Learning Commons:Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication/Glossary

Adapted from: Cuddon, J.A. Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 1998. Print. Murfin, Ross, and Supryia Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. New York: Bedford, 2008. Print.

A

Acrostic

A poem in which the initial letters of each line spell a word when read downwards. An acrostic might also use the middle or final letter of each line.

Allusion

An indirect reference to a person, event, statement or theme found in literature or the other arts. The use of an allusion tends to presuppose that readers in general will possess the necessary knowledge to recognize the allusion.

Ambiguity

The result of something being stated in such a way that its meaning cannot be definitely determined. Some of the most frequent causes of ambiguity are the use of pronouns without the proper references, the use or words that have multiple meanings, unusual syntax or disproportionate brevity.

Analogy

A comparison of an unfamiliar object or idea to a familiar one in order to explain the unfamiliar. An example of an analogy would be comparing the human brain to a complex computer.

Antithesis

Fundamentally contrasting ideas sharpened by the use of opposite or noticeably different meanings.

Antonym

A word of opposite meaning to another. Some examples include “ugly/beautiful”, and “fierce/mild”. See synonym.

Archetype

A basic model from which copies are made; a prototype. In literature, usually a character, although it can be a theme or symbol, that embodies a universal concept or idea. Some examples include the all-conquering hero, the womanizer (Don Juan), the femme fatale, the country bumpkin, the self-made man, and the damsel in distress.

B

Bildungsroman

A novel which provides an account of the youthful development of a hero. Often describes the processes by which maturity is achieved through the various troubles of life. Some examples include Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield and Jane Austen’s Emma.

C

Canon

A novel which provides an account of the youthful development of a hero. Often describes the processes by which maturity is achieved through the various troubles of life. Some examples include Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield and Jane Austen’s Emma.

Catharsis

A term first expounded by Aristotle in “The Poetics” to discuss the effect that drama can have on the individual viewer. Aristotle argues that by evoking powerful emotions, drama produces a type of cleansing of the soul. He explains that after watching a performance and identifying with the experiences the work portrayed, the audience can leave theatre refreshed, ultimately freed and purified in emotional experience.

Climax

The part of a story or play at which a crisis is reached and resolution is achieved. The climax brings events to a head and leads to the conclusion of a work.

Connotation/Denotation

While denotation is the strict dictionary definition of a word, connotation covers all the implied meanings that a word may hold. For example, “cloudy” connoted more than overcast sky; it can refer to fuzzy thinking, sadness, impending doom, etc.

Convention

A commonly accepted literary practice used as a device to tell a story.

D

Deconstruction

A particular kind of practice in reading and method of criticism and mode of analytical inquiry focusing on rhetoric and reflexivity. Deconstruction owes much to the theories of French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The philosopher shows that a text may be read as saying a variety of different things which might be contradictory to and subversive of what may be seen by criticism as a single “meaning”. Derrida proposes that a deconstructive criticism of a text reveals that there is nothing except the text; references to anything external to the text cannot have a role in the evaluation or criticism of the work.

Deus ex Machina

Literally, ‘god out of the machine’. In Greek drama, a god would appear onto the stage in order to get the hero out of difficulties. Today, this term applies to any unanticipated intervener in a text who resolves a troublesome situation.

Double Entrende

A French term referring to a word or expression so used that it can have two meanings. One of these meanings is often frivolous or bawdy.

Dystopia

From the Greek for ‘bad place’, the opposite of a utopia. Usually set at some point in the future and describes a society that is not a desirable place to live. Dystopia frequently functions to alert readers of the potential pitfalls and dangers of society’s present course unless change occurs.

E

Epilogue

Three possible meanings: the short speech delivered at the end of a play, the end of a fable where the moral is expressed, or the concluding section of a text, sometimes added as a summary, but more often as an afterthought.

Epiphany

The revelation gained when one suddenly understands the essence of an object, situation, mentality, or moment – when one perceives the inner workings or the true nature for what originally appears to be commonplace.

