not identical ( jackal and buckle). Slant rhyme typically involves some variation of consonance (the repetition of similar consonant sounds) or assonance (the repetition of similar vowel sounds). See page 424. See also ASSONANCE, CONSONANCE, INTERNAL RHYME, RHYME SCHEME, SOUND DEVICES.

Rhyme scheme The pattern that end rhymes form in a stanza or a poem. Rhyme scheme is designated by the assignment of a different letter of the alphabet to each new rhyme. See pages 563 and 936. See also RHYME.

Rhythm The pattern of beats created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables, especially in poetry. Rhythm gives poetry a musical quality, can add emphasis to certain words, and may help convey the poem’s meaning. Rhythm can be regular, with a predictable pattern or meter, or irregular. See pages 695 and 1197. See also IAMBIC PENTAMETER, METER.

Rising action See PLOT.

Romanticism An artistic movement that began in Europe and valued imagination and feeling over intellect and reason. See page 162. See also TRANSCENDENTALISM.

Round character See CHARACTER.

Run-on line Also called enjambment, the continuation of a sentence from one line of a poem to another. Run-on lines enable poets to create a conversational tone, breaking lines at a point where people would normally pause in conversation, yet still maintaining the unit of thought. See page 673. See also END-STOPPED LINE.

Sarcasm

Satire

Scansion

Scene

Science fiction

Screenplay

Sensory details

Septet

Sestet

Setting

Shakespearean sonnet

Short story

Simile

Slant rhyme

Slave narrative

Soliloquy

Sonnet

Sound devices

Speaker

Spondee

Stage directions

Stanza

Stereotype

Stream of consciousness

Structure

Style

Subject

Surprise ending

Surrealism

Suspense

Symbol

Symbolist poetry

Synecdoche

Sarcasm The use of bitter or caustic language to point out shortcomings or flaws. See also IRONY, SATIRE.

Satire Writing that comments, sometimes humorously, on human flaws, ideas, social customs, or institutions. The purpose of satire may be to reform or to entertain. See page 1234. See also COMEDY, FARCE, HUMOR, PARODY, SARCASM, WIT.

Scansion The analysis of the meter of a line of verse. To scan a line of poetry means to note the stressed and unstressed syllables and to divide the line into its feet, or rhythmical units. Stressed syllables (´) and unstressed syllables ( ˘ ) are marked. See also FOOT, METER, RHYTHM.

Scene A subdivision of an act in a play. A scene is shorter than an act. See also ACT, DRAMA.

Science fiction Fiction that deals with the impact of science and technology—real or imagined—on society and on individuals. Sometimes occurring in the future, science fiction commonly portrays space travel, exploration of other planets, and possible future societies. See also FANTASY.

Screenplay The script of a film, which, in addition to dialogue and stage directions, usually contains detailed instructions about camera shots and angles. See also STAGE DIRECTIONS.

Sensory details Evocative words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses. See page 89. See also IMAGERY.

Septet A stanza of seven lines.

Sestet A six-line stanza. See also SONNET.

Setting The time and place in which the events of a literary work occur. Setting includes not only the physical surroundings, but also the ideas, customs, values, and beliefs of a particular time and place. Setting often helps create an atmosphere or a mood. See pages 594, 739, 769, 1189, and 1214. See also ATMOSPHERE, MOOD.

Shakespearean sonnet See SONNET.

Short story A brief fictional narrative that generally includes the following major elements: setting, characters, plot, point of view, and theme. See also FICTION, NOVEL.

Simile A figure of speech that uses like or as to compare seemingly unlike things. See page 1217. See also ANALOGY, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, METAPHOR.

Slant rhyme See RHYME.

Slave narrative Autobiographical account of the life of a former enslaved person. These documents helped expose the cruelty and inhumanity of slavery. See page 67. See also AUTOBIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR.

Soliloquy In a drama, a long speech by a character who is alone on stage. A soliloquy reveals the private thoughts and emotions of that character. See also DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE, MONOLOGUE.

