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Literary Terms for English Literature, SSC and Net, Set students
Important Literary Terms for students of WBCSSC, NET, SET
Anti-sentimental comedy
This type of comedy basically comes as a kind of protest against the sentimental drama. It discarded the sentimental elements like overdose of pathos, note of seriousness and moral purpose. Instead, such comedies try to produce hearty or often hilarious laughter. Ex. - Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.
Absurd Drama
Absurd drama is a new invention in the mid 20th century in the field of theatre. This kind of drama is based upon the belief that the human condition is essentially and ineradicably absurd, and that this condition can be adequately represented only in this kind of play. Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Malone Dies, The Unnamable are examples of Absurd drama.
Ambiguity
Ambiguity in literature can be called the language of paradox. It is the assertion of the union of opposites. True poem, like Keats" "Ode on a Grecian Urn", is an amalgamation of varied experiences, widely different from and even opposite to each other. Here ambiguity or paradox synthesizes and reconciles these experiences. Keats in this odc expresses a life which is above life, but it is at the same time a kind of death.
Autobiographical Essay
When in the essay the author will speak out his vital experiences of life, either external or emotional, it will become autobiographical. That means, in such essay the personal or subjective elements must be much more strongly present. Ex: Dream Children: A Reverie by Charles Lamb.
Personal Essay
In this kind of essay the author brings out his personality in much more bolder details than in the formal essays or any other kind. The author assumes a tone of intimacy with the readers, deals with everyday matters in a relaxed, self-revelatory fashion. It is also called familiar essay. By nature it is subjective to a great extent.
Formal Essay
This kind of essay is relatively impersonal by nature. Here the author writes as an authority or as a highly knowledgeable person and expounds his subject in an orderly way without the least of intimacy with the readers. Ex. 'The Principles of Good Writing' by L.A. Hill.
Allegory
The term 'Allegory' has been derived from the Greek term 'allegoria' which originally meant 'speaking otherwise'. As a rule, an allegory is a story in verse or prose with double meaning - primary/surface meaning and the under the surface meaning. It can be read and interpreted at more than one level. The story in allegories often teaches a moral. Ex. - Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. It is an allegory of Christian Salvation.
Burlesque
'Burlesque' is an incongruous imitation. It imitates the manner or the matter of a serious literary work or of a literary genre but makes the imitation amusing by a ridiculous disparity between the manner and the subject matter. It is a form of satire usually. It may be high burlesque or low burlesque. Ex. - Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock'.
High Burlesque
*Burlesque' is an incongruous imitation. It imitates the manner or the matter of a serious literary work or of a literary genre but makes the imitation amusing by a ridiculous disparity between the manner and the subject matter. If the form and style may be higher in level and dignity than the subject. Then it becomes high Burlesque. Ex.Dryden's 'Mac Flecknoe' and Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock'.
Low Burlesque
'Burlesque' is an incongruous imitation. It imitates the manner or the matter of a serious literary work or of a literary genre but makes the imitation amusing by a ridiculous disparity between the manner and the subject matter. If the form and style are low and undignified when subject is elevated, it becomes a low Burlesque. Ex. 'The Owl and the Nightingale' Butler's Hudibras, Virgil's Aeneid.
Ballad
Ballad is a narrative poem, usually simple and short, originally meant for singing. Ballads begin abruptly suggesting the previous action. They tell the story simply through dialogues and narrations. A popular Ballad (known also as the folk ballad or 'traditional Ballad') is a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story. Ballads are folk songs in the narrative, which are unwritten originally and are communicated orally. Ex. A Ballade upon a Wedding by Sir John Suckling, Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge.
Ballad Variants
A 'broadside ballad' is a ballad that was printed on one side of a single sheet (called a broadside), and it dealt with a current event or person or issue. The 'traditional ballad' has had immense influence on the form and style of lyric poetry in general, in addition to engendering the literary ballad' which is a narrative poem written in deliberate imitation of the form, language and spirit of the traditional ballad.
Bildungsroman
"Bildungsroman" (German word) signifies 'novel of formation' or 'novel of education', Such novel must have the development of the central protagonist's mind and character. The protagonist thus gradually develops into his state of maturity, and the recognition of his or her identity and role in the world are asserted at the end. Ex. George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, Dickens's Great Expectation.
Elegy
The primary meaning of the word 'Elegy' was probably "a funeral song set to the flute." Elegy is a lyric usually formal in tone and diction, suggested either by the death of an actual person or by the poet's contemplation of the tragic aspects of life. The term in Greek literature referred both to a specific verse form and to the emotions frequently conveyed by that verse form. Ex. Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Goldsmith's The Deserted Village. -
Lyric
A lyric is originally a song poem, intended to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre or harp. It means a short poem usually divided into stanzas. It expresses the poet's thoughts, moods or experiences. We can enumerate impulsiveness of the poet, his imagination, subjectivity, reflection, song-element, universal element and organic unity as essential features of a lyric. Ex. - The Seafarer, Helen Waddell's Medieval Latin Lyrics (1929).
