ENGL1145/1146 Glossary of Literary Terms
[ A | B | C
| D | E | F | G
| H | I | J | K
| L | M | N | O
| P | Q | R | S
| T | U | V | W
| X | Y | Z ]
A
ALLEGORY: An allegory is an extended metaphor in the form
of a narrative. The persons, objects, and settings represent abstractions,
and the actions define the relationships between the actions. The
most famous extended allegory in English prose is probably John Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress; the most famous poetic allegory is Edmund Spenser's
Faerie Queene. Flannery O'Connor's "Good Man Is Hard to Find"
is a thinly-disguised allegory.
AUTHORIAL INTRUSION: Discussions directed to the reader and constituting a substantial break in the narrative illusion of reality are termed authorial intrusions. While ordinary descriptions are notauthorial intrusions, substantial essays addressed to the reader are.
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B
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C
CENTRAL CONSCIOUSNESS: (also centre
of consciousness, central intelligence, holder of point of view)
The central consciousness belongs to the character who most obviously shapes
and limits the narrative voice of a text. Situations and events are
largely perceived as though through this character's eyes, although
the narrator may at times represent an independant point of view.
Cory Johnson is clearly the central consciousness of R. V. Cassill's
"The Father," although the narrator rises above Cory at times.
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D
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E
EFFACED NARRATOR: Third-person narrators can be almost invisible.
When the narrator uses only language and sentiments appropriate to the
character acting as the current centre of consciousness, the narrator is
said to be effaced.
EPIPHANY: An epiphany is literally a "showing-forth";
the Christian festival commemorates the visit of the Magi who found the
infant Jesus in a manger. Joyce uses the term to describe the sudden,
intuitive flash of recognition by which a commonplace object's "soul, its
whatness, leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance."
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F
FORESHADOWING: The technique of hinting at the nature of coming
action is foreshadowing. Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher"
is filled with foreshadowing; a major element in the design of the novel
is the diminishing gap between foreshadowing and event. Near the
end of the story, the events of the Mad Trist the narrator is reading
so closely foreshadow "real" events that they happen almost as they are
narrated.
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G
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H
HYPOTAXIS: Hypotaxis is the opposite of parataxis.
Thus, a hypotactic style is one marked by sophisticated subordination
of ideas within sentences.
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I
IN MEDIAS RES: In medias res means literally
"in the middle of things." Homeric epics begin in medias res;
a shift to an earlier period of time normally follows such an introduction.
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J
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K
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L
LIMITED POINT OF VIEW: The perceptual range of a narrative
is often limited in some way, most often by adopting the limitations of
the character providing the central consciousness.
Mansfield suggests a more sophisticated point of view than Bertha Young's
in "Bliss," but she deliberately limits the narrative to Bertha's range
of insight; thus, the reader sees how little Bertha understands, but is
offered no greater understanding.
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M
MOTIF: in literature, any element which recurs--incidents,
phrases, descriptions, image cluster. It is a structural principle
which cuts across the admittedly division of content and style.
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N
NARRATIVE APPROACH: The way a writer chooses to tell a story
(the narrative approach) establishes the tone and character of a
narrative. The basic choice is whether to tell the story from without
(the third person omniscient point of view exemplified by Mansfield's "Bliss,"
O'Connor's "A Good Man," and Cassill's "The Father") or within (the first
person point of view exemplified by O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex," Tan's
"Rules of the Game," and Joyce's "Araby). Authors may make deliberate
and substantial distinctions between the moral outlook of a narrator or
central consciousness and the moral standards of a story. Subtle
matters distinguish the narrative approach even of writers sharing the
same point of view. Frank O'Connor, for example, allows his child-narrator
to work with a rather formal adult vocabulary. Faulkner's "Barn Burning"
displays a narrative approach too complex to be described by any standard
point of view. Point of attack is also considered
in discussions of narrative approach. The best explanation of the
term is that it concerns the relationship the author creates
between the voice that tells the story and the characters in the story.
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O
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P
POINT OF ATTACK: Point of attack is originally a dramatic
concept; it designates the stage of the plot at which a work begins.
In composing "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," for example, Bierce chose
a late point of attack: Farquhar is actually being hanged as the
story opens. Subsequently, a flashback explains how Farquhar was
duped into making his vain assault on the bridge (this story, of course,
is a trick: in relation to the real action of the story, the point
of attack coincides with the beginning).
POINT OF VIEW: The term describes the way the reader is
presented with the story--whether through the voice of an observer or participant
who refers to him- or herself (first person) or through a more impersonal
voice which describes the action from without (third person). Third
person ominiscient describes a narrative point of view that is all-knowing
and provides the reader with "privileged" information about the story.
More commonly, the third person narrator is deliberately limited
in some way.
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Q
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R
REALISM: Realism signifies a specific historical movement
in literature and a mode of literary representation without regard to period.
In the former sense, the term refers to the nineteenth-century movement
represented by Balzac in France, George Eliot in England, and William Dean
Howells in America. These writers (and their many followers, rivals, and
imitators) opposed themselves to romanticism, insisting that a writer
must present an accurate imitation of life. The techniques of realism are
not, however, natural, but are themselves conventional approaches
to representing the world. In general, the realist deliberately pursues
commonplace objects in preference to the bizarre, even though the real
world includes the bizarre. Also, details are often accumulated "unrealistically."
Realist narratives often include excessively descriptive descriptions.
On entering a room, a real person rarely notices anything special about
the surroundings, unless he or she is very bored indeed. A realist narrative
will use the accumulation of detail to induce the reality effect,
the appearance that the fictional object has the same objective depth as
a real object. Hemingway commented on another basis of selection
when he mentioned seizing on "the unnoticed things that made emotions"
(Norton 1672).
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S
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T
TONE: the concept of "tone" is based upon the assumption that
a literary work can be regarded as representing some of the special qualities
of a mode of speech. It is considered to be the author's way of revealing
an attitude toward some subject--but not necessarily the attitude of the
author. An author may adopt a persona which is at variance with his
own character--the tone of such a persona will be chosen by the author,
but will not be that of the author.
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U
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V
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W
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X
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Y
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Z
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Last Revised: 17/03/98
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