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absurd (Theatre and Literature): The notion that human existence is basically absurd and meaningless. Absurd
theatre became particularly significant in the 1950s, where it combined both existentialism with farce. Noteworthy
absurd dramas include Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Tom
Stoppard.
accent: Another word for stress, particularly in a line of verse, or a recognizable way of pronouncing words, often
relating to class, caste, ethnic group, or geographic region.
act: A section or a major division within a play. Frequently, individual acts are separated into smaller units called
scenes.
Age of Sensibility (or Age of Johnson): Considered to cover literature produced in England between 1745 and 1780.
alexandrine: Another name for iambic hexameter.

allegory: The word originates from the Greek allegoria, which means "speaking otherwise". An allegory is
something which can be read with double or two meanings: with an obvious literal meaning, as well as a figurative,
'below the surface' meaning. Frequently there is a point-by-point parallel between the two meanings. Allegories are
often a way of conveying comment upon people, moral or religious ideas, historical and/or political events and/ or
theories.

alliteration: The use of repeated consonants in neighbouring words. It appears most often at the beginning of those
words, e.g. wonderful wilderness. It can create a strong effect by introducing pattern into the language. See
assonance.

allusion: A casual reference to any aspect of another piece of literature, art, music, person or life in general. Authors
suppose that the reader will identify the original source and relate the meaning to the new context. An example of
allusion is TS. Eliot's The Waste Land. See intertextuality.

anachorism: An action, event, character or scene which is out of time sequence. Sometimes this device is a
deliberate part of the structure. See flashback, in media res, prolepsis.

anachronism: Something which is too early or too late for the given time, ie Placing an event, person, item, or
verbal expression in the wrong historical period. It may be a mistake, but more frequently it is an intentional device in
literature or dramatic productions to stress the timelessness of the universe. For example the setting of HENRY V
within the context of the Falklands War, by the English Shakespeare Company in 1987, gives a sense of the play
having a contemporary meaning.

anapaest: A metrical foot composed of two short syllables followed by one long one, as in the word seventeen.

assonance: The rhyming or repetition of vowels within words. It is used to create a melodious effect, often in poetry),
e.g. 'wide' and 'time'. The device only occasionally results in the rhyming of words.
Augustan Period (or The Age of Pope): This period is considered to include literature written in England between
about 1700 and 1745. This period saw the rapid development of the novel as a popular form of literature. Satire was
often utilised.
Austen, Jane: Born on 16 December 1775, Austen died on 18 July 1817. She was a renowned English novelist, who
sharply commented on contemporary society. Her works include Mansfield Park and Emma.

ballad: A poem which tells a story, usually in the form of four-line stanzas or quatrains. Lines one and three are
generally unrhymed iambic tetrameters, whilst lines two and four are iambic trimeters.

bard: An ancient Celtic poet, singer and harpist who recited heroic poems by memory, or more generally, in modern
usage, a synonym for any poet. When referred to as The Bard, this is a reference to Shakespeare.

Baroque: A term used to describe a style of architecture, art and music, but it can be used appropriately for writing.
Features include florid, exuberant and dramatic form, which is usually associated with the 17th century. Metaphysical
writing is sometimes described as such.

Beckett, Samuel: A significant contributor to the Theatre of the Absurd Beckett was an Irish writer, playwright and
poet. He is also well known for his bleak viewpoint. In 1969 Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He
died in 1989 (born 1906).

black comedy: Drama where potentially horrific situations are treated with amusement and ridicule by both the
characters and the audience
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Blake, William: Born on 28 November 1757, Blake died on 12 August 1827. Whilst essentially unknown during his
lifetime, Blake is enormously well regarded now a days for his poetic works during the Romantic Period.

blank verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter. A common mistake is to describe any unrhymed verse as 'blank'. Notable
users of blank verse include Milton, Shakespeare and Wordsworth.

burlesque: a term applied to writing which sets out to satirise a subject, work or literary style by making a deliberate
mismatch between the manner and the matter.

Byron, Lord Gordon: An English poet of the Romantic movement. His works were popular during his lifetime and
have remained so. He lived between 1788 and 1824.

