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
← All dimensions
Chronotope
The chronotope (from the Greek for 'time' and 'place') is the essential interconnection of temporal and spatial relations artistically mast…
Composition
Composition is the construction of a literary work — the purposeful arrangement and interconnection of all its parts, images, episodes, and…
Counterpoint
Counterpoint is a compositional device borrowed by literature from music, consisting in the simultaneous unfolding of several independent p…
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…
Flashback
Flashback (retrospection) is a compositional device consisting in the narration's turn to events of the past that preceded the depicted pre…
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…
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…
Montage
Montage is a compositional device borrowed by literature from the art of cinema, consisting in the joining and juxtaposition of separate fr…
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…
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…
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…
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…
