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Lit Crit Concepts
Hexco
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Adventure Story / Allohistory | Action is the focus, not characterization, motivation, or thematic development |
| Alternative History | Fiction based on some major change in historical or geographical reality |
| Antinovel | Fiction that adheres as closely as possible to what is literally real, as opposed to abstract, subjective, or figurative writing. Antinovels often have non-linear structure. The best known author is Robbe-Grillet and his Le Voyeur is the best example. |
| Antirealistic Novel | The fictional cousin of Theater of the Absurd. The antirealistic Novel uses fantasy and illogical elements and does away with convenions of fiction writing. Writers include James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, etc. |
| Apprenticeship Novel / Bildungsroman | A novel about a young, impressionable person facing the world and trying to understand it. Usually this protagonist comes away with some sort of philosophy or worldview. |
| Campus Novel | A comic novel with a university setting |
| Cloak and Dagger | Novel about spies or intrigue; expect lots of secrets, uncertainty, enemies seen and unseen, romance, and the like. Authors include Ian Fleming and John Buchan |
| Cloak and Sword | Spanish novels in the vein feature cavaliers, beautiful women, and adventure. Their English counterparts feature swashbuckling excitement, gallant heroes sometimes in shady dealing, beautiful women, plot twists, courtly manners, and close calls. |
| Detective Story | Crime (often murder) is the central event, and solving it comes through finding and piecing clues together. There is almost always a detective and almost never the known identity of the perpetrator until the end. Greatest author is Conan Doyle |
| Dime Novel | Cheaply produced paperback meant to excite and intrigue, originally sold for a dime. Not known for its high literary merit, the dime novel is entertaining escapism. The American equivalent of the British Penny Dreadful |
| Fable | Short, moral story to teach a lesson. As with Aesop's famous fables, the characters are often universalized by making them talking animals (a beast fable). Other famous fabulists are La Fontaine, Gay, Lessing, Krylov, Kipling, Orwell, and Eliot |
| Graphic Novel | Fairly new on the literary scene, the graphic novel is formatted like a comic book, but it is well-written and has more substance. Usually fantasy or science fiction. Manga is a specific style from Japan. The action is extreme and the artwork is unusual. |
| Magic(al) Realism | The story has the appearance of a realistic work of fiction, but elements of the supernatural, myth, and fantasy appear and change everything. This style has been embraced by authors all over the world, beginning after WWII. |
| Meta Fiction | Fiction that examines the nature of fiction itself. |
| Novel of Manners | Realistic novel shaped by the manners and social customs of a particular class, Strictly speaking, a Novel of Manners shows how the customs and values of that particular class influence the characters, Many are satiric. |
| Parable | Short, didactic story with a moral lesson. |
| Pastiche | French word for a parade or imitation; a pastiche copies the style of another writer or of a specific work. Writers do this sometimes to mock, sometimes for fun, sometimes to learn, and sometimes as a nod to the original writer |
| Science Fiction | The premise of science fiction - and what distinguishes it - is taking a scientific fact or theory and imagining the possibilities if it were carried out to an extent beyond present capabilities. Shelley, Bradbury, and Pynchon. |
| Characterization | Thinking up and presenting an imaginary person. Many types of characters. Author tells about the character and shows them in action, author just shows them in action, or the author uses pov, so inner thoughts and feelings are known |
| Conflict | The struggle between 2 forces, at least one almost always a person. There are different types: against nature, another person, society, within oneself, struggle against fate (stronger when gods appear) |
| Crisis (Climax in Drama) | Crisis is part of the plot structure rather then part of the audience's emotional response. Similar to Climax, sometimes don't happen at the same time |
| Denouement | "Unknotting" Resolution, solving of a mystery, or outcome. In Drama, the term applies to comedy or tragedy, although a tragic denouement can be called Catastrophe |