Byronic hero: A male character who displays a number of qualities, largely negative. A Byronic hero has a dark side
and emotional issues. Heathcliff in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" is often considered an example of a Byronic
hero.

adence: The musical rhythm of language in prose or verse.

caesura: A natural pause in a line of verse, sometimes roughly midway and usually denoted by punctuation.
Regularly used alongside enjambment to give variety in the pacing of verse, and to avoid monotonous regularity.
Also sometimes referred to as rhythmical pause.

canto: A division in a longer poem.

catastrophe: The final climax of a play or story after which the plot is resolved. See resolution.

catchword: A slogan or memorable phrase.

catharsis: An emotional release felt by an audience or reader as they observe the fate of a tragic hero. It is often a
welcome relief from tension and anxiety.

haracter: A created person in a play or a narrative whose particular qualities are revealed by the action, description
and conversation. Not to be mixed up with the 'actor' in a play, who represents the character.

characterisation: The method by which characters are established in a story, using description, dialogue, dialect, and
action.

Chaucer, Geoffrey: Born around 1343, Chaucer died on 25 October 1400. He was an eminent author, poet and
politician whose works most notably included the unfinished The Canterbury Tales. The tales are a compilation of
stories written in the 14th century. Whilst two of them are in prose, the remaining twenty-two are in verse. Written in
Middle English, the tales are told by a group of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from Southwark to the shrine of Saint
Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

chivilary: The customs of a knight in medieval times (also see courtly love).
chronicle: Any kind of serial historical account.
clause: In grammatical terminology, a clause is a word-construction containing a nominative and a predicate, i.e. a
subject "doing" a verb. The term clause contrasts with the term phrase.

climax: Indicates the arrival of any time of crucial intensity in a play or narrative. It is also a word used to show that
particular moment when the rising action leads to a peak in the destinies of the hero or heroine.

close reading: The careful focus upon ways that writers' choices of form, structure and language shape meaning. See
critique and analysis.

closed text examination: An examination where the texts studied are not allowed to be taken in or used during the
assessment.

coda: A concluding section which rounds off a piece of literature, see epilogue.
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Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: Born in England in 1772, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an influential Romantic poet. He
is well regarded for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. See romanticism.

comedy: A work which is principally designed to amuse and entertain, and where, despite problems during the
narrative, all ends well for the characters.

comedy of the absurd: Drama or performance which is satirical, ridiculous or a parady. Examples can be as diverse
as A Midsummer night's dream, a Gilbert and Sullivan such as The Pirates of Penzance or even Monty Python's
Flying Circus.

comedy of manners: A type of drama where the social demeanour of a community is humorously depicted.

conceit: A metaphor, often extravagant or fantastic.

context: Indicates the place of a given passage or section of a literature in relation to the parts which immediately
precede and follow it. More broadly speaking it can also indicate the social, historical and political backdrop in which
the piece appeared.
couplet: A pair of rhyming lines in verse, e.g The dog ate the cat/But forgot about the bat.
Creole: A native language, which merges together the traits of several languages, i.e. an advanced and fully formed
pidgin. In the American South, black slaves were taken from a variety of African tribes sharing no language. Thus, on
the plantation they developed first a pidgin (limited and simplified) version of English with heavy Portuguese and
African influences. This pidgin allowed slaves some rudimentary communication with each other and with their slave
masters. In time, they lost their original African languages and the mixed speech became the native tongue of their
children, a Creole.
criticism: Refers to the concept of analysis, evaluation and interpretation of literature
dactyl : A three syllable foot which is accented on the first syllable. An example of this would be the word "merrily,"
which is spoken: MER - ri – ly
Defoe, Daniel: Born around 1659, Defoe died on the 24 April 1731. Originally Daniel Foe, this English writer and
journalist was crucial to the success of the novel form. He achieved great success through his novel Robinson Crusoe.
See novel.
diachronic: Changes which occur within a linguistic system between specified points in time.

dialect: The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons. The term dialect includes the sounds,
spelling, grammar, and diction employed by a specific people.

dialogue: The speech between two or more characters in any type of text.

Dickens, Charles: Nineteenth century English novelist whose works were published in serial form. Dickens had a
particular sympathy of the poor and often wrote about them. He is famous for works including Oliver Twist, Great
Expectations and A tale of two cities.

didactic: Writing that aims to instruct, or even preach.

diphthong: In phonetics, it refers to a sound made up of two vowel sounds.

early modern English: The English language from 1475 to 1700.Chaucer is before this period.

echoic words: An onomatopoeic word or one which imitates natural sound.

elegy: A poem that mourns the death of an individual.

elision: The merging together of two syllables in a line e.g. 'e'er' rather than 'ever'.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns (TS Eliot): - American poet and playwright (1888 -1965). He is considered by many as one
of the most significant English-language poets of the twentieth centaury.