Epic Meter
It refers to the verse or line of a poem which consists of the five regular iambic feet usually without any variation. So it is an iambic pentameter Ex. "An like / a qui- / vered mymph/with ar- / rows keen." It is so called from its use in the narrative and didactic or epical poetry by Milton, Dryden, Spenser and so on.
Free Verse
is a kind of verse of varying line-lengths, usually not rhymed. Such verse is composed without any attention to the conventional rules of meter. Inspired by vers libre of the French poets, Free Verse seeks to recreate the free rhythm of natural speech. Its chief exponents are Walt Whitman, Amy Lowell, Ezra Pound ctc. Ex. - Milton's Lycidas, Samson Agonistes.
Objective Correlative
Eliot in his essay "Hamlet and His Problems" said that the writer should not express his emotion directly: "The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an objective correlative', in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion". Eliot also added that this emotion of the writer will evoke the same emotion from the reader. Eliot goes on to suggest that in Lady Macbeth's sleep-walking speech and in the speech that Macbeth makes when he hears of his wife's death, the words are completely adequate to the state of mind.
Sonnet
Sonnet' comes from the word 'Sonnetto', which means a short poem of 14 lines expressing one single thought or feeling. It is a lyric variant having all the essential qualities of a lyric. What is special about the sonnet is its restricted form of 14 lines, its specific division into octave and sestet, or into quatrains and couplet as well as a special rhyme scheme having 5 or 7 rhymes.
Classification of Sonnets
There are three most widely recognised forms of the sonnet with their traditional rhymeschemes. The first is the Italian or Petrarchan form, the second the Spenserian form and then the English or Shakespearean form.
Petrarchan Sonnet
In the Italian or Petrarchan form, a two-part division of thought is invited, and the octave offers an admirable unified pattern and leads to the 'volta' (turn of thought) in the sestet. This sonnet is divided into octave and sestet, the rhyming scheme in the octave' is abba abba in 'sestet' cde cde (or cd cd cd).
Shakespearean Sonnet
The Shakespearean or English form is a simplified one, easier for use - three quatrains followed by a couplet with the rhyme-scheme abab cdcd efef gg. The English form invites a division of thought into three quatrains and a summarising couplet. Having no *caesure' (pause) or 'volta' (turn of thought) at the end of 8th lines, it works up right to the final couplet, the apex of the poetic thought.
Alexandrine Meter
It refers to the verse or line of a poem which consists of the six regular iambic feet usually without any variation. So it is an iambic hexameter. Ex. "And now / by winds / and waves/thy life / less limbs / are tossed." It is so called from its use in an old French poem on Alexander the Great.
Spenserian Sonnet
The Spenserian sonnet, a notable variant of the Shakespearean of English form, offers two thoughts dialectically presented. It is called 'link sonnet' because each quatrain is linked to the next by a continuing rhyme or the linked rhyme, abab bcbc cdcd ee.
Flat and Round Character
E.M. Forster in his Aspects of the Novel (1927) classified the characters into Flat and Round kinds. A "flat character does not change in the cause of a story or play. A Round character is a three dimensional character which appears more life-like in spite of being a fictional character. Primarily those characters must undergo some changes in their action and behaviour in course of the narrative. Each of them changes and their change surprises the readers. Forster cites Mrs. Micawber as a flat character and Becky Sharp as a round character.
Soliloquy
This term has come from Latin 'Soliloquium' meaning ‘alone to speak'. Soliloquy is a talk to oneself, whether silently or aloud. In drama it denotes the convention' by which a character, alone on the stage, utters his or her thoughts aloud. Playwrights like Shakespeare and Marlowe have used this device as a convenient way to convey information about a character's motives and state of mind, or for purpose of exposition, or in order to guide the judgements and responses of the audience. Shakespeare's Hamlet, Macbeth and Marlowe's Dr. Faustus have major soliloquies.
Monologue and Aside
In a monologue, a single person speaking alone - with or without an audience. Most prayers, much lyric verse and all laments are monologues. Ex. - Browning's My Last Duchess'. In aside a character expresses to the audience his or her thoughts or intentions in a short speech, which by convention is inaudible to the other characters present on the stage; unless of course the aside be between two characters and therefore clearly not meant for anyone else who may be present. It is still liberally used in pantomime and in farce.
Symbol
A symbol, in the broadest sense of the term, is anything which signifies something else. As commonly used in literature, however, "symbol is applied only to a word or set of words that signifies an object or event which itself signifies something else". For example, a peacock in its literal meaning is a kind of bird. But as a symbol it is associated with pride.
