A Glossary of Literary Terms

 

A GLOSSARY of LITERARY TERMS

 

 This chapter comprises literary terms and they are arranged in alphabetical order for the convenience of reference and learning.  Note that reference will be made to the previous chapters to avoid unnecessary repetition.

 

Absurd:  It implies something completely ridiculous not logical and sensible.

 

Absurdism:  This refers to the conflict between the humans' quest to seek inherent value and meaning of life and man’s inability to find any.  It addresses the general belief that life is full of hopelessness and problems due to certain factors that are unavailable in human existence.  It is also known as the theatre of absurd.  For instance, Samuel Beekett’s Waiting for Godot, Ola Rotimi’s  Holding. Talks and Tawfiq Allatakim’s fate of a Cockroach is a notable example.

 

Acts and scenes:  sequential units of arrangements in a play or major breakdown

 

Action: It portrays the conflict or what is happening in a story.  For a play to be successful on stage, it must not be short of actions.

 

Aesthetic Distance:  It is the degree of emotional involvement in a work of art.  This is what makes a work of art to be real in children’s minds.

 

Aesthesis:  It is the creation of beauty in the work of art; the beauty of language and expression in a literary work.

 

Aestheticism:  This centers on the phrase “Art for Art sake” that is, the primary aim of art is simply to show beauty or to entertain.

 

Effective Fallacy:  It is a term from literary criticism used to refer to an error of judging a text on the basis of its emotional effects on a a reader coined by W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley in 1946.  It implies that when analyzing a poem, for instance our attention should be on the text alone, not the poetry or reader’s state of being.

 

Allegory:  It is a style of writing in which each character or event is a symbol representing a particular quality; a form of symbolism in which ideas or abstract qualities are represented in a poem or prose work.

Abstract ideas are personified.  Characters are also used as symbols.  William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a good example. In an allegory, people or things have another meaning.  Allegory behaves like a metaphor.

 

Alliteration:  It is the repetition of a consonant sound in quick succession for sound effect or repetition of two or more words having the same initial consonant sound.  Below is a good example of alliteration:

Stillstand stubborn

To stone that strangle the down

Stillstand stubborn

To stone that main the mosh

(Afukwei Okai  “ Sunset Sonata)

(see figures of sound)

 

Allusion:  It is a reference, usually brief and indirect to a person, place or event in literature, which the reader is supposed to know or a casual reference to a figure or an event.  For instance, the expression ‘Oliver is a wise man; he is the Solomon of our time’ is a biblical allusion to the wisdom of King Solomon in the Bible.  There are four major types of allusion and they include: historical allusion, classical allusion, biblical allusion and literary allusion.

 

-Historical Allusion is when reference is made to historical happenings or events e.g IBB is our Maradona – Diego Maradona is an Argentine football legend known for his dribbling ability.

 

-Literary Allusion is a reference to other works of literature e.g, The couple are like Romeo and Juliet – Romeo.  This is a reference to William Shakespeare’s play.

 

- Classical Allusion is an allusion to Roman and Greek works or characters of the old e.g she is my cupid – referencing to Roman good of love, desire, and erotic passion.

 

- Biblical Allusion is an allusion to the Bible.  The example above is a biblical allusion.

 

Ambiguity:  It is a type of meaning in which several interpretations are allowed or permitted.

 

Anagnorisis:  It is an irredeemable reversal of the hero’s fortune in a tragedy.  This when a character realizes his true identity r mistakes.  This occurs in Oedipus Rex when King Oedipus discovers he was responsible for the death of his own father and his true identity revealed.

 

Anapaestic:  It contains two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed one.

 

Anaphora:  (A Greek word meaning ‘carrying back’) It is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginning of closed clauses for emphasis. Example:

‘For want of a nail the shoe was lost

For want of a shoe the horse was lost

For want of a ride the horse rider was lost

For want of a message the battle was lost

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail

          -14^th Century Proverb

 

Anecdote:  It is a short interesting narrative about a particular person or incidence.  Anecdotes are stories often told through speech rather than written down.

Antagonist:  A character in a narrative who works against the interest of the protagonist (Compare foil).

 

Antihero or Anti- heroine:  A protagonist in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities and attributes such as courage and morality.

 

Antinovel:  It is an experimental work of fiction that does not have similar features or conventions of the novel.  It lacks an obvious plot.

 

Anticlimax: see elements of poetry for an explanation.

 

Antithesis:  It is used to show the opposition of how ideas marked by contrast two ideas or phrases are balanced against each other:  Examples are fair is foul and foul is fair (Shakspeare) Man proposes, God disposes (pope)

 

Anthonomasia: It refers to the use of names of well-known persons, places, or events to represent some qualities which they symbolize.  It is like an allusion.  Wole Soyinka for instance is addressed as the William Shakespeare of Africa.

 

Aphorism: A short, true, wise expression or maxim or principle e.g, A man whose love is a goddess is a man alone;  How can a bird that is born for joy sit in the case and sing”  (William Blake’s “School Boy”)

 

Apologue:  It is a moral fable that usually features a personified animals or inanimates which act like humans, aimed at allowing the author to comment on the human condition.  Tortoise tales are apologues stories. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a good example. (see table).

 

Arehaism (Archaie expression):  Derived from an ancient word meaning “ancient”.  It is used to show a word is very old-fashioned and outdated.  The use of an older version of language and art such as in these lines “To think own self be true.  Shakespeare’s works contain elements of archaism.

 

Archetype (Archetypical Criticism). In literary criticism, it is applied to a situation character type, images, or plot which recurs frequently and too easily identifiable in varied literary works, because of the echoes they produce in mind.  This school relies on the theories of the psychological carl Jung that are stories that originated from the collective unconscious, which involves the analysis of symbols, even ones not intended by the author in literature. It was further developed in the twentieth century by Northrop Frye.

Aside:  It is a situation where an actor addresses the audience without the other characters (actors) hearing him. It is used to make a pointed remark.  It is often used by a character to detach himself from other characters in order to express his thoughts or intentions.

 

Alternate Rhyme:  It is a type of rhyme where the first end words in line one rhymes with the third and the second rhymes with the fourth and so on.

