Literary Terms

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

• allegory
• alliteration
• allusion
• anagnorisis
• antagonist
• anthropomorphism
• anti-hero
• apostrophe
• archetype
• atmosphere
• ballad
• bathos

Canon to Convention

• canon
• catharsis
• character
• climax
• colloquialism
• comedy
• conflict
• convention

Deconstruction to Diatribe

• deconstruction
• dénouement
• description
• deus ex machina
• diatribe

Epic Poetry to Exposition

• epic poetry
• epigraph
• epiphany
• ethos
• exegesis
• exposition

Fantasy to Freytag’s Formula

• fantasy
• fiction
• figurative language
• flashback
• foil
• foreshadowing
• Freytag’s Formula

Genre to Lyric

• genre
• hamartia
• hero
• heroic ideal
• hubris
• hypertext
• hypertext fiction
• imagery
• inciting action
• in medias res
• irony
• literary criticism
• literary theory
• logos
• lyric

Masculinity to Myth

• masculinity
• melodrama
• metaphor
• metonymy
• milieu
• mimesis
• monologue
• motif
• mood
• myth

Narration to Oration

• narration
• narrative
• narrative verse
• narrator
• novel
• novella
• onomatopoeia
• oration

Pace to Protagonist

• pace
• paradox
• parody
• pathos
• peripeteia
• personification
• plot
• poiesis
• point of view
• praxis
• prose
• protagonist
• pun

Resolution to Romance

• resolution
• reversal
• rhetoric
• rhyme
• rising action
• romance

Satire to Syntax

• satire
• science fiction
• semantics
• setting
• short story
• simile
• stream of consciousness
• style
• subplot
• surrealism
• symbol
• synecdoche
• synesthesia
• syntax

Text to Zeugma

• terza rima
• text
• theme
• theoria
• tone
• tragedy
• trope
• verisimilitude
• zeugma

External Links

• Glossary of Literary Terms — Cursory definitions to get you on the right track from McGraw Hill’s Online Learning Center.
• Literary Terms — A comprehensive list by the students of Ted Nellen.
• Literary Terms — Lilia Melani covers many of the basics in detail.
• A handbook of rhetorical devices by Robert A. Harris.