Definition of Different Literary Terms

Allegory:
Prose or verse in which the objects, events or people are presented symbolically, so that the story conveys a meaning other than and deeper than the actual incident or characters described. Often, the form is used to teach a moral lesson.
Alliteration:
An alliteration is a repetition of sounds (consonants) at the beginning of neighbouring words or of stressed syllables within such words, e.g. “fingers the small size of small spades.” Purpose: rhythm and stress.
Anaphora:
The anaphora is a repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of neighbouring sentences, lines, stanzas, etc.
And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun,
And she forgot the blue above the trees,
Assonance:
The assonance is a repetition of similar vowel sounds within stressed syllables of neighbouring words, e.g. “on the dole with nowhere to go.”
Thesis- An attitude or position on a problem taken by a writer or speaker with the purpose of proving or supporting it.
Antithesis:
A figure of speech in which opposing or contrasting ideas are balanced against each other in grammatically parallel syntax.
Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
The vases of the classical period are but the reflection of classical beauty; the vases of the archaic period are beauty itself." Sir John Beazley
Author (omniscient):
An omniscient author is capable of seeing, knowing, and telling whatever he wishes. He is free to move his characters in time and place, to describe the physical action and private thoughts of characters, to comment on what happens and to make clear the theme of his story in whatever way he chooses (cf. point of view).
Narrator:
One who narrates or tells, a story. A writer may choose to have a story told by a first person narrator, someone who is either a major or minor character. Or, a writer may choose to use a third person narrator, someone who is not in the story at all. Third person narrators are often omniscient, or "all knowing"- that is, they are able to enter into the minds of all the characters in the story.
Blank verse:
Unrhymed lines of mostly 10 syllables each; especially the iambic pentameter. Shakespeare chiefly used blank verse in his dramas.
Caesura:
The break or pause between words within a metrical foot; a pause in a line of verse generally near the middle.
Character:
In a fictional text, person developed through action, description, language and way of speaking. 1. Flat/static character: a flat character is not fully developed, it lacks complexity, and remains the same throughout a narrative. Static characters do not develop or change beyond the way in which they are first presented 2. Round/dynamic character: a person in a work of fiction who is so fully described as to be recognizable, understandable, and individually different from all others appearing in the book and undergoes an important and basic change in personality or outlook.

Characterization:
There are several different ways of presenting a character in fiction or drama: 1. Explicit presentation: Here the omniscient author describes the outward appearance and the psychological nature of a character. If a character's thoughts and/or his feelings are described we speak of introspection. 2. Implicit presentation: A character is presented in terms of his or her environment. If a person lives in strange surroundings he is assumed to be strange himself. Since the author does not tell us explicitly, the reader is expected to draw his own conclusions. 3. Dramatic presentation: A character is presented through action, interaction or dialogue. Here, too, the author seems to have withdrawn from the scene and the reader (or audience) must form their own impressions.

