Important Literary Terms in English Literature
Important Literary Terms in English Literature
ِ الر
َ ن ِ م
َ ح
ْ الر
َ ِ َ سم ِ الل
ه ْ ِب
The four main literary genres are poetry, fction, nonfction, and drama, with each
varying in style, structure, subject matter, and the use of fgurative language.
fction.
nonfction.
manuscripts.
poetry.
dissertations.
theses.
Prose
Prose is a form of written (or spoken) language that usually exhibits a natural fow of
speech and grammatical structure. The word "prose" frst appears in nnglish in the
14th century.
Prose poetry.
Textbooks, lectures, novels, short stories, fairy tales, newspaper articles, and essays are
examples of prose.
Short Story
Short story, brief fctional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that
usually deals with only a few characters. Such as 'The Painting of the Dog and His
Refection' from 'Aesop's Fables'.
Novel
A fctitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action
with some degree of realism.
Examples of classic novels include: Jane nyre by Charlotte Bronte. Wuthering Heights
by nmily Brontë
Mysteries.
Romance.
Thrillers.
Science Fiction.
Fantasy.
Historical Fiction.
Play
A play is a piece of writing (literature) which can be seen at a theatre or on television,
or heard on the radio. Plays often show conversations between people.
Play means activity for fun or a dramatic performance. An example of play is building
a house with blocks.
Types of Plays
1. Tragedy: These types of plays end on a tragic note and most likely a character’s death.
2. Comedy: These types of plays are meant to amuse the audience, and they end on a
happy note.
3. Domestic Play: These types of plays are based on the normal life of family and friends.
5. Melodrama: This type of has often exaggerated characters and episodes with songs
and music for an emotive appeal to the audiences.
Elements of Play
1. Plot: It refers to the order of the events that occur in the play.
2. Characters: The characters form a crucial part of the story and are interwoven with
the plot of the play.
4. Setting: It refers to the time and place where a story is set. It is one of the important
parts of the play.
5. Conflict: It refers to the challenge main characters need to solve to achieve their goals.
Miracle play
A miracle play presents a real or fctitious account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom
of a saint. Miracle play, also called Saint's Play, one of three principal kinds of
vernacular drama of the nuropean Middle Ages (along with the mystery play and
the morality play).
1450, in Yorkshire); the Coventry Plays (1468); and the Chester Plays (1475–1500).
The Passion play is the chief modern example of the miracle play. The French
mystère distinguished those plays containing biblical stories from those about the lives
of the saints.
Morality Play
Morality play, also called morality, an allegorical drama popular in nurope especially
during the 15th and 16th centuries, in which the characters personify moral qualities
(such as charity or vice) or abstractions (as death or youth) and in which moral lessons
are taught.
Characteristics
Only fve nnglish morality plays from the medieval period are
extant: The Castle of Perseverance (c. 1425); Wisdom, (1460–63);
Mankind (c. 1470); nveryman (c. 1495); the fragmentary Pride of
Life (late 14th century).
Mystery play
The mystery plays, usually representing biblical subjects, developed
from plays presented in Latin by churchmen on church premises and depicted such
subjects as the Creation, Adam and nve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment.
These biblical plays differ widely in content. Most contain episodes such as the Fall of
Lucifer, the Creation and Fall of Man, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, Abraham and
Isaac, the Nativity, the Raising of Lazarus, the Passion, and the Resurrection.
Like all drama, one-act plays are made up of the same elements that are necessary
for short stories: Theme, Plot, Character, and dialogue.
Drama
Drama is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance. It is one of the
literary genres, which is an imitation of some action. Drama is also a type of a play written for
theatre, television, radio, and film.
>What are the six elements of drama?
The 6 Aristotelean elements are plot, character, thought, diction, spectacle, and
song.
Types of Drama
Comedy – Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary works, and provide a happy
conclusion. The intention of dramatists in comedies is to make their audience
laugh. Hence, they use quaint circumstances, unusual characters, and witty remarks.
Types of Comedy
Black Comedy
A dramatic comedy which is about unpleasant subjects that the audience can fnd upsetting
and shocking. This comedy treats upsetting matters of life with scrutiny, bitterness and
to a frivolous subject.
