Here is the cleaned-up, highly readable dictionary of literary terms based exactly on your notes. Each term includes its original core definition, simplified Key Words, and a famous Literature Example to help you ace your studies.
Literary Terms Dictionary: A to Z (Part 2)
1. Confessional Poetry
Definition: A form of poetry in which the poet reveals very personal, intimate, and sometimes shocking information about himself or herself.
Key Words: Personal, intimate, secrets, shocking autobiographical details.
Example: Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus or Robert Lowell's Life Studies.
2. Conflict
Definition: The issue to be resolved in a story; the tension or action in a work of literature. It usually occurs between the protagonist and the antagonist, between the protagonist and society, or internally between the protagonist and himself/herself.
Key Words: Struggle, problem, tension, Protagonist vs. Antagonist/Society/Self.
Example: In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the internal conflict of Hamlet deciding whether or not to avenge his father ("To be or not to be").
3. Convention
Definition: Any widely accepted literary device, style, or form.
Key Words: Accepted rule, standard device, literary custom.
Example: A soliloquy (where a character reveals private thoughts aloud to the audience) is a classic dramatic convention.
4. Couplet
Definition: Two lines of poetry with the same rhyme and meter, often expressing a complete thought.
Key Words: Pair of lines, rhyming, identical meter, complete idea.
Example: Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism:
"A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."
5. Deconstruction
Definition: A method of literary criticism developed by Jacques Derrida that uncovers multiple, conflicting interpretations of a given work. Deconstructionists suggest that language is unstable and that the true meaning of a work is not necessarily what the author intended.
Key Words: Unstable language, conflicting interpretations, questioning the author's intent.
Example: Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology (the foundational text). Prominent American practitioners include Paul de Man and J. Hillis Miller.
6. Denouement
Definition: Derived from a French word meaning "untying the knot." It denotes the resolution of conflict in fiction or drama, following the climax. It provides an outcome to the primary plot and explains secondary plot complications. It often involves a character’s recognition of his/her true state of mind or moral condition. (Also known as Falling Action).
Key Words: Resolution, untying the knot, clearing up complications, post-climax.
Example: In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the denouement occurs after the lovers' deaths, when the Capulets and Montagues finally vow to end their ancient family feud.
7. Diction
Definition: The selection and arrangement of words in a literary work, varying depending on the desired effect. There are four general types:
Formal: Lofty, academic writing.
Informal: Relaxed but educated conversation.
Colloquial: Used in everyday speech.
Slang: Newly coined words not accepted in formal usage.
Key Words: Word choice, vocabulary style, tone of language.
Example: Mark Twain uses heavily colloquial diction and regional slang in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to make Huck's voice sound authentic.
8. Didactic
Definition: A term used to describe works of literature that aim to teach some moral, religious, political, or practical lesson. Critics may use it negatively to criticize a work that is "heavy-handed" in delivering its lesson.
Key Words: Instructional, teaching a moral, preachy, heavy-handed lesson.
Example: John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (designed to teach a Christian moral lesson).
9. Dissonance
Definition: A combination of harsh, clashing, or jarring sounds, especially in poetry.
Key Words: Harsh sounds, cacophony, unmusical language.
Example: Gerard Manley Hopkins' poetry frequently uses intentional dissonance to create raw emotional textures, such as in Carrion Comfort.
10. Irony
Definition: The difference between appearance and reality. Dramatic Irony occurs when the audience or reader of a work knows something essential that the character in the work does not know.
Key Words: Reality vs. Appearance; Audience knows more than the character.
Example: In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, the audience knows Oedipus killed his own father, but Oedipus himself is completely unaware as he searches for the murderer.
11. Dramatic Poetry
Definition: Any lyric work that employs dramatic elements—such as dialogue, conflicts, or characterization—but is not intended for actual stage presentation.
Key Words: Poetic drama, dialogue/conflict in verse, read rather than performed.
Example: Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues, such as My Last Duchess.
12. Dramatis Personae
Definition: The characters in a work of literature, particularly drama. It refers specifically to the list of characters printed before the main text of a play or in a theater program.
Key Words: Character cast, character list, list of parts.
Example: The list at the beginning of Macbeth that reads: "Duncan, King of Scotland; Malcolm, Donalbain, his sons; Macbeth, Banquo, Generals..."
13. Dream Vision
Definition: A narrative frame in which a story is presented as a literal dream experienced by the narrator. It is often used to teach moral and religious lessons.
Key Words: Dream frame, allegorical journey, moral lesson.
Example: Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Book of the Duchess or Dante’s Divine Comedy.
