GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS
Literary term	Definition
Act	A major division in a play
Allegory	A narrative or description having a second meaning that lies parallel but outside of the literal meaning
Alliteration	The repetition of same consonant sounds in nearby words
Allusion	A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history
Antagonist	Any force in a story or drama that is in conflict with the protagonist
Analogy	A comparison by which something unfamiliar is explained or described by comparing it to something more familiar
Apostrophe	A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something non-human is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply
Aside	An actor speaks spontaneously in highly poetic language or more differently than is natural to make the listener aware of important information
Assonance	The repetition of same vowel sounds in nearby words
Belles-Lettres	Literary works created for and intended for pure pleasure
Cacophony	A harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds
Carpe diem	Literally—seize the day. Applied generally to literature, especially to lyric poems which exemplify the spirit of “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.”
Catastrophe	That portion of the plot which reveals the unhappy outcome of the conflict or the unpleasant solution to all mysteries
Character	(1) Any of the persons involved in a story or play. (2) The distinguishing moral qualities and personal traits of a character. (See direct and indirect presentation of character.)
Dynamic character	A character who during the course of a work undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of character or outlook
Flat character	A character whose character is summed up in one or two traits
Foil character	A minor character whose situation or actions parallel those of a major character, and by contrast sets off or illuminates the major character; most often the contrast is complimentary to the major character
Round character	A character whose character is complex and many-sided
Static character	A character who is the same sort of person at the end of a work as at the beginning
Stock character	A stereotyped character; one whose nature is familiar to us from prototypes in previous literature or life
Chorus	A group of actors speaking or chanting in unison, often while going through the steps of an elaborate formalized dance; a characteristic device of Greek drama for conveying communal or group emotion.
Choral character	A character in a play who stands aside from the action and comments on it or speaks about it as a communal voice
Climax	The turning point, or the high point of a plot in terms of a noticeable turn in the conflict
Complication	That portion of the plot that presents the events of the conflict and increases the suspense in the narrative
Conflict	A clash of actions, desires, ideas, or goals in the plot of a story or drama
Connotation	The meaning of a word derived from its use in the text
Deism	A belief that the existence of God is affirmed in nature and creation; denies that the knowledge of God comes through revelation
Denouement	That portion of a plot that reveals the final outcome of its conflicts
Denotation	The dictionary definition of a word
Diction	The choice and the use of words as a direct expression of the theme
Concrete diction	Words or phrases having a specific or particular meaning; prevent miss-interpretation
Abstract diction	Words or phrases having general meanings open to interpretation
Direct presentation or character	That method of characterization in which the author, by exposition or analysis, tells us directly what a character is like, or has someone else in the work to do so
Dramatic conventions	Devices that are employed as substitutions for reality in the drama and that the audience accepts as real although it knows them to be false
Impersonation	One must accept the actor on stage as the character in the story
The stage	The stage must be accepted as the actual setting or location
Interval between acts or scenes	Must be expanded or contracted imaginatively to conform to the needs of the story
The spectator	The spectator must accept the dramatic and special conventions
Fourth wall	The non-existent fourth wall must be accepted.
Curtain	The curtain must be imaginatively accepted for whatever purpose the action of the story demands.
Editorializing	Writing that departs from the narrative or the dramatic mode and instructs the reader how to think or feel about the events of a story or the behavior of a character
End-stopped line	The poet indicates by punctuation that the idea or at least the voice stops before continuing into the next line
Escape literature	Literature written purely for entertainment, with little or no attempt to provide insights into the true nature of human life or behavior
Epiphany	An intuitive grasp of reality achieved in a quick flash of recognition
Euphony	A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds
Existentialism	A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in an indifferent universe. Regards human existence as unexplainable. Stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for one’s acts. Ultimately the existentialist has only one choice—whether he will die with dignity.
Exposition	That portion of a fiction which introduces the setting, the characters, the conflict, and sets the tone of the story. Normally appears early in the narrative prior to examples of the conflict.
Fable	A brief story that sets up a brief statement of a generally recognized truth. (Aesop’s Fables)
Falling action	That segment of the plot that comes between the climax and the conclusion
Figurative language	Language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally
Figure of speech	Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly a way of saying one thing and meaning another
Final ironic twist	An event that occurs after the moment of last suspense which reopens the narrative and prevents closure. The conflict which appeared to be resolved is left open-ended.
