Glossary Of Literary Terms A-B

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Absurd, Theater of the

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plays especially written in the 1950's and 1960's that call attention to the incoherence of character and of action, the inability of people to communicate, and the apparent purpselessness of existence

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Action

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1.) The happenings in a narrative of drama, physical events but also mental changes
2.)less commonly, the theme or underlying idea of a work

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Allegory

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A work in which real things stand for abstractions (life, salvation, humanity) usually in an unambigous one to one relationship

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Anapest

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a metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one.
Ex-"As I came/to the edge/of the wood"

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antecedant action

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happenings that occurred before the present action

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apostrophe

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address to an absent figure or to a thing as if it were present and could listen
Ex- "O rose thou art sick"

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approximate rhyme

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only the final consonant sounds are the same as in crown/alone, or pail/fail

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archetype

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a theme, image, motice, or pattern that occurs so often in literary works it seems to be universal.
Ex- A dark forest, the sun

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aside

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in the theatre, words spoken by a character in the presence of other characters, but directed to the spectators, that is, understood by the audience to be inaudible to the other characters

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atmosphere

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the emotional tone in a work, most often established by the setting

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ballad

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a short narrative poem, especially one that is sung or recited, often in a stanza of four lines, with eight six eight and six syllables with the second and fourth lines rhyming. A popular ballod is a narrative song that has been transmitted orally by what used to be called "the folk; A literary ballad is without music of such a work, often with complex symbolism

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blank verse

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unryhmed iambic pentameter, that is, unryhmed lines of ten syllables with ever second syllable stressed