It is also known as ABAB rhymes scheme.  Example:

          “You cannot know – A

          And should not bother – B

          Tide ad market come and go –A

And so shall your mother-B

(Streamside exchange)

 

Anachronism:  It is the placing of a person or event or thing in the wrong period or era.  It is anachomatic to say Obafemi Awolowo picked up his Nokia phone since there were no mobile phones in his era.

 

Anagram:  It is a form of wordplay that allows the writer to put words together as fun to enable the reader to interpret the depth of meaning by himself, e.g “bad card” instead of  ‘debit card’.

 

Anastrophe:  This is when the position of a noun comes before an adjective e.g A woman (noun) pure (adj) instead of “A pure woman”.  He was a creature insatiable “instead of he was an insatiable creature” “Time immemorial is another example of Anastrophe.

 

Apostrophe:  It is a direct address to a dead person, thing, absent person or an abstract idea personified.  Here an absent person or object is addressed as if it is present.  If someone makes use of exclamation marker such as ‘O’, Oh,!, etc.

Example: O Ceremony, show me but they worth what is thy soul of adoration”

 

Assonance:  Repetition  of internal vowels in lines of poetry e.g Melusa says a sentence begins with a capital letter.

 

Atmosphere or Ambience:  It is the prevailing environment surrounding influence, mood, tone, character, quality in a literary work. The tone and mood of a poem refer to (a) Locate (b) Atmosphere (c) Setting  (d) Space. The correct option is B.

Audience:  It refers to the people listening to or watching a play “Audience participation is a process in which both the stage and the auditorium are involved in a play production”.

 

Autobiography:  It is a story or book written by oneself about one’s own life.  “An autobiography becomes a literary work when its value resides principally in its style”.

 

Avant-garde: A system of the plot developed which creates the future through anticipation and the past through memory.  Avant-garde writers reject convention.  For them, innovations and thinking differently are the fastest routes to social change.

 

Aposiopesis:  It comes from the Greek word and it means ‘belonging silent”.  This refers to the figure of speech that marks breaking off in the middle of a speech.  Here a sentence, that is interrupted is never completed and the speaker stops speaking.  Examples include ‘Don’t go there, or else….., it…., How could you…

 

Anthroponmorphism:  It is an act of giving human quality, emotion or ambition to a non-human object; it is different from personification because it uses excessive personified qualities.

 

Ballad:  A short song or poem that tells a story.

 

Bard:  Another name for poet and it originates from France ‘barde’ in 18^th century’

 

Bathos or Anticlimax:  It is the opposite of climax or an arrangement of ideas from higher to lower or in descending order, e.g Mr. Ahmed lost his wife, car and mobile phone.

 

Blank Verse:  A poem without a regular rhyme scheme.  It is a verse that consists of underlined five stress lines.

 

Burlesque:  A exaggerating mockery of a literary work.  It imitates another work in a distorted form.  Burlesque originated from burial and later burleque meaning ridicule; necessary or joke or create humor (compare parody), Jonathan Shif’s “A modest proposal” is an excellent example of Burlesque.

 

Bucolic Poetry: A short poem about pastoral (cow) life or a country person who is stereotyped as a cowherd.

Biography: This is the full story or account of a person’s life, usually, not written by the person himself.

 

Bombast: It means verbose, that is, high-sounding diction or words that are out of time.  Patrick Obayangbon of Edo State is a well-known master of Bombast or esoteric grammarian.

 

Cacophony:  It is the use of seemingly harsh rough and unharmonious sounds.  It is considered the opposite of euphony.  Example, He is a rotten, dirty, terrible trudging stupid dude”.  Also, cacophony is used for musicality in writing (compare Euphony),

 

Cadence:  The venation of pitch in speech.

 

Caesura or Metrical Pause:  A pause in poetry that occurs in the middle of a line.  Example:  “Sing a song of sixpence// a pocket full of rye”  “Fewer and twenty blackbirds// baked in a pie.

 

Caricature:  It is used to ridicule a person and make him look absurd by distorting his/her prominent features (as in cartoons).  The main aim of caricature is to (a) describe  (b) expose  (c) emphasis  (d) ridicule: 

 

Cast:  Cast refers to all the actors in a play  (see dramatic personae)

 

Catharsis:  It was coined by Aristotle and it is purgation of emotions or pity and fear in tragedy. It is a process in drama where emotion is reduced and gives audience a feeling of relief:  One example of such catharsis is in Shakespeare’s tragic drama   Macheth when Macbeth became blinded by his destructive amibition Catharsis is usually experienced when a play is still being staged.

 

Chant:  A repetition of words as in invocation or incantation

 

Chanson:  A poem of varied metrical forms.

 

Character:  It is a sketch in a novel that describes a personality who is not a real human being and has no lived outside the literary work.  Characters are divided into major and minor classes.  A character can be flat and round A flat character does not change with a condition in a play.  He is static, while a round character is dynamic and he can change during the course of the play. Okonkwo for example in ’Things fall Apart’ is a round character

Characterization:  It refers to the way the characters are revealed to the reader.  It is the way a writer presents character.  They are called actors and actresses Characters can be described in a number of ways.  The protagonist is the main character, who is not necessarily a hero or heroine. The antagonist is the opponent.  A person is a fictional character, often used in the first person in a work to distinguish the writer or the work from the character.  A foil is a secondary character who contrasts with a major character.  In Hamlet, Laertes and Firtinbras whose fathers have been killed are foils.

 

Chiasmus:  It is the contracting of two phrases or clauses which are marked by identical inversion of the order of syntactic elements, e.g.  Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.  (J.F. Kennedy).  “Never let a fool kiss or a kiss fool you”.  Antimetabola is like a chorus which is the repetition of words in consecutive clauses but in inverted or transposed order.  For example, “You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget”.

 

Classical Literature:  Refers to the literature of anicient Greece and  the gold and silver ages of Rome 17^th century is considered classical as in English literature (1960-1714)

 

Cliché:  It is an overused expression so often that it sounds colorless and useless, e.g  “Be that as it may”, at this juncture, ‘as white as snow”  etc.