Existentialism

A term meaning “pertaining to existence”. Philosophically, it applies to a vision of the condition of man, his place and function in the world, and his relationship, or lack of one, with God. Notable figures connected to existentialism are Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980).

F

Fable

A short, fictional prose or verse tale with a specific moral. As allegorical works that often feature animals as their principal characters, fables are told to impart a lesson, which is often explicitly and succinctly expressed at the end of the fable as an epigram.

Farce

As applied to drama, the object of farce is to provoke roars of laughter. Its basic elements include exaggerated physical action, exaggeration of character and situation, absurd situations and improbable events, and surprises.

Folk Tale

Stories that often belong to oral tradition. They include such texts as legends, fables, tall stories, fairy stories, ghost stories, stories of giants and saints, and short humorous tales. Many folk tales are often about local characters.

Form

A term that refers to the shape, structure and the manner in which a literary work is made – as opposed to its substance or what it is about. Although form and substance go hand in hand, they may be analysed separately.

G

Genre

A literary type of class. The major Classical genres were: epic, tragedy, lyric, comedy, and satire, to which would now be added novel and short story.

H

Homograph

A word which is written in the same way as another, but which has a different pronunciation and meaning. Some examples include row (the action involved in propelling a boat)/row (as in ‘the second desk in the third row’) and tear (liquid secreted by the lacrimal glands when one is crying)/ tear (the shredding action one would apply to a piece of paper).

Homonym

A word which has the same sound and spelling as another, but which has a different origin and meaning. Some examples include rest (repose)/rest (remainder) and bay (gulf)/bay (laurel).

Homophone

A word which is pronounced the same as another but which has both a different spelling and meaning. Some examples include foul/fowl, and wood/would.

Humanism

The humanists of the Renaissance period studied the literature of the Greek and Latin poets, dramatists, historians, and philosophers. Humanism, a European phenomenon, was a more secular philosophy that was anthropocentric. Its aim was to dignify and ennoble man.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech containing an exaggeration. A common feature of Tudor, Jacobean, and heroic drama.

I

Idiom

A form of expression that has a meaning other than its grammatical or literal one. Some examples include “an arm and a leg”, “beating around the bush”, “between a rock and a hard place”, “as fit as a fiddle” and “to have the upper hand”.

Imagery

the use of language to represent objects, actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas and any sensory or extra-sensory experience.

Irony

a contradiction or incongruity between appearance or expectation and reality. A discrepancy might exist between what someone says and what he/she actually means, or between what appears to be true and what is actually true. The term may be applied to statements, events, situations, and even structural elements of a work.

M

Magic Realism

A label for fiction that is characterized by the conflation of the realistic and the fantastic or bizarre, labyrinthine narratives and plots, the use of dreams, the elements of surprise and shock, and the horrific and inexplicable. The term has been applied to such works as those of Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, and perhaps most famously, Gabriel García Marquez. The Colombian novelist is especially regarded as a notable exponent of this kind of fiction, especially in connection to his work One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Malapropism

The unintentional misuse of a polysyllabic word by confusing it with another word of similar sound. For example, “I’d like to meet my daughter’s fiasco” (confusion of ‘fiasco’ and ‘fiancé’).

Metaphor

A figure of speech that associates two unlike things. The image used to “figure” something else is known as the vehicle of the metaphor, while the thing being represented is called the tenor. For example:

That child is a mouse!

Within this metaphor, “that child” is the tenor, while “mouse” is the vehicle. Metaphor should not be confused with simile, as metaphors do not use any connection words in order to make their comparison.

Modernism

A comprehensive but often difficult to define term for a movement which began in the closing years of the 19th century and had a lot of influence during much of the 20th century. In literature, the term is most associated with a break from established norms, rules, traditions and conventions and with new ways of looking at man’s function in the universe. Modernism is notably concerned with the use of language and with the act of writing in itself.