| Dream Allegory / Vision | Commonly used in the middle ages, involves the narrator falling asleep, and their dream becomes the story - often an Allegory - the author is telling. |
| Flashback and Flashforward | A flashback is a scene that presents memories and events that happened prior to the time of the story, includes recollections, stories, reveries, and dream sequences. Flashfoward is a scene in the future, either actual or imagined. |
| Framework Story | Story-within-a-story structure, and the author can emphasize one over the other, or both equally. |
| Interior Monologue | Stream-of-consciousness technique that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character at an internal level that images are used to express them. The result can be vary. Direct (author seems to disappear) or indirect (author is a commentator) |
| Mood | The author's attitude toward a subject. |
| Intrusive / Unintrusive Narrator | An intrusive narrator is omniscient and butts into the story to give explanation. Unintrusive sticks to reporting the events of the story. |
| Naive Narrator | Innocent and clueless narrator; the reader understands more than the narrator. Authors use this as irony or emotional impact, such as a child narrator. |
| Omniscient Narrator | Narrator has a pov that allows them to see and know all. |
| Reliable / Unreliable Narrator | Some narrators are trusted and some aren't. Unreliable narrators may be intentionally deceptive or ignorant. |
| Putative Author | Fictional author who is actually a character. |
| Self-Effacing Author / Narrator | When the narrator is so objective, he all but fades away. Simply a medium to deliver the story |
| Autobiography | A life story told by the person themselves, It is usually personal and reflective in nature. Lord Herbert's was the first important one |
| Biography | A life story told by someone other than the subject. Dryden used the word first in 1683. |
| Diary | Journal, day-by-day record of a person's life and experiences. Personal and usually solely intended for personal use, and not publication. |
| Epistle | A letter, especially formal, written to a person or group far away, not chatty but has purpose. |
| Essay | Prose written on a chosen topic; formal or informal. Formal essays are serious, informal are personal and humorus and rambling. Not authoritative if personal. |
| Hagiography | Life story of a saint |
| Acrostic | Usually poems, structured so the beginning of all the lines or units are letters that collectively spell a word. Once used by early Latin, Greek, and Middle Age monastic writers. |
| Abecedarian / Abecedarius / Abecedary | Type of acrostic where the beginnings of the lines are in alphabetical order. Used in Pslams as a way to memorize them. |
| Alexandrine | Verse in iambic hexameter |
| Aubade | A poem about dawn or morning, often featuring lovers parting ways |
| Ballad | Meant for oral presentation, recounts an exciting tale. Common themes and elements: supernatural, great courage, love, commoners, heightened drama, and action. |
| Blason | Poem of praise of blame that lays out its "case" in a very organized manner |
| Boasting Poem | Common in oral tradition, boasting poems feature the bravery and adventures of a person, told by that person |
| Canticle | Originally, a chant or song from the bible, then meant any chant, now any poem with clear parallels to religious songs and poetry. |
| Telestich | Acrostic poem that spells a word with the last letters of the lines |
| Mesostich | Spells a word with the middle letters |
| Cross Acrostic | Word is spelled out by taking the 1st letter of the 1st line, 2cd letter of the 2cd line, etc (A Valentine by Egdar Allen Poe) |
| Canto | Division of a long poem; a canto will be named as such. |
| Carol / Carole | From a dance in medieval France, to the song accompanying the dance, to a joyful song, to a religious joyful song, to a Christmas hymn |
| Chain Verse | Poetry in which stanzas are connected together via a rhyme scheme, word choice, or another type of repetition. For instance, if the last line of one stanza is repeated as the first line of the next, you have a chain verse |
| Chant Royal | One of the most complicated forms of poetry in French. The subject and structure is highly specific. |
| Cinquian | Originally a medieval form, it is now any 5-lined stanza |
| Companion Poems | Poems that are complete on their own, but written to complement each other. Companion pieces are any 2 works that follow this logic |
