The Tool Kit - some of the most commonly used literary terms According to WJEC (our exam board) this is some of the essential technical vocabulary you will need to be familiar with when writing about literary texts. Brief explanations have been given for each term; it would be an excellent idea to make sure you understand each one. (Remember this is not an exhaustive list; there are many more literary terms, some of which may be especially relevant to one of your texts) allegory a story written in such a way as to have two coherent meanings. An old example is Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) in which the hero Christian’s journey from the City of Destruction illustrates Christian salvation. A modern example is Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) alliteration a sequence of repeated consonantal sounds in a stretch of writing; a powerful (and easily recognised) means of introducing pattern into poetry or prose allusion a passing reference to something outside the immediate text; a writer may make an allusion to legend, historical personages, the Bible or other works of literature ambiguity words or sentences that contain double, multiple or uncertain meanings and so are open to different, sometimes contradictory, interpretations archaic describing words or syntax characteristic of an earlier time; consciously oldfashioned or outdated assonance
repetition of vowel sounds (‘Till now the doubtful dusk..’)
ballad
a narrative poem (i.e. one that tells a story) in simple or colloquial language
blank verse unrhymed iambic pentameter- the normal medium for much Elizabethan and Jacobean drama (including Shakespeare) and much later writing – popular because of its flexibility and relative closeness to spoken English caesura a pause within a line of verse; a vital method of introducing variety into metrical forms used in long poems characterisation the way in which a writer creates characters in a narrative so as to attract or repel our sympathy
The Tool Kit cliché
a phrase made tedious by over-use
colloquial typical expression and grammar associated with everyday speech rather than formal or “Poetic” language conceit a figurative device which forges an unexpected comparison between two apparently dissimilar things, usually ingeniously extended (typically used in metaphysical poetry, e.g. John Donne) contexts traditionally this meant the words or ideas surrounding a particular word or statement which give it its particular meaning; now it is used to include a series of wider ‘contexts’: the social, historical, philosophical period in which a writer was working; autobiographical or political influences devices The techniques commonly used in literature to give added depth to a work. For example, imagery, point of view, symbolism, allusions (and most of the other terms in this list!) dialogue
the speech and conversation of characters in any kind of literary work
diction the choice of words in any type of literature; the vocabulary used (e.g. colloquial, elaborate, formal, simple, racy, dignified, rhetorical) didactic designed to instruct or to persuade, reflecting a writer’s political, moral or religious agenda (e.g. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls (1945) dramatic irony a feature of many plays; when the development of the plot allows the audience to possess more information about what is happening than some of the characters have dramatic monologue a poem in which a single person (not the poet) is speaking; the writer adopts a persona (e.g. Browning My Last Duchess (1842) or Carol Ann Duffy Warming her Pearls (1987) dramatic tension the creation of suspense in the audience and a desire to know what happens next through the plot and various stage effects ellipsis omission of words, allowing the maximum meaning to be condensed into the fewest words enjamb(e)ment pause
in poetry, when the sentence continues into the next line without any
first person/third person different forms of narrative viewpoint: in first-person narratives the narrator speaks of himself as ‘I’ and is generally a character in the story; in third-person narratives the narrator describes the characters as ‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘they’. hyperbole
a figure of speech emphasising by exaggeration
imagery the figurative language in a text (metaphors and similes), or all the words which refer to objects and qualities which appeal to the senses and feelings 2
The Tool Kit irony
saying one thing when you mean another
metaphor
an implied comparison, in which one thing is described in terms of another
mock-heroic applied to any work that treats a trivial subject with ridiculous, comic grandeur (e.g. Chaucer’s The Nun’s Priest’s Tale (c1395) monosyllabic using words of one syllable motif commonly occurring themes, characters or images; within an individual work, repeated phrases, descriptions, images or incidents multiple narrators
the use of two or more narrators to tell a story
narrative stance the relation of the narrator of a story to the reader: intrusive or impersonal; omniscient (all-knowing) or restricted; sometimes unreliable or naïve octave the first eight lines of a sonnet (following which there is generally a shift of emphasis or direction) omniscient narrator a narrator who relates his story as if capable of seeing every event which concerns his characters, even to the extent of knowing their innermost thoughts and motives oxymoron a figure of speech combining seemingly contradictory terms (e.g. ‘O brawling love! O loving hate!’ Romeo and Juliet (c1595) pace construction
the speeding up or slowing down of a text through language choices or plot
paradox an apparently self-contradictory statement, seemingly in conflict with all logic or opinion, yet lying behind the apparent absurdity is a truth parody an imitation of a specific work or literary style, designed to ridicule its characteristic features. Exaggeration or adopting a serious tone for an absurd subject are typical methods. pathetic fallacy
a character’s mood is echoed by the weather
pathos (Greek: suffering, grief) Moments in literature which evoke strong feelings of pity and sorrow are said to have this quality persona
a fictitious character adopted by a writer to act as narrator
personification a variety of figurative or metaphorical language in which things or ideas are treated as if they were human beings perspective
the viewpoint from which a story is narrated
protagonist originally the principal character in a Greek play; now used to refer to the leading character in a novel, play or narrative poem 3
The Tool Kit pun
a witty play on words for comic effect
quatrain
a stanza of four lines (very common in English verse)
repetition used to create a sense of pattern or form in literature – it could be the repetition of sound patterns, key words, symbols or, on a larger scale, the repetition-withvariations of incidents rhetoric the art of speaking or writing effectively to move or persuade an audience; rhetoric was the subject of several textbooks in Greece and Rome (including Aristotle and Cicero), and was studied at universities in the middle ages rhyming couplets
a pair of rhymed lines
rhythm the chief element of rhythm is the variation in levels of stress given to syllables which create the more formal ‘metre’; a feature of verse, prose writers may also create rhythmic effects in construction of sentences and patterns within them satire use of mockery to attack vice and folly to make them appear ridiculous and contemptible setting
the time and place in which the action of a play or novel takes place
simile a figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another; always introduced by ‘like’ or ‘as soliloquy a dramatic convention in which a character speaks directly to the audience about his feelings, motivations and decisions. Shakespeare used the device to give psychological depth to main characters sonnet fourteen lines of iambic pentameter rhymed and organised according tone of several intricate schemes. The lines can be divided into octave (8 lines) and sestet (6 lines), or three quatrains (4 lines) and a couplet staging the realisation of a play text in performance, and the spectacle it presents to an audience through the choice of stage set and design, lighting, costume and sound effects stanza a unit of several lines of poetry, part of a repeated and regular pattern (sometimes incorrectly called a ‘verse’) stream of consciousness a common narrative technique in the modern novel: the attempt to convey all the passing thoughts of a character, often at random suspense happen
in a play or novel, the condition of suspecting or wanting to know what will
symbolism use of symbols (in which one thing ‘represents’ something else) as metaphors in which the precise subject of the metaphor is not made explicit and may even be mysterious syntax
the arrangement of words in their appropriate order to achieve meaning 4
The Tool Kit theme the abstract subject of a work; its central idea or concerns, which may or may not be made explicit or obvious tone the attitude adopted by a writer, gathered from the kind of syntax and vocabulary used (e.g. the tone could be said to be sarcastic, angry, ironic, pompous, witty etc) tragic hero the protagonist (central character) of a tragedy whose downfall is the central focus of the drama unreliable narrator a narrator whom the reader cannot fully trust; the unreliability can be due to psychological instability, a powerful bias, a lack of knowledge, or even a deliberate attempt to deceive the reader or audience
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