A Glossary of Literary Terms for years 4,5 & 6
JSG Maimonides
(4) means for year four only,
(4) and (5) means for year five only,
Year six need to be familiar with all literary terms in the glossary.
Act = a part of a play(4)
Allegory = a narrative in which there is a second meaning (4)
Alliteration = the repetition of speech sounds (usu. consonants) at the beginning of nearby
words (5)
Ambiguity = carrying multiple meaning (5)
Anapest see Meter (5)
Antagonist see Protagonist (4)
Antihero = a main character who, unlike a traditional hero, is petty, ineffectual or passive
Anticlimax see Climax (4)
Assonance = the repetition of similar vowel sounds in nearby words (5)
Autobiographysee Biography (4)
Ballad = a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story. (5)
Biography = the history of someone’s life. An autobiography is a biography written by someone about himself. (4)
Black Humour see Humour (4)
Blank Verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter (5)
Caesura = a pause within a line of poetry (5)
Carpe Diem = Seize the Day, enjoy life to the full (4)
Catastrophe = a sudden event that causes great trouble (5)
Catharsis = the feeling of relief or purification which the audience experiences after
watching the deeds of the tragic heroin a tragedy (5)
Character = a person in a novel or a play. A character can be flat or two-dimensional,
meaning it is built around a single idea or quality. A round character is complex
and thus more like a real person. (4)
Cliché = stereotype, comment which is not original or interesting as it is made very often. (5)
Climax = the most important or exciting point in a story. An anticlimax is when the writer
fails to reach the climax and thus lets the reader down. (4)
Comedy = a work written to amuse the reader (4)
Couplet see Stanza
Courtly Love = the noblest passion this side of heaven. The courtly lover idealizes and
idolizes his beloved. This love is often that of a bachelor knight for another man’s
wife whom he worships and adores. (Marriage in the upper classes at the time was
a business contract which had nothing to do with love). (5)
Crisis = the turning point of the fortunes of the protagonist in a story. (5)
Criticism = evaluating works of literature (5)
Dactyl see Meter
Dialogue = a conversation between two characters (4)
Diary = a private day-to-day record of someone’s life (4)
Drama = the form of the theatre where actors take the roles of characters (4)
Dystopia see Utopia
Elegy = poem of lament for someone’s death (5)
End Rhyme see Rhyme
Enjambment = run-on lines, there is no pauseat the end of a line in a poem (5)
Epic poem = a long narrative poem about a serious subject centred on a heroic figure (5)
Epistolary novel = a novel in letters
Essay = a composition which discusses a matter or expresses a point of view
Exposition = the beginning part of the plot in which background information about
the characters and situation is set forth (4)
Fable = a short story with a moral; often the characters are animals who behave like people
(4)
Fiction = any narrative which is invented, e.g. a novel, or a short story (4)
First-person narrative see Point of View
Flashback = a jump back in time; a flash forward is a jump forward in time (4)
Flash Forward see Flashback
Flat character see Character
Foot see Meter (5)
Genre = literary form such as comedy, tragedy, novel, biography and so on (4)
Gothic novel = a ghost story or horror story (4)
Hero see Tragedy
Hubris /Hybris = pride or too much self-confidence see also Tragic Hero (5)
Humour = the element in literature which is designed to amuse the reader. Wit is a verbal
expression intended to produce a shock of comic surprise; black humour is not only
comic but also brutal, horrifying, and/or absurd. A pun is a play on words which are similar in sound but different in meaning.(4)
Hyperbole = overstatement or exaggeration. See also understatement(5)
Iamb see Meter
Iambic pentameter see Meter
Imagery = figurative language such as SimileandMetaphor (5)
In Medias Res = in the middle of things; a literary work often starts here (5)
Interior Monologue = reproduction of the mental process: the character’s unfiltered
thoughts, memories, feelings, associations (5)
Internal Rhyme see Rhyme
Irony = saying the opposite of what you mean (5)
Italian Sonnet see Sonnet (5)
Limited Point of View see Point of View
Metaphor = a comparison without ‘like’ or ‘as’ (5)
Meter = the rhythm of the stresses in the stream of sound. If this rhythm is structured into
units, we call it meter. Compositions written in meter are known as verseor poetry.
The meter of a line of verse is determined by the pattern of stronger and weaker
stresses. A foot is the combination of strong stress and weak stress or stresses in a line.
