American Literature, 09 Glossary of Literary Terms
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Glossary of Literary Terms
allegory
A fictional text in which ideas are personified, and a story
is told to express some general truth.
alliteration
Repetition of sounds at the beginning of words which are
close together.
allusion
Reference to some well-known historical person or event,
saying, proverb, or a line or sentence from a work of
literature.
ambiguity
Something that can be interpreted in more than one way;
double meaning.
anachronism
A situation in which people say, do, or see something that
is inconsistent with the time they live in.
analogy
A comparison between two things, qualities, or ideas that
have certain similarities, although the items themselves
may be very different.
archetype
A recurring character-type, plot, symbol, or theme of
universal significance (the blind prophet figure, the
journey to the underworld, the sea as source of life, etc.).
association
Making connections in the mind between different things
or ideas, e.g. hot → sun → swimming → the Mediterranean.
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American Literature, 09 Glossary of Literary Terms
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assonance
Repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds in
stressed syllables of neighbouring words.
atmosphere
The dominant mood in a story.
autobiography
An account of a person’s life written by that person.
ballad
A poem with a strong and simple rhythm which tells a
popular story.
blank verse
Unrhymed verse with five stressed syllables to each line,
the stress normally occurring on the second, fourth, sixth,
etc. syllable.
character
In a fictional text, play, or film, a person developed
through action, description, and use of language
(compare main, major, minor characters).
One distinguishes between flat and round characters.
A flat character is one whose temperament and behaviour
can be summed up in one or two traits or qualities
(egenskaper), whereas a round character is complex
and many-sided.
cliché
A tired expression that has lost its original power to
surprise because of overuse.
climax
The moment in a text when the conflict is most intense; it
comes just before the ‘turning point’.
colloquial
Informal or conversational language which echoes the
natural, English unforced speech rhythms and vocabulary
of everyday speech.
connotation
The implied meaning of a word; its overtones and
associations over and beyond its literal, dictionary
meaning (‘adore’ and ‘love’ have similar meanings, but
‘adore’ has specific connotations linking it to worship).
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American Literature, 09 Glossary of Literary Terms
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diction
Word choice; some levels of diction are: formal, informal
(colloquial), nonstandard, slang, regional, dialectal,
obsolete, technical terms (jargon).
ellipsis
One or several words are left out from a sentence which
can nevertheless be understood from the context.
emphasis
A stress on the most important ideas, characters, themes,
etc. in a text.
epic
A long narrative poem telling of heroic events in an
elevated style.
epigram
A short, concise saying, full of substance.
epilogue
The concluding part of a literary work or drama which
comments on or summarizes the main action or plot.
essay
A short piece of writing on a subject/theme/ that
expresses a specific point of view.
euphemism
Mild or indirect word or expression used instead of some
other word or expression which is thought to be
unpleasant or embarrassing.
Example (AmE):
I have to go to the bathroom (= the toilet BrE).
fable
A short story, often with animals in it, that is told to
illustrate a moral
fiction
An invented story involving characters, actions, and
settings.
figurative
Meaning of a word that goes beyond its usual definition
and transfers the word from its normal, literal context to
a new one.
Examples: metaphors, similes, and symbols.
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American Literature, 09 Glossary of Literary Terms
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figure of speech
The use of words to create a special effect.
Examples: alliteration, assonance, and euphemisms.
flashback
Interruption of the chronological order of a text in order
to go back in time and show what happened earlier; a
technique often used in films.
focus
A writer’s control and limitation of a subject to a specific
aspect, usually determined by three factors:
– the subject (what?)
– the audience (for whom?)
– the purpose (why?)
foreshadowing
A story-telling device that the author uses to give the
reader advance warning of what is going to happen.
free verse
Verse written without the use of regular patterns of metre
and rhyme or the traditional types of form.
genre
A form or type of literature such as the horror story, lyric
poetry, or romantic fiction.
hyperbole
Conscious exaggeration.
image, imagery
A vivid mental picture created by a writer to appeal to
the reader’s imagination; for example metaphors, similes,
symbols are kinds of imagery.
inference
A conclusion drawn by the reader based on information
that is only indirectly known or indicated.
interior monologue
The verbal reproduction of a character’s feelings or
thoughts with no intervention by the narrator.
irony
Saying one thing but meaning another, usually the
opposite of what is really meant, in order to be amusing
or to criticize.
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literal meaning
The ordinary, everyday meaning of words and phrases.
The opposite is figurative meaning.
lyrics
The words of a song, esp. of modern pop songs.
metaphor
The linking of two seemingly unrelated things with each
other in the form of a comparison.
