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
Theory & Criticism
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Aesthetics
Aesthetics is the philosophical science of the beautiful, of the laws and forms of the artistic assimilation of the world, of the nature of…
Apocrypha
Apocrypha (from the Greek 'hidden, secret') are works of religious content on biblical themes that are not recognized by the Church as cano…
Archaeography
Archaeography is a special historical-philological discipline that develops the theory and methodology of discovering, describing, collecti…
Archetype (Textual)
An archetype (in textology) is the hypothetical text of a work that preceded the first split in the manuscript tradition, the common source…
Attribution
Attribution is the establishment of a work's authorship, as well as the time and place of its creation and other essential features, when t…
Autograph
An autograph is the manuscript of a work (or any text or signature) written in the author's own hand.
Bibliography
Bibliography is a field of scholarly and practical activity consisting in the description, systematization, registration, and provision of…
Book Miniature (Illumination)
A book miniature (illumination) is a hand-executed illustration or decorative composition in a manuscript book; a form of book art.
Bookbinding
A bookbinding is the hard or soft cover that fastens and protects the book block, as well as the art of making such a cover.
Carnivalization
Carnivalization is a concept of Mikhail Bakhtin denoting the influence of folk laughter (carnival) culture on literature.
Codex
A codex is a form of book consisting of leaves of parchment or paper fastened on one side and folded into gatherings, protected by a bindin…
Codicology
Codicology (from the Latin codex — 'book' and the Greek logos — 'study') is an auxiliary historical-philological discipline that studies th…
Colophon
A colophon (from the Greek 'summit, finishing touch') is a concluding note at the end of a manuscript or early printed book that contains i…
Comparative Literature
Comparative literature is a branch of scholarship that studies literature in international and intercultural connections: contact relations…
Conjecture (Emendation)
A conjecture (emendation) is, in textology, a textologist's reasoned correction of a corrupt, erroneous, or unclear passage in a text, made…
Cultural Studies
Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that studies culture in a broad anthropological sense — as an ensemble of practices, meaning…
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a strategy of reading and textual analysis developed by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (in 'Of Grammatology' and…
Defamiliarization (Ostranenie)
Defamiliarization (ostranenie, 'making strange') is a key concept of Formalism, introduced by Viktor Shklovsky in his programmatic 1917 ess…
Dialogism
Dialogism is the central category of Mikhail Bakhtin's philosophy of language and theory of literature, according to which every utterance…
Diplomatics
Diplomatics is a special historical-philological discipline that studies historical acts and documents (charters, privileges, treaties, uni…
Discourse
Discourse is a polysemous concept in the humanities that, in the most general sense, means speech immersed in a social, historical, and ide…
Editorial Practice
Editorial practice (textological) is the applied part of textology that develops the principles and methods of the scholarly edition of wor…
Epigraph
An epigraph is a short text (a quotation, saying, proverb, or line of verse) placed by the author at the beginning of a work (or a chapter…
Ex Libris (Bookplate)
An ex libris (bookplate, from the Latin ex libris — 'from the books of [so-and-so]') is an owner's book sign: an artistically designed labe…
Feminist Criticism
Feminist criticism is a movement in literary studies that examines literature through the prism of gender: it exposes patriarchal stereotyp…
First Printing (Editio Princeps)
A first printing (Latin editio princeps) is the first printed edition of a certain work and, in a broader sense, the oldest printed book of…
Florilegium (Izbornik)
A florilegium (izbornik, from the Latin florilegium — 'a gathering of flowers') is a manuscript collection of selected texts, excerpts, say…
Formalism
Formalism was an influential school of literary studies of the 1910s–1920s that focused on artistic form, 'literariness,' and the devices t…
Gender Studies
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary field that studies gender — the sociocultural construct of sex — as opposed to biological sex.