 

Climax:  Arrangement of ideas, events, items, or an ascending order, in this case, starting from the lowest to the highest.  Climax arouses suspense, E.g I came,  I saw and I conquered (Compare anticlimax)

 

Chorus:  It refers to a group of singing and dancing actors who use music to comments on or explain the action of a play. Playwrights do make use of songs to satirize the ills in society or teach moral lesson e.g.  Femi Osofisan’s Morountodun and Once Upon Four Robbers.

 

Clown:  A comic entertainer who dresses funnily and acts foolishly, to amuse others.

 

Comic Relief:  It is the use of humor in a tragedy for the purpose of lessening the tension or in a play.  A funny incidence within a serious situation is (a) comedy (b) comic relief  (c) tragicomedy  (d) tragic hero, Option B is correct.

 

Conceit:  It is an extended metaphor with a complete logic, that governs a poetic message or entire poem.  A conceit invites the reader into a more in-depth understanding of an object of comparison.  An example is George Herbert’s “Praise”  (30) in which the generosity of God is compared to a bottle that could take in an indefinite amount of the speaker’s tears.

 

Metaphysical conceit is an extension of the contemporary adage.  associated with 19^th century metaphysical poets.  An often-cited example of the metaphysical conceit is the metaphor from John Donne’s  “The Flea”, in which a flee that bites both the speaker and his lover become a conceit.  Thus,

     “This flea is you and I, and this

     Our marriage bed and marriage temple is….

 

Petrarchan Conceit:  It is used in love poetry to explore  a particular  set of images for comparison for a lover to an idolized mistress.  It is found in Shakespeare’s  “Shall I Compare to a summer’s day”

 

Complete Plot:  A plot with strands of events running concurrently.  It includes a reversal of the dramatic situation (peripatetic) and recognition (anagnorisis).

 

Comedy:  In comedy, there is a happy resolution of contradiction or conflict.  This is when a play ends happily.

 

Confidant:  (Female is called confidante)  It refers to a bosom friend of the protagonist.

 

Coming of age story:  A type of novel where the protagonist is initiated into adulthood through knowledge and experience e.g Charles Dickens’Great Expectations

 

Contrast: It is used to show ideas or images or objects that are in opposition for the purpose of comparison.

 

Copyright:  It is the exclusive right given to the author to protect their works from unlawful production.

 

Critic:  It is one who is skilled in and appreciating, explaining and judging literary works

 

Costume:  They are Clothes worn by a character on the stage

 

Conflict:  It is the major source of action in any narrative.  (Every successful literary work especially a play must have conflict which is also the disagreement between two or more characters.  Conflict is as important to literature as air is to life.  It is a conflict between people, ideas, and personality that allows the plot to develop to the fullest conflict could exist between the poet (or persona) and his environment in poetry or between the hero or protagonist against the antagonist in drama.  Guster Freytag’s  pyramid below represents the nature of conflict in literary work:

 

Comedy of Manners.  A play that satirizes or criticizes the manners of contemporary society and questions societal standards.  William Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing is considered as the first comedy of manners in England William Wycherley's  The Country wife and  William Congreve's  The Way of the World.

 

Couplet:  Two successful lines of rhyming verse examples:

     “Blessed are you whose worthiness gives scope

     Being had, to triumph: being lacked to hop”

 

Complication:  It is the major part of any literary work especially prose and drama when the major incident becomes complicated in a plot which is divided into five stages.  Exposition  Rising action Climax falling Action Resolution/ denouement.

 

Concrete Poetry:  It is also known as visual poetry and  it relates more to visual than to the verbal act.  Concrete poetry uses visual representation to enhance the effect of the poem on the reader (compare shape poem),  Below is an example of concrete poem:

 

 

 

 

 

                            If  this  were a poem, it would be about

                              Wine and it is shaped like a glass of

                                 Wine Perhaps it is about a glass

                              Of chardomay or a cabernet or unin

                                    faedal or maybe it just cele-

                                         brates the joy of wine

                                                   A nice

                                                      de

                                                       li

                                                       c

                                                      ous

                                       wonderful glass of wine’

 

Contrast:  It is a device used to forcefully bring together two seemingly unrelated ideas or concept.  It is used in Gabriel Okara’s poem  “Piano and Drums”  to contrast.  African and European culture.

 

Copyriht: It is an exclusive right given to authors to protect their works from unlawful production.

 

Criticism:  A literary activity which seeks to analyse and evaluate a literary work.  In literary criticism, diction is the vocabulary or language used in writing.  Criticism is a literary activity which seeks to  (a) find faults in a literary work  (b) analyze and evaluate a literary work  (c) compare and contrast novels  (d) discover the beauty of a literary. Option B is correct.

 

Consonance:  Repetition of consonance sound and typically used to refer to the repetition of sounds at the end of the word e.g paster, patter.

 

Dead Metaphor:  It is a type of metaphor that has lost the original imagery or its meaning due to repetition and popular usage.  E.g  “Time is running out” or “Life is not a bed of roses’.

 

Denotation:  Primary meaning of a word or literal meaning of a word or contrast to its connotative or associative meanings (see connotation).

 

Denounement:  It is the point of resolution of the puzzling issues in a literary work;  Where conflicts are resolved in the plot or the resolution of the mystery and the resolution of the misunderstanding of the characters.

 

Descriptive Prose:  It describes things as they are or as they appear to be. 

Example of a descriptive prose includes:  ‘Her neck is rope-like.  Thin, long and skinny.  And her face sickly-pale’  (Okot P’ Botek:  Sony of Lawino).

 

Detective Novel:  A sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator investigates a crime, often murder.

 

Deus Ex machine:  It is a device used by playwrights to resolve the dilemma of his character by rescuing them in an impossible circumstance using extra human device.  They also use this techniques to bring the plot of a play to an abrupt end.  It is seen in Lord of Flies when the boys are suddenly rescued by a passing ship.

 

Dialogue:  It is the conversation that exists among the character in a play.  It is one major technique of novel shared with drama.  Dialogue is important in drama because it reveals the minds of the characters.

 

Diatribe:  A fruitful and bitter verbal attack against a character in a literary work.

 

Diction:  It is the choice of words or literary techniques used in literature.

Diction can be single, complex, formal, informal and colloquial.  In John

Donne’s  “The Sun Rising”, he uses colloquialism for contrast.  In literature, writers choose words to create and convey a typical tone and atmosphere to their readers.

