Glossary of Literary Terms
- Act
- Aesthetics
- The philosophy and psychology of beauty in art and nature.
- Affective Fallacy
- Allegory
- Alliteration
- Allusion
- Ambiguity
- Anaphora
- The repetition of a word or parallel verbal construction at the beginning of lines, sentences, or parts of sentences.
- Antagonist
- The character or force that opposes the hero (protagonist) in a story.
- Anticlimax
- A surprising plot twist that shifts the tone of a narrative away from the expected climax, often shifting from the serious to the mundane or absurd. Can be used for comic or satiric effect.
- Antithesis
- Apostrophe
- Archetype
- Aside
- Assonance
- Atmosphere
- Avant-garde
- Ballad
- Beat Generation
- Bildungsroman
- A novel about the education and maturing of a young person. Also known as a coming of age story.
- Black Comedy
- Blank verse
- Unrhymed iambic pentameter verse.
- Cacophony
- Caesura
- A natural pause in the middle of a poetic line. Can be indicated by punctuation, or not. Caesura adds variety and texture to a poem's rhythm.
- Canon
- Carpe diem
- "Seize the day". A quote from an ode by Horace. It encapsulates a philosophy of living in the moment. Carpe diem has been a theme in literature ever since.
- Catharsis
- The therapeutic purging of powerful emotions when experiencing a literary work, especially tragic drama.
- Chapbook
- Character
- Characterization
- Chorus
- Close reading
- Colloquialism
- Comedy
- Concrete poetry
- Conflict
- The engine of most dramatic and fictional art, conflict is the tension or battle between opposing forces: characters, settings, and psyches.
- Consonance
- A pattern of repeated consonant sounds.
- Convention
- Couplet
- A pair of rhymed lines.
- Criticism
- Dactyl
- Deconstruction
- Dénouement
- Deus ex Machina
- Dialogue
- Quoted, overheard conversation between literary characters.
- Diction
- Didactic
- Drama
- Dramatic monologue
- A poem written in the voice of a character, as if that character is speaking a soliloquy.
- Dramatis personae
- The roster of characters in a drama.
- Dynamic character
- A literary character who changes significantly by the end of a narrative.
- Elegy
- Epiphany
- A "shining moment of clarity" in a story, wherein a character suddenly sees the truth in a new light
- Pentameter
- A five foot line of verse.