Elizabethan Period: The period of time which covers Queen Elizabeth I's reign, from 1558-1603. Shakespeare wrote
his early works during the Elizabethan period.
ellipsis (plural, ellipses): A rhetorical device where a word is omitted because it is implied by a previous clause.
epic: This is a type of classical poetry, generally recounting heroic achievements. It is a poem that is a long narrative
about a serious subject, told in an elevated style of language. Epics generally focus on the exploits of a hero or demi-
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god who represents the cultural values of a race, nation, or religious group. John Milton’s Paradise lost is an example
of a famous epic. See classic.

epigram: A short verse or motto appearing at the beginning of a longer poem or the title page of a novel.

epigraph: A device employed to intimate the significance of what follows later in the text. An epigraph usually takes
the form of a quotation or motto at the beginning of a book, chapter or poem.

epilogue: A conclusion to a literary work such as a novel, play, or long poem. It is the opposite of a prologue.

epistolary: Contained in or consisting of letters.

epistolary novel: A novel which is written as a number of letters.

euphemism: Using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt, embarrassing, or painful one. For instance, saying
"Grandfather has gone to a better place" is a euphemism for "Grandfather has died."
existentialism: A twentieth-century literary and philosophical movement, which highlights the fact that people are
entirely free. They are thus responsible for what they make of themselves and their social condition. This brings a
sense of anguish or dread. Albert Camus is a well known author of existentialist literary texts.
eminine ending / feminine rhyme: An extra syllable at the end of a line of verse.
figure of speech: A phrase or expression which uses words not in their literal sense.
free verse: Poetry that is based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather, than the artificial and
fixed constraints of rhyme or metrical feet.

Georgian Period: In literature the period in which George V reigned in England: 1910-36. In historical terms the
period covers a broader era, encompassing the consecutive reigns of the first four Georges (1714-1830).

genre: A category of literature or film marked by defined shared features or conventions. The three broadest
categories of genre are poetry, drama, and fiction. These general genres are often subdivided, for example murder
mysteries, westerns, sonnets, lyric poetry, epics and tragedies.

Germanic: A branch of Indo-European languages.

ghost characters: Often in Elizabethan drama, a character which appears on stage but doesn't speak.

Globe: A famous theatre, in London, where the writer and actor Shakespeare performed. The Globe theatre has now
been reconstructed near the site of the original one.

othic: Of the Gothic period, often pertaining to a gloomy atmosphere, with elements of the grotesque and of decay.

Gothic literature: A genre of writing preoccupied with mysteries, murder, villainy and the supernatural, often set in
desolate and ancient landscapes such as castles and churches. These can include novels, poetry or short stories.

Gothic novel: A novel incorporating the main of the Gothic.

humanism: A philosophical belief that rejects religious belief and emphasizes science, human endeavour in the
natural world and reason.
hymn: A song, prayer or speech in honour of God.
hyperbole: The literary device of exaggeration or overstatement. For example ‘The boy was as big as a whale’.
heroic couplet: Two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter, where the second line is usually end-stopped. It
was convention to string long sequences of heroic couplets together in a pattern of aa, bb, cc, dd, ee, ff etc.

Hemingway, Earnest: American writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Hemingway code hero: Qualities such as honour, courage and dignity which are expressed in a hero in a
Hemingway novel.

hamartia: A tragic flaw.

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haiku: A Japanese poem where the form consists of a single three-line stanza of seventeen syllables. The first line
contains five syllables, the second contains seven, whilst the last has, again, five syllables. The short poem
encapsulates the spirit of the poet's mood. Haikus often lose their meaning in translation.

iamb: A unit or foot of poetry that is made up of a lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable.
‘Inscribe’ and ‘restore’ are examples of words which naturally follow this pattern

iambic: See meter, foot and iamb

iambic hexameter: Otherwise known as an alexandrine, this type of poetic form consists of 6 metrical feet. A line of
iambic hexameter would therefore have 12 syllables, in pairs where the first syllable is unstressed and the second is
stressed. This metrical form has never been as popular as the iambic pentameter in English literature.

iambic pentameter: One of the most widespread rhythmical patterns in English poetry. Iambic Pentameter is also the
meter in which Shakespeare wrote many of his plays.

iambic tetrameter: A metre of poetry, which contains four iambic feet. A line of iambic tetrameter therefore has 8
syllables, where one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. This pattern is repeated four times. Iambic
pentameter is the more common meter used in English literature.

iambic trimeter: A meter of poetry, which contains three iambic feet. A line of iambic trimeter therefore has 6
syllables, where one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. This pattern is repeated three times. Iambic
pentameter is the more common meter used in English literature.

ictus: A rhythm or beat

ideolect: The speech of an individual.

idiom: A phrase or expression that has a figurative meaning eg "It is raining cats and dogs".

idyll: A work that represents an idealized setting of happiness and innocence.

