Accent The emphasis,
or stress, given a syllable in pronunciation. We say "syllable" not
"syllable," "emphasis" not "emphasis." Accents can also be
used to emphasize a particular word in a sentence: Is she content with the contents of the
yellow package? See also meter.
Act A major division
in the action of a play. The ends of acts are typically indicated by lowering the curtain
or turning up the houselights. Playwrights frequently employ acts to accommodate changes
in time, setting, characters onstage, or mood. In many full-length plays, acts are further
divided into scenes, which often mark a point in the action when the location changes or
when a new character enters. See also scene.
Allegory A narration
or description usually restricted to a single meaning because its events, actions,
characters, settings, and objects represent specific abstractions or ideas. Although the
elements in an allegory may be interesting in themselves, the emphasis tends to be on what
they ultimately mean. Characters may be given names such as Hope, Pride, Youth, and
Charity; they have few if any personal qualities beyond their abstract meanings. These
personifications are not symbols because, for instance, the meaning of a character named
Charity is precisely that virtue. See also symbol.
Alliteration The
repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of words, usually at the beginning
of a word or stressed syllable: "descending dew drops"; "luscious
lemons." Alliteration is based on the sounds of letters, rather than the spelling of
words; for example, "keen" and "car" alliterate, but "car"
and "cite" do not. Used sparingly, alliteration can intensify ideas by
emphasizing key words, but when used too self-consciously, it can be distracting, even
ridiculous, rather than effective. See also assonance, consonance.
Allusion A brief
reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature. Allusions
conjure up biblical authority, scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, historic figures,
wars, great love stories, and anything else that might enrich an author’s work.
Allusions imply reading and cultural experiences shared by the writer and reader,
functioning as a kind of shorthand whereby the recalling of something outside the work
supplies an emotional or intellectual context, such as a poem about current racial
struggles calling up the memory of Abraham Lincoln.
Ambiguity Allows for
two or more simultaneous interpretations of a word, phrase, action, or situation, all of
which can be supported by the context of a work. Deliberate ambiguity can contribute
to the effectiveness and richness of a work, for example, in the open-ended conclusion to
Hawthorne’s "Young Goodman Brown." However, unintentional ambiguity
obscures meaning and can confuse readers.
Anagram A word or
phrase made from the letters of another word or phrase, as "heart" is an anagram
of "earth." Anagrams have often been considered merely an exercise of one’s
ingenuity, but sometimes writers use anagrams to conceal proper names or veiled messages,
or to suggest important connections between words, as in "hated" and
"death."
Anapestic meter See
foot.
Antagonist The
character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that opposes the protagonist
and gives rise to the conflict of the story; an opponent of the protagonist, such as
Claudius in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. See also character, conflict.
Antihero A
protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. He or
she may be bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, or merely pathetic. Often what antiheroes
learn, if they learn anything at all, is that the world isolates them in an existence
devoid of God and absolute values. Yossarian from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is an
example of an antihero. See also character.
Apostrophe An
address, either to someone who is absent and therefore cannot hear the speaker or to
something nonhuman that cannot comprehend. Apostrophe often provides a speaker the
opportunity to think aloud.
Approximate rhyme See
rhyme.
Archetype A term used
to describe universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes unconscious responses in a
reader. In literature, characters, images, and themes that symbolically embody universal
meanings and basic human experiences, regardless of when or where they live, are
considered archetypes. Common literary archetypes include stories of quests, initiations,
scapegoats, descents to the underworld, and ascents to heaven. See also mythological
criticism.
Aside In drama, a
speech directed to the audience that supposedly is not audible to the other characters
onstage at the time. When Hamlet first appears onstage, for example, his aside "A
little more than kin, and less than kind!" gives the audience a strong sense of his
alienation from King Claudius. See also soliloquy.
Assonance The
repetition of internal vowel sounds in nearby words that do not end the same, for example,
"asleep under a tree," or "each evening." Similar endings result in
rhyme, as in "asleep in the deep." Assonance is a strong means of emphasizing
important words in a line. See also alliteration, consonance.
Ballad Traditionally,
a ballad is a song, transmitted orally from generation to generation, that tells a story
and that eventually is written down. As such, ballads usually cannot be traced to a
particular author or group of authors. Typically, ballads are dramatic, condensed, and
impersonal narratives, such as "Bonny Barbara Allan." A literary ballad is a
narrative poem that is written in deliberate imitation of the language, form, and spirit
of the traditional ballad, such as Keats’s "La Belle Dame sans Merci." See
also ballad stanza, quatrain.
Ballad stanza A
four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, consisting of alternating eight- and six-syllable
lines. Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme (an abcb pattern). Coleridge adopted
the ballad stanza in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
All in a hot and copper sky
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
See also ballad, quatrain.
