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
Composition
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Artistic Convention
Artistic convention is the principle by which art does not copy reality literally but transforms it, reproducing life in a transformed, gen…
Artistic Detail
An artistic detail is an expressive particular in a literary work that bears a significant semantic and emotional load, heightening an imag…
Chronotope
The chronotope (from the Greek for 'time' and 'place') is the essential interconnection of temporal and spatial relations artistically mast…
Climax
The climax is the peak moment in the development of the plot, the point of the highest tension of the conflict, when the struggle of forces…
Collision
Collision is a sharp clash of opposing forces, characters, circumstances, or ideas in a literary work — the concrete form in which conflict…
Composition
Composition is the construction of a literary work — the purposeful arrangement and interconnection of all its parts, images, episodes, and…
Conflict
Conflict is the clash of opposing interests, views, characters, social forces, or inner aspirations, which constitutes the driving force of…
Counterpoint
Counterpoint is a compositional device borrowed by literature from music, consisting in the simultaneous unfolding of several independent p…
Denouement
The denouement is the concluding component of the plot, the moment of the resolution of the main conflict, when the final result of the cla…
Dialogue
Dialogue is a conversation of two or more characters, an exchange of remarks, which is the principal means of revealing the action, the cha…
Epilogue
The epilogue is the concluding part of a work that comes after the denouement and reports the further fate of the characters, the consequen…
Episode
An episode is a relatively complete, independent part of the plot of a literary work — a separate event or scene that has its own inner con…
Exposition
Exposition is the initial component of the plot, preceding the inciting incident and introducing the reader into the work's fictional world…
Extra-plot Elements
Extra-plot elements are components of a work's composition that do not enter directly into the development of the plot action and do not mo…
Fabula
Fabula is the totality of a work's events in their natural, chronological, and causal sequence — that is, 'what actually happened', as oppo…
Flashback
Flashback (retrospection) is a compositional device consisting in the narration's turn to events of the past that preceded the depicted pre…
Focalization
Focalization is a narratological concept introduced by the French theorist Gérard Genette to designate through whose eyes, through whose co…
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a compositional device consisting in an indirect hint at the future events of a work, given in advance through a detail, i…
Frame Narrative
The frame narrative (frame composition) is a compositional device in which one work (or several inset tales) is placed within the frame of…
Free Indirect Discourse
Free indirect discourse is a special way of conveying a character's speech or thoughts that combines features of direct and indirect speech…
Idea
The idea of a work is its main thought, generalizing conclusion, and the author's comprehension and assessment of the depicted phenomena —…
Inciting Incident
The inciting incident (zav'iazka) is a component of the plot — the event that initiates the work's main conflict and gives impetus to the d…
Interior Monologue
The interior monologue is a device of psychological depiction that conveys the unspoken thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a character…
Literary Interior
The interior in literature is an artistic description of the inner appearance of a room, the setting, and the objects among which the chara…
Literary Landscape
The landscape in literature is an artistic description of nature, of a locality, of the surroundings, which fulfills diverse functions in a…
Lyric Plot
Lyric plot is a particular form of the development of content in a lyric work, consisting not in the movement of external events (as in the…
Lyrical Digression
The lyrical digression is an extra-plot element of an epic or lyric-epic work in which the author interrupts the narration of events to exp…
Monologue
The monologue is an extended utterance of a single character, addressed to himself, to other characters, to the spectator, or to the reader…
Montage
Montage is a compositional device borrowed by literature from the art of cinema, consisting in the joining and juxtaposition of separate fr…
Motif
A motif is the smallest, stable semantic component of a literary work — a recurring image, a theme-situation, or an element of content that…
Narrative Distance
Narrative distance is a category of narratology designating the degree of remoteness or nearness of the narrator (and, with him, the reader…
Narrator
The narrator is the subject of the exposition of events in an epic work — the one who tells the story; it is an artistic category that must…
Open Ending
The open ending is a type of conclusion of a work in which the plot conflict receives no final, unambiguous resolution, while the further f…
Pathos
Pathos is the leading emotional tone, the inspiration, the impassioned feeling that permeates a literary work and expresses the author's at…
Peripeteia
Peripeteia is a sudden, unexpected turn in the development of the plot action, a sharp change of the situation, circumstances, or the hero'…
Plot
Plot is the system of events of a literary work in their cause-and-effect and temporal unfolding, through which the characters, conflicts,…
Point of View
Point of view is the position from which the narration is conducted and from which the depicted events, characters, and world of the work a…
Polylogue
The polylogue is a form of speech in a literary work that is a conversation of three or more participants — the simultaneous exchange of re…
Problematics
Problematics is the totality of the problems raised in a literary work — the range of questions of a social, moral, philosophical, psycholo…
Prologue
The prologue is the introductory part of a work that precedes the main plot and does not enter directly into the development of the action;…
Retardation
Retardation (from the Latin for 'delay, slowing') is a compositional device of deliberately slowing the development of the plot action befo…
Ring Composition
Ring composition (frame-ring) is a type of construction of a work in which the ending returns the reader to the initial image, motif, situa…
Rising Action
Rising action is the central and largest-in-volume component of the plot, embracing the course of events between the inciting incident and…
Skaz
Skaz is a special form of narration that imitates the oral, spontaneous speech of a narrator from among the common people, reproducing his…
Stage Direction
The stage direction (remarka) is an authorial indication in the text of a dramatic work that does not enter into the speech of the characte…
Stream of Consciousness
Stream of consciousness is a Modernist device of artistic depiction that reproduces the continuous, spontaneous movement of thoughts, impre…
Subplot
A subplot is a secondary line of the development of events in a literary work that unfolds parallel to the main plot, complementing, settin…
System of Images
The system of images is the totality of all the images of a literary work (characters, as well as images of nature, objects, and symbols) i…
Theme
The theme is the range of life phenomena, events, and problems placed at the basis of a literary work and made the object of the author's d…
Through-action
Through-action is the single inner line of development that runs through a whole dramatic (or epic) work from beginning to end, directs the…