 

Digression: It is the insertion of materials that are not related or distantly related to the specific subject under discussion (UTME).  A stylistic device authors employ to create a temporary departure from the main subject of the narrative.  Homer is the earliest use of digression in lliad.  The main function of digression is to provide a description of characters, give background information, establish interest and create suspense for the reader.

 

Didactic:  Any work in literature which sets out to instruct.  It teaches moral lesons is didactic in nature.

 

Dirge:  It is a poem of lamentation which expresses mourning or grief for performance at a funeral.

 

Drama:  A literary genre which directly imitates human action or a representation of a complete series of actions by means of speech, movement and gesture. for the stage, screen and radio.  The main purpose of drama is to both educate and entertain.

 

Dramatic Irony:  It is a technique in drama in which the audience known what the actor does not know. It is a statement in a play that means more that is evident to its matter.  Dramatic irony is found in works of tragedy.  In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, for example, the audience knows that Oedipus’ action are tragic mistakes long before he recognizes his own errors.

 

Dramactic Monologue:  (comes from the Greek monos which means ‘alone’).  This is when a single person who is not the playwright utters the speech that makes up the whole of the play in a specific situation.  This person addresses and interacts with one or more other to enable the character express a point of view through the words of the character.  It is found in Shakespear’s Romeo and Juliet.  Dramatic monologue and soliloquy are similar as both speeches are produced by a single person.  The major difference is that in dramatic monologue, the speaker reveals his thoughts to the audience and other characters where as in soliloquy, the speaker expresses his thoughts to himself, and it does not involve any other character.

 

Dramatic Personae:  The person who takes part in a play, or a list of characters in a play.

 

Dramaturgy:  The act of editing or writing of plays or drama, dramaturge is one who writes or edits plays.

 

Dynamic Character:  A character in a drama who undergoes an important change in personality and attitude.  A character who at the beginning of the story becomes violent, wicked and hot-tempered and later becomes calm and loving at the end is a dynamic character (compare static).

 

Echoes:  This is where sound effects in the theatre are realizable.

 

Elegy:  It is a poem that mourns for the dead or deceased.

 

Enjambment:  It is the run on line in poetry or the continuation of meaning without pause from one line to the next (UTME).  The purpose of enjambment is to be able to effectively pull the reader along from one line to the next and establish a fast rhythm or prose for the poem.

 

End Rhyme:  A type of rhyme that comes at the end of two successful rhyme, e.g

 

     Tyger, Tyger, burning bright

                                                                 End rhyme

  In the forests of the night

 

Epic:  A story that exalts a historical character.  It is written on a grand theme or elevated style in an appropriately grand style dealing with heroic figure.  A well-known epic in English literature is “paradise lost”.

Epilogue:  A literary composition at the end of a play or a speech made at the end of a dramatic performance.

 

Epigram:  It is a short witty saying inform of or other involving antithesis or paradox.  Epigram shows that truth can be said briefly and willfully, Examples of epigram are:

I can resist everything but temptation.  Experience is the name everyone give to their mistakes.  Winners never quit and quitters never win.  Epigram is like aphorism but are different.

 

Epitaph:  An inscription on the tomb of a dead person.

 

Episode-Episodic:  It is a plot structure that defines chronology.

 

Epistolary Novel:  A type of novel written in form of letter. The Colour Purple by Alice Walker and so long a letter are good examples.

 

Epithet:  It refers to an abusive, defamatory or derogatory phrase.  It is also a special nickname that replaces the name of a person and describes them in some way, e.g Jude the terrible. John Milton’s paradise lost has a number of epithet

 

Epithlamion:  It is a poem celebrating a marriage.  It is a form of poem, written specifically for a bride on her way to the marital chamber.  Example is Edmund Spencer’s Epithalamion which is an Ode.

 

Eponymous Hero:  It is a character whose name is used as the title of the text e.g Othello by William Shakespeare.

 

Eulogy:  A formal dignified speech or writing praising a person or a thing for past or present deed.

 

Euphenism: A substitution of a mild and pleasant expression for a harsh and blunt one when reffering to something unpleasant.  Example:

“The woman whose breasts I sucked is gone to the worn when you intend to say the woman who gave birth to you is dead.

“He is in relocation centre” instead of prison camp

Comfort woman instead of prostitute.

Adult entertainment instead of prostitute.

Adult entertainment instead of prostitute.

Adult entertainment instead of pornography.

 

Euphony:  (Opposite of) A harmonious succession of words in poetry having a pleasing sound derived from Greek word e.g Euphonous means sweet voiced.  It is the use of words and phrases that have melody.  E.g ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ “Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed”.

 

Evaluation:  It is the writer’s level of success in realizing what the reader perceives as his artistic goals.

 

Exeunt and Exit: It is used in drama as a stage direction to show that two or more characters leave the stage.  Exeunt is used for two or more characters while exit is used for one character.

 

Exposition:  It is the initial unfolding of the necessary background of the play:  It is the writer’s way to give background information to the audience about the destiny and character of the story.

 

Fable:  It is a story in which animals or things are used as characters.  It exemplifies a novel thesis in which animal talk and act like human beings or a brief narrative illustrating wisdom and truth Geroge Orwell’s Animal farm is a great example.

 

Falling Action:  It occurs after the climax especially when the main problem of the story resolves.

 

Farce:  It is a humorous play based on a univerlistic situation in drama that has an element of crime.  It thrives on absurdity.  It is usually marked with comic and exaggerated action. William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Error is the most famous example of farce.

 

Fans Pas:  A remark or action in a social situation that is a mistake and offence.  Fan pas literarily means ‘false step’ in French.

 

Figures of Association:  They are used to show the relationship between one idea and another or the comparison of two things.  Examples are simile, metaphor, personification and apostrophe.

 

Figure of Contrast:  They show the distinction between two, idea Example are anthesis, epigram, irony, sarcasm, litotes.

Figure of Thought:  These are also literary devices that arouse or stimulate intellectual reasoning.  They surprise the reader at first reading and in the process sets the reader’s thinking ability in motion.  Examples are metonymy, euphemism, irony, synthesis, paradox.