Biographical criticism An
approach to literature which suggests that knowledge of the author’s life experiences
can aid in the understanding of his or her work. While biographical information can
sometimes complicate one’s interpretation of a work, and some formalist critics (such
as the New Critics) disparage the use of the author’s biography as a tool for textual
interpretation, learning about the life of the author can often enrich a reader’s
appreciation for that author’s work. See also cultural criticism, formalist
criticism, new criticism.
Blank verse Unrhymed
iambic pentameter. Blank verse is the English verse form closest to the natural rhythms of
English speech and therefore is the most common pattern found in traditional English
narrative and dramatic poetry from Shakespeare to the early twentieth century.
Shakespeare’s plays use blank verse extensively. See also iambic pentameter.
Cacophony Language
that is discordant and difficult to pronounce, such as this line from John Updike’s
"Player Piano": "never my numb plunker fumbles." Cacophony ("bad
sound") may be unintentional in the writer’s sense of music, or it may be used
consciously for deliberate dramatic effect. See also euphony.
Caesura A pause
within a line of poetry that contributes to the rhythm of the line. A caesura can occur
anywhere within a line and need not be indicated by punctuation. In scanning a line,
caesuras are indicated by a double vertical line (||). See also meter, rhythm, scansion.
Canon Those works
generally considered by scholars, critics, and teachers to be the most important to read
and study, which collectively constitute the "masterpieces" of literature. Since
the 1960s, the traditional English and American literary canon, consisting mostly of works
by white male writers, has been rapidly expanding to include many female writers and
writers of varying ethnic backgrounds.
Carpe diem The Latin
phrase meaning "seize the day." This is a very common literary theme, especially
in lyric poetry, which emphasizes that life is short, time is fleeting, and that one
should make the most of present pleasures. Robert Herrick’s poem "To the
Virgins, to Make Much of Time" employs the carpe diem theme.
Catharsis Meaning
"purgation," catharsis describes the release of the emotions of pity and fear by
the audience at the end of a tragedy. In his Poetics, Aristotle discusses the importance
of catharsis. The audience faces the misfortunes of the protagonist, which elicit pity and
compassion. Simultaneously, the audience also confronts the failure of the protagonist,
thus receiving a frightening reminder of human limitations and frailties. Ultimately,
however, both these negative emotions are purged, because the tragic protagonist’s
suffering is an affirmation of human values rather than a despairing denial of them. See
also tragedy.
Character,
characterization A character is a person presented in a dramatic or narrative work,
and characterization is the process by which a writer makes that character seem real to
the reader. A hero or heroine, often called the protagonist, is the central character who
engages the reader’s interest and empathy. The antagonist is the character, force, or
collection of forces that stands directly opposed to the protagonist and gives rise to the
conflict of the story. A static character does not change throughout the work, and the
reader’s knowledge of that character does not grow, whereas a dynamic character
undergoes some kind of change because of the action in the plot. A flat character embodies
one or two qualities, ideas, or traits that can be readily described in a brief summary.
They are not psychologically complex characters and therefore are readily accessible to
readers. Some flat characters are recognized as stock characters; they embody stereotypes
such as the "dumb blonde" or the "mean stepfather." They become types
rather than individuals. Round characters are more complex than flat or stock characters,
and often display the inconsistencies and internal conflicts found in most real people.
They are more fully developed, and therefore are harder to summarize. Authors have two
major methods of presenting characters: showing and telling. Showing allows the author to
present a character talking and acting, and lets the reader infer what kind of person the
character is. In telling, the author intervenes to describe and sometimes evaluate the
character for the reader. Characters can be convincing whether they are presented by
showing or by telling, as long as their actions are motivated. Motivated action by the
characters occurs when the reader or audience is offered reasons for how the characters
behave, what they say, and the decisions they make. Plausible action is action by a
character in a story that seems reasonable, given the motivations presented. See also
plot.
Chorus In Greek
tragedies (especially those of Aeschylus and Sophocles), a group of people who serve
mainly as commentators on the characters and events. They add to the audience’s
understanding of the play by expressing traditional moral, religious, and social
attitudes. The role of the chorus in dramatic works evolved through the sixteenth century,
and the chorus occasionally is still used by modern playwrights such as T. S. Eliot in
Murder in the Cathedral. See also drama.
Cliché An idea or
expression that has become tired and trite from overuse, its freshness and clarity
having worn off. Clichés often anesthetize readers, and are usually a sign of weak
writing. See also sentimentality, stock responses.
Climax See plot.
Closet drama A play
that is written to be read rather than performed onstage. In this kind of drama, literary
art outweighs all other considerations. See also drama.
Colloquial Refers to
a type of informal diction that reflects casual, conversational language and often
includes slang expressions. See also diction.
Comedy A work
intended to interest, involve, and amuse the reader or audience, in which no terrible
disaster occurs and that ends happily for the main characters. High comedy refers to
verbal wit, such as puns, whereas low comedy is generally associated with physical action
and is less intellectual. Romantic comedy involves a love affair that meets with various
obstacles (like disapproving parents, mistaken identities, deceptions, or other sorts of
misunderstandings) but overcomes them to end in a blissful union. Shakespeare’s
comedies, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, are considered romantic comedies.
