Literary Terms: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:23, 23 February 2006

Every discipline has its own technical vocabulary; the study of literature is no different. In order to discuss fiction in an intelligent and competent manner, a familiarity (or literacy) with this vocabulary is crucial. Define each of the following words calling from various sources — reference books, lectures, your own reading — making clear your own understanding of the vocabulary. Feel free to define or add your own terms.

Allegory to Bathos

Canon to Convention

Deconstruction to Diatribe

Epic Poetry to Exposition

Flashback to Freytag’s Formula

Genre to Lyric

Melodrama to Myth

Narration to Oration

Pace to Protagonist

Reader Response to Rising Action

Satire to Syntax

Text to Zeugma

External Links

Elements of Literature — Lisa R. Lazarescu begins by defining literature, then discusses various key aspects of the study.
Glossary of Literary Terms — Cursory definitions to get you on the right track from McGraw Hill’s Online Learning Center.
Glossary of Literary Terms — from Bedford / St. Martin’s press.
A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples — by Ross Scaife at the University of Kentucky.
Literary Dictionary — covering poetry, drama, short fiction, the novel, and literary criticism, by the students of Lysbeth Em Benkert-Rasmussen.
Literary Terms — A comprehensive list by the students of Ted Nellen.
Literary Terms — Lilia Melani covers many of the basics in detail.
Virtual Salt — A handbook of rhetorical devices by Robert A. Harris.
Words of Art — A list of terms for the study of art by Robert J. Belton at Okanagan University College.

Credits

See the LitWiki Community Portal

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 * [[lyric]]
-'''Irony'''
+== Melodrama to Myth ==
-Irony is the expectation of one event and another, a completely different event that happens and still makes sense. There are three types of irony: verbal, situational, and dramatic. Verbal irony is when someone says one thing but means the opposite and everyone understands that that person means the opposite of what he/she are saying. Situational irony is the opposite of what is expected to happen, happens but it still makes sinse. Dramatic irony is an audience who knows something that someone else doesn't know.
+* [[melodrama]]
+* [[metaphor]]
-The importance of irony in modern art and literature and, more latterly in the intelectural sciences and in culture generally, can hardly be overestimated. For some writers the cultivation of irony is the most essential qualification for any thought, any art or literature or social or political therory to be truly modern. Charles Lemert refers to irony as discursive form of post modern social therory. He claims that irony is the only and necessary attitude for theroy today. But, other writers have noted the cancerous growth in the use of irony in art and literature.
+* [[metonymy]]
+* [[milieu]]
+* <i>[[mimesis]]</i>
+* [[monologue]]
+* [[motif]]
+* [[mood]]
+* [[myth]]
-'''Work Cited'''
-[www.intellectbooks.com/europa/number4/witkin.htm]
-[www.masconomet.org/teachers/trevenen/litterms.htm]
- [andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/irony.html]
 == Narration to Oration ==