 

Figure of Sound:  They are figures of speech that are capable of introducing some sound favor to a poem in order to have pleasing or musicial effect.  Examples are: alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, euphony, cacophomy and dissonance.

 

Figures of Emphasis:  They are used for the purpose of stress and emphasis.  Some examples include:  repetition, and rhetorical question.

Note that figure of speech is the umbrella term used to refer to all the figures of speech above as it covers all.

 

First Person Point of View:  This is when the hero tells his story directly.

The character may not have all the information or knowledge about events since he /she is limited.  A first person narrator who is not a main character is called peripheral narrator:  The purpose for first person narration is to create a clear perspective for the story and to make the reader believe in the story.

Examples include the use of ‘I’ ‘we’, ‘me’, ‘us’, etc.  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s.  The Great Gatspy is written in this technique form and Ralph Waldo’s Invisible man.

 

Flashback:  It is when a writer refers to past events to throw light on current or recall past event in a literary work, It helps the reader to relate events that are extraneous to the story.  Flashback also helps to shed light on the present action on the scene.

 

Flash forward:  It is a scene in drama that temporally takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story.

 

Flat Character:  A character who remains as undeveloped, unchanged in a work.

 

Flashback:  Part of the story that has not yet occurred is revealed.  It is similar to foreshadowing or prolepsis which means “to aniticipate” in the original Greek.  It is found in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

 

Foil:  (Also known as flat character):  It is a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character.  Healthcliff is a foil in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

Folksong:  A song originating among the people of a common area, passed by oral tradition form one singer from generation to the next.

 

Folklore:  It is all forms of prose narrative, written or oral which has come down through the years.  It may be folksong. folktale, riddles, proverbs or other materials preserved in words or in writing.  It is a tool for culture preservation and entertainment.

 

Foot:  (In metre) Basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of verse in poetry.  The unit is composed of syllables and is usually two, three, or of four syllables in length.  They include lamb, trochee, dactyl and anapaest.

 

Foregrounding:  It refers to those elements of a work of art that stand out in some way.  It is also called deviation or the violation of rules and convention, by which a poet communicates to the reader.  “Ten thousands saw I it at a glance” is an example of inverstion which is also a fore grounded expression. It can be reversed in a normal background as “I saw ten thousand at a glance”.

 

Foreshadowing:  A literary device in which a writer gives an advance information of what is to come later in the story.  It lengthens suspense and creating anticipation of the reader.

 

Framing:  It is a device in which the writer claims that the narration is derived from another person and not himself.  It is found in Ayi Armah’s novel The Beautiful Ones are Not yet Born in a scene where image of a blossoming Flower is crested on a bus written.

 

Free Verse:  A poem that is not written in meter or regular line length.  It is an open form of poetry which does not have consistent metre patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.

 

Fourtener:  It is a line of poetry which comprises 15 syllables, especially a line consisting of seven limbic feet. Freytag’s Pyramid:  (See Conflict for explanation).

 

Hackel:  It is an unrhymed verse poem which originated from Japan which has three lines containing usually five, seven, and five syllables.

 

Hamartia:  It is the moral flaw or weakness that leads to the downfall of a major character in drama.  It is also an anti-social action by the tragic hero which results in a catastrophe.

Hamartia:  is found in Sophecle’s Oediput Rex Oediput is the tragic heor and his tragic flaw or harmatia is when he tries to run from fate and ends up dying when he feared most.

 

Harangue: It is a long story narrating a series of complicated event.  It is also a lengthy and aggressive speech also known as verbal attack or diatribe.

Hero:  (Male)  It is a major leading character in a literary work who perform brave and heroic deeds.  Heroine is a female character in a literary work.

Heroic Couplet:  A traditional form of English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in Lambic pentameter.  It  was pioneered by Geoffrey Charles.

Hubris:  The overwhelming pride that destroys the tragic hero.  It is also the pride that contributed to the fall of a tragic character.  The former is the excessive pride or arrogance that destroys the tragic hero while the latter is the tragic flaw or error that leads to the downfail of the tragic hero.

Lambic:  It is a metrical foot which consists of an unstressed syllable following another stressed syllable.

Lambic Pentameter:  A metrical pattern in a line of poetry with five stressed and five unstressed syllables.

Idyll Poem:  A short poem that creates a story and paints a picture of everyday life, while making things at first seem simple.  It also deals with rustic life or pastoral life.

Image and Imagery:  A literary device which consists of descriptive language that can function as a way for the reader to better imagine the world of the piece of literature and also adds symbolism to the work, Imagery draws on the five senses, namely the sense of taste, touch, sight, smell and sound as they help to develop or give full understanding of the picture the poet has created. Imagery helps to create mood and tone of any literary work.

 

 

 

Common Examples of Imagery:

We use imagery in our daily speech to convery mood and tone of any literary work.

Common Examples of Image:

We use imagery in our daily speech to convey our meaning. They are found in our five senses.

Taste:  The grandmother’s cranberry sense reminded him of his youth

Sound:  “The concert was so loud that her ears rang for days afterward”

Sight:  “The sunset is the most gorgeous they’d ever seen; the clouds were edged with pink gold.

Smell:  “After eating the curry, his breath reeked of garlic”

Touch: The tree bark was rough against her skin.

 

Improvisation:  It is when an actor, musician adds some performance that has not been rehearsed, practiced, or planned.  It is when the act of making or doing something with whatever is available at the time.

 

Incremental Repetition: A dance used in poetry of the oral tradition, especially English and Scottish ballads, in which a line is repeated in a changed context or with minor changes in the repeated part.  Example” where have you been,

    Ryan, my son?

    And where have you been

    My handsome young man?

 

Innuendo: An indirect remark about somebody or something, usually suggesting something bad or rude.  It is when you say something which is polite and innocent on the surface but indirectly refers to an insult or rude comment, a dirty joke or political criticism or immoral (sexual) comments. 