Jacobean Period: Refers to the period during the reign of King James I, between 1603-1625. Shakespeare wrote his
later works in the Jacobean period.

jargon: Potentially confusing words and phrases used in an occupation, trade, or field of study. We might speak of
medical jargon, sports jargon, pedagogic jargon etc

jig: A bawdy song and dance in Renaissance drama that was performed by a clown, or other actors, at the end of a
play.

Jonson, Ben: An English poet and dramatist (1572 -16370). He was a contemporary of Shakespeare's. many of his
plays were satires.

katharsis: An alternative, less known, spelling of catharsis.

Keats, John: Born on 31 October 1795, Keats died on 23 February 1821. He was an English poet, and a significant
figure of romanticism. Keats is renowned for a series of odes that use detailed and ornate diction. See romanticism.

lament: A poem or song for expressing grief

lampoon: A crude and sometimes bitter satire that ridicules the appearance or personality of a person.

language: A specific system of signs used by members of a group to communicate with each other. These signs can
be verbal sounds, sign language gestures, or written markings like letters.

late modern English: The English language as it is used from 1800 to the present day.
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legend: A story which has been passed down through the generations and is believed to have some historical truth
(although legends are fictions).
imerick: A comic or bawdy poem that has a AABBA rhyme scheme.

linguistics (from Latin lingua, "tongue'): The study of language as a system, as opposed to learning how to speak a
foreign language.

literal: A literal passage, story, or text is one intended primarily as a factual account of a real historical event rather
than a metaphorical expression.

literary devices: Techniques used in any work to create an effect, such as metaphors and alliteration. This is also
known as poetic and literary techniques.
lullaby: A calming song designed for children to help them go to sleep.
malapropism: Misusing words to create a comic effect or to characterize the speaker/character as being too confused
or ignorant to use correct diction. The term originates from Richard Sheridan's character Mrs Malaprop, because she
often misapplied long words in an effort to appear impressive.

medieval: The period of time, about a thousand years long, between the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence
of the Renaissance.

melodrama: Traditionally this is a play with a musical accompaniment to heighten the emotional aspect of the
drama. Often melodramas gave rise to two dimensional or flat characters.

metaphysical: The word generally refers to a group of 17th century poets, who include Donne, Herbert and Marvell.
Metaphysical poetry commonly has striking imagery, which sometimes stems from new contemporary scientific and
geographic discoveries, witty conceits, the contrast of the physical and the philosophical and a high impression of
mortality. There is also flexibility in the meter and rhythm adopted.

metaphysical poetry: Poetry which uses logic and reason to construct an 'argument' and draws on other fields such
as science, law, philosophy and exploration to describe emotion, often love.

metaphysical poets: Poets, usually writing in the 17th century and whose poetry utilises metaphysical imagery.
Donne, Herbert, Marvell and Vaughan are among the best known metaphysical poets.

metaphor: A comparison, between two things not usually compared, that implies that one object is another one,
figuratively speaking. The phrase "the ladder of success," implies to the reader that being successful is like climbing a
ladder to a higher and better position.

meter: A recognizable though varying pattern of stressed syllables alternating with syllables of less stress.
Compositions written in meter are said to be in verse. There are many possible patterns of verse. Each unit of stressed
and unstressed syllables is called a "foot." iambic is one example of meter.

metrical foot: The basic unit of rhythm in poetry.

metonymy: Using a physical object to embody a more general idea. For example crown is a metonym as it refers to
royalty or the entire royal family. Also stating "the pen is mightier than the sword", suggests that the power of
education and writing is more potent for changing the world than violence. The word literally means 'change of
name'.

Middle Ages: A period of European history that begins around the 5th century and ends around the 16th century.

