B's And C's

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Ballad

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a narrative poem often using common meter and sometimes including a refrain

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Bathos

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a sudden and unexpected drop from the lofty to the trivial or excessively sentimental

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Begging the Question

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the act of ignoring a problem or issue by assuming that it is already settled

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Bildungsroman

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a novel about the education or psychological growth of the protagonist, or main character

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Biography

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the narrative of a person's life, written by another person

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black comedy

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disturbing or absurd material presented in a humorous manner, usually with the intention of confronting uncomfortable truths

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blank verse

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unrhymed iambic pentameter

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Cacophony

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a combination of harsh, unpleasant sounds, used consciously for effect

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Caesura

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a pause in a line of poetry created not by the meter, but by the natural speaking rhythm, sometimes coinciding with punctuation.

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Canon

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an evolving group of literary works considered essential to a culture's literary tradition.

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caricature

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in writing and literature, an author's exaggeration or distortion of certain traits or characteristics of an individual or group

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Carpe Diem poetry

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From the Latin, the admonition often translated as "seize the day" is more accurately "pluck, as a ripe fruit or flower." It was first used by Horace in classical Rome, and is a common theme in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English love poetry: yield to love while you are still young and beautiful.

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catalog

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a rhetorical device which lists people, things, or attributes, used in epics (heroes, ships, armor), the Bible (genealogy), and Elizabethan sonnets (the physical attributes of the beloved)

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catharsis

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a cleansing or purification of one's emotions through art

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chance

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the occurrence of an even that has no apparent cause in antecedent events or in predisposition of character

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character

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any of the persons involved in a story or play

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characterization

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characters can be presented in several ways.

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cliche

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an expression used so often that is loses its freshness and clarity

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chorus

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a group of actors speaking or chanting in unison, often while going through the steps of an elaborate formalized dance; a characteristic device of Greek drama fro conveying communal or group emotion.

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climax

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the turning point or high point in a plot

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closure

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an ending or completion or something that gives a sense of finality

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coincidence

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the chance concurrence of two events having a peculiar correspondence between them

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colloquialism

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an informal expression or slang term; acceptable in conversation but not usually in formal writing

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comedy

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a type of drama, opposed to tragedy, having usually a happy ending, and emphasizing human limitation rather than human greatness

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commercial fiction

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fiction written to meet the taste of a wide popular audience and relying usually on tested formulas for satisfying such taste

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common meter

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alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, in four-line stanzas typically rhyming abab or abcb. also called hymn meter and ballad mater.

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complaint

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a lyric poem of lament, regret, and sadness which may explain the speaker's mood, describe its cause, discuss remedies, and appeal for help. the blues is a musical counterpart to the literary form.

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conceit

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a metaphor of great ingenuity in which a fanciful notion, an elaborate analogy, or a striking parallel between seemingly dissimilar things is spun out at length.

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concrete language

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the diction of specificity, referring to particular persons or things

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conflict

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a clash of actions, desires, ideas, or goals in the plot of a story or drama

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connotation

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the association or implied meaning that a word carries along with its literal meaning

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consonance

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the repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words

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context

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the matter that surrounds the word or text in question, lending it significance, even irony

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continuous form

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poetry not divided into stanzas

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convention

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in writing, a practice or principle that is accepted as true or correct

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cosmic irony

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the depiction of fate or the universe as malicious or indifferent to human suffering, which creates a painful contrast between a character's purposeful activity and its ultimate meaninglessness

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couplet

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two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rime.