14. Dystopia
Definition: An imaginary place in a work of fiction where characters lead dehumanized, oppressed, and fearful lives.
Key Words: Anti-utopia, oppressive society, dehumanized world, fear.
Example: George Orwell’s 1984 or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
15. Eclogue
Definition: In classical literature, a poem featuring rural or pastoral themes, often structured as a dialogue among shepherds.
Key Words: Pastoral poem, rural theme, dialogue between shepherds.
Example: Virgil’s Eclogues (the definitive classical example).
16. Electra Complex
Definition: A daughter’s amorous, subconscious obsession with her father. The term originates from the plays of Euripides and Sophocles titled Electra.
Key Words: Daughter-father obsession, psychological complex.
Example: In Sophocles' Electra, the title character drives her brother Orestes to kill their mother (Clytemnestra) and her lover to avenge the murder of their father (Agamemnon).
17. Elegy
Definition: A lyric poem that laments the death of a specific person, or reflects mournfully on the eventual death of all people. In classical pastoral elegies, the poet and subject are spoken of as shepherds. In modern criticism, it refers generally to any melancholy or mournfully contemplative poem.
Key Words: Lament for the dead, mournful poem, melancholy reflection.
Example: John Milton’s Lycidas (written for Edward King) and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Adonais (written for John Keats).
18. Enjambment
Definition: The running over of a sentence or structural thought from one poetic line into the next line without a terminal punctuation mark. Also called run-on lines.
Key Words: Run-on poetic line, no end punctuation, continuous thought.
Example: From John Keats' Endymion:
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness..." (The second line runs directly into the third).
19. Epic
Definition: A long narrative poem detailing the adventures of a hero of massive historic or legendary importance, set across a vast geographical scope and featuring supernatural elements.
Key Words: Long narrative poem, legendary hero, grand scale, supernatural forces.
Example: Homer’s The Odyssey or John Milton's Paradise Lost.
20. Epigram
Definition: A short, witty saying or poem that makes its point sharply, humorously, and concisely.
Key Words: Witty saying, concise point, sharp humor.
Example: Oscar Wilde's famous quip: "I can resist everything except temptation."
21. Epilogue
Definition: A concluding statement, speech, or section at the very end of a literary work.
Key Words: Concluding section, final speech, ending notes.
Example: Puck's final closing speech to the audience at the end of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
22. Epiphany
Definition: A sudden, life-changing revelation of truth inspired by a seemingly trivial, ordinary incident.
Key Words: Sudden realization, life-changing truth, ordinary catalyst.
Example: Popularized by James Joyce; the short stories collected in Joyce’s Dubliners are built around these moments of realization.
23. Epistolary Novel
Definition: A novel written entirely in the form of documents, most commonly letters sent between characters. This form was highly popular in the 18th century.
Key Words: Novel in letters, correspondence format, 18th-century style.
Example: Samuel Richardson’s Pamela or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (which uses letters as a frame).
24. Epitaph
Definition: An inscription written on a tombstone, or a short verse composed in memory of a deceased person.
Key Words: Tombstone inscription, memorial verse.
Example: W.B. Yeats' self-written epitaph on his grave: "Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman, pass by!"
25. Epithalamion
Definition: A song or poem specifically written to honor, celebrate, and commemorate a marriage ceremony.
Key Words: Wedding poem, marriage celebration song.
Example: Edmund Spenser’s Epithalamion, written for his own bride, Elizabeth Boyle.
26. Epithet
Definition: A word or descriptive phrase used to characterize a specific person or thing. It can sometimes be disparaging or abusive.
Key Words: Descriptive tag, characteristic phrase, nickname.
Example: Calling Professor Moriarty "The Napoleon of Crime" in Sherlock Holmes, or Homer's use of "rosy-fingered Dawn."
27. Exemplum
Definition: An illustrative story or moral anecdote used to emphasize a moral message or sermon point.
Key Words: Moral tale, sermon anecdote, illustrative parable.
Example: The Pardoner's Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (proving the moral that greed is the root of evil).
28. Fable
Definition: A short prose or verse narrative intended to convey a clear moral lesson. Animals, plants, or inanimate objects given human characteristics (anthropomorphism) typically serve as the central characters.
Key Words: Short moral story, talking animals, personified objects.
Example: Aesop’s Fables (such as The Tortoise and the Hare).
29. Farce
Definition: A type of high-energy comedy characterized by broad, slapstick humor, outlandish or highly improbable incidents, absurd situations, and often vulgar subject matter.
Key Words: Slapstick, absurd comedy, improbable plots, vulgar humor.
Example: Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest or William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.
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