Accent
"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" (Meyer).




Act
"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" (Meyer).




Allegory
Allegory is like a symbol and it is a form of metaphor, but unlike a symbol, an allegory does not change; its meaning remains the same. Although they are often used within literature to depict a hidden meaning, allegories represent the same meaning to all of the readers, and because of this sometimes are often hard to identify. Authors often use allegories to present a moral to the reader, or discuss issues that would normally be hard to write about because of its content.
An example of an allegory, “The Jabberwocky […] is an allegory for all the dragons and dangerous beasts who lie in the way of the virtuous young hero�, [...] in Lewis Carroll’s poem, “Jabberwocky� (Carroll 551).
"Beware the Jabberwock my son! / The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! / Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun / The frumious Bandersnatch!� / [….] And, as in uffish though he stood, / The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, / Came whiffiling through the tulgey wood, / And Burbled as it came" (Carroll 551).




Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of a word, to intensify the beat.
An example of alliteration, Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.




Allusion
Allusion is a reference to another work of literature within writing. An allusion will not always be recognized unless the reader is familiar with the referenced piece. "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" (Meyer).

We see an allusion in Langston Hughes’ poem, “I, Too�, as he references to Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.�

"I, too, sing America
I am the darker brother
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
[…]
I, too, am America" (Hughes 1894).




Ambiguity
"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" (Meyer).



Amplification
"Amplification is use of bare expressions, likely to be ignored or misunderstood by a hearer or reader because of the bluntness. Emphasis through restatement with additional details.
Example: Holofernes in Love's Labors Lost" (Nellen Literary Terms).



Anadiplosis
Repetition of an important word in a phrase or clause (often last word) in the next phrase or clause (e.g. "truth brings freedom; freedom brings responsibility")



Anagram
"Anagram is a word or phrase made by transposing the letters.
Example: cask to sack; weird to wired" (Nellen Literary Terms).



Analogy
"Analogy is the comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship. The key is to ascertain the relationship between the first so you can choose the correct second pair. Part to whole, opposites, results of are types of relationships you should find. Example: hot is to cold as fire is to ice OR hot:cold::fire:ice"
(Nellen Literary Terms).



Antagonist
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." (Meyer). Although the antagonist often acts against the protagonist, they do not have to be a villain, they can simply just be the character acting against the protagonist.



Antihero
"Antihero a protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. [A character who] 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" (Meyer).




Archetype
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." (Meyer).



Aside
"Aside in drama, a speech [also known as soliloquy] 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" (Meyer).



Assonance
"Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds but not consonant sounds as in consonance. Example: fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks" (Nellen Literary Terms).



Atmosphere
Atmosphere is the mood or persistent feeling implied by a literary work. An author establishes atmosphere partly through description of setting and partly by the objects chosen to be described.





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Ballad
Ballad is usually referring to a song and in poetry, it is often sung with a musical instrument. Although not necessary, the ballad usually tells a dramatic story of hope, love, or despair.



Ballad stanza
"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" (Meyer).
All in a hot and copper sky
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon. (Coleridge)




Biographical criticism
"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" (Meyer).



Blank verse
"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" (Meyer).




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Caesura
"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 (||)" (Meyer).




Canon
Canon is a derivative from a Greek word that implies rule or law, and is used in literature as the source which regulates which selection of authors or works, would be considered important pieces of literature. "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" (Meyer).

Here are some outside web-links to pages about the literary canon.
The Literary Canon-URL~~ http://65.107.211.206/gender/canon/litcan.html
What is This American Canon?~~ http://www.assumption.edu/ach/Intros/introcanon.html




Carpe diem
Carpe diem essentially means seize the day, and reminds people that they are not immortal, so one should live life to its fullest because tomorrow may never come.




Catharsis
"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" (Meyer).



Catastrophe


Climax




Close reading
Close reading "Interpretation begins with close reading. In this process, you note specific uses of language, such as imagery, symbols, repeated terms, patterns of expression, the tone of the speaker, and the main ideas [themes] the writer introduces. Whether close reading takes the form of writing, discussion, or silent observation, it should be based on a careful questioning of the text" (Jacobus 6).



Comedy



Conclusion



Conflict
"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" (Meyer).




Connotation
"Connotation Opposite of denotation. "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" (Meyer).




Consonance
"Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowels, as in assonance. Example: lady lounges lazily , dark deep dread crept in" (Nellen Literary Terms).




Convention
"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" (Meyer).



Couplet
"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" (Meyer).



Crisis
"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" (Meyer).



Cultural criticism
"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" (Meyer).



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Deconstructionism
"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" (Meyer).



Denotation
"Denotation is the literal meaning of a word, the dictionary meaning. Opposite of connotation. Example:
Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest (sleep)" (Nellen Literary Terms).



Denouement
outcome, resolution, solution of a plot



Dialogue



Dialect
"Dialect 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" (Meyer).



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" (Meyer).



Didactic
"Didactic [literature is] designed to teach an ethical, moral, or religious lesson. Michael Wigglesworth’s Puritan poem Day of Doom is an example of didactic poetry" (Meyer).



Drama
"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" (Meyer). See also Elements of Drama.