Genology (Genre Theory)
Genology is the branch of literary theory that studies literary kinds, types, and genres: their nature, features, system, historical origin…
Gloss
A gloss (from the Greek glossa — 'tongue, word') is an explanation of an obscure or rarely used word (archaic, foreign, dialectal) in the t…
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is the theory and art of interpreting texts and, in a broader philosophical sense, the doctrine of understanding as a mode of…
Imagology
Imagology is a branch of comparative literature that studies the images of 'other' peoples and countries (hetero-images) and of one's own p…
Incipit
An incipit (from the Latin incipit — 'it begins') is the opening words of a work's text, which in the early manuscript and old-print tradit…
Incunabulum
An incunabulum (from the Latin incunabula — 'cradle,' 'swaddling clothes') is a book printed in Europe from the beginning of printing until…
Initial (Initial Capital)
An initial (initial capital, drop cap) is an enlarged, artistically decorated opening letter of a text, chapter, or paragraph in a manuscri…
Interpretation
Interpretation is the exposition of a literary work, the disclosure of its meanings, its ideational-figurative content, and its aesthetic v…
Intertextuality
Intertextuality is the property of a text to enter into dialogue with other texts through quotations, allusions, reminiscences, parodies, s…
Izvod (Recension)
An izvod (recension) is, in the textology of early monuments, a variety of text that took shape as a result of its circulation in a certain…
Literary Canon
The literary canon is the body of works that a given culture recognizes as exemplary, classic, worthy of study, preservation, and transmiss…
Literary Reception
Literary reception is the perception, assimilation, and interpretation of a literary work or phenomenon by readers, criticism, and other ar…
Manuscript
A manuscript is a text written by hand, as well as a handwritten book or document of the era that preceded printing or existed apart from i…
Marginalia
Marginalia (from the Latin margo — 'edge, margin') are inscriptions, notes, comments, drawings, or glosses in the margins of a manuscript o…
Marxist Criticism
Marxist criticism is a movement in literary studies that regards literature in connection with socioeconomic relations, class struggle, and…
Metafiction
Metafiction is a type of literary prose that consciously draws attention to its own fictionality and to the process of its own making, brea…
Myth Criticism
Myth criticism (mythological criticism) is a methodological movement that investigates the mythological foundations of literature: the arch…
Narratology
Narratology is the theory of narrative, studying the structure, levels, and means of the artistic presentation of events.
New Criticism
New Criticism was an influential movement in Anglo-American literary studies of the 1930s–1950s that upheld the autonomy of the literary te…
Old Printed Book
An old printed book (starodruk) is a printed book of the early period of printing; in Ukrainian and Eastern European bibliology, editions u…
Paleography
Paleography (from the Greek 'ancient writing') is an auxiliary historical-philological discipline that studies the history and external fea…
Palimpsest
A palimpsest (from the Greek 'scraped again') is a parchment manuscript from which the original text has been scraped or washed off in orde…
Poetics
Poetics is the branch of literary theory that studies the construction of a work: the system of means and principles of its organization at…
Polyphony (Literary)
Polyphony (in literary studies) is a type of artistic construction of the novel in which the work presents a plurality of independent, unme…
Postcolonial Criticism
Postcolonial criticism is a movement in the humanities that analyzes the cultural consequences of colonialism: the mechanisms of imperial d…
Poststructuralism
Poststructuralism is a movement of philosophical-literary thought that, from the late 1960s, developed and at the same time radically revis…
Protograph
A protograph is, in textology, the nearest common source-text (an original or early copy) from which the extant copies of a work derive, di…
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Psychoanalytic criticism is a movement that applies the ideas of psychoanalysis to the interpretation of literature: it investigates the un…
Reception Aesthetics
Reception aesthetics is a movement in literary studies that shifts attention from the author and text to the reader and the process of perc…
Redaction (of a Text)
A redaction (in textology) is one of the variants of a work's text, arising from its conscious reworking — by the author or by another pers…
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the science and art of persuasive, effective speech, which arose in ancient Greece (5th century BC) and became one of the found…
Rubrication
Rubrication is the highlighting of particular parts of the text in a manuscript or old printed book with red paint (cinnabar), for the purp…
Scriptorium
A scriptorium (from the Latin scriptorium — 'a place for writing') is a workshop for copying books, which usually operated at medieval mona…
Semiotics
Semiotics is the science of signs and sign systems, studying the ways meanings are created, transmitted, and interpreted in language, liter…
Structuralism
Structuralism is a movement in the humanities of the 20th century that regards cultural phenomena as sign systems built according to certai…
Stylistics
Stylistics is the branch of linguistics and literary studies that examines the expressive means of language, functional styles, and an auth…
Textology (Textual Criticism)
Textology (textual criticism) is a philological science that studies the history of a work's text, its sources, redactions, and variants, w…
Typeface
A typeface is the graphic form of the characters of a given writing system (a set of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks in a single s…
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…