| Complaint | Popular in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a lyric (Monologue) that expressed disappointment and despair at the coldness of his mistress, complains generally about life, or expresses sadness or disgust at the world |
| Confessional Poetry | Verse with very personal, often painful, expression. The subject matter can be very private, exposing the poet's vulnerability. Because of the intimacy of such poetry, there is no persona, instead the poet talks directly to the reader |
| Counting-Out Rhyme or Song | Mainly used to teach children how to count, and often includes hand motions |
| Couplet | Two successive lines of poetry with End Rhymes. |
| Closed Couplet | Two lines that rhyme and contain a complete thought or idea. In English, they're usually in iambic pentameter |
| Distich | Couplet, two successive lines with similar form |
| Elegiac | Classically, a distich used to commemorate the dead. One line of dactylic hexameter and one of pentameter |
| Heroic Couplet | Couplet in iambic pentameter. |
| Open Couplet | Couplet in which the second line carries an incomplete thought and relies on the next line to finish it. |
| Doggerel | Bad attempt at poetry. Monotonous rhyme or rhythm, trite subjects, and badly expressed sentiment |
| Dramatic Monologue | A poem that reveals a "soul in action" in a dramatic situation, addressed to someone who is silent (but identifiable) |
| Echo Verse | Poetry with lines that end in repeats |
| Elegy | Sustained, formal poem with a serious tone, contemplating a theme like death. The occasion of the poem is often someone's death. |
| End-Stopped Lines vs Enjambment / Run-On Lines | End-stopped lines are complete at the end, both in content and grammar. Enjambment is what poets use in run-on lines; it continues the thought of a line into the next line. |
| Englyn | Welsh verse; quatrain with complicated rules |
| Epic | Lengthy, lofty narrative poem of high-profiled people and adventure. Characteristics: central hero of stature, expansive setting that's often global, deeds of great valor, supernatural beings, elevated style throughout, objective poet, invoking a muse |
| Epithalamium / Epithalamion | Poem to celebrate a wedding |
| Flyting | Lengthy, passionate discussion. Old English poetry in which warriors had a boasting match. Now associated with Scottish writing in which 2 characters ridicule and tear eachoher down |
| Fourteeners | verse with 14 syllables in iambs, usually heptameter |
| Free Verse vs Blank Verse | Free verse is written without rhyme or meter. Blank verse is unrhymed but metrical |
| Haiku vs Senryu | Form of Japanese poetry that follows a 3 line formula of 5,7,5 syllables. Haiku is precise and detailed picture that carries insight or emotional appeal. Senryu has same syllables, but is lighter than a haiku |
| Lament | Poem of grief, more personal and therefore more emotional than a Complaint. When expressed by a single mourner, it is a Monody |
| Light Verse | Humorous poems in such forms as parody, limerick, epigram, clerihew, and nonsense verse. |
| Limerick | Light Verse in pattern: 5 anapestic lines - 1st, 2cd, and 5th are trimeter and thyme with each other - and the other 2 lines are in diameter and rhyme with each other |
| Lyric | Breif poem characterized by imagination, emotion, grace, and creating a single focused impression. The form possibly goes back to the very origins of literature. Variations: hymns, sonnets, ballads, odes, elegies, rondels, and more. |
| Meditative Poetry | Some metaphysical poetry in the 16th and 17th century combined religious meditation and Renaissance techniques. Themes are usually self-knowledge or connection with the transcendental |
| Metaphysical Poetry | 17th century poetry verse by poets reacting against conventions of Elizabethan love poetry, preferring instead psychological treatments of themes of love and religion. Logic, intellectualism, and simplicity |
| Occasional Verse | A dignified poem written for a specific occasion |
| Ode | Sustained lyric on a single subject; praising, imaginative, exalted, and admiring |
| Horation Ode | Horace referred to informal poems in a single stanza as odes |
| Irregular Ode | Cowley's variation on the Pindaric Ode, allowing for more flexibility |
| Pindaric Ode | Form with |
| Pastoral | A poem about rustic life, usually featuring Shepard's. 3 kinds: Dialogue or singing match, Monologue of lovesick person, and the elegy or lament to mourn the passing of a friend. Today - any poem in a rustic or rural setting |
Created by:
Rosy22