Sonnet A lyric poem of fourteen lines, typically written in iambic pentameter and usually following strict patterns of stanza divisions and rhymes. The Shakespearean, or English, sonnet consists of three quatrains, or four-line stanzas, followed by a couplet, or pair of rhyming lines. The rhyme scheme is typically abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The rhyming couplet often presents a conclusion to the issues or questions presented in the three quatrains. In the Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet, fourteen lines are divided into two stanzas, the eight-line octave and the sixline sestet. The sestet usually responds to a question or situation posed by the octave. The rhyme scheme for the octave is typically abbaabba; for the sestet the rhyme scheme is typically cdecde. See page 787. See also COUPLET, RHYME SCHEME, STANZA.

Sound devices Techniques used, especially in poetry, to appeal to the ear. Writers use sound devices to enhance the sense of rhythm, to emphasize particular sounds, or to add to the musical quality of their writing and rhyme. See also ALLITERATION, ASSONANCE, CONSONANCE, ONOMATOPOEIA, RHYME.

Speaker The voice speaking in a poem, similar to a narrator in a work of prose. Sometimes the speaker’s voice is that of the poet, sometimes that of a fictional person or even a thing. The speaker’s words communicate a particular tone, or attitude, toward the subject of the poem. One should never assume that the speaker and the writer are identical, however. See also TONE.

Spondee A metrical foot of two accented syllables. See also FOOT, METER.

Stage directions Instructions written by a playwright to describe the appearance and actions of characters, as well as the sets, costumes, and lighting. See page 1046. See also DRAMA.

Stanza A group of lines forming a unit in a poem or song. A stanza in a poem is similar to a paragraph in prose. Typically, stanzas in a poem are separated by a line of space. See page 831. See also SONNET.

Stereotype A character who is not developed as an individual, but instead represents a collection of traits and mannerisms supposedly shared by all members of a group. See also CHARACTER.

Stream of consciousness The literary representation of a character’s free-flowing thoughts, feelings, and memories. Stream-of-consciousness writing does not always employ conventional sentence structure or other rules of grammar and usage. See pages 658, 775, and 776. See also SURREALISM.

Structure The particular order or pattern a writer uses to present ideas. Narratives commonly follow a chronological order, while the structure of persuasive or expository writing may vary. Listing detailed information, using cause and effect, or describing a problem and then offering a solution are some other ways a writer can present a topic. See pages 1148 and 1168.

Style The expressive qualities that distinguish an author’s work, including word choice and the length and arrangement of sentences, as well as the use of figurative language and imagery. Style can reveal an author’s attitude and purpose in writing. See pages 733, 1274, and 1322. See also AUTHOR’S PURPOSE, DICTION, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, IMAGERY, TONE.

Subject The topic of a literary work.

Surprise ending An unexpected plot twist at the end of a story. The ending might surprise readers because the author provides misleading clues or withholds important information.

Surrealism A literary and artistic style that originated in Europe in the 1920s. Surrealist works feature bizarre and impossible events treated as if they were normal. Surrealist poetry expresses the workings of the unconscious mind and how these workings interact with outer reality. This poetry is characterized by the use of images from dreams and stream-of-consciousness associations. See also STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

Suspense A feeling of curiosity, uncertainty, or even dread about what is going to happen next in a story. Writers increase the level of suspense by creating a threat to the central character and raising questions in a reader’s mind about the outcome of a conflict. Suspense is especially important in the plot of an adventure or mystery story. See pages 250 and 606. See also PROTAGONIST.

Symbol Any object, person, place, or experience that exists on a literal level but also represents, or stands for, something else, usually something abstract. See pages 266, 1281, and 1296. See also ALLEGORY, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

Symbolist poetry A kind of poetry that emphasizes suggestion and inward experience instead of explicit description. See page 650. See also IMAGISM, MODERNISM.

Synecdoche A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or a whole is used for a part. In “All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” tongues (a part) is used for the whole (languages).