Dramatic irony
Dramatic irony "irony built into the characters' actions and not just their words--depends upon a contradiction of expectations. Characters expect one thing and get another" (Jacobus 137).



Dramatic monologue
Dramatic monologues "present one side of a conversation, one voice that the reader 'hears.'[...] Sometimes it narrates an event [...]. But it may also be a conversation with oneself" (Jacobus 584). It is also "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" (Meyer).




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Electra complex
"Electra complex the female version of the Oedipus complex. Electra complex is a term used to describe the psychological conflict of a daughter’s unconscious rivalry with her mother for her father’s attention. The name comes from the Greek legend of Electra, who avenged the death of her father, Agamemnon, by plotting the death of her mother" (Meyer).




Elegy
"Elegy A mournful, contemplative lyric poem written to commemorate someone who is dead, often ending in a consolation. Tennyson’s In Memoriam, written on the death of Arthur Hallam, is an elegy. Elegy may also refer to a serious meditative poem produced to express the speaker’s melancholy thoughts" (Meyer).



End-stopped line
"End-stopped line A poetic line that has a pause at the end. End-stopped lines reflect normal speech patterns and are often marked by punctuation. The first line of Keats’s "Endymion" is an example of an end-stopped line; the natural pause coincides with the end of the line, and is marked by a period: A thing of beauty is a joy forever." (Meyer).



Enjambment
"Enjambment In poetry, when one line ends without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning. This is also called a run-on line. The transition between the first two lines of Wordsworth’s poem "My Heart Leaps Up" demonstrates enjambment: My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky" (Meyer).



Epic
"Epic A long narrative poem, told in a formal, elevated style, that focuses on a serious subject and chronicles heroic deeds and events important to a culture or nation. Milton’s Paradise Lost, which attempts to "justify the ways of God to man," is an epic" (Meyer).



Epithet
"Epithet is a word which makes the reader see the object described in a clearer or sharper light. It is both exact and imaginative. Distinctive epithets are found in the ancient Greek classic, The Odyssey: wine-dark sea...... wave-girdled island," blindfolding night." Our national flag is [an epithet the] star- spangled banner" (Nellen, Literary Terms).



Epigram
"Epigram A brief, pointed, and witty poem that usually makes a satiric or humorous point. Epigrams are most often written in couplets, but take no prescribed form" (Meyer).



Epiphany
"Epiphany in fiction, when a character suddenly experiences a deep realization about himself or herself; a truth which is grasped in an ordinary rather than a melodramatic moment." (Meyer).



Exposition
"Exposition a narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work, that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances. Exposition explains what has gone on before, the relationships between characters, the development of a theme, and the introduction of a conflict." (Meyer).



Extended metaphor
Extended metaphor "in which the same metaphor is continued over several lines" (Jacobus 594).



Extended simile
Extended simile "in which the comparison is stretched over several lines:
Beauty, sweet Love, is like the morning dew,
Whose short refresh upon the tender green
Cheers for a time, but till the sun doth show,
And straight 'tis gone as it had never been" (Jacobus 595).





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Falling action


First person narrator



Farce
"Farce a form of humor based on exaggerated, improbable incongruities. Farce involves rapid shifts in action and emotion, as well as slapstick comedy and extravagant dialogue. Malvolio, in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, is a farcical character" (Meyer).



Feminist criticism
"Feminist criticism an approach to literature that seeks to correct or supplement what may be regarded as a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective with a feminist consciousness. Feminist criticism places literature in a social context and uses a broad range of disciplines, including history, sociology, psychology, and linguistics, to provide a perspective sensitive to feminist issues. Feminist theories also attempt to understand representation from a woman’s point of view and to explain women’s writing strategies as specific to their social conditions" (Meyer).



Fixed form
"Fixed form a poem that may be categorized by the pattern of its lines, meter, rhythm, or stanzas. A sonnet is a fixed form of poetry because by definition it must have fourteen lines. Other fixed forms include limerick, sestina, and villanelle. However, poems written in a fixed form may not always fit into categories precisely, because writers sometimes vary traditional forms to create innovative effects" (Meyer).



Flashback
"Flashback is action that interrupts to show an event that happened at an earlier time which is necessary to better understanding" (Nellen Literary Terms).




Foil
character opposite or different from the protagonist, used to highlight the protagonist's traits; incidents or settings may also be used as foils





Foot
"Foot the metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured. A foot usually consists of one stressed and one or two unstressed syllables. An iambic foot, which consists of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable ("away"), is the most common metrical foot in English poetry. A trochaic foot consists of one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable ("lovely"). An anapestic foot is two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed one ("understand"). A dactylic foot is one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones ("desperate"). A spondee is a foot consisting of two stressed syllables ("dead set"), but is not a sustained metrical foot and is used mainly for variety or emphasis" (Meyer).
Here are the types of feet: U (unstressed); / (stressed syllable)

Iamb: U /

Trochee: / U

Anapest: U U /

Dactyl: / U U

Spondee: / /

Pyrrhic: U U





Foreshadowing
"Foreshadowing is the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in literature" (Nellen, Literary Terms).