Foreshadowing	A hint or clue toward events to come
Framework-story	A story inside a framework (a larger story); the story within the framework is the framework-story—an extended narration by a character who is himself the subject of a narrative
Genre	Used to designate the types or categories into which literary works are grouped according to form, technique, or, sometimes subject matter
Gothic story	A novel in which magic, mystery, and chivalry are the chief characteristics. Horrors abound: ghosts, clanking chains, charnel houses, old crumbling mansions, dungeons, secret or locked rooms or staircases, secret passages, crypts, catacombs, old castles, mystery, weird sounds, and trap doors.
Hyperbole	See overstatement
Image	The representation through language of sensory experience
Visual image	A word or phrase that appeals to the sense of sight
Auditory image	A word or phrase that appeals to the sense of sound or hearing
Tactile image	A word or phrase that appeals to the sense of touch, smell, taste, pain, thirst, hunger, or the physical sense of cold and heat
Imagery	All of the images in a work considered together

Impersonation	The audience of a drama accepts the actor on the stage as the character in the story
Inciting moment	The event that occurs as a first example of the conflict
Indirect presentation of character	That method of characterization in which the author shows us a character in action, compelling us to infer what he is like from what he says or does
In media res	A circumstance in which the narrative begins in the midst of the story, usually in the form of a flashback (literally—in the midst of)
Interpretive literature	Literature that provides valid insights into the nature of human life or behavior
Irony	A situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy
Verbal irony	A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant
Dramatic irony	An incongruity or discrepancy between what a character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true
Situational irony	A situation in which there is an incongruity between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would seem appropriate
Local color writing	Exploits the speech, dress, mannerisms, habits of thought, and topography peculiar to a certain region
Metaphor	An analogy identifying one object with another that is essentially dissimilar and ascribing to the first object one or more of the qualities of the second
Implied metaphor	A comparison between two essentially dissimilar things in which the thing being compared is implied rather that stated
Extended Metaphor	An entire poem is arranged around one metaphor
Meter	The recurrence of accented and unaccented stresses in a regular interval
Metonymy	A figure of speech in which some significant aspect or detail of an experience is used to represent the whole experience, or the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant
Moment of last suspense	The last event or portion of the narrative in which the narrator answers all questions and resolves all conflicts. The story is brought to full closure.
Motivation	The incentives or goals that, in combination with the inherent natures of characters, cause them to behave as they do

Muse	One of the nine Greek goddesses of the arts. Daughters of Zues and Mnemosyne. Preside over various departments of the arts and inspire artists to create (traditionally inspire poets) Calliope—epic Clio—history Erato—lyrics and love poetry Euterpe—music Melpomene—tragedy Polyhymia—sacred poetry Urania—astronomy Thalia—comedy Terpischore—dance and song
Mysticism	The theory that a knowledge of God or immediate reality is attainable through the use of some human faculty that transcends the intellect and does not use ordinary human perceptions or logical processes
Narrator	The person telling the story. He may be a participant in the story, or he may be a non-participant, telling only what he has heard or seen.
Naturalism	The basic assumption is that everything that is real exists in nature. The fundamental view of human beings is that of animals in a natural world, responding to environmental forces, internal stresses, and drives over which they have not control or understanding
Novel	A long work of fiction that has fully-developed characters interacting in a sophisticated plot structure with plot resolution.
Novella	A work of fiction that has fully-developed characters interacting in a sophisticated plot structure with plot resolution. It is not long enough to be considered a novel and too long to be a short story.
Onomatopoeia	The use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound
Overstatement or Hyperbole	A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth or to create an effect
Oxymoron	Two contradictory words are used to describe a thing or idea (They make sense.).