Short Story
It is a narrative tale with physical brevity. It requires anything from half an hour to one or two hours in its 'perusal'. It deals with a single episode or situation to reveal a single of the central protagonist. With limited number of characters, with the precision aspect in words and expressions, it must produce a single effect or impression, either tragic or comic. Ex. - Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly'.
Supernaturalism
Supernaturalism is an artistic device, a theory or a technique. It means the application of some superstitious mystical belief in those irrational rules and laws which go beyond the laws of nature, or beyond our usual everyday practical experiences. Ex. - The Arabian Nights.
Willing suspension of Disbelief
It is a particular poetic theory of Coleridge relating to art of supernaturalism. By the term he meant that, if any reader wants to enjoy his supernatural poems, he must discard his rational doubts or questionings. That means, he must intentionally drive away or suspend all his rational doubts to enjoy the poem to his heart's content.
Thesis Play
It is a kind of play, tragedy or comedy, which is constructed with the basic intention or purpose to establish some novel and revolutionary ideas or ideals exactly in the manner of a thesis. It very probably, offers a solution. It is originated in France in the 19th A Doll's House by Ibsen. century. Ex. -
Farce
It is type of comedy, which is designed to rouse a simple hearty laughter by presenting highly exaggerated physical actions, improbable and ludicrous situations, and like anomalies and mix-ups. The characters and dialogues are nearly always subservient to plot and situation. The plot is usually complex and events succeed one another with almost bewildering rapidity. Ex. - Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors.
Ode
An ode is a long lyric poem that is serious in subject and treatment. Generally it is in the address form, encomiastic in tone, elevated in style and elaborated in stanza structure.Ex. Keats's Ode to a Nightingale'.
Carpe Diem
Horace in one of his odes first used the Latin phrase "carpe-diem" which means “seize the day”. The speaker in a 'crape diem' poem emphasizes that life is short and time is fleeting. The more complex poem of this kind communicates the poignant sadness or even desperations of the pursuit of pleasures under the inevitability of death. Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" is the greatest example.
Genre
The term 'genre' (French) denotes a recurring type of literature, or as we now often call it a literary form'. The 'genres' into which works of literature have been classified at different times are numerous. In time of Plato or Aristotle, literature was divided into three genres 'Lyric', 'epic' (or ‘narrative') and 'drama'. Over the last three centuries, to them have been added genres like 'biography', 'essay' and 'novel'.
Metaphor
*Metaphor' is a combination of "meta' (Gk-change) and 'phera' (Gk. - I bear). According to this original meaning, in any Metaphor there is a change or transfer to a word from one object to another, whereby a comparison is implied.
Metaphor is perhaps the most important figure of speech for the poets. Simply it refers to an implicit comparison between two dissimilar objects. In it a word or expression is applied to a distinctly different kind of thing or action. For example, Burns said "O my love is a red, red rose". Here we've an implicit comparison between love and rose. The similarity between them is in their beauty.
Tenor-Vehicle in a Metaphor
I.A. Richards called one compared object 'tenor' and the other vehicle'. The vehicle' means the metaphorical term itself, e.g. 'rose' in the given example from Burns. In the expression, "camel is the ship of the desert", the vehicle is the 'ship'.
Point of View
Point of view means the perspective through which the writer presents his characters and events. There are mainly three kinds of point of view. First, there is the omniscient point of view where the narrator relates the story, comments on the characters and situations. Next, we have the first person auto-biographical point of view. Thirdly, there is the composite point of view.
Verbal Irony
discrepancy between expectation and reality, between apparent and the real. Verbal irony means to say one thing while meaning the opposite. Ample use of this verbal irony is found in satirical poems by Dryden and Pope. The first sentence of Austen's Pride and Prejudice is well-known for its vorbal irony.
Structural Irony
Structural irony is another species. In Austen's Pride and Prejudice Darcy is guided by pride and Elizabeth by prejudice, but it is found that they react in a way contrary to what is wise or appropriate. Contrast is there between the character's understanding of his acts and what the narrative demonstrates among them.
Dramatic Irony
In drama or even in novels dramatic irony can be found. It implies a contrast between the ignorance of the character and the knowledge of the spectators or readers. Oedipus married his own mother ignorantly when the spectators have the full knowledge of the mistakes. It contributes to the ultimate tragic effect. So it is an example of dramatic irony.
Consonance
In this device, there is a repetition of consonantal sounds while the vowel sounds differ. Here the pair of words are usually of equal number of syllables. Ex. 'black-block, slipslop', 'criss-cross', 'jig-jag' etc. This device is the base of what came to be known as para rhyme' in modern poetry.
Scansion
Scansion is the art of determining the metrical scheme or pattern of some piece of poetry by going through every line of it, dividing it into feet or measures of which it is composed. To scan, we have to follow the different steps like, syllabification, accentuation, determining the number and pattern of feet etc.
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