Innuendo provides speakers and writers with ways of saying things without actually saying it.  Example:  I’ve found a way to get some “extra help on the test” “extra help” refers to cheating.  The young man cried out that the mad man touched his thing,  “Here  “his thing”  could mean manhood in Nigeria context which is sexual innuendo.  Note innuendo and euphemism are creative ways to express unpleasant ideas.  But the difference is that euphemism is not much used to attack people.  It is just a polite way to refer ideas and motto attack. The popular example of innuendo is “A braggard a rogue, a vilian that fights by the book of Arithmetic” taken from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juilet.  This expression simply suggests mastery or expertise.  It is like saying one has mastered the arithmetic (style) of fighting whereas there are many better things to have mastered other than fighting.  It is also a reference to a book by Gerald Thinbuilt.

Interior Monologue:  It is a passage of writing presenting a character’s inner thoughts and emotion in a direct sometimes inner thoughts and emotions are disjointed or fragmentary manner:  Example of interior monologue is found in James, Joyce Ulysses.

 

Interlude:  It is a brief presentation in the interval of a dramatic performance. It is a period of time between events or activities in a drama.  Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables is one of the best examples of interlude in literature:

 

Internal Rhyme (Middle Rhyme)  It is a metrical line in which middle words and its end words rhyme with one another Example

     “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the break of December

      Double double toil and trouble

       Fire burn and caldron bubble

 

Inversion:  (Also known as anostrophe).  It is a literary technique in which the normal order of words is reversed, in order to achieve effect or emphasis or meter.  It is a departure from the normal sentence order.

          Example:

          Here to this house I come

          Presents gather I

          For cut who here dwell

 

Invocation: It is poet’s address to his/her source of inspiration in poetry or an address to a deity or muse that often takes the form of a request to help the poet in composing the poem.

 

Irony: It is a literary device in which there is a difference between what is stated and what is actually the case.  Here Irony means the exact opposite of what the speaker intends to say Example:  The student was given excellence on getting Zero in the exam.  “My friend’s kids get along like cats and dogs”

“The manager is as friendly as a rattlesnake”.

 

Italian Sonnet or pentrarchan:  A sonnet consisting of an octave (eight lines)  rhyming abba abba and a sestect (six lines) rhyming in any various patterns such as ede ede or ede ded.  The octave part introduces a problem. express a desire, reflect on reality, while the sester as a whole is to make a comment on the problem or to apply a solution to it (see English or Shakespearean Sonnet).

Lampoon:  It is a more subtle and broad form of satire, which intends to ridicule, mock at a person or institution, while satire uses comedy to ridicule vices or follies.  Lampoon is specific, while satire is general.  Example of lampoon is found in Swift’s A Modest Proposal where he suggests the idea of eating infants, selling them to wealthy people so that the poor could live easily without getting involved in prostitution.

 

Legend:  A legend is a story or narrative which focuses on historical or specific figures and describes their great deeds and exploits, Legends are stories about people and their actions.

 

Leich: A short narrative or Iyrical poem intended to be sung or a song consisting of unequal length.

 

Leitmotif:  It refers to individual elements of a story that authors used repeatedly to contribute to the overall telling of the tale.  It is often associated with a narrative theme.

 

Limerick:  A light verse which consists of five lines (anapaestic) with a strict rhyme scheme of AABBA, in which the first, second and fifth line rhyme, while the third and fourth lines are shorter and share a different rhyme.

Example of Limerick:

There was once a young man named Bright – a

Whose speed was much faster than light – a

She set out one day – b

In a relative way – b

And returned on the previous night – a

 

Limited Point of View: A method of story-telling in which the narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of every character or what every character is thinking.  This often makes use of he, she, they, them, etc.

 

Lineation:  It is the arrangement of lines in verse form in poetry.

 

Literati:  A body of imaginative men and women of letters or well educated people who are interested in literature and people who know a lot about literature.

 

Literarian:  One who is engaged in literary pursuits.

 

Literature and Language:  Creative use of language is a necessary quality of every work of literature.  Also, the use of creative imagination is what basically distinguishes literature from other disciplines.

Locale: It is the physical setting within which the action of a narration takes place.

 

Lyric:  A Iyric poem is usually short and expresses deep personal feelings.  It must express the poet’s subjective emotions.  It may be sung or accompanied by music.

 

Lyrical Poetry:  A formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.  The ode and the elegy are examples of Iyrical poetry.

 

Malapropism (also called Malaprop or Dogberryism).  It is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound which results to humorous utterance.

It is said to originate from a character called “Mrs Malaprop in Richard B.  Sheridan’s  1775 play “The Rivals” she uses words that don’t have the meaning that she intends to utter.  Examples include “illiterate him quite from your memory”  instead of “obliterate”.  My affluence over my niece is very small” instead of influence”.

 

Metonymy:  It is a term used to describe a thing or person by something associated with it, E.G.  “The cross” is associated with Christianity”

crown” for a king and “rag” for poverty. E.g.  The pen is mightier than the sword.

 

Mimesis:  It is the imitation in art or the copying of another person’s speech or manners in an amusing way.

 

Miscast:  This occurs when anactor is featured for a role that doesn’t suit him or her in a play.

 

Monologue:  It is the uninterrupted speech made by one person or spoken part for a single performer especially in a play.

 

Mono-rhyme:  This is a group of lines in poetry in which the last syllables have identical vowel sounds, all rhyming a,a,a,a.

 

Mood:  It is the nature of feeling prevailing in a literary work; it can be sanguine (joyful() melancholic (sad), (compare tone).

 

Motif: In modern literary criticism, it refers to constant character or incident in literature or folklore.  It is synonymous with archetype. It is the incident which recurs frequently in literature (compare Archetype)

Muse:  It is an ancient Greek goddess who inspires and protects poets.

 

Myth:  A myth is an ancient story within a mythology or szzystem of narratives about supernatural beings which serve to explain real events (compare legend) e.g.  “why moon and sun live in the sky’.

 

Metanoia (comes form the Greek meaning changing one’s mind).  It is a figurative device in which a statement is made and then withdrawn and then stated in a better way.  It  is similar to correction.  Example is found in Doctors’ The Hippocratic Oath “To help or, at least, to do no harm”

 

Metre:  It is the use of regular rhythm of a verse or line in verse. The study and the actual use of metres and forms of versification are both known as prosody.

 

Mock-Heroic Poetry:  A literary work that satirizes or common classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature.  It uses a foolish hero with a view to mocking the character.  It elevates trivial subject-matter by using the style of the classical epic.

 

Melodramtic Play:  A play in which the plot is typically sensational and there is a sensational plot and characters.

 

Mime and Pantomime:  Mime is an action without speech in a play, while pantomime is also any dramatic preparation played without words, using only action and gestures.

 

Miracle Plays: It is a play that presents a real or fictitious account of the life martyrdomof a saint.

 

Morality Play:  They are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is personified, that is, inanimate object is given human quality to teach words or instill godly life over one person.  “Evergreen” is a good example.

 

Naturalism:  It is a 19^th century movement which is based on the fact that environment determines and governs human character and humans can struggle to survive in hostile and alien society.  In fact, its cued from Darvin’s theory of evolution that says life is like a struggle and only the fittest ones can survive.

 

 

Nostalgia:  It is the homesick or sentimental longing for a return of a (day events or things, e.g Lenrie Peter’s “We have come home”

 

Narration:  It is the main device that is applicable in all the gentre (drama prose and poetry) of literature.

 

Narrative Poem: It is a type of poem that attempts to tell a story.  William Marvis “The Proud King” is a good example.

 

Negritude:  It is a literary movement championed by Sedar Senghor organized with black students outside Africa before the independence years to sensitize the white world about the existence of Africans, their culture and civilization and propogate the doctrine of equality of men, women and universal brotherhood.

 

Novel:  It is a long prose-narrative fiction.  It is an extended fictional narrative which may be realistic.  It is an extended fictional narrative which may be realistic.  It usually contain 40,000 words and above.

 

Novella:  A narrative prose which is usually longer than a short story but shorter that a novel. It contains between 17,000 and 40,000 words length.

 

Novelette: It is usually longer than  a short story, but shorter than a novella.

The word count is usually between 7,500 words to 17,500 words.

 

Objective and Subjective:  Objectivity in literature refers to the art of being truthful independently to your analysis without sentiment. Subjectivity is the opposite.  Objectivity is central to narrative fiction.

 

Ode:  It is a type of Iyrical poem addressed to some persons or things.

 

Omniscient Point of View:  It is a method of story-telling in which the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the character in the story.

Note that the third person is not the same as the third person limited, because it usually involves one main character.

 

Omonatoponeia:  It is the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is called E.g “The dum dum of the drum”

 

Opera:  A dramatic composition or musical play in which many of the words are sung.

Otivation:  An explanation of the behavior of the character in a literary work.

 

Ottava Rima:  A rhyming stanza in a long poem of heroic themes and it has Italian origin.  Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio.

 

Oxymoron:  It is the combination of two words or expressions which are usually considered opposite, e.g. Marriage is a bitter-sweet or an open secret.  I heard a deafening silience behind the door.  She is a sincere liar.  It is also called overstatement.

 

Paragraph: A common feature in prose which is equivalent to stanza in poety.

 

Paradox:  A statement that appears to say something opposite to common sense or the truth, but which may contain a truth or a self-contradictory or absurd statement.  yet turn our to have a valid meaning e.g. “The Child is the father of the man”.

 

Parallelism:  It is the repetition of single words or phrase at the beginning of lines for emphasis.  It is quite common in African poems.  Examples:

      O God, do not keep silent, be not quiet

      O God, be not still (Psalm 83:1)

In the above extract, different words such as “silent, quiet, still are used. they restate or echo ‘sameness of idea’

 

Parody:  It is a deliberate imitation of a literary style with the intention to ridicule.  It is also an insincere literary work.

 

Pastoral poem:  This is a poem in which an urban poet describes the peaceful, simple ideal life of the countryside, simple village life and expresses nostalgia for it.

 

Picaresque:  An elaborately conceived poem which expresses an urban poet’s nostalgia for life in the country.  In a picaresque novel, the protagonist embarks on a journey.  It focuses on the adventures of a rogue who does not change much in the course of study.

 

Play-within or Play:  A play that is being performed in the confines of another play.  The character of a play watch the play being performed for them.  The Characters in the main play serve as the audience.  Example of such play is found in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and A midsummer Night Dream.

Play:  One of the genres of literature which is meant to be presented on stage and when it is not meant for stage, it is called closet drama.

 

Plot:  It is the way in which the events of the story are organized.  A good plot must possess good interesting characters.

 

Poetry License: It is the liberty or freedom given to a poet, prose writer to use language the way they like, thereby deviating from rules, conventions forms in order to produce a desired effect.

 

Poetic Truths:  The kind of statements of visions which come from the poet’s experience.  For instance, negritude poems contain poetic truths that are relevant to the conditions of African life today.

 

Poetry:  It is the imaginative expression of strong feeling, usually rhymical, the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility.William Wordsworth (1770-1850).  What distinguishes poetry from other forms of literature is its rhyme and verse and the most important concepts in poetry are rhythm and imagery.

 

Point of View/Focalization:  In fiction, point of view is the perspective or angle from which the story is narrated.  They include:  First person or third person point of view.  In the first person point of view, the narrative tells his story as if all actions in the story revolve around him, and the third person point of view is represented by the writer narrating the story in his own person thereby describing the action and the character from his vantage point as the creator of the story who is aware of aspects of the characters lives and the progression of the story.

 

Primary ballad:  It is a type of ballad which is associated with rural folks or people.

 

Prologue:  It is the introductory part of play, while epilogue is the opposite.

 

Persona/Tone and Voice:  Persona is the image a character represents in a literary work.  It is derived from the Latin persona, meaning an actor’s mask or person who is understood to be speaking, thinking or writing a particular work.

 

Prose:  It is a form of writing that has no form of metrical structure and it applies a natural flow of speech and ordinary grammatical structure.  A paragraph in a prose is equivalent to a stanza in poetry.

Protagonist:  It is the principal or main character of a story and the story revolves around him, antagonist is the opposite.

 

Pun:  It deals with playing on words, e.g “How do construction workers party? They raise the roof”.

 

Quantrain:  It is a group of four lines or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.

 

Personification:  This is used to give human quality or attribute to inanimate objects and abstract ideas as if they have life e.g. “Time waits for no man”.  “Their hope is gone” ,  “An idea slaps me on my face”.