City Comedy
Dramatic comedy about the sexual and fnancial afairs of middle-class characters. Includes
satirical depiction and was common in the seventeenth century in London theatres.
Comedy of Humours
Comedy focused around an individual character or characters overriding traits (humour)
Comedy of Manners
Dramatic comedy that explores the lives and behaviour of the middle and upper class in
perform an improvised performance based around a standard plot. Popular between the
Parody
A literary work or style that is mocked through exaggeration or imitation.
Restoration Comedy
An English dramatic comedy (usually in the form of manners) which dominated the
Tragedy – Tragic dramas use darker themes, such as disaster, pain, and
death. Protagonists often have a tragic flaw — a characteristic that leads them to their
downfall.
Musical Drama – In musical dramas, dramatists not only tell their stories through acting
and dialogue, but through dance as well as music. Often the story may be comedic,
though it may also involve serious subjects.
Problem play- Type of drama that developed in the 19th century to deal with
controversial social issues in a realistic manner, to expose social ills, and to
stimulate thought and discussion on the part of the audience.
Poem
A poem is a piece of writing in which the words are chosen for their beauty and
sound and are carefully arranged, often in short lines which rhyme.
Synonyms: verse, song, lyric, rhyme.
Song
A short poem or other set of words set to music or meant to be sung.
An example of songs are "Silent Night," "Unchained Melody" and "I Can't Help Falling
in Love with You."
Poetry
Writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in
language chosen and arranged to create a specifc emotional response through
meaning, sound, and rhythm.
>What are the 10 features of poetry?
Features of poetry
Choice of Meter.
Rhyme. * Some poems use rhyming words to create a certain effect. ...
Shape. ...
Mood.
The structure and form of poetry are two important elements of poetry.
Each section has literary devices examples, exercises, and an analysis of its
role in literature.
Simile. ...
Imagery. ...
Symbolism. ...
Personifcation. ...
Hyperbole. ...
Irony. ...
Juxtaposition.
Septet
poem or stanza with one line is called a monostich, one with two lines is a
couplet; with three, tercet or triplet; four, quatrain.
● Poetry is the use of words and language to evoke a writer's feelings and thoughts,
while a poem is the arrangement of these words. ...Poetry is the process of creating
a literary piece using metaphor, symbols and ambiguity, while a poem is the end
result of this process.
Elegy
An elegy is a form of poetry that typically refects on death or loss.
Characteristics
It may mourn the passing of life & beauty or someone dear to the
speaker.
Ballad
A ballad is a poem that tells a story, usually (but not always) in four-line stanzas called
quatrains. ... In popular music, the word ballad can also refer to a slow, romantic, or
sentimental song. However, this has no signifcant relationship to the literary defnition.
Characteristics of a Ballad
Example of Ballad
Epic
The defnition of epic is something that refers to a heroic story or something that is
heroic or grand. An example of epic is a big production movie with story sequels such
as the Star Wars series. ... An example of epic is Milton's Paradise Lost.
In art epic, the poet invents the story, while the folk epic is the product of the
mythology of the locality. The folk epic is basically in oral form, while the art or
literary epic is in written form. The author of the literary epic is a well-known
personality, while the author of the folk epic may be a common man.
○ Perhaps the most widely known epic poems are Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey,
both of which detail the events of the Trojan War and King Odysseus's journey home
from Troy. ...
Sonnet
>What is a sonnet simple defnition?
A sonnet (pronounced son-it) is a fourteen line poem with a fxed rhyme scheme.
Often, sonnets use iambic pentameter: fve sets of unstressed syllables followed by
stressed syllables for a ten-syllable line.
Petrarchan.
Shakespearean.
Spenserian.
Miltonic.
First quatrain: This should establish the subject of the sonnet. Second quatrain: This
should develop the sonnet's theme. Third quatrain: This should round off
the sonnet's theme. Fourth quatrain: This should act as a conclusion to the sonnet.
>Who is the father of sonnet?
Petrarch
Petrarch, Father of the Sonnet | Folger Shakespeare Library.
The fourth, and fnal part of the sonnet is two lines long and is called the couplet.
