Literary Terms, GRE-KHM
Want to be able to distinguish your limericks from your haikus and your paeans from your panegyrics? Dive deep into literary terms and forms.
Literary Terms Encyclopedia Articles By Title
Greek literature, body of writings in the Greek language, with a continuous history extending from the 1st millennium......
griot, West African troubadour-historian. The griot profession is hereditary and has long been a part of West African......
Gujarati literature, literature of the Gujarati language, a major tongue of India. The oldest examples of Gujarati......
guslar, the traditional name in the Bosniak-Croatian-Serbian language for an epic singer who performs long narrative......
gwersiou, narrative ballad in the Breton language that dramatically describes local events, history, legends, and......
gyascutus, an imaginary, large, four-legged beast with legs on one side longer than those on the other, for walking......
género chico, (Spanish: “little genre”), Spanish literary genre of light dramatic or operatic one-act playlets,......
hag, in European folklore, an ugly and malicious old woman who practices witchcraft, with or without supernatural......
hagiography, the body of literature describing the lives and veneration of the Christian saints. The literature......
haikai, a comic renga, or Japanese linked-verse form. The haikai was developed as early as the 16th century as......
haiku, unrhymed poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively.......
haka, Maori posture dance that involves the entire body in vigorous rhythmic movements, which may include swaying,......
half rhyme, in prosody, two words that have only their final consonant sounds and no preceding vowel or consonant......
hamartia, (hamartia from Greek hamartanein, “to err”), inherent defect or shortcoming in the hero of a tragedy,......
Beloved children’s author Beverly Cleary turned 100 on April 12, 2016. Once a children’s librarian, she turned......
hard news, journalistic style and genre that focuses on events or incidents that are considered to be timely and......
hard-boiled fiction, a tough, unsentimental style of American crime writing that, beginning in the 1920s, brought......
In 1997 novelist J.K. Rowling introduced readers to Harry Potter, a lonely orphan boy who discovers he’s a wizard.......
If books were people, the Harry Potter series would be all grown up. The first installment, Harry Potter and the......
headless line, in prosody, a line of verse that is lacking the normal first syllable. An iambic line with only......
Hebrew literature, the body of written works produced in the Hebrew language and distinct from Jewish literature,......
Hellenistic romance, adventure tale, usually with a quasi-historical setting, in which a virtuous heroine and her......
hellhound, a dog represented in mythology (such as that of ancient Greece and Scandinavia) as standing guard in......
Hermeticism, modernist poetic movement originating in Italy in the early 20th century, whose works were characterized......
hero, in literature, broadly, the main character in a literary work; the term is also used in a specialized sense......
heroic couplet, a couplet of rhyming iambic pentameters often forming a distinct rhetorical as well as metrical......
heroic play, a type of play prevalent in Restoration England during the 1660s and 1670s. Modeled after French Neoclassical......
heroic poetry, narrative verse that is elevated in mood and uses a dignified, dramatic, and formal style to describe......
heroic prose, narrative prose tales that are the counterpart of heroic poetry in subject, outlook, and dramatic......
heroic stanza, in poetry, a rhymed quatrain in heroic verse with rhyme scheme abab. The form was used by William......
heroic verse, the verse form in which the heroic poetry of a particular language is, or according to critical opinion......
hexameter, a line of verse containing six feet, usually dactyls (′ ˘ ˘). Dactylic hexameter is the oldest known......
hiatus, in prosody, a break in sound between two vowels that occur together without an intervening consonant, both......
Hindi literature, the writings of the western Braj Bhasa and Khari Boli and of the eastern Awadhi and Bundeli dialects......
Hisperic style, a style of Latin writing that probably originated in the British Isles in the 7th century. It is......
historical novel, a novel that has as its setting a period of history and that attempts to convey the spirit, manners,......
Homeric Hymns, collection of 34 ancient Greek poems in heroic hexameters, all addressed to gods. Though ascribed......
Homerids, a historical clan on the Aegean island of Chios, whose members claimed to be descendants of the ancient......
Hong Kong literature, the body of written works, primarily in Chinese but occasionally in English, produced in......
Horatian ode, short lyric poem written in stanzas of two or four lines in the manner of the 1st-century-bc Latin......
Houyhnhnm, any member of a fictional race of intelligent, rational horses described by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan......
In the afternoon on January 4, 1960, French philosopher Albert Camus, author of The Stranger (1942) and The Myth......
On August 31, 1955, the body of Emmett Till was found at the bottom of the Tallahatchie River in northern Mississippi.......
Anne Frank received her red-and-white plaid diary as a gift on her 13th birthday on June 12, 1942, and began writing......
huaju, form of Chinese drama featuring realistic spoken dialogue rather than the sung poetic dialogue of the traditional......
Hugo Award, any of several annual awards presented by the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS). The awards are......
huitain, French verse form consisting of an eight-line stanza with 8 or 10 syllables in each line. The form was......
comedy of humours, a dramatic genre most closely associated with the English playwright Ben Jonson from the late......
Hungarian literature, the body of written works produced in the Hungarian language. No written evidence remains......
hymn, (from Greek hymnos, “song of praise”), strictly, a song used in Christian worship, usually sung by the congregation......
hyperbaton, a transposition or inversion of usual word order. The device is often used in poetry, as in line 13......
hyperbole, a figure of speech that is an intentional exaggeration for emphasis or comic effect. Hyperbole is common......
hypercatalexis, in prosody, the occurrence of an additional syllable at the end of a line of verse after the line......
