Most Common Literary Terms; Schools; Movements
Most common Literary Terms:
Wordsworthian definition of poetry: Poetry is a criticism of life, masters the laws of poetic trust and poetic beauty. Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful fillings, taking its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility.
Poetic justice: The term poetic justice is coined by Thomas Rhyme. It means exact reward or punishment given to a character according to his good or bed deeds. This exactness of rustics is possible only in the word of poetry.
Epic: The epic is the greatest and most sublime from of poetry. The Epic in a long poem divided in to several books, celebrating the life, heroic deeds and a achievements of a national hero, whether his trice or legendry.
Mock epic: Mock epic is a paved of real epic in a very trivial or funny incident on which a gab of classical conveyors of a real epic are overlaid.
Sonnet: The term sonnet is derived from the Italian sonnet to which means ‘a little sound’. It is a mystical poem of 14 lines written in Iambic pentameter and linked by an intricate rhyme scheme.
Ode: Ode is a long lyrical poem, serious in subject, elevated in style and elaborates in its stanza structure. It is in the form of an address to the object or the person about whom it is written.
Elegy: An elegy is essentially a poem of mourning or lamentation on the death of some particular person. In the wider use it may also be a poem of mourning on the mortality and vanity of human life in general.
Ballad: THE word ‘Ballad’ literally means ‘a drama song’ Troupes of wondering singers used to sins them from village to village. They generally sang of the brave deeds and heroic exploits of historical or legendary heroes and knights.
Satire: Dryden defines the sativa as ‘a literary composition whose principal aim is to ridicule folly or vice. The true end of satire is an amendment of vices by correction’.
A healthy satire good humouredly exposes one’s folly or vice.
Interludes: The Interludes were generally short entertainments inserted within a longer play or amidst some other festivities or festivals. Their primary fun lion was to entertain the audience by humored or by farce.
Tragedy: The tragedy is to the tragic story of a good and great man who, on account of a slight tam in his character, passer trouser a harrowing emotional and spiritual crisis, and focally meets his doom and death
Tragi-comedy: A Tragi- comedy is an artiste’s combination of both tragedy and comedy. It develops as a tragedy to the point of climax, and then takes a happy turn and finally ends into a happy denouement.
Comedy: The comedy is a type of drama characterized by romantic love, humour, pleasantry, and light satire and cross love finally leading to a happy denouement. Thugs fortune may be unkind to some stage, all ends happily at last.
Metaphor: A figure of speech that compares two unlike things without using "like" or "as," such as "Her heart is a stone."
Simile: A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using "like" or "as," such as "He runs as fast as a cheetah."
Symbolism: The use of objects, characters, or actions to represent abstract ideas or qualities, like a dove representing peace.
Irony: A contrast between what is expected and what actually happens, such as a fire station burning down.
Foreshadowing: Hints or clues about events that will occur later in a story, like a character mentioning their fear of heights before a plane crash.
Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words, like "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."
Personification: Giving human qualities or characteristics to non-human things, like "The wind whispered through the trees."
Hyperbole: Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally, such as "I've told you a million times."
Allegory: A story or poem that has a hidden meaning, often used to convey moral or political messages, like "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.
Imagery: Descriptive language that appeals to the senses and creates mental images, such as "The golden sun sank beneath the horizon."
Theme: The central message or main idea of a literary work, like "The importance of family" in "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Tone: The author's attitude or emotional stance towards the subject, like a sarcastic tone in a satirical piece.
Point of view: The perspective from which a story is told, like first-person ("I") or third-person ("he/she").
Conflict: A struggle or problem faced by characters, which can be internal or external, like a character battling their own fears or a war between nations.
Setting: The time and place in which a story takes place, like the Victorian era in England.
Plot: The sequence of events that make up a story, including the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Characterization: The methods used to develop and describe characters, including their appearance, actions, thoughts, and dialogue.
Satire: The use of humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize or mock human vices or follies, like "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift.
Rhyme: The repetition of similar sounds in the ending syllables of words, like "cat" and "hat."
Protagonist: The main character or central figure in a story, often involved in the main conflict and driving the narrative forward.
Schools of Literature:
Romanticism: An artistic, literary, and intellectual movement emphasizing emotions, individuality, and nature, with notable works by William Wordsworth and Lord Byron.
Realism: A movement that focuses on depicting life as it is, without idealization or exaggeration, as seen in the works of Gustave Flaubert and Mark Twain.
Naturalism: A literary movement that emphasizes the influence of natural forces and hereditary factors on human lives, exemplified by Émile Zola's novels.
Modernism: A movement that rejects traditional forms and techniques, experimenting with new narrative styles and themes, seen in works by James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
Postmodernism: A movement that challenges traditional narratives, embracing fragmentation, intertextuality, and self-reflexivity, exemplified by works like "House of Leaves
Existentialism: A philosophical movement explored in literature that focuses on individual existence, freedom, and the search for meaning, as depicted in the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.
Transcendentalism: A literary and philosophical movement emphasizing spirituality, intuition, and the inherent goodness of nature, with notable figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Harlem Renaissance: A cultural and artistic movement centered in Harlem, New York during the 1920s, celebrating African American identity and showcasing works by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
Victorian Literature: Literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria in the 19th century, often characterized by moral values, social criticism, and strict societal norms, seen in the works of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.
