50 LITERARY TERMS ALL LITERATURE LITERATE SHOULD KNOW

50 LITERARY TERMS ALL LITERATURE LITERATE SHOULD KNOW

Every aspect of life has its own

vocabulary. Jargon, lingo and terminology

which is essential to function in that field

of expertise and appear credible to those

around you.


As an English teacher, literature literate, tutor or even a

student there are some essential terms

required to run and participate in an

effective English class.

Knowing these literary terms and their

meanings will greatly enhance your

students learning opportunities and

enhance your own professional

understanding of your craft.

Hopefully, you already know most of these

but here is the definitive list of what you

need to know in order to ‘walk the walk,

and talk the talk’ as a quality English

teacher


Accented: a word, syllable, or musical

note or chord) stressed or emphasized.

Allegory: A story, poem, or picture that

can be interpreted to reveal a hidden

meaning, typically a moral or political one.

Alliteration: The occurrence of the same

letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent

or closely connected words. ‘the alliteration

of ‘sweet birds sang’’

Analysis: Detailed examination of the

elements or structure of something.

Assonance: Resemblance of sound

between syllables of nearby words, arising

particularly from the rhyming of two or

more stressed vowels, but not consonants

(e.g. sonnet, porridge), but also from the

use of identical consonants with different

vowels (e.g. killed, cold, culled) ‘the use of

assonance throughout the poem creates the

sound of despair’

Ballad: A poem or song narrating a story

in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are

typically of unknown authorship, having

been passed on orally from one generation

to the next.

Biography: An account of someone’s life

written by someone else.

Character: A person in a novel, play, or

film. – The mental and moral qualities

distinctive to an individual.

Chiasmus: A rhetorical or literary figure in

which words, grammatical constructions, or

concepts are repeated in reverse order.

Chronological: following the order in which

they occurred.

Cliche: A phrase or opinion that is

overused and betrays a lack of original

thought. ‘that old cliché ‘a woman’s place is

in the home’’


CONPARISON


Comparison: A consideration or estimate

of the similarities or dissimilarities between

two things or people.

‘they drew a comparison between Gandhi’s

teaching and that of other teachers’

Contrast: The state of being strikingly

different from something else in

juxtaposition or close association.

‘the day began cold and blustery, in contrast

to almost two weeks of uninterrupted

sunshine’

Description: A spoken or written account

of a person, object, or event.

Dialogue: A conversation between two or

more people as a feature of a book, play,

or film.

Drama: A play for theatre, radio, or

television.

Epic: A long poem, typically one derived

from ancient oral tradition, narrating the

deeds and adventures of heroic or

legendary figures or the past history of a

nation.

Fact: A thing that is known or proved to

be true.

Fantasy: A genre of imaginative fiction

involving magic and adventure, especially

in a setting other than the real world.

Fiction: Literature in the form of prose,

especially novels, that describes imaginary

events and people.

A figure of speech: A word or phrase used

in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid

effect.

Fairy Tale: A children’s story about

magical and imaginary beings and lands; a

fairy story.

Folk Tale: A story originating in popular

culture, typically passed on by word of

mouth.

Form: The structure of a word, phrase,

sentence, or discourse.

Generalization: A general statement or

concept obtained by inference from

specific cases.

Genre: A style or category of art, music, or

literature.

Hyperbole: Exaggerated statements or

claims not meant to be taken literally.

Idiom: A group of words established by

usage as having a meaning not deducible

from those of the individual words (e.g.

over the moon, see the light).

Imagery: Visually descriptive or figurative

language, especially in a literary work.

Inference: A conclusion reached on the

basis of evidence and reasoning.


Irony


Irony: The expression of one’s meaning by

using language that normally signifies the

opposite, typically for humorous or

emphatic effect.

Kenning: A compound expression in Old

English and Old Norse poetry with

metaphorical meaning, e.g. oar-steed =

ship.

Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a

word or phrase is applied to an object or

action to which it is not literally applicable.

Metonymy: A figure of speech in which a

word or phrase is applied to an object or

action to which it is not literally applicable.

Moral: A lesson that can be derived from

a story or experience.

Motive: A reason for doing something.

Narrative Poetry: Poetry that tells a story.

Narrator: A person who narrates

something, especially a character who

recounts the events of a novel or narrative

poem.

Non-fiction: Prose writing that is

informative or factual rather than fictional.

Novel: A fictitious prose narrative of book

length, typically representing character and

action with some degree of realism.

Ode: A lyric poem, typically one in the

form of an address to a particular subject,

written in varied or irregular meter.

Onomatopoeia: the formation of a word

from a sound associated with what is

named (e.g. cuckoo , sizzle ).

Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which

apparently contradictory terms appear in

conjunction (e.g. faith unfaithful kept him

falsely true).

Personification: The attribution of a

personal nature or human characteristics

to something non-human, or the

representation of an abstract quality in

human form.

Plot: The main events of a play, novel,

film, or similar work, devised and presented

by the writer as an interrelated sequence.

Poetry: Literary work in which the

expression of feelings and ideas is given

intensity by the use of distinctive style and

rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of

literature.

Point of view: (in fictional writing) the

narrator’s position in relation to a story

being told.

Predictions: A thing predicted; a forecast.

Rhyme: A short poem in which the sound

of the word or syllable at the end of each

line corresponds with that at the end of

another.

Rhythm: The measured flow of words and

phrases in verse or prose as determined by

the relation of long and short or stressed

and unstressed syllables.

Science Fiction: Fiction based on imagined

future scientific or technological advances

and major social or environmental changes,

frequently portraying space or time travel

and life on other planets.

Sequence: A particular order in which

related things follow each other.

Setting: The place or type of surroundings

where something is positioned or where an

event takes place.

Simile: A figure of speech involving the

comparison of one thing with another thing

of a different kind, used to make a

description more emphatic or vivid (e.g. as

brave as a lion).

Solution: A means of solving a problem or

dealing with a difficult situation.

Stanza: A group of lines forming the basic

recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.

Theme: An idea that recurs in or pervades

a work of art or literature.

Voice: The distinctive tone or style of a

literary work or author.


READ ALSO: The longest journey(a poem)


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