Literary Terms II

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In today’s class, we will be talking more about literary terms. Enjoy the class!

Literary Terms II

In the previous class, literary terms were discussed at length. Today, more literary terms will be looked at in-depth to achieve an understanding of the phenomenon in view. Below are more literary terms in literature:

1. Free Verse: This is poetry that is based on the irregular rhythmic cadence of the recurrence, with variations of phrases, images, and syntactical patter s rather than the conventional use of a meter. Rhyme may or may not be present in free verse, but when it is, it is used with great freedom.
2. Innuendo: This is an insinuation or indirect suggestion often with harmful or sinister connotation.
3. Interior Monologue: This is one of the techniques by which the stream of consciousness of a character in a novel or a short story is presented. It records the internal, emotional experience of the character on any level or combinations of several levels of consciousness, reaching down to the non verbalize level where images must be used to represent non-verbalized sensations or emotions.
4. Motif: This is the simple element which serves as a basis for expanded narrative; or strictly, a conventional situation, device, interest, or incident, employed in Folklore, Fiction, or Drama.
5. Poetic Justice: This is a term used to explain the judgement which rewards virtue and punishes vice among characters of a narrative.
6. Tragic Flaw: This is the flaw, error, defect or weakness in the tragic hero, which leads to the hero’s downfall.
7. Trilogy: This refers to a literary composition more usually a novel or a play, written in three parts, each of which is in itself a complete unit. The trilogy is usually written against a large background which may be historical, philosophical or social in its interests.
8. Comic Relief: This is a humorous scene in tragic drama or fiction that has the effect of temporarily altering the mood of the play and thereby relieving tension.
9. Conceit: A term for a particularly fanciful metaphor. It is a term that carried the general notion of a clever, witty expression. It was used by metaphysical poets of the 17^th century such as John Donne, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, Abraham Cowley, George Hebert, among others.
10. Hero/Heroine: The major figure in a drama or narrative.
11. Hubris: A Greek word for excessive pride, and arrogance that invites the retribution of the gods. The term is frequently employed about Greek tragedies. It is related to, but distinct from another term, “Hamartia”.
12. Monologue: A long speech by one speaker. If the speaker is alone such a speech is called a Soliloquy. If the speaker addresses someone absent or an abstract idea, it is an Apostrophe. If the speech is addressed to someone present, it is a Dramatic Monologue. An Interior Monologue represents a character’s fleeting thoughts and impressions, or inner speech.
13. Parallelism: The principle of representing equal ideas in the same grammatical form, for example, “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Parallelism produces a sense of balance and order and is frequently employed as a feature of the periodic sentence.
14. Quatrain: A four-line stanza of verse, generally exhibiting a rhyme scheme. The traditional ballad was usually composed in quatrains, in which the second and fourth lines rhyme.
15. Rhyme: The duplication of sounds, usually at the end of a line of the verse.
16. Stanza: In the verse, the basic division of a poem, the equivalent of a paragraph in prose. Stanzas are designated according to the number of lines they contain: Couplet (2 lines); Tercet (3 lines); Quatrain ( 4 lines); Quintain ( 5 lines); Sestet ( 6 lines); Septet ( 7 lines); Octet ( 8 lines); and Nonet (9 lines).
17. Stereotype: A highly generalised idea, situation, or character, derived from an oversimplified treatment in a work. More commonly, it refers to the reliance on generalisations about racial, national, or sexual groups in the depiction of certain characters.
18. Sub-plot: A subordinate sequence of event in a play or novel. A given sub-plot may be designed to mirror, intensify, or enhance the main plot.

 

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