Honors Literarture Literary Terms 1

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Absurd

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Conventions of plot, characterization, and thematic structure are ignored or distorted in order to convey the irrational or fictive nature of reality and the essential isolation of humanity in a meaningless world.

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Adaptation

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To make suitable to requirements or conditions; adjust or modify fittingly.

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Aesthticism

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A literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth century. Followers of the movement believed that art should not be mixed with social, political, or moral teaching.

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Age of Reason

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In literary criticism, this term refers to the revival of the attitudes and styles of expression of classical literature.

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Agon

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Conflict, esp. between the protagonist and the antagonist.

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Allegory

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A narrative technique in which characters representing things or abstract ideas are used to convey a message or teach a lesson.

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Allusion

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A reference to a familiar literary or historical person or event, used to make an idea more easily understood.

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Ambiguity

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An unclear, indefinite, or equivocal word, expression, meaning, etc.

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Ambivalence

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Uncertainty or fluctuation, esp. when caused by inability to make a choice or by a simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things.

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Anachronism

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Something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, esp. a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time

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Anadiplosis

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Repetition in the first part of a clause or sentence of a prominent word from the latter part of the preceding clause or sentence, usually with a change or extension of meaning.

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Anagoge

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A form of allegorical interpretation of Scripture that seeks hidden meanings regarding the future life.

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Analecta

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Selected passages from the writings of an author or of different authors.

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Analogy

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A similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based

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Analysis

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The separating of any material or abstract entity into its constituent elements

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Anaphora

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Repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two or more successive verses, clauses, or sentences.

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Anecdote

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A short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature, often biographical.

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Annals

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A periodical publication containing the formal reports of an organization or learned field.

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Act

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One of the main divisions of a play or opera

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Angry Young Men

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A group of British writers of the 1950s whose work expressed bitterness and disillusionment with society.