The four standard feet in English are:
- Iambic or iamb ( u - )
- Trochaic or trochee ( - u )
- Anapestic or anapest (u u - )
- Dactylicor dactyl ( - u u )
Most of Shakespeare’s plays are written in iambic pentameter: five iambs in a line of verse without rhyme, a.k.a. blank verse. (5)
Moral = that which a story or experience teaches
Novel = an extended work of prose fiction. In 1719 Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe,
the first novel in the English language. (4)
Novella = a very short novel (4)
Omniscient narrator see Point of View
Oxymoron see Paradox
Parable = a short story written or told to teach us a lesson. The parable was one of Christ‘s
favourite devices as a teacher, examples are the Parable of the Good Samaritan and of
the Prodigal Son. (5)
Paradox = a statement which seems self-contradictory or absurd, yet turns out to have a valid
meaning. If the paradox combines two contrary terms, it is called an oxymoron(e.g.
we love to hate) (4)
Parody = a literary work which imitates and ridicules another work (4)
Pentameter see Meter
Personification = an object or concept is spoken of as though it were a person (4)
Platonic Love see Courtly Love
Plot = the structure of actions in drama or in a narrative work (4)
Poetry or Verse = the use of language with meter(andrhyme) (5)
Point of View = the way a story gets told. We distinguish:
- First-person narrative ( ‘I’ story)
- Second-person narrative ( ‘you’ story)
- Third-person narrative ( ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’ story) In this kind of narrative we distinguish the omniscient point of view where the narrator knows everything and the limited point of view where the narrator confines himself to one or a few characters in the story.
For each kind of narrative the reader need to decide whether the narrator is trustworthy
or unreliable. (4)
Prose = the use of language without meter or rhyme (4)
Protagonist = the main character or hero in a narrative or drama, the antagonist is the second
most important character (4)
Pun see Humour
Quatrain see Stanza
Renaissance = the period after the Middle Ages which started in Italy in the 14th century and
continued in Western Europe in the 15th and 16th century. Characteristics are:
- New learning: scholarship
- New religion: Protestantism
- New world:Columbus
- New cosmos:Copernicus (4)
Rhyme = end rhyme occurs at the end of a line of verse; internal rhyme occurs within a line
(5)
Rhythm see Meter
Round character see Character
Sarcasm = crudeirony (4)
Satire = diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous(4)
Science Fiction = a work which explores the marvels of discovery and achievement that may
result from scientific development (4)
Short story = a short work of prose fiction(4)
Simile = a comparison with ‘like’ or ‘as’ (5)
Soliloquy = the act of talking to oneself, usually in a monologue in a play
(e.g. ‘To be or not to be’) (5)
Sonnet = a poem written in one single stanza consisting of 14 lines linked by a rhyme scheme.
In a sonnet we often find a volta or break in the middle where the tone of the poem
changes. The poet sometimes uses a word such as ‘But’ or ‘Yet’ to indicate the volta.
In English we distinguish:
- the Italian sonnet – two parts: octave (8 lines) rhyming abba abba and sestet (6 lines) rhyming cdecde or cdccdc
- the Shakespearean sonnet –four parts: three quatrains and a concluding couplet rhyming abab bcbc cdcd ee
(5)
Stanza = a grouping of verse lines in a poem. We distinguish the following:
- Couplet = a pair of rhymed lines
- Tercet = three lines with a single rhyme
- Quatrain = four-line stanza with various meters and rhyme schemes
- Sestet = 6 lines
- Octave = 8 lines
(5)
Stream of Consciousness = the unbroken flow of thought in the mind, capturing the
character’s mental process (4)
Symbol = a word or phrase which signifies something else, e.g. the rose often signifies love
(4)
Tension =a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense or when there is suspense in the
Story (4)
Theme = what the literary work is actually about. A theme can be a word, a phrase or
a sentence. (e.g. ‘Jealousy’, ’The danger of jealousy’, ‘How jealousy can ruin
someone’s life.’) (4)
Third-Person narrative see Point of View
Tragedy= a play (or story) which turns out disastrously for the protagonist. In a
conventionaltragedy we encounter as the main character a tragic hero whose tragic
flaw or error of judgement arouses pity and fear in the spectators or readers. Our
sympathy for the hero leads to catharsis, or a feeling of relief in the audience. (5)
Tragic hero see Tragedy
Tragic flaw see Tragedy
Trustworthy narrator see Point of View
Understatement = representing something as much less important than it really is. The
opposite of hyperbole or exaggeration (5)
Unreliable narrator see Point of View
Utopia = the ideal political state and life. The opposite is dystopia, a very unpleasant
imaginary world. (5)
Verse see Meter
Volta see Sonnet
Wit see Humour