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heroic couple

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a rhyming pair of iambic-pentameter lines, first used extensively in English by Chaucer and later developed as a syntactically complete unit, esp. by Dryden and Pope (Ex.: "In every work regard the writer's end, Since none can compass more than they intend")

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terza rima -(tert′sə rē′mə)

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a verse form of Italian origin, made up of tercets, the second line of each tercet rhyming with the first and third lines of the next one (aba, bcb, cdc, etc.)

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blank verse

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unrhymed verse; esp., unrhymed verse having five iambic feet per line, as in Elizabethan drama

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Iambic pentameter

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The most common meter in English verse. It consists of a line ten syllables long that is accented on every second beat (see blank verse). These lines in iambic pentameter are from The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare:Ĭn sóoth,/Ĭ knów/nŏt whý/Ĭ ám/sŏ sád.Ĭt wéa/riĕs mé;/yŏu sáy/ĭt wéa/riĕs yóu

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Villanelle

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a poem of fixed form, French in origin, consisting usually of five three-line stanzas and a final four-line stanza and having only two rhymes throughout

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Dramatic Monologue

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A literary, usually verse composition in which a speaker reveals his or her character, often in relation to a critical situation or event, in a monologue addressed to the reader or to a presumed listener.

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Simile

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a figure of speech in which one thing is likened to another, dissimilar thing by the use of like, as, etc. (Ex.: a heart as big as a whale, her tears flowed like wine)

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Epic Simile

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An extended simile elaborated in great detail. Also called Homeric simile

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Irony

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a method of humorous or subtly sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning of the words is the direct opposite of their usual sense: the irony of calling a stupid plan "clever"

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Dramatic Irony

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the contrast, as in a play, between what a character thinks the truth is, as revealed in a speech or action, and what an audience or reader knows the truth

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Harangue

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a long, blustering, noisy, or scolding speech; tirade

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ro•man à clef (rō′män nä klā′)

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a novel in which real persons appear under fictitious names

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Picaresque

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designating or characteristic of a kind of fiction that originated in Spain and deals episodically with the adventures of a hero who is or resembles such a vagabond or rogue

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Epistolary Novels

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written in the form of a series of letters exchanged by the characters, as certain novels of the 18th cent.

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Vignette

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a short, carefully constructed scene in a film, play, etc.; specif., one regarded as subtle, sensitive, etc

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Serialized Novels

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to put or publish. Published novel

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Metaphor

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A figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common Ex: Her home was a prison.

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Hyperbole

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is a figure of speech that uses an exaggerated or extravagant statement to create a strong emotional response. As a figure of speech it is not intended to be taken literally. Hyperbole is frequently used for humour. Examples of hyperbole are: They ran like greased lightning

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Rhyming Couplet

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A couplet is a pair of lines of verse. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter. While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do

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Abstraction

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anything that isn't tangible. In literature, it can be opposed to imagery, the representation of tangible things

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Aestheticism

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a movement that took place near the end of the nineteenth century that aimed to free art from conventional Victorian morality

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Allegory

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an extended metaphor used in a drama or narrative

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Alliteration

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the repetition of consonant sounds close to each other

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Anacoluthon

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a sentence that changes its grammatical structure in the middle, often suggest disturbance or excitement. For example: "we had almost reached the finished line and then the race had to have been fixed from the beginning"

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Anadiplosis

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repetition at the start of a sentence of the concluding word or phrase in the previous sentence. For example: "There's only so much exercise you can get on a plane. A air plane is not the greatest place to work out"

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Antistrophe

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one of three sections of the Greek dramatic chorus and the Pindaric ode, along with the strophe and epode. These forms may be repeated in sequence within a single ode.

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Aporia

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a term used in deconstruction, absence of meaning and multiplicity of possible meaning within a text

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Assonance

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the repetition of vowel sounds close to each other

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Aubade

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a lyric from stemming from the Middle Ages that treats the subject of two lovers waking up together. It may deal with the joy of being together or with the sorrow of having to part.

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Bidungsroman

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a novel that traces the development of a young person from childhood or adolescence to maturity. It is often written in the form of an autobiography

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Canon

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an unofficial grouping of works by authors whose importance has become generally recognized by literature scholars.

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Chiasmus

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a verbal pattern in two parts in which the second part is like a mirror image of the first.

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Condition of England novel

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a novel concerned with the negative social and economic impacts of industrialism

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Connotation

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the secondary significance a word acquires through association that goes beyond its literal meaning

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Cycle

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a collection of works on a common theme such as Charlemagne or the Trojan War. Cycles typically represent the work of several different authors brought together into a group. Cycles are often groups of romance narrative.

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Eclogues

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pastoral lyrics- pomes that idealize life of shepherds

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Enjambment

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the continuation of the grammatical flow from one line of verse to the next

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Epic

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heroic poetry with an important subject of crucial national or cultural significance, together with a grand, lofty tone. Many epics tell the story of the founding of a nation or race by means of battle or journey

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Epistles

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letters, usually formal

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Epistolary novel

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a novel made up of correspondence between characters

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Epithalamium

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a poem that treats the subject of the couple's wedding night

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Epode

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one of three sections of the Greek dramatic chorus and the Pindaric ode, along with the strophe and antistrophe. These forms may be repeated in sequence within a single ode.

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Essay

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a prose form originated by the French Renaissance humanist Michel de Montaigne as an experimental and skeptical approach to writing

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Fashionable novel

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focus on the lives of the rich and elegant

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First Folio

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the 1623 collection of William Shakespeare's plays published after his death by member of his acting company

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Foreshadow

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the narrative devise of hinting at events that have yet to unfold

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Free indirect discourse

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the narrative technique of shifting freely between a first-person and an interior third-person point of view

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Free verse

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poetry that has no fixed meter, although it has rhythmic lines and line breaks and is therefore presumably composed with rhythmic qualities in mind. It came into vogue during the modern period.

