An apologue is a short story or fable which provides a simple moral lesson. An eponym refers to a person or thing after which something else is named. Surrealism is a literary and artistic movement in which the goal is to create something bizarre and disjointed, but still somehow understandable. A paraphrase is a restatement or rewording of text in order to borrow, clarify, or expand on information without plagiarizing. The effect is usually much too abrupt, and it’s often disappointing for audiences. For writers, strong device usage can elevate prose from meager to magnificent. Etymology investigates and documents the lives (mainly the origins) of words. Assonance: Repetition of a vowel sound in a line of poetry, as in the following example from Poe’s “The Raven”: “The silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.” Autobiography: An author’s account or story of his/her own life. Assonance is the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds within words, phrases, or sentences. Literary Terms The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Termsis a twenty-first century update of Roger Fowler’s seminal Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms. A metaphor is a common figure of speech that makes a comparison by directly relating one thing to another unrelated thing (though these things may share some similarities). A mnemonic, also known as a memory aid, is a tool that helps you remember an idea or phrase with a pattern of letters, numbers, or relatable associations. A Glossary of Literary Terms, now in its 8th edition, is written in a lucid style, and is a must buy for anyone who wants to expand their literary horizons. Select A Tag General Novel Plot Narration Characters Poetry Drama Genre Movements Figurative Language Rhetorical. Antonomasia can range from lighthearted nicknames to epic names. Read more. This can mean magic, the supernatural, alternate worlds, superheroes, monsters, fairies, magical creatures, mythological heroes—essentially, anything that an author can imagine outside of reality. Unlike a simile or a metaphor, an analogy is not a figure of speech, though the three are often quite similar. You use it to convince others to agree with your claim or viewpoint when they have doubts or disagree. Stephen Greenblatt et al. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Edwin Barton & G. A. Hudson. Traditionally, it replaces the name of a person and often describes them in some way. Antithesis literally means “opposite” – it is usually the opposite of a statement, concept, or idea. The resolution, also known as the denouement, is the conclusion of the story’s plot structure where any unanswered questions are answered, or “loose ends are tied.”. Hyperbaton is a figure of speech in which the typical, natural order of words is changed as certain words are moved out of order. In a story, the antagonist is the opposite of the protagonist, or main character. The subtext is the unspoken or less obvious meaning or message in a literary composition, drama, speech, or conversation. The key to circumlocution is that the statement has to be unnecessarily long and complicated. Search (clear) a. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that somehow causes itself to come true. The Pilgrim Progress (1678). This glossary of literary terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in the discussion, classification, analysis, and criticism of all types of literature, such as poetry, novels, and picture books, as well as of grammar, syntax, and language techniques. Cosmic irony: See IRONY. It’s when the writer or speaker pretends, briefly, not to know a key piece of information or not to understand a key connection. The denouement is the very end of a story, the part where all the different plotlines are finally tied up and all remaining questions answered. Verisimilitude simply means ‘the quality of resembling reality’ and a work of art, or any part of a work of art, has verisimilitude if it seems believably realistic. In the strict definition, an ode is a classical poem that has a specific structure and is aimed at an object or person. Personification is a kind of metaphor in which you describe an inanimate object, abstract thing, or non-human animal in human terms. Action stories typically do not explore complex relationships between human beings or the subtleties of psychology and philosophy. A form of art in which the artist expresses himself … Test. A glossary of literary terms by M. H. Abrams, 1988, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston edition, in English - 5th ed. Thus many terms referring to death, sex, crime, and excremental functions are euphemisms. Figures largely in the "first" gothic romance, Walpole's Castle of Otranto. It’s a way of paying homage, or honor, to great works of the past. An anagram is a type of word play in which the letters of a word or phrase are rearranged to create new words and phrases. A major division within a play, similar to a chapter in a chapter book. Unlike similes, metaphors do not use words such as “like” or “as” to make comparisons. A pleonasm is when one uses too many words to express a message. Many of these definitions are reprinted from Edward Hirsch’s A Poet’s Glossary. Bathos is text that abruptly turns from serious and poetic, to regular and silly. Many literary critics are of the opinion that archetypes, which have a common and recurring representation in a particular human culture or entire human race, shape the structure and function of a literary work. Glossary of Literary Terms: Poetry How to Analyze a Literary Passage: A Step-by-Step Guide 10:26 How to Answer Multiple Choice Questions About Literature: Test-Taking Strategies 12:20 A sonnet is a fourteen line poem with a fixed rhyme scheme. However, modern definitions of romance also include stories that have a relationship issue as the main focus. First published over fifty years ago, A GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS remains an essential resource for all serious students of literature. An extended metaphor is a metaphor that is developed in some detail by being used in more than one phrase, from a sentence or a paragraph, to encompassing an entire work. In a soliloquy, though, the speech is not given to another character, and there is no one around to hear it. Thomson-Wadsworth, 2005. Coherence describes the way anything, such as an argument (or part of an argument) “hangs together.”  If something has coherence, its parts are well-connected and all heading in the same direction. Lingo is language or vocabulary that is specific to a certain subject, group of people, or region; including slang and jargon.