Example: ‘Life’s but a walking shadow’ (Shakespeare,
Macbeth) – life is not real, only an unsubstantial thing
that passes by.
metre
The organisation of lines of verse into regular patterns of
stressed and unstressed syllable.
modes of exposition
Types of writing:
a) narration
b) description
c) argumentation
d) discourse (explains, defines, or interprets the subject).
mood
The general atmosphere or feeling in a literary work.
narrator
The person who tells the story in a narrative text;
the person through whose eyes events are seen.
First-person narrator = I
third-person narrator = he or she
non-fiction
Text in which there are references only to people and
places that really exist(ed) (biographies, autobiographies,
letters, diaries, essays, interviews, etc.).
novel
A book-length piece of fiction, with a storyline,
characters, setting, etc. (Swedish: ‘roman’); compare
short story (Swedish: ‘novell’).
objective
Refers to the writer’s presentation of information in a
personally detached, unemotional way (compare subjective).
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onomatopoeia
The attempt to represent a real sound by the sound of a word.
Example: ‘buzz’ for the sound made by a bee.
open ending
When the conflict is not solved (in a fictional text); the
final interpretation is left to the reader (compare solution).
parable
Normally a short, simple story which teaches a moral or
religious lesson.
paradox
A statement that seems at first to be contradictory, even
senseless, but reveals some hidden truth on second thought.
paragraph
Usually a set of two or more sentences in a text that are
related to one another in explaining an idea.
paraphrase
To put somebody else’s ideas into your own words. It can
be as long or longer than the original (compare summary).
parody
Fictional text which imitates the form and language of a
well-known piece of writing while changing its tone and
context, usually used for humorous or satirical effect.
personification
Attributing human characteristics to the non-human.
play
A piece of fiction written for performance on stage, in
films, or on television (also called drama).
plot
In fictional texts, the structure of the action as a set of
events connected by cause and effect and centred around
one or more conflicts.
point of view
Relationship between the writer/narrator and his/her
text; perspective from which the topics/characters and
events are presented.
prologue
A speech, often in verse, delivered by an actor at the
beginning of a play.
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protagonist
A main character in a fictional text.
pun
Play on words, using either different meanings of the
same word or the different meanings of words which
have the same or similar sounds.
purpose
The author’s reasons for writing.
rhetorical question
A question to which the answer is obvious and therefore
not expected question or given.
rhyme
The use of identical or similar sounds (especially at the
end of lines in a poem).
Examples: end rhyme (Swedish: ‘slutrim’) and assonance.
rhythm
A strong, regular pattern of beat, sound, or movement.
There is rhythm in speech, poetry, music, dance, etc.
run-on line
The meaning of what is said runs on from one verse line
to the next, so that there is no pause at the end of the line.
sarcasm
A form of expression where you say the opposite of what
you mean. Its purpose is to ridicule.
satire
A fictional text intended to criticize certain conditions,
events or people by making them appear ridiculous
(compare irony, sarcasm).
setting
Place and time in which the action of a text takes place.
short story
A brief piece of fiction (compare novel). Because of
limited space, a short story is economical: few characters
and events, limited setting, a densely constructed plot,
carefully chosen words, etc.
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simile
The linking of two distinctly different things using ‘as’ or
‘like’, to suggest some kind of similarity.
Example: ‘His hair was like snow.’
(Compare metaphor: ‘the snow of his hair’.)
soliloquy
A speech delivered by a character in a play who is alone
on stage.
sonnet
A poem consisting of 14 lines, often divided into an
octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines).
stanza
A group of lines in a poem forming one unit.
stream-of-consciousness
The attempt by an author to reproduce the thought
processes of a person without adapting them to a more
grammatical or ordered form than they might have in real
life (compare interior monologue, which is usually more
ordered).
style
The way you use language when speaking or writing.
Examples: formal, informal, neutral, colloquial, slang.
subject matter
The topic or theme dealt with in a novel, drama, debate,
speech, etc. See also topic.
subjective
Refers to writing that expresses the author’s belief in and
attitudes towards a particular subject.
suspense
The tension readers feel because they are uncertain as to
how events are going to turn out.
symbol
An element of imagery, in which a concrete object stands
not only for itself but also for some abstract idea.
theme
A central topic or idea of a text, holding all its elements
together and giving them meaning; also several texts
dealing with the same topic or idea.
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tone
The way a writer or speaker expresses his or her
attitudes, feelings, and moods. The tone may be serious,
humorous, arrogant, angry, friendly, irritated, annoyed, etc.
topic
A subject in a novel, short story, film, discussion, speech, etc.
Compare subject matter.
turning-point
A change in the conflict (in a fictional text), which
usually follows the climax.
understatement
A statement that is deliberately weak, putting less
emphasis or importance on something than it deserves;
the opposite of ‘exaggeration’ (often used as a form of irony).
verse
Another word for poetry or a set of lines which forms a
part of a poem (= stanza) or a song.
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