Conflict:
All fiction involves, at one level or another, conflict. A character struggles against a certain environment or against others (external conflict), or he is engaged in a struggle with himself (internal conflict). One important approach to the right understanding of any story is to determine the nature of the conflict involved and the pattern which the opposing forces assume. Conflict can be internal or external, and it can take one of these forms: 1. Person against another person 2. Person against society 3. A person against nature 4. Two elements or ideas struggling for mastery within a person 5. Person against supernatural
Action:
The action of a story is a series of events usually arranged so as to have three recognizable parts: 1. the beginning (introduction, exposition), 1. the middle (rising action, complication; crisis, climax, turning-point; falling action) 1. the end (dénouement or solution, catastrophe, resolution).
In contrast to real life, action in fiction is ordered; it "imitates in words a sequence of human activities, with a power to affect our opinions and emotions in a certain way". It is the basic principle in all fiction and arouses the reader's interest: it makes him eager to learn what is going to happen and/or how the problems faced by the characters are going to be solved. Action produces tension, suspense or surprise.
Climax:
Structural element of a text, the moment when the conflict is most intense. The point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in a narrative. In fictional texts, the climax follows the rising action and precedes the turning-point.
Rising action:
Structural element of fictional texts, marked by an increase in suspense and an intensifying of the conflict. It usually follows the exposition and precedes the climax.
Falling action:
Structural element of a fictional text, marked by a reduction of the suspense. It usually follows the turning-point and precedes the solution/dénouement.
Resolution- The outcome of the conflict in a play or story. The resolution concludes the falling action.
Contrast:
Bringing together of opposing views in order to emphasize their differences or create tension. Examples: Paradise’ loss is our gain. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Elegy:
A mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.
Exposition:
It has to fulfill several requirements – to set the action going, suggest the theme, sketch the background, introduce the main characters and their problems, arouse suspense. Generally speaking, it sets forth the prerequisites from which the story will develop. The process of giving the reader necessary information concerning the characters and events existing before the action proper of a story, drama or novel begins. The kind of writing that is intending primarily to present information
Foreshadowing- The use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest what action is to come. Foreshadowing helps to build suspense in a story because it suggests what is about to happen.
Free verse:
Form of a poem whose structure is not established by rhyme and a regular metre or pattern that depends on natural speech rhythms but, for example, by repetition, rhythm and sound elements such as alliteration and assonance Free verse may rhyme or not rhyme; its lines may be of different lengths; and like natural speech, it may switch suddenly from one rhythm to another.
Hyperbole:
(Opp. understatement). Obvious and deliberate exaggeration, for the purpose of emphasis. It is not meant to be taken literally, but is used figuratively to create humor or emphasis.
Image (imagery):
Basically the term denotes the images employed in a literary work (or any other text). A general definition is: a picture in words which often strongly appeals to the senses. Specific devices are symbol, simile and metaphor. Language that appeals to any sense or any combination of the senses.
Iambic Pentameter- The most common verse line in English poetry. It consists of five verse feet, with each foot an iamb-that is, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Shakespeare’s plays are written almost exclusively in iambic pentameter.
Metaphor:
Element of imagery, the linking of two seemingly unlike things with one another in the form of an implicit comparison, thus suggesting some kind of identity, e.g. “the snow of his hair.” Such figures of speech can be found in poetic language as well as in everyday language to create a dramatic effect. A comparison between two unlike things with the intent of giving added meaning to one of them. Metaphor is one of the most important forms of figurative language. Unlike a simile, a metaphor does not use a connective word such as like, as, than, or resembles to state a comparison.
In everyday language one is no longer aware of the metaphorical quality because of too frequent use. Those expressions are called dead metaphors (e.g. “bottle-neck, leg of a table, foot of a mountain” etc.). In poetic language metaphorical expressions achieve a special effect.
”The road was a ribbon of moonlight.”
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent. W. Churchill
Onomatopoeia:
The formation of words from sounds which seem to suggest and reinforce the meaning. Onomatopoeia is often used in imitation of natural sounds: bang, hiss, swish, buzz.
Personification:
It is the technique of representing animals, plants, objects, the forces of nature or abstract ideas as if they were human beings and possessed human qualities.
Point of view:
The author who writes a story is always omniscient. He may choose to reveal his omniscience (unlimited knowledge), reduce it, or give it up completely. Author and narrator are not identical. The author is the writer, the “real man” with a personal biography, who remains outside the story. The narrator is always a figure within the story, where he can adopt various roles. 1. Neutral omniscience: The narrative is told in the third person. The prevailing characteristic is that the narrator knows everything about his characters, their thoughts, feelings, perceptions. The reader has access to all possible kinds of information. 1. Selective omniscience: The third-person narrator deliberately limits his total omniscience and restricts himself to the viewpoint of one or several (multiple selective omniscience) characters in the narrative. In the latter case he may shift from the viewpoint of one character to that of another (shifting point of view). 1. Observer-narrator: The narrator confines himself to the role of an observer, who tells only those things that can be perceived from the outside. He has no access to the thoughts of other characters. 1. As witness: The author hands his job of story-telling completely over to another mediator. The "I" as witness is a character in his own right within the story. The natural consequence of this narrative form is that the witness has no more than ordinary access to the mental state of others. 1. Narrator as protagonist: The main character tells his own story in the first person. He is limited almost entirely to his own thoughts, feelings and perceptions. 1. Withdrawal of author and character: The total elimination of the narrator. The story comes directly through the minds of the characters. The aim is to dramatize mental states. (Cf. stream of consciousness). 1. The dramatic mode: Having eliminated the author, and then the narrator, we are now ready to dispose of mental states altogether. The information available to the reader in the dramatic mode is limited largely to what the characters do and say, the "point of view" being comparable to that of a camera. The characters' appearance and the setting may be supplied by the author as in the stage directions of a play (cf. scenic presentation).

