Literary ballad See
ballad.
Literary symbol See
symbol.
Low comedy See
comedy.
Lyric A type of brief
poem that expresses the personal emotions and thoughts of a single speaker. It is
important to realize, however, that although the lyric is uttered in the first person, the
speaker is not necessarily the poet. There are many varieties of lyric poetry, including
the dramatic monologue, elegy, haiku, ode, and sonnet forms.
Marxist criticism An
approach to literature that focuses on the ideological content of a work—its explicit
and implicit assumptions and values about matters such as culture, race, class, and power.
Marxist criticism, based largely on the writings of Karl Marx, typically aims at not only
revealing and clarifying ideological issues but also correcting social injustices. Some
Marxist critics use literature to describe the competing socioeconomic interests that too
often advance capitalist interests such as money and power rather than socialist interests
such as morality and justice. They argue that literature and literary criticism are
essentially political because they either challenge or support economic oppression.
Because of this strong emphasis on the political aspects of texts, Marxist criticism
focuses more on the content and themes of literature than on its form. See also cultural
criticism, historical criticism, sociological criticism.
Masculine rhyme See
rhyme.
Melodrama A term
applied to any literary work that relies on implausible events and sensational action for
its effect. The conflicts in melodramas typically arise out of plot rather than
characterization; often a virtuous individual must somehow confront and overcome a wicked
oppressor. Usually, a melodramatic story ends happily, with the protagonist defeating the
antagonist at the last possible moment. Thus, melodramas entertain the reader or audience
with exciting action while still conforming to a traditional sense of justice. See
sentimentality.
Metaphor A metaphor
is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, without using the
word like or as. Metaphors assert the identity of dissimilar things, as when Macbeth
asserts that life is a "brief candle." Metaphors can be subtle and powerful, and
can transform people, places, objects, and ideas into whatever the writer imagines them to
be. An implied metaphor is a more subtle comparison; the terms being compared are not so
specifically explained. For example, to describe a stubborn man unwilling to leave, one
could say that he was "a mule standing his ground." This is a fairly explicit
metaphor; the man is being compared to a mule. But to say that the man "brayed his
refusal to leave" is to create an implied metaphor, because the subject (the man) is
never overtly identified as a mule. Braying is associated with the mule, a notoriously
stubborn creature, and so the comparison between the stubborn man and the mule is
sustained. Implied metaphors can slip by inattentive readers who are not sensitive to such
carefully chosen, highly concentrated language. An extended metaphor is a sustained
comparison in which part or all of a poem consists of a series of related metaphors.
Robert Francis’s poem "Catch" relies on an extended metaphor that compares
poetry to playing catch. A controlling metaphor runs through an entire work and determines
the form or nature of that work. The controlling metaphor in Anne Bradstreet’s poem
"The Author to Her Book" likens her book to a child. Synecdoche is a kind of
metaphor in which a part of something is used to signify the whole, as when a gossip is
called a "wagging tongue," or when ten ships are called "ten sails."
Sometimes, synecdoche refers to the whole being used to signify the part, as in the phrase
"Boston won the baseball game." Clearly, the entire city of Boston did not
participate in the game; the whole of Boston is being used to signify the individuals who
played and won the game. Metonymy is a type of metaphor in which something closely
associated with a subject is substituted for it. In this way, we speak of the "silver
screen" to mean motion pictures, "the crown" to stand for the king,
"the White House" to stand for the activities of the president. See also figures
of speech, personification, simile.
Meter When a rhythmic
pattern of stresses recurs in a poem, it is called meter. Metrical patterns are determined
by the type and number of feet in a line of verse; combining the name of a line length
with the name of a foot concisely describes the meter of the line. Rising meter refers to
metrical feet which move from unstressed to stressed sounds, such as the iambic foot and
the anapestic foot. Falling meter refers to metrical feet which move from stressed to
unstressed sounds, such as the trochaic foot and the dactylic foot. See also accent, foot,
iambic pentameter, line.
Metonymy See
metaphor.
Middle diction See
diction.
Motivated action See
character.
Mythological criticism An
approach to literature that seeks to identify what in a work creates deep universal
responses in readers, by paying close attention to the hopes, fears, and expectations of
entire cultures. Mythological critics (sometimes called archetypal critics) look for
underlying, recurrent patterns in literature that reveal universal meanings and basic
human experiences for readers regardless of when and where they live. These critics
attempt to explain how archetypes (the characters, images, and themes that symbolically
embody universal meanings and experiences) are embodied in literary works in order to make
larger connections that explain a particular work’s lasting appeal. Mythological
critics may specialize in areas such as classical literature, philology, anthropology,
psychology, and cultural history, but they all emphasize the assumptions and values of
various cultures. See also archetype.
Naive narrator See
narrator.
Narrative poem A poem
that tells a story. A narrative poem may be short or long, and the story it relates may be
simple or complex. See also ballad, epic.