Comic relief A
humorous scene or incident that alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work. In many
instances these moments enhance the thematic significance of the story in addition to
providing laughter. When Hamlet jokes with the gravediggers we laugh, but something
hauntingly serious about the humor also intensifies our more serious emotions.
Conflict The struggle
within the plot between opposing forces. The protagonist engages in the conflict with the
antagonist, which may take the form of a character, society, nature, or an aspect of the
protagonist’s personality. See also character, plot.
Connotation Associations
and implications that go beyond the literal meaning of a word, which derive from how the
word has been commonly used and the associations people make with it. For example, the
word eagle connotes ideas of liberty and freedom that have little to do with the
word’s literal meaning. See also denotation.
Consonance A common
type of near rhyme that consists of identical consonant sounds preceded by different vowel
sounds: home, same; worth, breath. See also rhyme.
Contextual symbol See
symbol.
Controlling metaphor See
metaphor.
Convention A
characteristic of a literary genre (often unrealistic) that is understood and accepted by
audiences because it has come, through usage and time, to be recognized as a familiar
technique. For example, the division of a play into acts and scenes is a dramatic
convention, as are soliloquies and asides. flashbacks and foreshadowing are examples of
literary conventions.
Conventional symbol See
symbol.
Cosmic irony See
irony.
Couplet Two
consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme and have the same meter. A heroic couplet
is a couplet written in rhymed iambic pentameter.
Crisis A turning
point in the action of a story that has a powerful effect on the protagonist. Opposing
forces come together decisively to lead to the climax of the plot. See also plot.
Cultural criticism An
approach to literature that focuses on the historical as well as social,
political, and economic contexts of a work. Popular culture—mass produced and
consumed cultural artifacts ranging from advertising to popular fiction to television to
rock music—is given equal emphasis as "high culture." Cultural critics use
widely eclectic strategies such as new historicism, psychology, gender studies, and
deconstructionism to analyze not only literary texts but everything from radio talk shows,
comic strips, calendar art, commercials, to travel guides and baseball cards. See also
historical criticism, marxist criticism, postcolonial criticism.
Dactylic meter See
foot.
Deconstructionism An
approach to literature which suggests that literary works do not yield fixed, single
meanings, because language can never say exactly what we intend it to mean.
Deconstructionism seeks to destabilize meaning by examining the gaps and ambiguities of
the language of a text. Deconstructionists pay close attention to language in order to
discover and describe how a variety of possible readings are generated by the elements of
a text. See also new criticism.
Denotation The
dictionary meaning of a word. See also connotation.
Dénouement A French
term meaning "unraveling" or "unknotting," used to describe the
resolution of the plot following the climax. See also plot, resolution.
Dialect A type of
informational diction. Dialects are spoken by definable groups of people from a particular
geographic region, economic group, or social class. Writers use dialect to contrast and
express differences in educational, class, social, and regional backgrounds of their
characters. See also diction.
Dialogue The verbal
exchanges between characters. Dialogue makes the characters seem real to the reader or
audience by revealing firsthand their thoughts, responses, and emotional states. See also
diction.
Diction A
writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language,
which combine to help create meaning. Formal diction consists of a dignified, impersonal,
and elevated use of language; it follows the rules of syntax exactly and is often
characterized by complex words and lofty tone. Middle diction maintains correct language
usage, but is less elevated than formal diction; it reflects the way most educated people
speak. Informal diction represents the plain language of everyday use, and often includes
idiomatic expressions, slang, contractions, and many simple, common words. Poetic diction
refers to the way poets sometimes employ an elevated diction that deviates significantly
from the common speech and writing of their time, choosing words for their supposedly
inherent poetic qualities. Since the eighteenth century, however, poets have been
incorporating all kinds of diction in their work and so there is no longer an automatic
distinction between the language of a poet and the language of everyday speech. See also
dialect.
Didactic poetry Poetry
designed to teach an ethical, moral, or religious lesson. Michael Wigglesworth’s
Puritan poem Day of Doom is an example of didactic poetry.
Doggerel A derogatory
term used to describe poetry whose subject is trite and whose rhythm and sounds are
monotonously heavy-handed.
Drama Derived from
the Greek word dram, meaning "to do" or "to perform," the term drama
may refer to a single play, a group of plays ("Jacobean drama"), or to all plays
("world drama"). Drama is designed for performance in a theater; actors take on
the roles of characters, perform indicated actions, and speak the dialogue written in the
script. Play is a general term for a work of dramatic literature, and a playwright is a
writer who makes plays.
Dramatic irony See
irony.
Dramatic monologue A
type of lyric poem in which a character (the speaker) addresses a distinct but silent
audience imagined to be present in the poem in such a way as to reveal a dramatic
situation and, often unintentionally, some aspect of his or her temperament or
personality. See also lyric.
Dynamic character See
character.
