Literary Corner

Literary Glossary

Repeated sounds at the start of words that are close to each other

Alliteration

Allulsion

An indirect reference to something, such as a work of classic literature

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

Antanaclasis

When a word is repeated but in a different sense. This is closely related to zeugma

Anthropomorphism

The attribution of human characteristics to something nonhuman

Antihero

A main character who defies or even inverts heroic expectations

Something that is the direct opposite of or in contrast to something else

When the order of words in a clause is inverted in a second, parallel clause

Antimetabole

Antithesis

Irony

Applying one word to two others, but in different senses, usually literal and metaphorical. Mesozeugma is when the word occurs in the middle of the line

Aporia

Archetype

Connotation

Blason (or Blazon)

Aposiopesis

The expression of doubt or uncertainty, sometimes feigned, in order to give force to an argument

When someone or something is elevated to a godlike or divine status

A trope or figure that recurs across literary and cultural productions from different historical periods

In a literary context, this refers to a poem that praises its object's various physical attributes one by one. This term comes from heraldry, where it refers to the images on a shield or coat of arms

An association or meaning implied by a word or phrase that is not the strict definition of the word or phrase

Didactic

Epistolary

Epizeuxis

Double Entendre

Foil

Homonym

Hyperbole

Framing Device

Foreshadowing

Having instruction or teaching as a primary goal

The repetition of a word for emphasis, often in the same sentence

A word or phrase with a double meaning. Colloquially, this is often used to mean something with a dirty second meaning

A character who highlights another character's trait by contrast. This is usually a secondary character who accentuates the protagonist, but main characters can also be foils for one another

A hint of what is to come in the rest of the plot

Taking the form of letters, or related to letters and letter writing

A story used to set up a literary work that gives context to the main narrative

Words with distinct meanings that sound the same. These include homographs, which are spelled the same, and homophones, which are spelled differently

Overstatement or exaggeration

Zeugma

A dramatic or rhetorical construction that relies on an incongruity or two contradicting layers, which could mean anything from saying one thing and meaning the opposite to a situation in which the main character things one thing is happening when the audience knows it's something else

Magical Realism

A literary style in which a realistic version of the world is permeated by elements of fantasy or magic

Memory Play

A work of drama structured by the main character narrating from their memory

Metatexuality

When a literary work refers to its own existence as text

Metonymy

Using an object or concept associated with something as a stand-in for the thing itself

Motif

A recurrent theme

Onomatopoeia

A word created to mimic the sound it's describing

Pastiche

A work that imitates another artist, genre, or style - similar to a parody, but not intended as mockery, though it may be lightly humorous - or a work that cobbles together many different styles, homages, imitations, and allusions in a patchwork of influences

Personification

Synesthesia

Reification

Soliloquy

Addressing or talking to oneself

A case of metonymy in which the part stands in for the whole, or vice versa

When something abstract is reconfigured as something tangible or real

The attribution of human qualities and behaviors to something nonhuman, or a human representation of a nonhuman entity

The crossing of one sense with another

Synecdoche

Trope

Syntax

The order and arrangement of words and punctuation in a sentence

A common literary device, an instance of figurative or metaphorical language, or figure of speech

When speech breaks off abruptly

Apostrophe

A dramatic address to an absent, dead, or abstract person, entity, or thing

Apotheosis

Adnomination

The order and arrangement of words and punctuation in a sentence

The repetition of root words, though the rest of the word may change

Anacoluthon

When a speaker breaks the grammatical flow of the sentence they are uttering, either to change course or interrupt themselves

Analepsis

A flashback

Anastrophe

Inverting the traditional, grammatical word order of a sentence to emphasize a particular word or idea

Anthypophora

Asking a question and then immediately answering it yourself

Antonomasia

A phrase or nickname taking the place of a proper name

Assonance

Repetition of words with shared vowel sounds, creating a feeling of rhyme

Asyndeton

A list of words without conjunctions in between. The opposite is polysyndeton

Bathos (or bathetic)

Anticlimax, often involving an abrupt shift in mood from the poetic to the mundane, or the sublime to the ridiculous

Caesura

A pause, often indicated by a comma or full stop

Chiasmus

The second half of a sentence or phrase mirrors the first in terms of parts of speech (but without being an exact repetition - aka antimetabole)

Compound Adjective

Placing two words together with a hyphen in the middle to create a new, expressive adjective

Conditional Tense

Used to describe what might happen, hypothetically, in the future, or what might have happened in the past

Consonance

The repetition of words with shared consonants creating a feeling of rhyme

Dactyl

A poetic foot consisting of three syllables, with the first stressed and the second and third unstressed

Dialogismus

Temporarily speaking as someone else

Ekphrasis

Describing in detail a work of art or image so it feels like you're telling a story within a story

Enjambment

When you must immediately read from one end of a line of poetry to the beginning of the next, to complete the sentence, or idea

Epistrophe

Repetition of a word at the end of a series of phrases; the opposite of anaphora

Feminine Rhyme

A rhyme between the stressed syllables of two or more words

Idiom

A common phrase or saying, often with a metaphorical meaning

In Media Res

Beginning a narrative in the middle of things (without setting up background and context)

Internal Rhyme

When the rhyme doesn't fall at the end of two lines of poetry, as is traditional, but instead is between two words or phrases within the line itself

Linked Rhyme

When the word at the end of a line rhymes with the first word of the next

Metaphor

Comparing two things by saying one thing is something else - it's a stronger comparison than a simile. An extended metaphor is when the metaphor recurs and develops throughout the song or poem

Juxtaposition

The placement of two contrasting words or concepts side by side

Objective Correlative

Where emotions are implied or associated with an object

Oxymoron

A form of juxtaposition in which the words or ideas placed side-by-side contradict one another or cancel one another out

Paradox

Two contrasting things together that seem impossible, but could make sense

Parallelism

When sentences or clauses seem to echo or reflect each other, in structure and/or ideas

Passive Voice

When something is done to someone, rather than someone doing something- aka active voice

Pathetic Fallacy

Where the weather or setting is described in such a way that it seems to reflect the mood of the speaker or theme of the song/poem

Plosive Sounds

"p," "t," "k," "g," "d," and "b" sounds - like making small explosions with your mouth

Polyptoton

The repetition of words derived from the same root

Polysyndeton

A list of things with conjunctions in between

Present Participles

Verbs ending in "ing" to illustrate ongoing action

Prolepsis

The opposite of a flashback; a flash-forward

Prosopopoeia

A form of personification, where an inanimate object is discussed, or acts, as if it were a person; opposite of antiprosopopoeia, which compares a person to an inanimate object

Reported Speech

Narrating what someone else has said, using speech marks

Rhetorical Question

Asking a question to which one does not expect to receive a reply, since the answer is self-evident and/or the speaker wants to make a point

Second Person Address

An area of meaning, to which several words relate

"You" in a song, speech, or text

Semantic Field

Sibilance

Repetition of "s" sounds

Simile

Comparing two things by saying one thing is like or as something else

Slant Rhyme (Half Rhyme)

A rhyme that is not complete or perfect, often relying on assonance or consonance

Tricolon

Superlative

Spondee

A poetic foot consisting of two stressed syllables

Best or worst/most + adjective/adjective +"est"

Three phrases or images in a row

Trochee

A poetic foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable