Literature Vocabulary

A

Allegory - A literary- form in which some or all of the elements of action, character and setting stand for either general concepts or parallel elements in life: Despair in Bunyan's Pilgrim s Progress.

Alliteration - Repetition of initial constant sounds or letters, mainly for tonal effects: "The furrow followed free." Basic verse of Anglo-Saxon and some medieval verse: "Beadohregt broden, or breostum leg" (Beowulf, 1.552).

Analogy - Sustained comparison, usually to clarify complex or abstract idea.

Anapest - Metrical foot of three syllables, the third being ac­cented: "Round the feet (of the day) (and the feet) of the night."

Archaism - A word or phrase no longer in current use: "wretched wight", "elfin drot".

Article - A factual and informative essay.

Autobiography - A history or memoirs of one's life written by oneself: autobiographies of J.S. Mill, Benjamin Franklin.

В

Ballad - Short narrative poem. FOLK (or popular or traditional) BALLADS are anonymous and have been preserved by oral tradition; they are concise, impersonal, dramatic, and often employ a refrain and incremental repetition: Barbara Allen. LI­TERARY BALLADS are conscious imitations of the form, subject matter, and mood of the folk bal­lad: Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci. [104]

Ballade - An old French poetic pattern, revived in 19"' century France and England.

Biography - The history of the person's life: Boswell, Life of Johnson.

Blank Verse - Strictly, unrimed iambic pentameter: most of Shakespeare's plays, Milton's Paradise Lost.

C

Cacophony - Harshness of sound. Often used to reinforce meaning: "Irks care the cropful bird? Frels doubt the maw-crammed beast?"

Catastrophe - the final important event in a play: hero's death is a tragedy.

Character - A personage in a literary work. Also, a short sketch of the principal traits of a personality type: popular in the 17^th century: "characters" by Earle, Overbwy.

Classicism - a term describing the subject-matter, structure, style, tone and attitude of literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Hence, literature is classical if it dates from that period or is characterized by balanced handling of subject-matter; formal, orderly structure; clear, simple style; and decorous tone. The restraint in­herent in classicism contrasts with emotionalism and freedom of romanticism.

Closet Drama - A play written to be read, not acted: Milton, Samson Agonistes, Shelley, Prometheus, Unbound. Some­times refers to plays which, unsuccessful as theatre, are enjoyable to read.

Comedy - A literary work (especially a play) in which human actions and behavior are treated lightly and in which the denouement happily clears away confusion and misunderstanding. Shakespeare's DARK CO­MEDIES {Measure for Measure), often serious in tone, are called comedies only because they do not end in death. The subtle intellectual humor of HIGH COMEDY (Congreve, The Way of The World) appeals to sophisticated audiences; the broad humor and slapstick of LOW COMEDY has more general appeal. [105] The COMEDY OF MANNERS pokes fun at social patterns or ideals (Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest). The characters of the COME­DY OF HUMORS are each dominated by a ruling passion of humor held up to ridicule (Charles Sur­face, in Sheridan's School for Scandal).

D

Didactic - Didactic literature is designed primarily to teach, to convince one of the truth of the doctrine, as op­posed to literature whose principal aim is to enter­tain.

Drama - A form of literature, usually intended to represent life through theatrical performance, in which ac­tors impersonate characters, imitate action, and re­produce dialogue.

Dream Vision - A form of allegorical poetry, especially popular in the Middle Ages, in which the poet speaks of him­self as dreaming his story: Dante, Divine Comedy.

E

Elegy - Loosely, a serious, reflective poem. Specifically, a poem lamenting a death: Tennyson, In Memoriam.

Epigram - A very short poem, marked by wit, terseness, polish. Verse or prose having these qualities; thus, the po­etry of the Augustan Pope.

Epilogue - A farewell speech spoken by an actor at the conclusion of a drama. Medieval epilogues often pointed a moral; Elizabethan, Restoration, and 18^lh-century epilogues aimed to gain the good will of the audience.

Epistle - A literary work imitating qualities of a letter. Well known 18"'-century epistles: Pope's Epistle to Arbulhnot, Burn's Epistle to John Laprail. [106]

Epitaph - An inscription on a tomb or monument to com­memorate the dead;a brief poetic eulogy. Especially developed in 17^th, 18^lh centuries.

Essay - A short prose composition, on any subject, whose purpose may range from pure entertainment to pure didacticism. The INFORMAL ESSAY is discur­sive, its tone relaxed intimate, often humorous; FOR­MAL ESSAY are like articles, impersonal, objec­tive: essays of Bacon, Lamb.

Euphony - Pleasing sound. The result of a harmony of an agreeable subject and pleasant speech sounds.

F

Fable - Short allegorical tale about animals, designed to point a moral: the fables by Aesop, La Fontaine. In criticism, may refer to the plot.

Farce - A form of comic drama intended only to amuse, in which characters and incidents are greatly exag­gerated and slapstick and horseplay abound: Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew. Fiction - Literature, especially novels and short stories, based on invented characters and events; opposed to non-fiction, or "factual" books and articles on science, philosophy, etc.