The couplet is rhymed CC, meaning the last two lines rhyme with each other.
The Main Types of Sonnet. In the English-speaking world, we usually refer to three
discrete types of sonnet: the Petrarchan, the Shakespearean, and the Spenserian.
All of these maintain the features outlined above - fourteen lines, a volta, iambic
pentameter - and they all three are written in sequences.
So in a Shakespearean sonnet, the signifcance of the fnal two lines is that they
markedly illustrate a shift in the author's thought.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer. He was born in London sometime between 1340 and 1344. He was
an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat (courtier), and diplomat. He is also
referred to as the father of English Literature.
Ode
An ode is a kind of poem, usually praising something.
>What are the 3 types of odes?
Pindaric ode. Pindaric odes are named for the ancient Greek poet
Pindar, who lived during the 5th century BC and is often credited with creating
the ode poetic form. ...
Irregular ode.
>What are characteristics of an ode?
The Ode is usually a lyric poem of moderate length. It has a serious subject. It has an
elevated style (word choice, etc.). It usually has an elaborate stanza pattern.
For example, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats was written based on his
experiments with the sonnet. Other well-known odes include Percy Bysshe Shelley's
"Ode to the West Wind," Robert Creeley's "America," Bernadette Mayer's "Ode on
Periods," and Robert Lowell's "Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket."
Pastoral poetry
A pastoral poem explores the fantasy of withdrawing from modern life to live in an
idyllic rural setting.
The country house poem. In the seventeenth century, Ben Jonson's “To
Penshurst” exemplifed the country house poem. ...
Pastoral drama.
Pastoral poetry is much like it sounds. It ispoetry that has to do with pastures. ...
Some notable examples of pastoral poems include The Passionate Shepherd to His
Love by Christopher Marlowe, A Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh,
and The Bait by John Donne.
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and
intellectual movement that originated in nurope towards the end of the 18th century,
and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850.
>What are the features of romanticism?
Awe of nature.
Importance of imagination.
Symbolism. ...
Nature. ...
Individualism. ...
nmotion. ...
Imagination. ...
The power of the imagination, genius, and the source of inspiration. ...
Philia – Friendship Love. Philia is the deep and wholesome love you feel
towards your friends, colleagues or team mates. ...
Neo- classicism
Neoclassicism is the term for movements in the arts that draw inspiration from the
classical art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. The height
of Neoclassicism coincided with the 18th century nnlightenment era and continued
into the early 19th century.
>What was the importance of neoclassicism?
Classicism
Classicism is an aesthetic attitude dependent on principles based in the culture, art
and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, with the emphasis on form, simplicity,
proportion, clarity of structure, perfection, restrained emotion, as well as explicit appeal
to the intellect.
>What is classicism literature?
Literary classicism refers to a style of writing that consciously emulates the forms and
subject matter of classical antiquity.
Classicism asserts the importance of wholeness and unity; the work of art coheres
without extraneous elements or open-ended conclusions. Both ancient Greek and
ancient Roman writers stressed restraint and restricted scope, reason refected in
theme and structure, and a unity of purpose and design.
Examples of classical art include: For sculpture, the Discobolus and the Riace
Bronzes.
Classicism follow the three unities of time, place and action. Romanticism only
follows the unity of action, but does not follow the unities of time,
place. Classicism uses strict, rigid and logical diction and
theme. Romanticism uses simple diction of common men from their everyday
life.
Feminism
The concept of feminism was defned as the concern with gender equality and
the promotion of equal rights for men and woman, the expression of these
concerns through theory or action, and the valuing of individuals for their
contributions to society rather than their biological or sexual characteristics or
roles.
Realism
Literary realism seeks to tell a story as truthfully as possible instead of
dramatizing or romanticizing it. An example of realism is the rejection of
mythical beings.
Naturalism
In naturalism work, the characters might be controlled by their environment or
fght for their survival. A great example of naturalism is John Steinbeck's The
Grapes of Wrath. In the beginning, the Joad family are instinctive animals just
trying to survive against the powerful forces of society and nature.
Socialism
A system of society or group living in which there is no private property. According
to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in
cooperation with one another. The former Soviet Union is an example of a
socialist system.