Literary Terms, PYŏ-SOF
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
pyŏlgok, Korean poetic form that flourished during the Koryŏ period (935–1392). Of folk origin, the pyŏlgok was......
qaṣīdah, poetic form developed in pre-Islamic Arabia and perpetuated throughout Islamic literary history into the......
quantitative verse, in prosody, a metrical system based on the duration of the syllables that make up the feet,......
quatrain, a piece of verse complete in four rhymed lines. The word is derived from the French quatre, meaning “four.”......
race, milieu, and moment, according to the French critic Hippolyte Taine, the three principal motives or conditioning......
Raven cycle, collection of trickster-transformer tales originating among the Native Americans of the Northwest......
readerly and writerly, opposite types of literary text, as defined by the French critic Roland Barthes in his book......
For every artist who becomes enduringly famous, there are hundreds more who fall into obscurity. It may surprise......
redondilla, a Spanish stanza form consisting of four trochaic lines, usually of eight syllables each, with a rhyme......
refrain, phrase, line, or group of lines repeated at intervals throughout a poem, generally at the end of the stanza.......
renga, genre of Japanese linked-verse poetry in which two or more poets supplied alternating sections of a poem.......
Restoration literature, English literature written after the Restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660 following......
Return to normalcy, central campaign slogan of Republican nominee Warren G. Harding’s successful campaign for the......
revenge tragedy, drama in which the dominant motive is revenge for a real or imagined injury; it was a favourite......
rhapsode, a singer in ancient Greece. Ancient scholars suggested two etymologies. The first related the word with......
rhetoric, the principles of training communicators—those seeking to persuade or inform. In the 20th century it......
rhupunt, one of the 24 metres of the Welsh bardic tradition. A rhupunt is a verse composed of three, four, or five......
rhyme, the correspondence of two or more words with similar-sounding final syllables placed so as to echo one another.......
rhyme royal, seven-line iambic pentameter stanza rhyming ababbcc. The rhyme royal was first used in English verse......
rhyme scheme, the formal arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or a poem. If it is one of a number of set rhyme patterns,......
rhythm, in poetry, the patterned recurrence, within a certain range of regularity, of specific language features,......
riddle, deliberately enigmatic or ambiguous question requiring a thoughtful and often witty answer. The riddle......
rime riche, in French and English prosody, a rhyme produced by agreement in sound not only of the last accented......
rime suffisante, in French and English prosody, end rhyme produced by agreement in sound of an accented final vowel......
rispetto, a Tuscan folk verse form, a version of strambotto. The rispetto lyric is generally composed of eight......
robinsonade, any novel written in imitation of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719–22) that deals with the problem......
robāʿī, in Persian literature, genre of poetry consisting of a quatrain with the rhyme scheme aaba. Together with......
roman à clef, novel that has the extraliterary interest of portraying well-known real people more or less thinly......
roman-fleuve, series of novels, each one complete in itself, that deals with one central character, an era of national......
romance, literary form, usually characterized by its treatment of chivalry, that came into being in France in the......
romance novel, a fiction book that focuses on the themes of love and romantic relationships. More specifically,......
romance stanza, a six-line verse stanza common in metrical romances in which the first, second, fourth, and fifth......
romancero, collective body of Spanish folk ballads (romances), which constitute a unique tradition of European......
Romanian literature, body of writings in the Romanian language, the development of which is paralleled by a rich......
romantic comedy, movie genre produced since the 1930s by Hollywood and other film industries. The romantic comedy,......
Romantic literature, the body of written works produced during Romanticism, an attitude or intellectual orientation......
rondeau, one of several formes fixes (“fixed forms”) in French lyric poetry and song of the 14th and 15th centuries.......
rondel, a fixed poetic form that runs on two rhymes. It is a variant of the rondeau. The rondel often consists......
roundelay, a poem with a refrain that recurs frequently or at fixed intervals, as in a rondel. The term is also......
rove-over, having an extrametrical syllable at the end of one line that forms a foot with the first syllable of......
Russian literature, the body of written works produced in the Russian language, beginning with the Christianization......
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, annual prize given by the Poetry Foundation—an independent literary organization and publisher—to......
récit, a brief novel, usually with a simple narrative line. One of the writers who consciously used the form was......
ríma, versified sagas, or episodes from the sagas, a form of adaptation that was popular in Iceland from the 15th......
rāwī, (Arabic: “reciter”), in Arabic literature, professional reciter of poetry. The rāwīs preserved pre-Islāmic......
sacra rappresentazione, (Italian: “holy performance”), in theatre, 15th-century Italian ecclesiastical drama similar......
saga, in medieval Icelandic literature, any type of story or history in prose, irrespective of the kind or nature......
samizdat, (from Russian sam, “self,” and izdatelstvo, “publishing”), literature secretly written, copied, and circulated......
