Literary Terms by MH Abraham
A comprehensive study of literary terminology, figures of speech, and critical concepts based on MH Abraham's glossary. Essential for exam preparation.
Chapters and lessons
Figurative Language
A comprehensive explanation of figurative language, including tropes and schemes, with detailed examples of simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and personification.
Rhetorical Figures
A comprehensive examination of rhetorical figures including anaphora, apostrophe, chiasmus, paralipsis, rhetorical question, and zeugma, with detailed examples from English literature.
Alliteration
An explanation of alliteration, consonance, and assonance as figures of speech.
Onomatopoeia
A figure of speech where words mimic the sounds they represent, also known as echoism
Paradox
A comprehensive explanation of paradox as a seemingly contradictory statement that reveals deeper truth, including oxymoron and its use in metaphysical poetry.
Symbol
An exploration of symbols in literature, including conventional and personal symbols, and their distinction from simile, metaphor, and allegory.
Epic Similes
A comprehensive explanation of epic similes (Homeric similes), their characteristics, usage in classical literature, and examples from Milton's Paradise Lost.
Refrain
A comprehensive explanation of refrain as a repeated line or group of lines in poetry, including examples from Shakespeare, Spenser, Poe, and Burns.
Imagery
A comprehensive examination of imagery in literature, including its three main uses: sensory perception, visual description, and figurative language, with analysis of image clusters and motifs.
Epigram
A comprehensive explanation of epigram as a terse, pointed, and witty statement in verse or prose, with historical development and literary examples.
Ode
A comprehensive explanation of ode as a long lyric poem, including its classical origins, types (Pindaric, Horatian, irregular), and development in English literature.
Elegy
A comprehensive explanation of elegy, including its historical development, types, and related forms like dirge, threnody, monody, and pastoral elegy.
Sonnet
A comprehensive explanation of the sonnet, including Italian/Petrarchan and English/Shakespearean forms, their rhyme schemes, structure, and historical development through various poets and periods.
Epic
Definition and explanation of epic or heroic poem, including traditional vs literary epics, their characteristics, and major examples from Homer to Milton
Ballad
A short definition of the popular ballad (also called the folk ballad or traditional ballad) is that it is a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story.
Dramatic Monologue
Definition and explanation of dramatic monologue as a lyric poem form, its characteristics, and distinction from related forms like soliloquy and dramatic lyric
Burlesque
A detailed explanation of burlesque and its various forms, including parody, mock-epic, travesty, and lampoon.
Satire
A comprehensive explanation of satire as a literary art form, covering formal and indirect satire, Horatian and Juvenalian types, and Menippean satire with examples from major authors.
Irony
A comprehensive examination of irony in literature, including verbal irony, structural irony, dramatic irony, cosmic irony, romantic irony, and their various applications in literary works.
Comedy, Comedy of Humours, and Comic Relief
An exploration of comedy and its various forms, including romantic, satiric, and manners comedy, as well as the concepts of comedy of humours and comic relief.
Hyperbole and Understatement
A detailed explanation of hyperbole and understatement as literary figures, including their forms like meiosis and litotes, with classic examples from literature.
Epithet
Definition and explanation of epithet as a literary device, including Homeric epithets and conventional epithets used to describe distinctive qualities
Drama
A comprehensive explanation of drama as a literary form, including its types, characteristics, and examples from classical and modern literature.
Free Verse
Definition and explanation of free verse poetry, its characteristics, distinction from traditional verse, and major practitioners from Whitman to modern poets
Genres
Definition and explanation of literary genres, their classification systems from classical to modern times, and the tripartite division into lyric, epic, and drama
Melodrama
A comprehensive explanation of melodrama from its origins in musical plays to Victorian theater and its extended meaning in literature and modern media.
Tragedy
A comprehensive examination of tragedy from Aristotelian theory to medieval and Elizabethan developments, including tragic hero, catharsis, hamartia, and revenge tragedy
Meter
Comprehensive explanation of meter in poetry, including types of meter (quantitative, syllabic, accentual, accentual-syllabic), scansion, and metrical analysis with examples from Keats
Tragicomedy
A dramatic form that combines elements of tragedy and comedy, featuring mixed character classes and plots that threaten tragic disaster but end happily.
Soliloquy
A comprehensive examination of soliloquy in drama, including its dramatic functions, famous examples, related device of aside, and historical development in theatrical conventions.
Novel
Comprehensive explanation of the novel as a literary form, its origins, development from romance and picaresque narrative, and early examples from Defoe
Setting
A comprehensive examination of setting in narrative and dramatic works, including overall setting, scene-specific locations, and theatrical applications of décor and mise en scène.
Gothic Novel
Definition and characteristics of Gothic novels as a literary term, encompassing terror, supernatural elements, and psychological horror.
Myth
An examination of myth as hereditary stories explaining the world through supernatural beings, including structuralist interpretations and the distinction between myth, legend, and folktale.