Middle English: Is the name given by historical linguists to the diverse forms of the English language in use between
the late 11th century and about 1470

Miller, Arthur: American dramatist and playwright (1915 -2005). He won the Pulitzer prize for drama. Many of his
plays are about the American dream.

Milton, John: Born in 1608, John Milton was a renowned poet and author during the 17th century. His most notable
work is the epic poem Paradise Lost.
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minimal pair: A pair of words with only one sound different in the same position, eg pig and big.

miracle play: Drama from medieval times the subject of which is religion, such as the lives and actions of saints.

modern English: The language as it is used since 1500.

modernism: The use of innovative forms, styles and structures, especially in the 20th century.

monody: A lament, often used in a tragedy.

monologue: An interior monologue does not necessarily represent spoken words, but rather the internal or emotional
thoughts or feelings of an individual. Monologues can also be used when a character speaks aloud to himself or
narrates an account to an audience with no other character on stage.

morality play: Drama popular in the 14th - 16th centuries which utilises the personification of Vice, Greed etc to
show the struggle towards salvation.
movement: This term refers to the pace, tone, rhythm and rhyme of a poem. All of these aspects should be
commented upon in an analysis of a poem.

mystery novel: A novel centered on suspense and solving a mystery, especially a murder, theft, kidnapping, or some
other crime.

mystery play: A type of drama popular in the Middle Ages on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus

eoclassicism: A revival in classical styles of literature, drama, art, music and architecture.
novel: Generally speaking a novel is any extended fictional prose narrative that focuses on a few crucial characters
but often involves scores of secondary characters. The novel can cover any subject from any view point. Within
English there are a few contenders for the first 'true novel': Bunyan's Pilgrims's progress, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
or Moll Flanders. After the birth of the novel in the 18th century, the 19th century saw a rise in the production of the
novel, with the advent of novelists such as Austen and the Bronte sisters.
octave: A stanza or section of verse, otherwise known as an octet, which contains eight lines. These eight lines
generally have a rhythm or pattern.
ode: A relatively long, often intricate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes,
dealing with a solemn subject matter and considering it reverently.

oedipal complex: Freud argued that male children, envious of sharing their mother's attention with a father-figure,
would come to have an unconscious incestuous desire to murder their fathers and have sex with their mothers. In
most healthy adults Freud argued this desire would be repressed.

O.Henry ending: A surprise ending to a short story, named after the American writer whose stories are characterised
by a surprise or twist at the end.

Old English: Also known as Anglo-Saxon, Old English is the ancestor of Middle English and modern English. It is a
Germanic language that was introduced to the British Isles by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in a series of invasions in
the fifth century, it is thus regarded as the language that existed between 449AD and 1066 (when the Norman
Conquest occurred).

Old English Period: Also known as the Anglo-Saxon Period, the time frame this period falls in is debatable,
however broadly speaking it is between the mid-fifth century and mid-twelfth century.

nomatopoeia: The application of sounds that are comparable to the noise they represent for an artistic effect. For
instance, buzz, click, rattle, and grunt make sounds similar to the noise they represent.

open couplet: A couplet in a poem where the idea is not complete by the end of the couplet or second line, instead
the concept is carried over into the next lines.

Orwell, George: Originally named Eric Arthur Blair, George Orwell used a pseudonym for his published work. The
English author and journalist was born in 1903 and died in 1950. His most renowned works include Nineteen Eighty-
four and Animal Farm, both of which comment upon dictatorships. See science fiction and dystopia.
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oxymoron: The use of contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense on a deeper level. For instance, "without
laws, we can have no freedom". See paradox or antithesis.

parable: A short narrative intended to disclose allegorically some religious principle, moral lesson or general truth.
Rather than using abstract discussion, a parable always teaches by comparison with real or literal occurrences. See
allegory and fable.

paradox: Using contradiction in a way that oddly, and wittily, makes sense on a deeper level. See oxymoron,
antithesis.

paraphrase: To restate a text or speech in one’s own words.

pastoral: Traditionally this term means 'to do with shepherds', thus it gestures towards any work which draws a
pleasing, idealised rural life in the countryside.

pastoral elegy: A type of elegy, defined by an intricate set of conventions where nature is employed in mourning and
immortalizing a dead person. The pastoral elegy was used by classical writers, such as Milton in Lycidas.

pathetic: 'Poignant', ‘emotive’ or 'worthy of pathos' is the proper literary meaning of ‘pathetic’.