 

Plot:  It is the sequence of event in which a story especially, prose fiction or drama is based.  There are different types of plots.  They are: simple plot, complex plot, compound plot, double plot and cyclical plot.

 

Poetic Diction:  This is the special language of poetry, a kind of upper class speech, elevated and not set apart for ordinary conversation.

 

Poetic Justice:  It refers to the perfect justice at the end of a literary work when characters are rewarded or punished for virtues or vices.

 

Portmanteau: It refers to the practice of joining together two words in order to create a new word eg.  Lion and tiger for “liger”.

 

Prolepsis:  This refers to a situation whereby anticipated! or expected result is spoken of as thought has already happened.  It means building one’s castle in the air.  e.g I have invested thousand of naira in my new business, I am now a multi-millionaire.

 

Prompter:  It is a person who secretly reminds actors who forget their lines or stage actions.

 

Realism:  It refers to an accurate presentation of things in a real life as they are.

 

Repartee; It refers to a contest in which each person tries to outwit the other by turning the other person’s remark or statement to his advantage.

 

Reversal of Fortune or Peripetia: It is the sudden change in a hero’s fortune, usually his failure or destruction as in tragedy or his success as comedy.

Rhetorical Question:  It is a question with a question mark that does not need an answer because the answer is known by the reader or writer:  Example:  “O death where is they sting?”  Africa, where is your pride?

 

Rhyme:  It is the repetition of the same sound at the middle or end of lines of poetry.  The vowel sound of the two rhyming words must be similar. Consonants might be different.  In the eighteenth century literature rhyme could indicate poetic theme.

 

Romance:  It portrays life as we would have it.  It converts events that adventurous and more exciting than those in real life.

 

Refrain:  It is a phrase or group of lines repeated at interval throughout a poem generally at the end of the stanza.

 

Repetiton:  A device used in poetry to achieve emphasis or stress a point.  It also occurs when two or more words are repeated in a poem.

 

Rhythm:  This is when words or phrases in either poetry or prose rise and fall measurably.  It is also known as beat in poetry.

 

Romantic Poetry:  It is a type of poem that emphasizes the beauty of nature or object.  Such poems are specially written to adorn nature.

 

Round Character: A character that can change during the cause of a play.  Such character is associated with growth and change.  It is also called dynamic character.

 

Sarcasm:  This is an expression of contempt or sneering statement which is intended to hurt someone’s feeling.  It is likened to irony, e.g keep talking you’ll soon say something intelligent  “is being stupid a profession or you are just gifted”

 

Satire: A literary device which uses ridicule to correct social ills. It mocks at the shortcomings of people or ideas and it employs irony to correct evils in society.

 

Scene:  It is the logical division of acts in a play.

 

Suspense:  It deals with anxiety or uncertainty about what is going to take place in a play or novel.  It is often employed to foster the reading speed of the reader in order to pay rapt attention to the text.

Simile:  It is a direct comparison between two things which are different in their nature, but are alike in the quality mentioned.  It is usually introduced by “like” and “as” eg, Joe is like the lion on the jungle.

 

Syneedoche:  This is a figure of speech in which a part of an object is used to signify or represent a whole object e.g  “I need more hands to finish the task “The man has many mouths to feed “Hands” and “mouths” represent people.

 

Synopsis:  It is an outline or brief summary of the events in a book.

 

Short story:  A prose narrative that is shorter than a novella or novelette, and in its classic form, the short story is distinguished by its compact plot.

 

Soliloquy:  It is a device used in a drama which is usually a speech made by a character to himself on stage.  The character speaks alone and he’s not interrupted by other characters.

 

Subplot:  It is a secondary plot in a literary work dealing with a different theme.

 

Tersest:  A stanza of three lines linked by rhyme.

 

Third Person Point of View: An angle and method employed by a writer to narrate his/her story.  The prominent use of the third-person pronoun in a novel creates a sense of detachment on the part of the writer.

 

Theme:  It is the basic central idea around which a literary work is developed.

 

Tone: Tone is the attitude of the speaker to his topic on the one hand and to audience on the other hand.

 

Tragic Flaw: It is an error of judgment or weakness in character which is responsible for the downfall of a dramatic hero.

 

Transferred Epithet or Hypaliage: It refers to the transference of an adjective or adjectival phrase (quality) of a particular person or thing to another person or thing e.g “Johnson experienced a terrible deal” (it was Johnson that have terrible dream, but the adjective “terrible” has been transferred to dream).

 

Transliteration:  It is the conversion of a text from one script to another.  It can form an essential part of transcription Which converts text from one writing system into another.

 

Travesty:  It mocks a particular literary work as does the “Parody” but it differs in that, It employs jocular language in treating its lofty subject.

 

Troche: (See metre).

 

Trope:  It is the use of a word which signifies something beyond itself.

 

The Unities:  They are rules for drama.  They are:

(a)    Unity of action:  It means a play should have one main action that it  

 follows, with no or few sub-plots.

    (b)   Unity of place: A play should cover a single physical space or location.

    (c)   Unity of time:  The action in a play should take place in not more than

24  hours.

    (d)  Theatre-in-the-round:  A type of theatre employed to achieve a close

 rapport  between players and spectators  (audience).

 

 Tragedy:  A play is a tragedy when a weakness in the main character.

 Leads  to his downfall and such play ends sadly.

 

 Tragic Hero/Character:  A character in a play whose deeds arouse pity

 and frustration and such character ends up badly.

 

 Travelogue:  A record of the writer’s experiences during a journey.

 

 Trilogy: A sequence of three plays written by the same writer, it is also

 known   as a group of three Iyric stanzas in classical Greek plays,

 

 Trochaic:  It is a metrical tool of two stressed or long syllables.

 

 Villain:  It is the main malevolent or bad character responsible for all the

 trouble or harm in a play.  Shylock is a villain in Shakespear’s. 

The Merchant of Venice.

 

 Wings: Sides of a stanza.

 

Wit:  It is a brief and well-thought out expression which gives one a shock

of comic surprise.

 

Zeugma:  This is a figure of speech in which two or more parts of a sentence are joined with a single common verb or noun.  It employs both ellipsis and parallelism.  A syllepsis is a particular kind of zeugma e.g.  “The bread was baking, and so was I.