Glossary
Glossary
A glossary of literary terms — from metaphor to free verse.
Literature01Versification
Rhythm, metre, rhyme and the stanza.
44 termsOpen
Literature02Tropes & Figures
Metaphor, metonymy and rhetorical figures.
43 termsOpen
Literature03Stylistics
Language, register and stylistic devices.
52 termsOpen
Literature04Genres & Forms
Novel, novella, sonnet — genres and folk forms.
91 termsOpen
Literature05Movements
Baroque, romanticism, modernism, avant-garde.
38 termsOpen
Literature06Composition
Plot, fabula, conflict and structure.
50 termsOpen
Literature07Character & Image
Hero, character, lyric subject, archetype.
30 termsOpen
Literature08Theory & Criticism
Literary theory, criticism and book culture.
68 termsOpen
New terms
Acmeism
Acmeism is a current in poetry of the early twentieth century that arose as a reaction against the misty polysemy of Symbolism and proclaim…
37 terms starting with A
Ballad
The ballad is a short lyric-epic work with a tense, dramatic plot of fantastic, historical, or heroic content, in which the narrative outli…
12 terms starting with B
Cacophony
Cacophony is an unpleasant, ear-jarring sound of speech, caused by a heavy cluster of consonants, an unfortunate coincidence of sounds, mon…
31 terms starting with C
Dactyl
The dactyl is a trisyllabic foot with the stress on the first syllable (—UU).
20 terms starting with D
Editorial Practice
Editorial practice (textological) is the applied part of textology that develops the principles and methods of the scholarly edition of wor…
28 terms starting with E
Fable
The fable is a short allegorical work of didactic content, mostly in verse, in which the characters are animals, plants, or objects embodyi…
26 terms starting with F
Gender Studies
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary field that studies gender — the sociocultural construct of sex — as opposed to biological sex.
7 terms starting with G
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is the theory and art of interpreting texts and, in a broader philosophical sense, the doctrine of understanding as a mode of…
10 terms starting with H
Iamb
The iamb is a disyllabic foot with the stress on the second syllable (U—), one of the most widespread in European and Ukrainian versificati…
20 terms starting with I
Jargon
Jargon is a word or expression from the speech of a certain social, professional or age group, used instead of the common name and having a…
1 terms starting with J
Kobzar
The kobzar was a Ukrainian folk singer-musician who performed dumas, historical songs, psalms, and satirical songs to the accompaniment of…
4 terms starting with K
La Pléiade
La Pléiade is a circle of seven French poets of the Renaissance (mid-sixteenth century) united by a program for the renewal of the national…
25 terms starting with L
Macaronic language
Macaronic language is the comic mixing of words and forms of different languages within a single text, in which the native language is satu…
22 terms starting with M
Narrative Distance
Narrative distance is a category of narratology designating the degree of remoteness or nearness of the narrator (and, with him, the reader…
13 terms starting with N
Ode
The ode is a solemn lyric poem that glorifies an eminent person, a significant event, a lofty idea, or a phenomenon, distinguished by an el…
8 terms starting with O
Paeon
The paeon is a four-syllable foot with one stressed and three unstressed syllables; depending on the position of the stress, the first (—UU…
48 terms starting with P
Quatrain
The quatrain is a four-line stanza, the most widespread in European and Ukrainian poetry, admitting all three principal rhyme schemes: adja…
1 terms starting with Q
Formalism
Formalism was an influential school of literary studies of the 1910s–1920s that focused on artistic form, 'literariness,' and the devices t…
22 terms starting with R
Sarcasm
Sarcasm is the highest degree of irony, a caustic, exposing mockery filled with anger, contempt or bitterness, which does not conceal but s…
46 terms starting with S
Tale
The opovidannia (tale) is a small epic prose genre depicting a particular incident or episode from the life of one or several characters; i…
21 terms starting with T
Usmishka
The usmishka ('little smile', a humorous sketch) is an original genre of Ukrainian humorous-satirical short prose, inaugurated by Ostap Vys…
2 terms starting with U
VAPLITE
VAPLITE (the Free Academy of Proletarian Literature) is a literary organization that operated in Kharkiv from 1926 to 1928 and united the m…
8 terms starting with V
Watermark (Filigree)
A watermark (filigree) is an image, letters, or sign in paper, visible against the light, formed during papermaking owing to the varying th…
3 terms starting with W
Zeugma
Zeugma is a stylistic figure in which one word (most often a verb or adjective) is syntactically joined to several others, to each of which…
1 terms starting with Z