pathetic fallacy: A device used mainly during the19th century, where human qualities or emotions were described
through the weather or nature.

pathos: The effort to inspire an emotional response in an audience, typically a deep feeling of anguish, but sometimes
pleasure, pride, or anger.

pejoration: A process of language change where, over time, the meaning of a word changes to take on a more
negative meaning than the original meaning.
pentameter: When a poem has five feet in each line, it is said to be written in pentameter. Each foot has a set number
of syllables. Iambs, spondees, and trochees consist of two syllables. Thus, iambic pentameter, spondaic pentameter,
and trochaic pentameter lines would have a total of ten syllables. Anapests and dactyls are feet consisting of three
syllables.

personification: A literary device where abstractions, animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are given human
character traits, abilities, or reactions. Personification is common in poetry, but also appears in other writing.

petrarchan sonnet: A sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the
rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd. See sonnet.

phoneme: A linguistic term used to describe a unit in speech which carries meaning.

phonetics: A study of the production of speech sounds.

phonetic transcription: A method by which sounds are recorded or written down in order to represent their
distinctiveness.

phonology: A study of language which considers the distribution of speech patterns and their rules.

picaresque: A narrative which recounts the escapades of a rogue, whose character does not develop throughout the
plot, but who is nevertheless likeable.
plagiarism: Accidental or intentional intellectual theft in which someone appropriates an original idea, phrase, or
section of writing from another person’s work and presents this matter as his or her own work, without indicating
proper citation.

play within a play: This is a narrative technique where there is the principal story of the play, within which there is
another fictive play, generally performed by the characters of the principal play. See story within a story and frame
narrative.

plosive: A consonant sound associated with a burst or release of air (such as /b/ or /t/)
 9
plot: The writer's structure and the relationship of actions, characters and events in a fictional work. The organization
of the narrative.

poem: Any composition that could be said to be poetry or verse.

poet: Someone who writes poetry. Sometimes a poet uses poetry as a means of expressing personal interactions,
emotion, and/or a way to address political, humanitarian issues.

poesie: An outdated term that refers to poetry, or specifically the activity of producing poetry.

poet laureate: In Britain this is a honorary post bestowed in acknowledgment of a poet's accomplishments. Tennyson
( 1850- 92) and Ted Hughes (1984-99) are examples of former poet laureates.

post-modernism: A general name which refers to the philosophical, artistic, and literary changes and tendencies after
the 1940s and 1950s up to the present day. Primarily, the tendencies of post-modernism include a rejection of
traditional authority and a doubt over established discourses. Post-modernist authors include Carter and Rushdie.
prologue: In Greek tragedy, the prologue was a set of introductory speeches, now the prologue is a section of any
introductory material before the first chapter of any literary work.
pun: A play on two words, which are similar in sound but different in meaning. Also called paronomasia.

realism: Originally the term referred to a literary movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in America,
Europe, and England. More generally speaking the term signals towards a literary, or artistic, depiction of life in an
accurate, straightforward, unidealised manner.

received pronunciation: The pronunciation associated with Standard British English.

Renaissance: Originally, the term refers to a period of cultural, technological, and artistic vitality during the British
economic expansion in the late 1500s and early 1600s. More generally a renaissance is any period in which a people
or nation experiences a period of vitality and explosive growth in its art, poetry, education, economy, linguistic
development, or scientific knowledge. The term is positive in connotation.

restoration: The restoration, or the Restoration Period, is the time from 1660, when the Stuart monarch Charles II
was re-established as ruler of England, to about 1700.

revenge play: A Renaissance genre of drama, where the plot revolves around the protagonist’s attempt to avenge a
previous wrong, by killing the perpetrator of the deed. There is usually much bloodshed and violence. Shakespeare's
Hamlet has been identified as a revenge play.

rhyme: Rhyme is the matching similarity of sounds in two or more words, especially when their accented vowels and
all succeeding consonants are identical. For instance, the word-pairs listed here are all rhymes: mating/dating,
feast/beast, emotion/demotion and fascinate/deracinate. Rhyme is often used in poetry.

rhyme scheme: The pattern of rhyme. The traditional way to mark these patterns of rhyme is to assign a letter of the
alphabet to each rhyming sound at the end of each line. For instance, ABABCDCD.

rhyming couplets: Pairs of lines that rhyme, for instance aabbcc. Examples of rhyming couplets can be found
throughout Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, for instance in The Merchant’s Tale.