Folklore
A comprehensive explanation of folklore including folk drama and folk songs, their origins, characteristics, and influence on written literature.
Heroic Couplet
A comprehensive explanation of heroic couplets in English poetry, including their structure, historical development, and examples from Chaucer, Denham, and Pope.
Heroic Drama
Definition and explanation of heroic drama from the Restoration Period, its characteristics, major writers like Dryden, and distinction from heroic tragedy
Short Story
A comprehensive explanation of the short story as a literary form, covering its characteristics, development, and relationship to the novel, including frame-story techniques.
Problem Play
A comprehensive explanation of problem play as a dramatic form that addresses contemporary social issues, including discussion plays and Shakespeare's bitter comedies.
Pun
A play on words that are identical or similar in sound but different in meaning, also called paranomasia
Miracle Plays, Morality Plays, and Interludes
A comprehensive examination of late-medieval drama types: miracle plays based on biblical stories and saints' lives, morality plays as dramatized allegories, and interludes as short entertainments.
Narrative and Narratology
An examination of narrative as storytelling across literary forms and narratology as the theoretical study of narrative structure, including formalist and structuralist approaches.
Naturalism
A literary movement that depicts humans as determined by heredity and environment, developed from post-Darwinian scientific philosophy
Plot
The events and actions in a dramatic or narrative work, ordered to achieve particular artistic and emotional effects
Rhyme
The repetition of sounds in verse, including end rhymes, internal rhymes, and various types of rhyme patterns
Allegory
A comprehensive explanation of allegory, including its types, devices, and related literary forms like fable, parable, and exemplum.
Allusion
A passing reference, without explicit identification, to a literary or historical person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage.
Realism
A comprehensive explanation of realism as both a 19th-century literary movement and a recurring mode of representing human life and experience in literature.
Antihero
An explanation of the antihero in literature, a protagonist who lacks traditional heroic qualities.
Antithesis
A figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by parallelism of words that are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other.
Conceit
An explanation of literary conceits, distinguishing between Petrarchan and metaphysical conceits with examples from poets like Wyatt, Shakespeare, and Donne.
Euphemism
A comprehensive explanation of euphemism as a linguistic device, including its definition, examples, and usage in literature and everyday language.
Form and Structure
A comprehensive exploration of form and structure in literary criticism, including mechanic vs organic form, neoclassic approaches, and various critical theories.
Periods of English Literature
A comprehensive chronological overview of English literature periods from Old English (450-1066) through Postmodernism (1945-), including major characteristics and historical contexts.
Old English Period
A comprehensive overview of the Old English Period (Anglo-Saxon Period) from the Germanic invasions to the Norman Conquest, covering major literary works, authors, and cultural developments.
Middle English Period
The literary period from 1066 to 1500, marked by the Norman Conquest and the development of Middle English literature
Renaissance
A comprehensive examination of the Renaissance period in European history and literature, covering the new learning, religion, exploration, scientific discoveries, and their impact on literary development.
Elizabethan Age
A comprehensive overview of the Elizabethan Age (1558-1603), covering the literary renaissance, major writers, and cultural developments during Elizabeth I's reign.
Jacobean Age
A comprehensive overview of the Jacobean Age (1603-1625) during James I's reign, covering major literary works, authors, and cultural developments following the Elizabethan era.
Caroline Age
The literary period during the reign of Charles I (1625-49), marked by the English Civil War and Cavalier poets
Commonwealth Period (Puritan Interregnum)
An examination of the Commonwealth Period (1649-1660) in English literature, marked by Puritan rule under Oliver Cromwell, theater closures, and notable prose and poetry writers.
Restoration
A comprehensive overview of the Restoration period (1660-1700) following Charles II's return to the throne, covering major literary developments, comedy of manners, and notable writers.
Augustan Age
The English literary period from 1700-1745, modeled after the Roman Augustan Age and characterized by neoclassical ideals
Age of Sensibility
The literary period from 1744-1785, marking the transition from neoclassicism to romanticism and the rise of original genius
Neoclassic and Romantic
A comparative analysis of the Neoclassic and Romantic periods in English literature, examining their contrasting characteristics, literary theories, and representative writers.
Romantic Period
A comprehensive examination of the Romantic Period (1785-1832) in English literature, its major characteristics, key writers, and literary developments including Gothic romances.
Victorian Period
A comprehensive overview of the Victorian Period (1830/1832/1837-1901), covering its three phases and major literary figures including Tennyson, Dickens, and the Brontë sisters.
Victorian and Victorianism
An in-depth analysis of Victorian culture and ideology, examining the social, economic, and intellectual transformations during Queen Victoria's reign, including the conflicts between progress and tradition, and the evolution of Victorian values.
Edwardian Period
An examination of the Edwardian Period (1901-1914) in English literature, spanning from Queen Victoria's death to World War I, featuring major poets, dramatists, and prose fiction writers.
Georgian Period
The literary period associated with George V's reign (1910-36) and the Georgian Poetry anthologies edited by Edward Marsh
Modern Period
A comprehensive overview of the Modern Period (1914-present), covering major literary innovations and achievements in poetry, fiction, drama, and criticism since World War I.
Metaphysical Poets
A comprehensive exploration of the metaphysical poets movement of the 17th century, including John Donne, Herbert, Marvell, and others, their style, themes, and critical reception.
Romanticism
An exploration of the Romantic movement in literature (late 18th-early 19th century), emphasizing emotion, imagination, nature, and individualism as reactions against Neoclassicism and the Industrial Revolution.
Gothic Novel
A comprehensive explanation of the Gothic novel movement, from its origins with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto to its evolution and influence on modern fiction.
Pre-Raphaelites
An examination of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848), their artistic and literary ideals, and key figures including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Morris, and Algernon Swinburne.
Realism
An examination of Literary Realism as a mid-19th century movement that sought to depict life accurately and objectively, rejecting romantic idealization in favor of truthful representation of ordinary experience.
Aestheticism
A detailed explanation of Aestheticism, the aesthetic movement, and the concept of 'art for art's sake'.
Symbolist Movement
A comprehensive explanation of the Symbolist Movement in literature, from Romantic origins to French Symbolists and their global influence
Stream of Consciousness
A narrative technique that attempts to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often based on William James' psychological concept.
Modernism and Postmodernism
A comprehensive explanation of modernism and postmodernism as major 20th century literary movements, their characteristics, key figures, and evolution.
Surrealism
A comprehensive examination of Surrealism as a revolutionary artistic and literary movement, its origins from Dadaism, key principles of automatic writing and unconscious creativity, and widespread influence on modern literature and arts.
Existentialism
An exploration of Existentialism as a philosophical and literary movement emphasizing individual existence, freedom, choice, and the search for meaning in an apparently meaningless universe.
Pathos
A literary device designed to evoke feelings of tenderness, pity, or sympathetic sorrow from the audience
Absurd, Literature of
Definition and explanation of the literature of the absurd
Ambiguity
An explanation of ambiguity as a literary device, including concepts like multiple meaning, plurisignation, and portmanteau words.
Golden Age
An exploration of the golden age concept in literature, deriving from chronological primitivism in Greek and Roman traditions, and its cultural significance.
Act and Scene
Definition and explanation of acts and scenes in dramatic structure
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir
An explanation of biography, autobiography, memoir, and related forms like diaries and journals.
Bloomsbury Group
An overview of the Bloomsbury Group, an influential association of writers, artists, and intellectuals in early 20th-century London.
Didactic Literature
Definition and explanation of didactic literature, including its characteristics, purposes, and examples from various literary periods
Alienation Effect
An explanation of Bertolt Brecht's 'alienation effect' (Verfremdungseffekt) in epic theater.
Objective and Subjective
Definition and explanation of objective and subjective approaches in literature, their origins in German criticism, and applications to poetry and novels
Blank Verse
Blank verse consists of lines of iambic pentameter (five-stress iambic verse) which are unrhymed.
Concrete and Abstract
A distinction between terms that denote particular things (concrete) and terms that denote classes or qualities (abstract).
Chorus
Among the ancient Greeks the chorus was a group of people, wearing masks, who sang or chanted verses while performing dancelike movements at religious festivals.
Cliché
An explanation of cliché as a literary term, signifying a hackneyed or overused expression.
Empathy and Sympathy
A comprehensive explanation of empathy and sympathy, distinguishing between feeling-into physical sensations and feeling-along-with emotions, with literary examples.
Fiction and Truth
An examination of fiction as literary narrative and the philosophical questions surrounding the truth-value of fictional sentences
Euphony and Cacophony
A comprehensive explanation of euphony and cacophony, contrasting smooth, pleasant language with harsh, discordant sounds, with literary examples and analysis.
Fine Arts
An examination of the classification and historical development of the five fine arts: literature, painting, sculpture, music, and architecture
Expressionism
A comprehensive explanation of the German artistic and literary movement of expressionism (1910-1925), its precursors, characteristics, and influence across various art forms.
Hypertext
A comprehensive explanation of hypertext as a nonsequential form of text with embedded links, including hypertext fiction and cyberfiction.
Stanza
A detailed explanation of stanza forms in poetry, including couplets, tercets, quatrains, and complex forms like terza rima, rime royal, ottava rima, and Spenserian stanza
Three Unities
A comprehensive examination of the three unities (action, place, and time) in classical drama theory, their origins in Aristotle's Poetics, development by French and Italian critics, and rejection in English drama.
Wit, Humor, and the Comic
An exploration of wit and humor as species of the comic, tracing their historical meanings and distinguishing their current literary usage.
Utopias and Dystopias
A comprehensive examination of utopian and dystopian literature, from Thomas More's Utopia and Plato's Republic to modern dystopian works like 1984 and Brave New World, including their literary functions and social commentary.