Paradox	A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory elements, which on second examination contains a truth
Paraphrase	A restatement of the content of a poem designed to make its prose meaning as clear as possible
Persona	The person created by the poet to be the speaker of the poem when the poet does not want to be speaker
Personification	A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept
Playwright	A writer of plays
Plot	The artistic arrangement of and the motivations for the events in a story
Plot structure	The planned organizational framework of a piece of literature
Poetry	A rhythmical composition of words expressing an attitude, designed to surprise, appeal to the senses, and to arouse an emotional response
Lyric poem	A short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker
Narrative poem	A poem that tells a story
Epic poem	A long narrative poem on a serious subject chronicling heroic deeds and important events
Didactic poem	A poem written to teach a lesson or to state a message
Point of view	The perspective from which the author allows the reader to hear and see the unfolding story. There are three basic points of view.
First person narrator	May be either a participant or a non-participant in the story. Relays to the reader a first-hand knowledge of the events. He may be either a major or minor character when he is a participant.
Naïve or Innocent narrator	A first person narrator (usually the protagonist) who tells of his participation in events in which the implications are plainer to the reader than to the narrator
Second person narrator	A narrator who attempts to put you into the narrative itself. (You got up this morning, and your car wouldn’t start.) as a point of view, second person is a gimmick and is seldom found.
Third person narrator	A non-participant. Tells the story in the third person. There are three types.
Omniscient	The narrator knows all and is free to tell us anything, including what the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act as they do.
Limited Omniscient	The narrator tells the story, but is limited to a complete knowledge of only one character in the story and tells us only what that one character thinks, feels, sees, or hears.
Objective	The narrator tells the story, but limits himself to reporting what his characters say or do: he does not interpret their behavior.
Proscenium	That part of the stage in a modern theater that lies between the orchestra and the curtain. Sometimes used merely as a synonym for the stage itself.
Protagonist	The central character in a story or drama
Pun	A play on words based on the similarity of sound between two words with different meanings
Realization or Slice of Life story	Usually a first person reflective narrative. The protagonist’s narrative of his or her conflict is interrupted in the complication when he or she realizes the source of the conflict; the narrative ends at that point.
Regionalism	Fidelity to (or honest portrayal of) a particular geographical section by making an accurate representation of its habits, speech, history, folklore or beliefs
Resolution	The point in the plot of a story where the unraveling of the complication occurs
Reversal	That portion of the plot in which there is a change of fortune for the protagonist; the protagonist begins to gain control of the force arrayed against him. Reversal occurs after the climax.

Rising action	That development of plot in a story that precedes and leads up to the climax
Run-on-line	The poet indicates by the lack of punctuation that the idea is completed in the next or following lines
Rhythm	The recurrence of stresses and pauses in a poem
Scene	The division of an act in a play. They are normally determined by climactic arrangement of the action.
Sentimentality	A diction that exploits the reader by appealing extravagantly to emotion
Setting	The context in time and place and sometimes weather in which the action of a story occurs
Short story	A work of fiction that has fully developed characters interacting in a sophisticated plot structure with plot resolution. It is too short to be considered a novella.
Short-short story	A work of fiction that may or may not have fully-developed characters. It has in identifiable plot structure but may not have plot resolution.
Simile	A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. The comparison is made explicit by the use of some connective such as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems.
Soliloquy	A special convention. An actor on stage alone speaks his thoughts so that the audience understands his motivations.
Speaker	The one who “says” the poem—does the speaking
Special conventions	Conventions of drama that are not a part of the action that the audience must accept although they know them to be a contrivance. There are two special conventions—soliloquy and aside.
Symbol	Something that means more than what it is literally; an object, person, situation, or action that in addition to its literal meaning suggests other meanings as well; a figure of speech which may read both literally and figuratively.
Synecdoche	A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole
Tale	A folk story that recounts the deeds of a super hero—Paul Bunyon, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed. It is often referred to as a “tall-tale.”
Theme	The central idea of a literary work
Tone	The writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward his subject, his audience, or himself: the emotional coloring, or emotional meaning of a work
Tragedy	In drama a tragedy recounts a causally related series of events in the life of a person of significance, culminating in an unhappy catastrophe, the whole treated with dignity and seriousness.
Tragic flaw	As an integral part of the protagonist’s character, this element is an inconsistency or a contradiction in character that opens the way for underserved tragic consequences.
Transcendentalism	The philosophy that human beings can intuitively transcend the limits of the senses and logic and receive higher truths directly
Tragic hero	The “person of significance” who meets with a catastrophe—the central character in the tragedy
Understatement	A figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants