EELL Glossary of Literary Terms Adopted from A Glossary of Literary Terms by MH Abrams and Rhetorical Devices: A Handbook and Activities for Student Writers by Paul Moliken. Allusion: a reference within a work to something the audience is expected to know. An allusion is a reference to some fairly well-­‐known event, place, or person: “This new war was Vietnam all over again.” Unlike a detailed comparison or reference, an allusion is short and usually not formally introduced. The new war, according to the analogy, must be a drawn-­‐out, difficult one that involves protests by Americans and many soldiers’ deaths. Allusions can be used to help your reader see a broader picture, to evoke a negative or positive feeling, or to add credibility to your writing. Used in a weak or inconclusive manner, however, allusions can cause problems: “This painting resembles Medusa.” Knowing that the allusion refers to a monster from Greek mythology with hair like snake, who could turn a person into stone does not help the reader in understanding what the painting looks like because there are many possibilities for individual interpretation: Is it a painting of snakes, of the actual monster, of something that looks like a monster, or what? Analogy: The analogy is the somewhat more down-­‐to-­‐earth version of the simile. Both compare two things for a specific purpose, but while the simile usually does so with a fair amount of stylistic flair, the analogy does so for much more pragmatic reasons. The analogy makes use of something already well known to explain something that is less well known. It can be one of the most effective strategic devices in both education and persuasion, helping to quickly make your reader see precisely what you mean. Perhaps the most useful form of the analogy is one in which a simple argument is substituted for a more complex argument, to help your readers understand the underlying premise. Once you have them in agreement about the simple argument, it becomes much easier for them to see and accept the more complex form. The analogy can border on a logical fallacy when the two arguments do not actually correlate exactly, but for the most part, analogies may help to shed light on a confusing issue. Example: “When your enemy comes to you in pain, you must do whatever is in your power to help ease that pain. For when a child comes to you in pain, do you not do everything you can? Know then that in the eyes of the Lord we are all His children.” Antagonist: is the force working against the protagonist. Can be another character, a group of characters, or something nonhuman, such as nature or society. Aside: is a characters remark, either to the audience or to another character, that others on the stage do not hear. Reveals the character’s private thoughts. Characters: Characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work who have particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities. The reader learns about these qualities through inference. There are two ways the reader infers: (1) what the character says and their unique ways of saying it—the dialogue (2) what the character does—their actions. How the author portrays what a character says and does is called characterization. Why a character says and does things in a particular way reveals their motivation. When we talk about characters in a dramatic or narrative work, it’s useful to talk about them in terms of the degree to which an author develops them and how they change in reaction to the events in the story. The degree to which an author develops a character: • Flat characters are simple in terms of how the author develops them. They are built around a single idea or quality and often presented without much depth in personality. Flat characters can usually be described in a single phrase or sentence. Examples: • Round characters are complex in terms of how the author develops them. They are built around multiple ideas and often presented with great depth. Round characters are more difficult to describe, much like a person in real life. And like a person in real life, they are capable of surprising us. How a characters changes in reaction to the events and conflict •
Dynamic characters change how their outlook on life and how they think as a result of the events in the story. They can change either through a gradual process of development or as the result of a conflict/crisis. This change is often significant. Examples: •
Static characters remain essentially "stable," or unchanged in their outlook and way of thinking, from beginning to end of a work. Static characters can be flat or round. Things happen to this character but nothing within them changes. The events and action serve only to reveal the character’s traits, not bring about change. Sometimes a static character may seem to change as the reader finds out more about him, but this doesn't mean he's not static. Examples: Important note: whether a character remains stable or changes, the reader of a traditional and realistic work expects "consistency"—the character should not suddenly break off and act in a way not consistent with their personality as we have already come to know it. Characterization: characterization is the process of inventing, depicting and manipulating characters in a work of fiction. When thinking about characterization, the character’s motivation must also be taken into account—that is, why a character acts the way s/he does and does the thing they do. There are two basic types of characterization: • Direct characterization: author tells the reader about a character’s traits. Direct characterization occurs when the narrator describes the character’s physical appearance or makes comments that evaluate the character’s appearance, motivations, attitudes, and desires. You can spot direct characterization by looking for adjectives. When an author uses adjectives to tell what a character is like, it is direct characterization. • Indirect characterization: author shows a character’s traits through dialogue, inner thought, action, and reaction. Unlike direct characterization, the reader must use these methods to infer what the character’s motivations, attitudes, and desires are. You can spot indirect characterization by looking for verbs. When the author uses verbs to show what a character does, it is indirect characterization Comic Relief: is a humorous scene or speech intended to lighten the mood; serves to heighten the seriousness of the main action by contrast. Conflict: Conflict is the struggle between two opposing forces—the protagonist and someone or something else. There is often more than one type of conflict in fiction, but one will usually dominate. There are four types of conflict and they are classified as either external or internal. External conflict: the struggle between the protagonist and an outside force. • Man vs. Man: protagonist vs. another character or a group of characters. • Man vs. Nature: protagonist struggles against forces of nature. For example, struggling against the arctic cold or trying to stay alive on a deserted island. • Man vs. Society: protagonist battles an idea, belief, tradition, custom or institution created by society—such as slavery, marriage or communism. Usually the protagonist is forced to make a moral choice and is conflicted between society’s rules and what he believes to be right. Internal conflict: a struggle that takes place within the protagonist. • Man vs. Himself: protagonist deals with mixed thoughts and feelings and is forced to decide. Some examples of internal struggles: overcoming a fear, facing an addiction, accepting one’s situation, dealing with an emotional issues, realizing limitations. • (Man vs. fate, supernatural, God) Diction: the choice of words, or the characteristic vocabulary of a piece of writing. Some terms which may be used to characterize diction: colloquial/formal; concrete/abstract; literal/figurative (see Mean/no); everyday/technical. Archaic diction includes archaisms. Diction is a component of style, and it contributes to the tone of a work. Denotation-­‐an objective, dictionary-­‐style definition; Connotation-­‐a definition loaded with emotional overtones Difference Between Speaker and Author: Often in literature, the speaker is not the author. One aspect of literary analysis entails exploring the relationship between author and speaker. Carefully analyze point of view and tone. Consider the author’s intended meaning; however, do not mistake the opinions of the narrator for those of the writer. Drama: A story told by actors who play the characters and reveal the conflict through their actions and dialogue. Dramatic Tragedy: is a drama that ends in catastrophe—most often death—for the main characters. Epithet: a common stylistic device, although it can be easily overused. It involves attaching a descriptive adjective to a noun to bring a scene to life or evoke a particular idea or emotion, as in the example, “The clear-­‐eyed pilot safely landed the plane.” A simple epithet may use an adjective related to the noun, such as, “The tall boy towered above his peers,” but more complex epithets may combine unusual adjectives with nouns for a stronger effect; for example, “The redemptive clouds hovered close to a parched horizon.” shows the unusual adjectives modifying ordinary nouns to make them more open to interpretation. Flashback: a section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an event from an earlier time. Foil: a character whose personality and attitude contrast sharply with those of another character. Highlights both characters’ traits—for example, a timid character can make a talkative one seem even chattier. Foreshadowing: use of clues about the events to come. Hyperbole: exaggeration, not meant literally but used for emphasis, e.g. 'I'm starving' for 'I'm hungry.’ Iambic pentameter: a line that has five unstressed syllables, each followed by a stressed syllable. Irony: a difference between what is superficially apparent and what is perceived by the observant or informed reader. There are three types of basic irony: • Verbal irony occurs when what is said is quite different from, or even the opposite of, what is actually meant e.g. 'A lovely day for the ducks' meaning 'A beastly day for people'. Either the speaker's tone of voice or the context signals the presence of such a discrepancy. • Dramatic Irony is on the surface entirely different; it occurs when Information is withheld from one or more characters in a narrative or drama so that the audience, with their privileged knowledge, sees the situation entirely differently from the characters. Again, there is a gap between what is said by the characters in their ignorance and the way it is intended to be understood in context. • Structural irony is brought about by various technical devices which have the effect of dissociating the author from the obvious sense of his or her words, sometimes to imply something quite different, sometimes to create and maintain a sense of distance or detachment from the characters and action. Such devices include the use of a naive, unreliable or fallible narrator, or of multiple or mixed points of view. At its mildest, irony creates only a sense of detachment; but much more often its effect is subtly and grimly humorous. Failure to recognize the subtle effects it has on tone may result in complete misunderstanding of a work. Any identification of irony should be justified by noting the relevant signals in the tone or context. Please note that we do not use the term sarcastic to mean 'ironic'. Some crude, colloquial irony is in fact sarcastic (literally, 'cutting'), but this is very rare in literary contexts, except in dialogue. Literary Device: A literary device is any linguistic technique that produces a specific effect in writing, for example any narrative style, figure of speech or plot mechanism. Literary devices are the heart and soul of every expression, bringing words to life. This can vary from narrative to drama and poetry. Literary Conventions: term convention comes from latin meaning “coming together.” It refers to features of subject matter, form, and technique that occur repeatedly in works of literature. Conventions in this sense may be recurrent types of character, turns in plot, forms of versification, or kinds of diction and style. Stock characters such as the Elizabethan braggart soldier or the languishing and fainting heroine of victoria fiction, or the sad, young men of the lost-­‐generation novels of the 1920s we among the conventions of their literary eras. In a broader more inclusive sense, all literary works, no matter how seemingly realistic, are held to be entirely constituted by literary conventions, or “codes”—of genre, plot, characters, language, and so on—which the reader naturalizes, by assimilating these into the world of discourse and experience that, in the reader’s time and place, are regarded as real, or “natural.” Literary Elements: the elements present in every piece of literature—plot, characters, setting, point of view, characters, conflict, theme. Metaphor: The metaphor is a close relative of the simile—so close that at times it is difficult to tell them apart. While a simile compares something to another thing by pointing out how they are alike, a metaphor speaks of one thing as though it actually were another. Here are two sentences on the same topic, the first is a simile, but the second is a metaphor. Note the difference: “The new boss swaggered into the office like a gunfighter in the Old West, looking for a fight”; “The new boss was Jesse James in the office looking for a fight.” A metaphor speaks poetically, but it should not be viewed solely as a stylistic device. It can help your readers see something as you want them to see it—
to convey not just the literal truths of a thing, but the emotional or psychological truths of it as well. Metaphors are used to state one thing actually is another by using a form of the verb to be—is, was, are, am, be, etc. Example: “Dr. King was truly a king among men.” Moral: the lesson taught by a literary work. Motif: a conspicuous element, such as an event, device, reference, or formula which occurs frequently in worlds of literature. The loathly lady who turns out to be a beautiful princess is a motif. Personification: the act of giving human attributes to something that is non-­‐human. It might be an animal, an inanimate object, or an abstract concept. A leader interested in spreading democracy might use personification like this: “We expect freedom to spread its wings across the globe and allow oppressed people to enjoy its warmth.” Personification is widely used, and as a result, there are a number of clichés one sees everywhere, for example, “The wind whistles in the trees.” The best personifications, however, are immediately understood without resorting to familiar clichés, for example, “The wind gently swept through the valley and slipped in through the cracks in the barn.” Plot is the action of a story; the sequence of events from beginning to end. Story is the narrative of events in their time-­‐sequence; plot is the narrative of events with conflict and a resolution to that conflict. Here are the elements of plot: Exposition -­‐ sets the stage for what is about to occur • Hooks the reader and gets them interested • Gives background information necessary to understand the story • Introduces the characters and setting • Sets the tone (mournful, revengeful, celebratory) • Most importantly, foreshadows the conflict and theme Inciting incident • Marks the beginning of the rising action • Formally introduces the main conflict • Raises a question in the reader’s mind that is directly related to the main conflict. This question is usually only answered in the climax Rising action • A series of events and actions that build in intensity. The “actions” are what the characters say and do; the events are things that happen to the main character(s) beyond their control. • Suspense increases as we get closer and closer to answering the question raised in the inciting incident. Climax • The moment when the conflict is about to be resolved •
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When the question raised in the inciting incident is being answered Usually Results in change for the main character Sometimes occurs at the end of the story, without falling action Falling action • All of the events and actions after the climax that lead to the resolution • Minor conflicts may be resolved here Resolution • Most of the reader’s remaining questions are answered • The lesson the character is supposed learn is revealed – sometimes told to the reader through one of the characters Point of View: refers to the perspective from which the story is being told. This perspective is revealed through the voice of the storyteller, most commonly referred to as the narrator. The narrator shapes what we know and how we feel about the events in a story. The narrator affects our understanding of the characters’ actions by filtering what is told trough his or her own perspective. The narrator should not be confused with the author. The narrator is another character created by the author. Authors choose their method of narration very carefully as the method influences/affects the reader’s interpretation of events. Here are the different types of narrators: 1. Third person narrators do not participate in the action and simply tell the story. There are three types of third person narrators: a. Omniscient-­‐ stands outside the events, but is all knowing and can access a character’s thoughts and has knowledge of events happening in different places at the same time b. Limited -­‐ told by an outside narrator who doesn't know everything. (If the author uses third person limited point of view and restricts the presentation to the interior responses of one character, we have an interior monologue.) c. Intrusive-­‐ an omniscient narrator who offers comments on characters and events and sometimes reflects morally. d. Objective – the narrator remains outside of all of the characters. 2. First person narrators uses “I” and are always involved either as witnesses or as participants in the events. The reader is restricted to the perceptions, thoughts and feelings of that single character. 3. Second person narrators, "you,” are rarely used. Protagonist: (also known as the “tragic hero”) is the central character— the one with whom the audience identifies the most. Usually fails or dies because of a character flaw or a cruel twist of fate; Often has a high ran or status, shows strength while facing his or her destiny. Soliloquy: is a speech given by a character alone in stage. Let’s the audience know that the character is thinking or feeling. Setting: Generally, setting is the time and place of a story and is often related to the story’s themes. The overall setting of a narrative or dramatic work is the general locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which the action occurs; the setting of a single episode or scene within the work is the particular physical location in which it takes place. Setting may help create a particular atmosphere, tone or mood in a piece of fiction, especially shorter fiction. The setting is sometimes symbolic and sometimes serves as the central conflict the protagonist’s struggle against, like an earthquake or volcano. Here are four elements to consider when examining setting: 1. Geographical location: its topography, scenery, and physical arrangements, like the location of doors and windows in a room. 2. The time or period in which the action takes place (e.g., the epoch in history or the season of the year. 3. The general environment of the characters, such as religious, mental, mor,lI, social, and emotional conditions. 4. The occupations and daily manner of living of the characters. When a work is written to present the manners or customs of a locality, the result is local color. Local color is marked by dialect, eccentric characters, and sentimentalized pathos or whimsical humor. It is usually meant to be just humorously informative about an area. Analysis of setting explores how and why a work’s time and place affects the events and/or the characters of the work. Often the reader-­‐writer will want to consider setting as part of another form of literary analysis (extending the analysis of a character, for example). Ask yourself: • Why is the work set during a certain era, season or time of day? If the time is Victorian England, why does it need to be set then? If the story is about a farm, how does the season impact the story? Time of day matters. Is it night, when things are often hidden? Is it day, when things may be more clear? • Is any part of the setting symbolic? If it is a castle, does it stand for formidable defenses? If it is a creepy old house, is it all things scary? If it is a suburban home, does it mean safety? If it’s the zoo, what might it mean? • How well does a character “fit in” with the setting? If the story is about a castle and the main character is a modern woman, she will change the tenor of the story. If the story is about children and the character is the smarmy mailman, does he fit with the story? Why or why not? • Does the setting influence the plot or characters? If the characters are supposed to be strong characters who triumph over evil, are they in places where evil is clear? If they are soldiers, are they in a war in a particular place, such as in Hemingway’s stories? Gulliver travels in imaginary places that strongly influence both the plot and characters. See how much the setting impacts the story. It will be more than you first suspect, most likely. • Does the setting establish atmosphere or mood? Is it a dark and stormy night? A bright, sunshiny day? Is it a