H

Hymn - a song in honor or glorification of a deity: Wm. Cowper and John Newton, Olney Hymns. Hyperbole - Overstatement for effect; rhetorical exaggeration: "And I will luv thee still, my dear /Till a' the seas gang dry -"

I

Imagism - Anti-Romantic poetic movement in the early 20^th century in which poets attempted to produce only clear, concrete images to capture a specific mood or situation. Freedom in theme and versification stressed. (Amy Lowell. Ezra Pound) [107]

Impressionism -Writing in whichthe author describes an object by his immediate sensory impressions, ignoring other means of knowledge. Literary criticism based upon the critic's own feelings and reactions; opposed for example, to neoclassic reliance on rules. (Hazlitt, Pater)

L

Legend - In medieval literature the story of a saint's life, or collection of such stories: The Golden Legend (by William Caxton). Often, unverifiable story popularly accepted as history.

Lyric - Originally, that which could be sung with the lyre. Now applied to a short poem which retains a songlike quality. It expresses the poet's feelings and moods, and is usually in stanzaic form. Some English lyric forms: song, hymn, ode, sonnet.

M

Madrigal - Short love poem which can be set to music. Also a contrapuntal part song, sung, without accompani­ment, by several voices.

Melodrama - Originally a stage play with accompanying music and with songs interspersed. Now, a sensational or romantic play with no serious tragic or comic significance. The action is often violent, and virtue usually triumphs: "East Lynne", and "soap operas".

Metaphor - A figure of speech in which one object or action is asserted to be another. A resemblance implied rather than stated: "Remorse, the fatal egg by pleasure laid".

Myth - A fictitious story, often about gods or heroes, which serves to explain a natural or historical phenomenon. Greek, Roman and Norse myths appear in Bulfinch, The Age of Fable. [108]

N

Novel -A long, fictitious prose narrative; the characters and action usually represent real life. THE EPISTO­LARY NOVEL consists of a series of letters writ­ten by the principal characters: Richarsdson, Pamela; Smollett, Humphrey Clinker. THE GOTHIC NOVEL, popular at the end of 18'\ be­ginning of 19^Ih century, relied for sensational effect on supernatural and terrible events, grotesque charac­ters, ghostly machinery, medieval background: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto. THE HISTORICAL NOVEL attempts an imaginative recreation of the past: Scott, Ivanhoe. THE PICARESQUE NOVEL deals in realistic, episodic fashion with the adventures of a roguish hero: Cervantes, Don Quixote. Other classes of novel are the SOCIOLOGICAL NOVEL: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle; and THE REGIONAL NOVEL: Hardy, The Return of The Native.

Novelette -Short novel: James, Daisy Miller.

Novella - A short piece of prose fiction such as any of the tales in Boccaccio's Decameron.

O

Ode -From a Greek word meaning "song", the term is now loosely used to denote a short poem of elabo­rate metrical form, expressing exalted, dignified or lyrical feeling.

P

Parody- A literary burlesque which ridicules the style of the particular author or work: Lewis Carrol's The Write Knight's Song, a parody on Wordsworth's Resolu­tion and Independence. [109]

Peripeteia - The sudden reversal of fortune; a term used by Aristotle in his theory of tragedy.

Periphrasis - Roundabout way of expressing an idea: "deadly tube" for "gun".

Preface - Introduction to a literary work, often involving explanation and critical purpose: the prefaces of Shaw and Dryden.

R

Realism - Tendency in literature and art to represent objectively nature and life as they ordinary are: Flaubert, Madame Bovary; Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Renaissance -The "rebirth" in Europe of literature and art under the influence of classical ideals and methods, with the emphasis on man and this world, following the Medieval Period with its emphasis on religious concepts. In Italy, the I4^th through 16^th centuries. THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE came later, reaching its peak in the Elizabethan period: Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare.

S

Saga - Narrative of heroic exploits: especially medieval stories of Icelandic or Norwegian heroes.

Satire - A composition in poetry or prose which exposes defects in morals and manners by means of irony, wit, and ridicule. It ranges from a gentle, urbane HORATIAN SATIRE (Pope, The Rape of The Lock) to bitter, morally indignant JUVENALIAN SATIRE (Johnson, London).

Short Story - A complete piece of prose fiction shorter than a novelette, and characterized by a single theme treated with dramatic intensity. [110]

Style -In literature, a general term referring to the manner of expression of ideas rather than the ideas them­selves, or to the distinctive quality of an author in his use of language. "Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style". (Swift).

Synecdoche -A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part. "The King to Oxford sent a troop of horse".

T

Tale - Narrative in prose or verse which recounts actual or imagined events. A story: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; Swift, A Tale of a Tub.

Tragedy -A literary composition in which a serious theme is dramatized and in which the hero meets with misfortune or disaster because of fate, moral weakness, social opposition, etc.

Trilogy -A group of three dramatic or literary works in some way connected, often in subject matter: Aeschylus, Agamemnon, Choephroe and Eumenides; Dos Passos, the USA (comprising The 42"^J Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money). [111]