Plot:
In fictional texts, the structure of the action as a set of events connected by cause and effect and centered around one or more conflicts. Plot is typically composed of the following elements, usually in this order: exposition, rising action, climax, turning-point, falling action, solution/dénouement or open ending.
Pun:
Play on words, using either different meanings of the same word or the different meanings of words having the same or similar sounds. Usually, the humorous use of a word or phrase to suggest two or more meanings at the same time
Rhetoric:
The act of using language for persuasion in speaking or writing, especially in oratory. The writer or speaker can use various rhetorical or stylistic devices to achieve the desired effects. These include: alliteration, allusion, anticlimax, antithesis, hyperbole, paradox, parallelism, pun.
Setting:
Place, time and circumstances in which the action takes place. In short stories, novels, poetry, and nonfiction, setting is generally created by description. In drama, setting is usually established by stage directions and dialogue. Setting can be of great importance in establishing not only physical background but also mood or emotional intensity. In turn, the mood contributes to the plot and theme of the narrative
Simile:
Element of imagery; connecting and comparing two things of different classes or categories by “as” or “like” to increase vividness and expression. An explicit comparison on the basis of a resemblance in one or several aspects: “his hair was like snow”. Symbol (symbolic):
A symbol is an object, character, or incident which stands for something else or suggests something greater than itself, e.g. an idea or a quality. It establishes at least two levels of meaning, the concrete and the spiritual one (cf. figurative meaning). 1. book | symbol of wisdom and knowledge; in Islamic countries also symbol of fate | 2. dove | symbol of peace | 3. fountain | connected with (deep) water -> deep secrets, knowledge, wisdom; but also purification | 4. owl | symbol of wisdom, science and knowledge | 5. rose | symbol of love, but also of discreteness and secrecy |
Simile- A comparison made between two dissimilar things through the use of a specific word of comparison such as Like, as, than, or resembles. The comparison must be between two essentially unlike things.
Soliloquy- A speech, usually lengthy, in which a character, alone on stage, expresses his or her thoughts aloud. The soliloquy is a very useful dramatic device, as it allows the dramatist to convey a character’s most intimate thoughts and feelings directly to the audience.
Style:
A writer's characteristic use of language. Style includes: 0 arrangement of ideas 1 choice of vocabulary 2 sentence structure and variety 3 imagery 4 appropriate diction or register 5 rhythm 6 repetition 7 tone etc.

1. Formal style: Language used to address educated readers or listeners not known very closely by the writer or speaker. Formal style shows detachment and respect. Typical of it are a non-personal point of view, the use of precise and frequently difficult vocabulary, full forms and often long, complex sentences. An unnecessary accumulation of words of the same or similar meaning. It is a fault of style or a figure that is employed deliberately.

Tone: Writer’s or speaker’s attitude towards his/her theme, character(s) and especially towards the reader or listener, as reflected in the text. Tone can, for example, be serious or playful, humorous or solemn, arrogant or modest, emotional, ironical, critical, sympathetic (cf. atmosphere). Tone is created through the choice of words and details. Theme:
Central topic of or main idea of a literary text, holding all its elements together and giving them meaning. The theme of a work is not the same as the works’ subject. Not all literary works can be said to express a theme. Theme generally is not a concern in those works that are told primarily for entertainment; it is of importance in those literary works that comment on or present some insight about the meaning of life. In some literary works the theme is expressed directly, but more often, the theme is implicit-that is, it must be dug out and thought about. A simple theme can often be stated in a single sentence. But sometimes a literary work is rich and complex, and a paragraph or even an essay is needed to state the theme.
Whimsical- A critical term for writing what is fanciful or expresses odd notions.