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
Genres & Forms
← All dimensions
Adventure Novel
The adventure novel is a variety of the novel whose plot is built on a series of unusual, sharp, and often dangerous events — travels, adve…
Bildungsroman
The Bildungsroman (German for 'novel of formation') is a generic variety of the novel that traces the spiritual, psychological, and moral d…
Chronicle Novel
The chronicle novel is a generic variety of the novel in which events are set out in their chronological sequence, mostly on the model of a…
Detective Fiction
Detective fiction is a prose genre whose plot is built on the solving of a mysterious crime (most often a murder) through logical analysis,…
Dystopia
Dystopia is a genre of prose (more rarely dramatic or poetic) literature that depicts an imaginary future society built on seemingly perfec…
Epic Novel
The epic novel is the largest and most complex variety of the novel, combining the scale of a people's national-historical destiny with a d…
Epistolary Novel
The epistolary novel is a novel built as a correspondence between characters (or as a diary, or a collection of documents), in which there…
Essay
The essay is a short prose work of free composition that expresses the author's individual impressions, reflections, and reasoning on a par…
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fantastic literature that creates a coherent invented world in which magic, mythological creatures, and supernatural…
Gothic Novel
The Gothic novel is a variety of the novel that arose in English literature of the second half of the eighteenth century and cultivated an…
Historical Novel
The historical novel is a variety of the novel whose action is set in the past and built upon real historical events and figures combined w…
Novel
The novel is a large epic prose genre with a ramified plot, a broad cast of characters, and an extended fictional time that embraces the fa…
Novella
The povist (a mid-length tale, close to the novella) is an epic prose genre of medium length that occupies an intermediate place between th…
Picaresque Novel
The picaresque novel is a generic variety of the novel that arose in sixteenth-century Spain and recounts the adventures of a resourceful r…
Psychological Novel
The psychological novel is a variety of the novel in which the chief object of depiction becomes the hero's inner world: the motives of act…
Science Fiction
Science fiction is a literary genre that builds its fictional world on scientific or technical hypotheses, depicting the possible consequen…
Short Story
The novela (short story) is a small epic genre with a sharp, often unexpected plot, a compressed composition, and an expressive concluding…
Social-Psychological Novel
The social-psychological novel is a variety of the novel that combines a broad depiction of social life, social relations, and conflicts wi…
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…
Utopia
Utopia is a genre of imaginative literature that portrays the image of an ideal, perfectly ordered society built on principles of justice,…