Tall tale

Tercet

Terza rima

Tetrameter

Theater of the absurd

Theme

Thesis

Tone

Tragedy

Transcendentalism

Trimeter

Triplet

Trochee

Tall tale A type of folklore associated with the American frontier. Tall tales are humorous stories that contain wild exaggerations and inventions. Typically, their heroes are bold but sometimes foolish characters who may have superhuman abilities or who may act as if they do. Tall tales are not intended to be believable; their exaggerations are used for comic effect. See also FOLKLORE, FOLKTALE.

Tercet A stanza of three rhyming lines.

Terza rima A verse form with a sequence of three-line stanzas rhyming aba, bcb, cdc, and so on.

Tetrameter A metrical line of four feet. See also FOOT, METER.

Theater of the absurd See ABSURD, THEATER OF THE

Theme The central message of a work of literature, often expressed as a general statement about life. Some works have a stated theme, which is expressed directly. More works have an implied theme, which is revealed gradually through events, dialogue, or description. A literary work may have more than one theme. Some themes are universal, meaning that they are widely held ideas about life. Themes and topics are different. The topic of a work might be love; the theme would be what the writer says about love, that it is painful or wonderful or both, for example. See pages 179, 542, 679, and 869. See also AUTHOR’S PURPOSE, FABLE, MORAL.

Thesis The main idea of a work of nonfiction. The thesis may be stated directly or implied. See page 194. See also NONFICTION.

Tone An author’s attitude toward his or her subject matter or the audience. Tone is conveyed through elements such as word choice, punctuation, sentence structure, and figures of speech. A writer’s tone might convey a variety of attitudes such as sympathy, objectivity, or humor. See pages 123, 185, 492, 528, 873, 1209, and 1333. See also AUTHOR’S PURPOSE, DICTION, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, MOOD, STYLE, VOICE.

Tragedy A play in which a main character suffers a downfall. That character, the tragic hero, is typically a person of dignified or heroic stature. The downfall may result from outside forces or from a weakness within the character, which is known as a tragic flaw. See page 1089. See also DRAMA, HERO.

Transcendentalism A philosophical and literary movement whose followers believed that basic truths could be reached only by “going beyond,” or transcending, reason and reflecting on the world of the spirit and on one’s own deep and free intuition. Transcendentalists believed that the individual could transform the world—not only through writing, but also through utopian communities, antislavery activity, and other social action. See page 170. See also RATIONALISM, ROMANTICISM.

Trimeter A metrical line of three feet. See also FOOT, METER

Triplet See TERCET.

Trochee A metrical foot made up of one accented and one unaccen ted syllable. See also FOOT.

Understatement

Unreliable narrator

Understatement Language that makes something seem less important than it really is. See also HYPERBOLE.

Unreliable narrator A narrator whose account of events is faulty or distorted in some way. Some unreliable narrators intentionally mislead readers. Others fail to understand the true meaning of the events they describe. For example, if a story is narrated by a small child, he or she might misinterpret the behavior of adult characters. Most stories with unreliable narrators are written in the first person. See also POSTMODERNISM.

Verisimilitude

Vernacular

Verse paragraph

Voice

Verisimilitude The illusion of reality, often achieved by presenting concrete, detailed descriptions.

Vernacular Ordinary speech of a particular country or region. Vernacular language is more casual than cultivated, formal speech. Slang and dialect are commonly described as vernacular language. Regional writers sometimes employ vernacular language for enhanced realism. See also COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE, DIALECT, LOCAL COLOR, REGIONALISM.

Verse paragraph A group of lines in a poem that form a unit. Unlike a stanza, a verse paragraph does not have a fixed number of lines. While poems written before the twentieth century usually contain stanzas, many contemporary poems are made up of verse paragraphs. Verse paragraphs help to organize a poem into thoughts, as paragraphs help to organize prose. See page 1203. See also STANZA.

Voice The distinctive use of language that conveys the author’s or narrator’s personality to the reader. Voice is determined by elements of style such as word choice and tone. See pages 406, 525, 791, and 1255. See also AUTHOR’S PURPOSE, DICTION, NARRATOR, STYLE, TONE.

Wit

Word choice

Wit An exhibition of cleverness and humor. See also COMEDY, HUMOR, SARCASM, SATIRE.

Word choice See DICTION.

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