Narrator The voice of
the person telling the story, not to be confused with the author’s voice. With a
first-person narrator, the I in the story presents the point of view of only one
character. The reader is restricted to the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of that
single character. For example, in Melville’s "Bartleby, the Scrivener," the
lawyer is the first-person narrator of the story. First-person narrators can play either a
major or a minor role in the story they are telling. An unreliable narrator reveals an
interpretation of events that is somehow different from the author’s own
interpretation of those events. Often, the unreliable narrator’s perception of plot,
characters, and setting becomes the actual subject of the story, as in Melville’s
"Bartleby, the Scrivener." Narrators can be unreliable for a number of reasons:
they might lack self-knowledge (like Melville’s lawyer), they might be inexperienced,
they might even be insane. Naive narrators are usually characterized by youthful
innocence, such as Mark Twain’s Huck Finn or J. D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield.
An omniscient narrator is an all-knowing narrator who is not a character in the story and
who can move from place to place and pass back and forth through time, slipping into and
out of characters as no human being possibly could in real life. Omniscient narrators can
report the thoughts and feelings of the characters, as well as their words and actions.
The narrator of The Scarlet Letter is an omniscient narrator. Editorial omniscience refers
to an intrusion by the narrator in order to evaluate a character for a reader, as when the
narrator of The Scarlet Letter describes Hester’s relationship to the Puritan
community. Narration that allows the characters’ actions and thoughts to speak for
themselves is called neutral omniscience. Most modern writers use neutral omniscience so
that readers can reach their own conclusions. Limited omniscience occurs when an author
restricts a narrator to the single perspective of either a major or minor character. The
way people, places, and events appear to that character is the way they appear to the
reader. Sometimes a limited omniscient narrator can see into more than one character,
particularly in a work that focuses on two characters alternately from one chapter to the
next. Short stories, however, are frequently limited to a single character’s point of
view. See also persona, point of view, stream-of-consciousness technique.
Near rhyme See rhyme.
Neutral omniscience See
narrator.
New Criticism An
approach to literature made popular between the 1940s and the 1960s that evolved out of
formalist criticism. New Critics suggest that detailed analysis of the language of a
literary text can uncover important layers of meaning in that work. New Criticism
consciously downplays the historical influences, authorial intentions, and social contexts
that surround texts in order to focus on explication—extremely close textual
analysis. Critics such as John Crowe Ransom, I. A. Richards, and Robert Penn Warren are
commonly associated with New Criticism. See also formalist criticism.
New historicism An
approach to literature that emphasizes the interaction between the historic context of the
work and a modern reader’s understanding and interpretation of the work. New
historicists attempt to describe the culture of a period by reading many different kinds
of texts and paying close attention to many different dimensions of a culture, including
political, economic, social, and aesthetic concerns. They regard texts not simply as a
reflection of the culture that produced them but also as productive of that culture
playing an active role in the social and political conflicts of an age. New historicism
acknowledges and then explores various versions of "history," sensitizing us to
the fact that the history on which we choose to focus is colored by being reconstructed
from our present circumstances. See also historical criticism.
Objective point of view See
point of view.
Octave A poetic
stanza of eight lines, usually forming one part of a sonnet. See also sonnet, stanza.
Ode A relatively
lengthy lyric poem that often expresses lofty emotions in a dignified style. Odes are
characterized by a serious topic, such as truth, art, freedom, justice, or the meaning of
life; their tone tends to be formal. There is no prescribed pattern that defines an ode;
some odes repeat the same pattern in each stanza, while others introduce a new pattern in
each stanza. See also lyric.
Oedipus complex A
Freudian term derived from Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus the King. It describes a
psychological complex that is predicated on a boy’s unconscious rivalry with his
father for his mother’s love and his desire to eliminate his father in order to take
his father’s place with his mother. The female equivalent of this complex is called
the Electra complex. See also electra complex, psychological criticism.
Off rhyme See rhyme.
Omniscient narrator See
narrator.
One-act play A play
that takes place in a single location and unfolds as one continuous action. The characters
in a one-act play are presented economically and the action is sharply focused. See also
drama.
Onomatopoeia A term
referring to the use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes. Buzz, rattle, bang,
and sizzle all reflect onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia can also consist of more than one word;
writers sometimes create lines or whole passages in which the sound of the words helps to
convey their meanings.
Open form Sometimes
called "free verse," open form poetry does not conform to established patterns
of meter, rhyme, and stanza. Such poetry derives its rhythmic qualities from the
repetition of words, phrases, or grammatical structures, the arrangement of words on the
printed page, or by some other means. The poet E. E. Cummings wrote open form poetry; his
poems do not have measurable meters, but they do have rhythm. See also fixed form.
Organic form Refers
to works whose formal characteristics are not rigidly predetermined but follow the
movement of thought or emotion being expressed. Such works are said to grow like living
organisms, following their own individual patterns rather than external fixed rules that
govern, for example, the form of a sonnet.
Overstatement See
hyperbole.
Oxymoron A condensed
form of paradox in which two contradictory words are used together, as in "sweet
sorrow" or "original copy." See also paradox.