Sangam literature, the earliest writings in the Tamil language, thought to have been produced in three sangams,......
Sanskrit literature, body of writings produced by the Aryan peoples who entered the Indian subcontinent from the......
sarcasm, form of verbal irony used to convey the opposite of what is actually spoken, especially in order to criticize......
Satanic school, pejorative designation used by Robert Southey, most notably in the preface to his A Vision of Judgement......
satire, artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings......
Saturnian verse, the ancient Latin verse used mainly by Livius Andronicus and Gnaeus Naevius before the adoption......
satyr play, genre of ancient Greek drama that preserves the structure and characters of tragedy while adopting......
saudade, (Portuguese: “yearning”), overtone of melancholy and brooding loneliness and an almost mystical reverence......
Scandinavian literature, the body of works, both oral and written, produced within Scandinavia in the North Germanic......
scapigliatura, (Italian: “bohemianism”), a mid-19th-century avant-garde movement found mostly in Milan; influenced......
scenario, in film making, original idea for a film translated into a visually oriented text. The scenario plan......
Schauspiel, any spectacle or public performance. In late 18th-century German literature the word took on the more......
school drama, any play performed by students in schools and colleges throughout Europe during the Renaissance.......
science fiction, a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society......
scop, an Anglo-Saxon minstrel, usually attached to a particular royal court, although scops also traveled to various......
Scottish literature, the body of writings produced by inhabitants of Scotland that includes works in Scots Gaelic,......
screenplay, written text that provides the basis for a film production. Screenplays usually include not only the......
script, in motion pictures, the written text of a film. The nature of scripts varies from those that give only......
scél, (Old Irish: “story”; pl. scéla), in the Gaelic literature of Ireland, early prose and verse legends of gods......
Senecan tragedy, body of nine closet dramas (i.e., plays intended to be read rather than performed), written in......
senryu, three-line unrhymed Japanese poetic form structurally similar to haiku but treating human nature, usually......
sentimental comedy, a dramatic genre of the 18th century, denoting plays in which middle-class protagonists triumphantly......
sentimental novel, broadly, any novel that exploits the reader’s capacity for tenderness, compassion, or sympathy......
septenarius, in classical Latin prosody, iambic or trochaic lines of seven feet (equal to Greek tetrameter catalectic......
Serbian literature, the literature of the Serbs, a Balkan people speaking the Serbian language (referred to by......
serial, a novel or other work appearing (as in a magazine) in parts at intervals. Novels written in the 19th century......
serpentine verse, in poetry, a line of verse beginning and ending with the same word, as in the first line of Alfred,......
sestina, elaborate verse form employed by medieval Provençal and Italian, and occasional modern, poets. It consists,......
setting, in literature, the location and time frame in which the action of a narrative takes place. The makeup......
shanshu, in Chinese religion, popular texts devoted to a moral accounting of actions leading to positive and negative......
shilling shocker, a novel of crime or violence especially popular in late Victorian England and originally costing......
shloka, chief verse form of the Sanskrit-language Indian epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata) and the most common poetic......
short metre, a quatrain of which the first, second, and fourth lines are in iambic trimeter and the third is in......
short story, brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a few......
shāʿir, (Arabic: “poet”), in Arabic literature, poet who in pre-Islāmic times was a tribal dignitary whose poetic......
Sicilian octave, an Italian stanza or poem having eight lines of 11 syllables (hendecasyllables) rhyming abababab.......
Sicilian school, group of Sicilian, southern Italian, and Tuscan poets centred in the courts of Emperor Frederick......
sijo, a Korean verse form appearing (in Korean) in three lines of 14 to 16 syllables. In English translation the......
simile, figure of speech involving a comparison between two unlike entities. In the simile, unlike the metaphor,......
Sindhi literature, body of writings in the Sindhi language, an Indo-Aryan language used primarily in Pakistan and......
situation comedy, radio or television comedy series that involves a continuing cast of characters in a succession......
skaldic poetry, oral court poetry originating in Norway but developed chiefly by Icelandic poets (skalds) from......
skaz, in Russian literature, a written narrative that imitates a spontaneous oral account in its use of dialect,......
Skeltonics, short verses of an irregular metre much used by the Tudor poet John Skelton. The verses have two or......
slam poetry, a form of performance poetry that combines the elements of performance, writing, competition, and......
slapstick, a type of physical comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, usually violent......
slave narrative, an account of the life, or a major portion of the life, of a fugitive or former slave, either......
Slovak literature, the body of literature produced in the Slovak language. Until the 18th century there was no......
Slovene literature, literature of the Slovenes, a South Slavic people of the eastern Alps and Adriatic littoral.......
social problem novel, work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice,......
Socialist Realism, officially sanctioned theory and method of literary composition prevalent in the Soviet Union......
soft news, journalistic style and genre that blurs the line between information and entertainment. Although the......