Were it for hoolynesse or for dotage,

I kan nat seye, but swich a greet corage

Hadde this knyght to been a wedded man

That day and nyght he dooth al that he kan

Romantic poets: Poets associated with the Romantic Period, ( from 1789 - 1824) when much poetry was written as a
reaction to the Industrial revolution and the French Revolution. Examples of Romantic poets include Byron,Keats,
Shelley,Blake and Wordsworth.
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Romantic Period: Usually this term refers to literature written in Europe during the early 1800s, however it can also
gesture towards the American Romantic period, which was between1828 and 1865. See romanticism.

romanticism: The term refers to a movement around 1780-1840. Romanticism rejected the philosophy of the
enlightenment, and instead turned to the gothic, the notion of carpe diem and above all placed importance on nature
and the wilderness. Romantic poets included William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Bysshe
Shelley, and Lord Gordon Byron.

sarcasm: A type of verbal irony, where one says one thing but means another, often for the purpose of comedy. See
irony.

satire: An attack on any idiocy or vice in the form of scathing humor, or a critique of what the author sees as
dangerous religious, political, moral, or social standards. Satire is not solely written for entertainment purposes, but
generally has an aim or agenda to present. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is an example of a satire.

satirical comedy: A type of comedy that intends to underline the vices of society. Examples of this form include
Sheridan'sThe School for Scandal and Jonson's The Alchemist.

schwa: A neutral single vowel sound representing the unstressed vowel in English.
sentence: A grammatical unit consisting of a subject and verb. It is generally end-stopped and begins with a capital
letter.
sestet: A group of six lines of poetry, which can either be a whole poem in itself or simply a stanza.
Shakespeare, William: Both an English poet and playwright (1564-1616), Shakespeare wrote during the Elizabethan
and Jacobean period. In poetry he is most renowned for his sonnets, which cover such themes as love, the effects of
time, mortality and carpe diem. Shakespeare's poetic mastery, understanding of human nature and skill with words,
several of which he created and brought into use, are what make him so successful.

Shakespearean tragedy: Where a character has a fatal flaw that leads to his demise, despite having free will. Othello
is an example of a Shakespearean Tragedy.

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley: An Irish playwright during the 18th Century, he was born on 30 October 1751 and died
7 July 1816. He was well known for his satirical comedy of manners. He is known for his works The School for
Scandal and The Rivals.

simile: A comparison of two things not usually paired, made by using the adverbs like or as. Similes contrast with
metaphors; however, both devices bring out a deeper meaning.

soliloquy: A monologue spoken by a character who believes himself to be alone during the scene. The device, usually
employed in Elizabethan theatre, often exposes a character's innermost thoughts, state of mind, motives or intentions.
As such the soliloquy imparts essential but otherwise unattainable information to the audience. The dramatic
convention dictates that whatever is said in a soliloquy must be true, or at least true as far as the character speaking is
concerned. Well-known examples come from Shakespeare’s work, for instance speeches by Iago in Othello.

song: A lyric poem, with several duplicated stanzas or refrains, written to be set to music in either vocal performance
or with accompaniment of musical instruments.

sonnet: A poem of fourteen lines, typically in iambic pentameter, with regular rhyme. It usually expresses a distinct
idea or thought with a change of direction in the closing lines. There are three general types:

1. The Petrarchan sonnet (or Italian sonnet): an eight line stanza, called an octave, which is followed by a six line
stanza, called a sestet. The initial octave has two quatrains (4 lines) that generally rhyme abba, abba. The first of
these quatrains offers the theme, whilst the second develops this main idea. Later in the sestet, the primary three lines
offer a reflection on or exemplify the theme. The final three lines bring the poem to a cohesive end. The sestet is
sometimes arranged cdecde, cdcdcd, or cdedce.

2. The Shakespearean sonnet (or English sonnet): arranged in three quatrains, where each rhyme is distinct. There is
a final, rhymed couplet that creates a unifying peak to the entire sonnet. Its rhyme scheme is generally abab, cdcd,
efef, gg.