I novel, form or genre of 20th-century Japanese literature that is characterized by self-revealing narration, with......
iamb, metrical foot consisting of one short syllable (as in classical verse) or one unstressed syllable (as in......
iambe, French satiric verse form consisting of alternating lines of 8 and 12 syllables. The total number of lines......
iambic pentameter, in poetry, a line of verse composed of ten syllables arranged in five metrical feet (iambs),......
Icelanders’ sagas, the class of heroic prose narratives written during 1200–20 about the great families who lived......
Icelandic literature, body of writings in Icelandic, including those from Old Icelandic (also called Old Norse)......
icon, in literature, a description of a person or thing, usually using a figure of speech. To semioticians, icons......
idyll, also spelled Idyl (from Greek eidyllion, “little picture”), a short poem of a pastoral or rural character......
imram, in early Irish literature, a story about an adventurous voyage. This type of story includes tales of Irish......
in medias res, the practice of beginning an epic or other narrative by plunging into a crucial situation that is......
In Memoriam stanza, a quatrain in iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of abba. The form was named for the pattern......
incremental repetition, a device used in poetry of the oral tradition, especially English and Scottish ballads,......
Indian literature, writings of the Indian subcontinent, produced there in a variety of vernacular languages, including......
Indianista novel, Brazilian literary genre of the 19th century that idealizes the simple life of the South American......
Indo-Aryan literature, body of writings in the Indo-Aryan family of languages. It is difficult to pinpoint the......
Indonesian literatures, the poetry and prose writings in Javanese, Malay, Sundanese, and other languages of the......
infotainment, television programming that presents information (as news) in a manner intended to be entertaining.......
interlude, in theatre, early form of English dramatic entertainment, sometimes considered to be the transition......
internal rhyme, rhyme between a word within a line and another word either at the end of the same line or within......
comedy of intrigue, in dramatic literature, a comic form in which complicated conspiracies and stratagems dominate......
introverted quatrain, a quatrain having an enclosed rhyme. An example of an introverted quatrain is the In Memoriam......
invocation, a convention of classical literature and of epics in particular, in which an appeal for aid (especially......
ionic foot, in prosody, a foot of verse that consists of either two long and two short syllables (also called major......
Iranian literature, body of writings in the Iranian languages produced in an area encompassing eastern Anatolia,......
Irish literature, the body of written works produced in Ireland or by Irish writers. This article discusses Irish......
irony, linguistic and literary device, in spoken or written form, in which real meaning is concealed or contradicted.......
irregular ode, a rhymed ode that employs neither the three-part form of the Pindaric ode nor the two- or four-line......
One critique of Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here is its lack of subtlety. Lewis’s novel, published in 1935,......
Italian literature, the body of written works produced in the Italian language that had its beginnings in the 13th......
- Introduction
- Comic Verse, Poetry, Satire
- Petrarch, Poetry, Humanism
- Renaissance, Poetry, Humanism
- Renaissance, Epic, Lyric
- Baroque, Epic, Comedy
- Enlightenment, Neoclassicism, Satire
- Romanticism, Realism, Nationalism
- Risorgimento, Unification, Realism
- Modernism, Futurism, Neorealism
- Hermetic, Renaissance, Poetry
- Renaissance, Humanism, Poetry
- Experimentalism, Avant-Garde, Postmodernism
- Theatre, Comedy, Tragedy
- 21st Century Fiction
- Renaissance, Humanism, Poetry
jack-o’-lantern, in meteorology, a mysterious light seen at night flickering over marshes; when approached, it......
Jacobean literature, body of works written during the reign of James I of England (1603–25). The successor to Elizabethan......
Japanese literature, the body of written works produced by Japanese authors in Japanese or, in its earliest beginnings,......
jazz poetry, poetry that is read to the accompaniment of jazz music. Authors of such poetry attempt to emulate......
jongleur, professional storyteller or public entertainer in medieval France, often indistinguishable from the trouvère.......
journal, an account of day-to-day events or a record of experiences, ideas, or reflections kept regularly for private......
journalism, the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials......
jueju, a Chinese verse form that was popular during the Tang dynasty (618–907). An outgrowth of the lüshi, it is......
jump rope rhyme, any of innumerable chants and rhymes used by children, traditionally girls, to accompany the game......
Juvenalian satire, in literature, any bitter and ironic criticism of contemporary persons and institutions that......
Kailyard school, late 19th-century movement in Scottish fiction characterized by a sentimental idealization of......
Kannada literature, the literature written in Kannada, which, like the other languages of South India, is of the......
katauta, a Japanese poetic form that consists of 17 or 19 syllables arranged in three lines of either 5, 7, and......
kavya, highly artificial Sanskrit literary style employed in the court epics of India from the early centuries......
Kazakh literature, the body of literature, both oral and written, produced in the Kazakh language by the Kazakh......
kenning, concise compound or figurative phrase replacing a common noun, especially in Old Germanic, Old Norse,......
khamseh, in Persian and Turkish literature, a set of five long epic poems composed in rhyming couplet, or mas̄navī,......
Khmer literature, body of literary works of Khmer peoples of Southeast Asia, mainly Cambodia. The classical literature......