Formalist criticism
"Formalist criticism an approach to literature that focuses on the formal elements of a work, such as its language, structure, and tone. Formalist critics offer intense examinations of the relationship between form and meaning in a work, emphasizing the subtle complexity in how a work is arranged. Formalists pay special attention to diction, irony, paradox, metaphor, and symbol, as well as larger elements such as plot, characterization, and narrative technique. Formalist critics read literature as an independent work of art rather than as a reflection of the author’s state of mind or as a representation of a moment in history. Therefore, anything outside of the work, including historical influences and authorial intent, is generally not examined by formalist critics" (Meyer).



Free verse
"Free verse also called open form poetry, free verse refers to poems characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza. Free verse uses elements such as speech patterns, grammar, emphasis, and breath pauses to decide line breaks, and usually does not rhyme" (Meyer).




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Gender criticism
"Gender criticism an approach to literature that explores how ideas about men and women—what is masculine and feminine—can be regarded as socially constructed by particular cultures. Gender criticism expands categories and definitions of what is masculine or feminine and tends to regard sexuality as more complex than merely masculine or feminine, heterosexual or homosexual" (Meyer).



Genre
"Genre a French word meaning kind or type. The major genres in literature are poetry, fiction, drama, and essays. Genre can also refer to more specific types of literature such as comedy, tragedy, epic poetry, or science fiction" (Meyer).


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Haiku
"Haiku a style of lyric poetry borrowed from the Japanese that typically presents an intense emotion or vivid image of nature, which, traditionally, is designed to lead to a spiritual insight. Haiku is a fixed poetic form, consisting of seventeen syllables organized into three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Today, however, many poets vary the syllabic count in their haiku" (Meyer).



Hamartia
"Hamartia a term coined by Aristotle to describe "some error or frailty" that brings about misfortune for a tragic hero. The concept of hamartia is closely related to that of the tragic flaw: both lead to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy. Hamartia may be interpreted as an internal weakness in a character (like greed or passion or hubris); however, it may also refer to a mistake that a character makes that is based not on a personal failure, but on circumstances outside the protagonist’s personality and control" (Meyer).



Hubris or Hybris
"Hubris or Hybris excessive pride or self-confidence that leads a protagonist to disregard a divine warning or to violate an important moral law. In tragedies, hubris is a very common form of hamartia" (Meyer).



Historical criticism
"Historical criticism an approach to literature that uses history as a means of understanding a literary work more clearly. Such criticism moves beyond both the facts of an author’s personal life and the text itself in order to examine the social and intellectual currents in which the author composed the work." (Meyer).



Hyperbole
"Hyperbole is exaggeration or overstatement. Example: I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. He's as big as a house" (Nellen, Literary Terms).



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Iambic pentameter
"Iambic pentameter A metrical pattern in poetry which consists of five iambic feet per line. An iamb, or iambic foot, consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable" (Meyer).





Image
"Image A word, phrase, or figure of speech (especially a simile or a metaphor) that addresses the senses, suggesting mental pictures of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, or actions. Images offer sensory impressions to the reader and also convey emotions and moods through their verbal pictures" (Meyer).




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Juxtaposition
Juxtapose is simply the placement of two things closely together to establish comparisons or contrasts.




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Line
"Line a sequence of words printed as a separate entity on the page. In poetry, lines are usually measured by the number of feet they contain. The names for various line lengths are as follows:
monometer: one foot
dimeter: two feet
trimeter: three feet
tetrameter: four feet
pentameter: five feet
hexameter: six feet
octameter: eight feet
The number of feet in a line, coupled with the name of the foot, describes the metrical qualities of that line" (Meyer).




Lyric
"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" (Meyer).





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Marxist criticism
"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" (Meyer).




Metaphor
Metaphor "Invokes a comparison between two things: one is usually the subject at hand, and the other is something associated with it. The comparison is not stated directly but implied. The purpose of the association is to use some qualities of the distant 'something' to illuminate and unsuspected quality of the subject at hand. There are several varieties of metaphor" (Jacobus 594), like: noun metaphor, verb metaphor, implied metaphor, extended metaphor, and prepositional metaphor.





Meter
"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" (Meyer).






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Protagonist
Protagonist the hero or main character in a story, who acts against the antagonist, who may be a foil. Although the protagonist is often the hero or heroin, they do not have to be heroic.






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Short fiction
Short fiction "is prose storytelling whose incidents are deeply revealing of human values. No length limits have ever been settled on [...]. Usually, the reader's sense of satisfaction signals the completion of a story, but [...] some of the [...] stories purposely deny you a sense of satisfaction in order to bring you to a point of reflection and questioning" (Jacobus 55).



Simile
Simile "is like a metaphor except that it makes the comparison explicit by using like, as or as if.




Symbol
Symbol is a word, object or thing that takes the meaning of something else through use of metaphors or other figurative language. Symbols, unlike allegories, can take on different meanings. The reader is not always aware of the symbols, and often the same symbol can take on different meanings for different readers, or even different from what the writer intended. Using symbols, the writer has the opportunity to suggest larger meanings in their works without specifically discussing them.