3. The Miltonic sonnet: similar in form to the petrarchan sonnet, however the Miltonic sonnet does not divide its
ideas between the octave and the sestet. The train of thought instead runs straight from the eighth to ninth line.
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Furthermore, Milton develops the sonnet's scope to encompass not only the theme of love, as the earlier sonnets did,
but also to incorporate politics, religion, and personal matters.

speaker: A person who speaks, as well as someone who gives a speech or a talk.

speech: Whilst this term refers to the ability to speak, it also means to address a group or to give a talk.

stanza: Sections of arranged lines within a poem. Sometimes this is in a pattern repeated throughout the poem.
Generally, each stanza has a fixed number of lines, and a consistent rhyme scheme, however in modern poetry this is
not always the case. Further, a stanza may be a subdivision of a poem, or it may amount to the entire poem.
stressed: A syllable that has a heavy distinction from other syllables when spoken aloud. See unstressed, foot and
meter.
stream of consciousness: See interior monologue.
structuralism: This theory suggests that no text has any meaning independently, but only makes sense when thought
of as part of a complete language system. Furthermore, it is argued that all writing is comprised of an arrangement of
signs, codes and conventions. This turns away fromthe traditional view that literaturereflects reality, and thus creates
a connection between the writer and reader. Structuralists reject both these ideas and argue the writer creates a
persona, which is a literary construction, creating a barrier to the access of the actual writer. Roland Barthes (1915-
80) was a key structuralist during the theory’s rise in the 1960s. The discourse has now been outdated by post-
structuralism.

Swift, Jonathan: Born on 30 November 1667, Swift was an Irish satirist who wrote essays and pamphlets which
were political. He is renowned for Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal.

symbolism: The use of characters, diction, places, or objects that mean something beyond their literal level meaning.
Often the symbol is indefinite in meaning. When many objects or characters each appear to have a specific symbolic
meaning, the story is usually an allegory.

synecdoche: A figure of speech where an example becomes a symbol for a whole or larger classification.

syntax: The sentence arrangement of a language or standard word order. Standard English syntax operates on a
Subject-Verb-Object pattern; however poets sometimes adjust syntax to accomplish poetic effects. Deliberately
unsettling word sequence for a poetic effect is called anastrophe.

ale: A type of short story that is largely concentrated on action, rather than characterisation or atmosphere. Tales are
generally oral, opposed to written. See oral literature.
Tennyson, Alfred Lord: Nineteenth Century English poet.
Theatre of the Absurd: Popular in the 1940s-1960s refers to plays and drama which deal with absurdist notions.
These plays generally consider human existence to be without point as the world is devoid of meaning. Famous
playwrights in this genre of the Absurd include Pinter, Stoppard and Beckett.
ragedy: A serious play where the protagonist experiences a succession of misfortunes leading to a concluding,
disturbing catastrophe – usually for the protagonist. See Greek tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy.

tragic flaw: A limitation or weakness of a character, which causes a their downfall. See Greek tragedy.

transformational grammar: A description of the grammar of a language, including Chomsky's distinction between
deep and surface structure of a grammar.

trochee: A two-syllable unit or foot of poetry, which consists of a heavy stress followed by a light stress. Numerous
words in English naturally form trochees: clever, shatter, pitcher, chorus etc. A line of poetry set out in consecutive
trochees is written in trochaic meter.
unstressed: Lightly stressed as opposed to heavily stressed, i.e. a syllable that has modest distinction when spoken
aloud. See stressed, foot and meter.
utopian literature: A utopia refers to both a perfect society, yet an impossible one. Utopian literature is any text that
offers the reader, or investigates the concept of, a perfect society in the physical world (opposed to an ideal society in
an afterlife).
vehicle: In literature, the term vehicle refers to the technique by which an author achieves her purpose. For example,
chilling diction could be identified as a vehicle to depict a murder scene.
vernacular: From the Latin vernaculus, meaning ‘native, indigenous’, vernacular refers to the common or everyday
language of a geographic area. It can also be described as the native language of the common people in a region or
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country, rather than an esteemed dead language (eg. Latin), which is preserved artificially in schools or through
literary texts.
verse: Verse is a line of metrical text, a stanza, or any text written in meter.
Victorian Period: The period during the late nineteenth century, specifically from 1837-1901 - the years Queen
Victoria ruled the growing British Empire.
war literature: Works - mainly poetry - written about, or as a result of, the First World War. Sometimes this
literature can be patriotic, but usually expresses a sense of revulsion and disgust. See trench poetry.
Wordsworth, William: Born in 1770, William Wordsworth was an English Poet Laureate. He was arguably the
founder of romanticism. The Prelude will be remembered as one of his greatest achievements. See romanticism.