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| as in metaphor, one thing (usually non-rational, abstract, religious) is implicitly spoken of in terms of something concrete, but in an allegory the comparison is extended to include an entire work or large portion of a work |
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| a reference—whether explicit or implicit, to history, the Bible, myth, literature, painting, music, and so on—that suggests the meaning or generalized implication of details in the story, poem, or play |
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| a comparison based on certain resemblances between things that are otherwise unlike |
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| a neutral term for a character who opposes the leading male or female character |
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| a plot or character element that recurs in cultural or cross-cultural myths, such as "the quest" or "descent into the underworld" or "scapegoat |
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| a narrative poem that is, or originally was, meant to be sung. Characterized by repetition and often by a repeated refrain, ballads were originally a folk creation, transmitted orally from person to person and age to age. |
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| when applied to an individual author, canon (like oeuvre) means the sum total of works written by that author. When used generally, it means the range of works that a consensus of scholars, teachers, and readers of a particular time and culture consider "great" or "major" |
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| a level of language in a work that approximates the speech of ordinary people |
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| what is suggested by a word, apart from what it explicitly describes |
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| a broad and relatively indistinct term that implies a commonality of history and some cohesiveness of purpose within a group |
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| a direct and specific meaning |
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| an author’s choice of words |
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| in classical times, any poem on any subject written in "elegiac" meter; since the Renaissance, usually a formal lament on the death of a particular person |
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| that part of the structure that sets the scene, introduces and identifies characters, and establishes the situation at the beginning of a story or play |
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| a fictional character, often but not always a minor character, who is relatively simple; who is presented as having few, though sometimes dominant, traits; and who thus does not change much in the course of a story |
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| one character that serves as a contrast to another |
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| language that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal |
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| the leading male/female character, usually larger than life, sometimes almost godlike. See antihero, protagonist, and villain |
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| overstatement characterized by exaggerated language |
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| broadly defined, any sensory detail or evocation in a work; more narrowly, the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling, to call to mind an idea, or to describe an object |
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| a situation or statement characterized by a significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. See cosmic irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony |
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| limited point of view or limited focus |
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| a perspective pinned to a single character, whether a first-person-or a third-person-centered consciousness, so that we cannot know for sure what is going on in the minds of other characters |
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| a contemplation of some physical object as a way of reflecting upon some larger truth, often (but not necessarily) a spiritual one |
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| one thing pictured as if it were something else, suggesting a likeness or analogy between them; (2) an implicit comparison or identification of one thing with another unlike itself without the use of a verbal signal |
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| a recurrent device, formula, or situation that deliberately connects a poem with common patterns of existing thought |
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| like allegory, myth usually is symbolic and extensive, including an entire work or story |
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| the character who "tells" the story |
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| also called unlimited point of view; a perspective that can be seen from one character’s view, then another’s, then another’s, or can be moved in or out of any character’s mind at any time |
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| a short fiction that illustrates an explicit moral lesson |
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| the voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual author |
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| also called focus; the point from which people, events, and other details in a story are viewed |
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| the main character in a work, who may be male or female, heroic or not heroic |
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| a ritual or ceremony marking an individual’s passing from one stage or state to a more advanced one, or an event in one’s life that seems to have such significance |
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| a direct, explicit comparison of one thing to another, usually using the words like or as to draw the connection. |
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| in a narrative, the incongruity between what the reader and/or character expects to happen and what actually does happen |
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| a section of a poem demarcated by extra line spacing |
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| a person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary work that designates itself and at the same time figuratively represents or "stands for" something else |
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| the attitude a literary work takes toward its subject and theme |
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