Gothic Literature: A genre that explores dark, mysterious, and supernatural elements, often set in gloomy settings and featuring themes of horror and romance, with examples like "Dracula" by Bram Stoker and "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley.
Surrealism: An artistic and literary movement that sought to unleash the power of the unconscious mind, emphasizing dream-like imagery and irrational juxtapositions, exemplified by the works of Salvador Dalà and André Breton.
Magical Realism: A literary genre that combines realistic narratives with magical or fantastical elements seamlessly, often found in works by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez and Isabel Allende.
Southern Gothic: A subgenre of Gothic literature that focuses on the Southern United States, characterized by a sense of decay, grotesque characters, and elements of the supernatural, seen in works like "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.
Literary Movements:
Renaissance: Renaissance means revival or rebirth of Greek learning, rat, literature and culture of the middle Age in Europe. In England it comes through Italy flourished in the Elizabethan Age in the works of Shakespeare, Spenser, Merowe and Ben Jonson. A period of cultural and intellectual rebirth in Europe during the 14th to 17th centuries, marked by a renewed interest in classical learning and artistic achievements, including works by William Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci.
Reformation: Reformation was a religious Movement led by Martin Luther in the fifteenth century. It protested against the practices of the Roman Catholic Chance. It advocated complete faith in the Bible and one’s own soul for salvation.
Enlightenment: A philosophical movement in the 18th century that emphasized reason, science, and human progress, with influential thinkers like Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Romanticism: An artistic, literary, andintellectual movement of the late 18th to mid-19th century that emphasized emotion, imagination, and individualism, with notable figures such as William Wordsworth and Mary Shelley.
Realism: A movement that emerged in the mid-19th century, depicting life as it is without idealization, often addressing social issues and everyday experiences, seen in the works of Gustave Flaubert and Leo Tolstoy.
Naturalism: A literary movement that emerged in the late 19th century, focusing on the influence of heredity and environment on human lives, portraying characters as products of their circumstances, as seen in the novels of Émile Zola and Theodore Dreiser.
Symbolism: A late 19th-century movement that sought to express ideas and emotions through symbols and evocative imagery, transcending the literal meaning, as exemplified in the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and Stéphane Mallarmé.
Modernism: A literary and artistic movement that emerged in the early 20th century, characterized by experimentation, fragmentation, and a rejection of traditional norms, seen in works by James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
Postmodernism: A movement that emerged in the mid-20th century, challenging the notion of objective truth, embracing intertextuality, irony, and self-reflexivity, as seen in the works of authors like Italo Calvino and Thomas Pynchon.
Beat Generation: A literary movement of the 1950s and 1960s, characterized by a rejection of mainstream values, exploration of alternative lifestyles, and spontaneous, free-form writing, with notable writers including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
Harlem Renaissance: A cultural and artistic movement of the 1920s centered in Harlem, New York, celebrating African American identity, literature, and art, with influential figures such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
Transcendentalism: A philosophical and literary movement of the 19th century that emphasized the inherent goodness of individuals and nature, promoting self-reliance and spiritual connection, with key thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Existentialism: A philosophical and literary movement that emerged in the 20th century, exploring themes of individual existence, freedom, and the search for meaning in an absurd world, as depicted in the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.
Surrealism: An artistic and literary movement that emerged in the early 20th century, seeking to unleash the power of the unconscious mind, combining dream-like imagery, irrationality, and unexpected juxtapositions, seen in the works of Salvador Dalà and André Breton.
Dadaism: An avant-garde movement that emerged during World War I, rejecting traditional artistic and literary conventions, embracing nonsense, irrationality, and anti-establishment ideas, with influential figures including Marcel Duchamp and Tristan Tzara.
Imagism: A movement in early 20th-century poetry that emphasized the use of precise, vivid imagery and the economy of language, favoring clarity and directness, with poets like Ezra Pound and H.D. (Hilda Doolittle).
Cubism: An artistic movement in the early 20th century that revolutionized visual representation, depicting objects from multiple perspectives and breaking them down into geometric forms, with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque as key figures.
Futurism: An artistic and literary movement that emerged in the early 20th century, celebrating the dynamism, speed, and progress of the modern world, rejecting the past and embracing technology, with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti as its leading figure.
Magical Realism: A literary movement that originated in Latin America, combining realistic narratives with magical or fantastical elements, blurring the boundaries between the ordinary and extraordinary, as seen in the works of Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez and Isabel Allende.
Minimalism: A literary style characterized by simplicity, brevity, and a focus on sparse language and precise descriptions, often exploring themes of alienation and the mundane, with writers like Raymond Carver and Ann Beattie.
Absurdism: A philosophical and literary movement that arose after World War II, highlighting the senselessness and irrationality of human existence, often employing dark humor and depicting characters trapped in absurd situations, as found in the works of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco.
References
1. ALBERT. (2000). History of English Literature (Fifth Edition) [English]. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.
2. An outline history of English literature : Hudson, William Henry, 1862-1918 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/outlinehistoryof00hudsuoft
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