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Gothic novels

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novels about gruesome doings and supernatural horrors, usually set far away and long ago. The form emerged during the eighteenth century but gained popularity and respectability in the nineteenth, as the imagination in literature came to be more highly regarded.

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Ideology

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made up of the ideas, beliefs, and values shared by members of a society. Ideology is shaped by political interests and serves power interests in ways we might not recognize

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Imagery

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any tangible thing named in a language, regardless of whether that thing is literal or figurative

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Marginalization

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the complex social process that pushes certain people outside mainstream society, usually because they are perceived as a threat to shared values

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Metaphysical poetry

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poetry characterized by elaborate, sometimes bizarre use of metaphor; rough, rugged versification; dramatic speakers; and paradoxical reasoning.

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Meter

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the rhythmic structure of poetry

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Mystery plays

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plays presented during the Middle Ages by guilds of feast days, They depict important events in Christian history.

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Mystification

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the process of denying or disguising political values by misrepresenting them as natural, universal, or transcendent ideals.

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Neo-Platonism

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a philosophy of the Middle Ages and Renaissance that accommodated the thinking of Plato to Christian theology

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New Criticism

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an important critical movement that took hold in the early decades of the twentieth century. It stresses the importance of paying close attention to the literary text as a way to develop critical intelligence

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Panegyric

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a poem praising someone for their achievements, stemming from ancient Greece

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Personification

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the device of presenting abstractions as human characters.

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Prosody

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refers to the sound and structure of poetry, including meter, rhyme, assonance, and alliteration

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Rhyme scheme

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the pattern of rhymes in a stanza

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Satire

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a literary work that exposes evil or folly through the use of irony, ridicule, or derision

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Sensation

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novel a melodramatic novel devoted to scandalous doings, guilty secrets, and lurid intrigues

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Soliloquy

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a speech conventionally understood to convey the private thought of the character who delivers it

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Stanza

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a repeated pattern of lines and rhymes analogous to a verse in a song

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Stream-of-consciousness

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novel a modernist form that puts a story together by tracing the thoughts and feelings of its characters rather than through the voice of a detached narrator

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Strophe

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one of the three sections of the Greek dramatic chorus and the Pindaric ode, along with the antistrophe and epode. These forms may be repeated in sequence within a single ode.

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Sublime

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a characteristic of art or nature that inspires a feeling of grander and mystery. For example: an ancient ruins, a storm swept landscape, of the fall of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost.

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Syllepsis

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the use of a single word in two different senses at once. For example: I just quit smoking and my job.

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Tetralogy

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a group of four works

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Theater of the absurd

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the dramatic genre of the 1950s that enacts the idea of existential meaninglessness

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Tone

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the mood or emotional attitude evoked or reflected in a written work

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Trace

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in deconstruction, things that are absent from yet suggested by a text. A trace may be the opposite of a written word

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Verisimilitude

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the semblance of truth, a quality that helps distinguish the early novel from fable and romance

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Elegy

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a work written to mourn the death and memorialize the life of someone who died

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Ode

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genre in poetry. Its formal, meditative, and intense.

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Epic

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an important narrative form that emerges at the threshold between orality and literacy. They are written down at some point after a period of oral development. Beowulf is considered an epic.

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Chivalry

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is the idealized code of medieval nobility. It stressed honesty and integrity in living up to one's social obligations, courtesy to others, and deference to ladies.

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Medieval Period

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12th-15th Centuries. Promoted chivalric (knightly) ideals that helped stabilize a social hierarchy based on bloodlines

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The Renaissance

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(1540-1640) public theaters presented plays that celebrated a semifluid social order governed by absolute power. These dramas portrayed any unchecked social mobility that might threaten state stability as the result of personal evil, corruption, and perversion.

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Augustan Period

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(1670-1790) identified literature as a worthy cultural pursuit capable of reconciling respect for classical learning with the evolving interests and tastes of the educated middle class. Translated, imitated, and elucidated the most respectable ancient and modern authors in an outpouring of learning and literacy.

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Romantic Period

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(1790-1840) poets turned inward for the inspiration to celebrate the powers of nature and the creative spirit of individualism

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Victorian Period

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(1840-1900) prescribed liberal doses of "English literature" as a means of restoring higher ideals to a society that appeared to grow increasingly crass.

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Beowulf

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Early Medieval Period; The protagonist of the poem. Beowulf is a Geatish hero who fights the monster Grendel, Grendel's mother, and a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf's exploits prove him to be the strongest, ablest warrior of his time. In his youth, he personifies the values of the heroic culture. In his old age, he proves a wise and effective ruler.

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Christopher Marlowe

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Renaissance Period; "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" & Doctor Faustus

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William Shakespeare

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Renaissance Period; Sonnets, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night, Henry IV, and A Midsummer's Nught Dream.

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John Milton

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Renaissance Period ; Paradise Lost

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Daniel Defoe

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Augustan Period; Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders

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Alexander Pope

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Augustan Period;

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Samuel Johnson

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Augustan Period

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William Wordsworth

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Romantic period;

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Romantic Period

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Jane Austen

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Romantic Period; Pride and Prejudice, Emma

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Charles Dickens

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Victorian Period; Oliver twist, Our Mutual Friend, Little Dorrit, Bleak House

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Wilfred Owen

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Modern Period; "Dulce et Decorum Est"

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