creepy old house that creaks? Is it a big open barn that smells of fresh hay? Or is it a big dark barn that smells of slaughtered pigs? • How is the setting presented? With photographic detail? Through a few suggestive details? Indirectly through thoughts and actions? Are there a lot of colors and details in the work? Why? So you can almost see the place? If there are only a few suggestive details, what do they suggest? Why would the author leave it to the reader to decide what it looks like? Perhaps so you can make it fit somewhere you know? • How much time does the action cover? How does the author treat gaps in time? Is it minute by minute? Are there jumps in hours, days, weeks, months, years? Does the author make the time explicit? “After several months of working in the store, Bojo…” or “After some time, Bojo got bored with working in the store.” When the author does make the time explicit, how much detail is there? “After five weeks and two days, Sarah gave up waiting.” Simile: A simile is a device in which the writer compares two things that are already somewhat related. For example, if you wanted to describe how the sun lit up a mountain, rather than write, “The sun lit up the mountain,” it might sound better to use a simile: “The sun peered, like a curious child, over the top of the mountain.” Since similes conjure up strongly suggestive imagery, they lend new details to the main object. The simile, one of the more easily recognized rhetorical devices, consists of one noun being compared to another noun and linked by the word “like.” The basic form has the key subject first, and the noun that fleshes it out listed second. Example: “The shower room, steamy like a Louisiana summer, rang with the athletes’ jubilant laughter.” A simile might also flip this order around, with the primary noun coming last. In this case the word “so” is usually used instead of “like.” Style: is an author’s typical way of writing Includes word choice, grammatical structure, sentence length, organization, etc. Surprise: when what happens in a story contradicts our expectations. Suspense a feeling of growing curiosity or anxiety about the outcome of events in a literary work; what keeps you turning the pages. There are two types of suspense: (1) where the outcome is uncertain and the suspense is in the question of who or what or how; (2) when the outcome is already known and the suspense is in how the story gets there. Symbols/Symbolism: A symbol is something that stands for itself and for something else. It combines a literal and tangible quality with an abstract or suggestive aspect. For example, a country's flag is simply a colored cloth, but it represents much more for its citizens. A traffic sign is a piece of metal attached to a pole, but it represents a traffic law. There are two basic types of symbols: universal and personal. A universal symbol (also known as a conventional symbol) is widely known and accepted. For example, a dove is generally accepted as a symbol for peace, a voyage symbolizes a life, flowing water represents time passing, and a skull for death. A personal symbol is something created by one author for a particular work, and is not universally known and accepted. Instead, it only applies to that work of fiction. Here are some things that separate symbolism from other literary device: • Symbol is different from image. Image is a literal and concrete representation of something that can be known by one of the five senses. Symbol does this and takes it further by making the image suggest something beyond itself. • Symbol is different from metaphor. Metaphor invokes an object in order to illustrate an idea or demonstrate a quality. Symbol embodies that idea or quality. • Symbol is different from allegory. Allegory is a form of extended metaphor in which objects, people, and actions in a story are equated with meanings that lie outside the story itself. Allegory is a story with more than one level of meaning-­‐a literal one and one or more symbolic levels. Allegory allows the writer to tell a story about literal characters and make a moral, religious, or political point. Symbols also suggest other levels of meaning, but symbols do it without making the relationship what controls the story-­‐-­‐symbols are much more independent. Theme: an abstract concept-­‐-­‐an idea or truth about life—the author tries to present. A theme is not a subject, topic or activity. It’s best to think of a theme as a subject and a predicate. It is often something that is debatable or has no definite answer. For example, “love” is not a theme. “Love triumphs over evil,” however, is a theme. Rarely does the author state the theme. Instead, the theme is usually inferred through the author’s representation of characters, setting, and actions and through the literary devices the author uses. Tone: the attitude an author takes toward his audience and about his subjects, especially characters and situations. It is conveyed through the author's choice of words and details. Tone is often determined by the writer's intent and comments. It may formal or informal, friendly or distant, personal or impersonal. Characters within a story may also convey a tone toward a situation or other characters (respectful, resentful, sympathetic, etc.) The characters' attitudes are revealed through dialogue and actions while their tone revealed through word choice and intent. Voice: each author’s unique combination of tone and style.