1. Allegory
An allegory is a literary work in which characters, events, or settings have a deeper symbolic meaning, often conveying a moral, political, or philosophical message.
2. Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of two or more closely placed words.
Example: “She sells sea shells.”
3. Allusion
An allusion is an indirect reference to a famous person, place, event, idea, or literary work outside the text.
4. Antithesis
Antithesis is a figure of speech in which two contrasting ideas are placed close together to emphasize their difference.
Example: “To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
5. Act
An act is a major division of a drama or play.
6. Autobiography
An autobiography is the story or history of a person’s life written by that person.
7. Ballad
A ballad is a narrative poem or song that tells a story, often involving love, adventure, tragedy, or folklore.
8. Biography
A biography is the story or history of a person’s life written by another person.
9. Blank Verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Example: Much of Shakespeare’s dramatic verse is written in blank verse.
10. Canto
A canto is a subdivision of a long poem, especially an epic or narrative poem. It is comparable to a chapter in a novel.
11. Catharsis
Catharsis is the emotional release of pity and fear experienced by the audience of a tragedy.
12. Catastrophe
Catastrophe is the final action or event in a tragedy that brings about the downfall or destruction of the protagonist.
13. Classical
Classical refers to literature that follows the ideals, styles, forms, and principles associated with ancient Greek and Roman literature.
14. Comedy
Comedy is a type of drama that is intended to entertain and usually ends happily.
15. Comic Relief
Comic relief is a humorous scene, character, or dialogue introduced into a serious or tragic work to provide temporary relief from tension.
16. Chorus
A chorus is a group of performers who comment on or respond to the action of a drama. It was especially important in ancient Greek drama.
17. Couplet
A couplet consists of two consecutive lines of poetry, usually having the same metrical length and often rhyming with each other.
18. Didactic
Didactic literature is intended to teach, instruct, or convey a moral lesson to its readers.
19. Dialect
A dialect is a form of a language used by people from a particular region, social class, or group.
20. Diction
Diction refers to the choice and use of words by a writer in a literary work.
21. Dirge
A dirge is a mournful song, poem, or musical composition expressing grief, especially for someone who has died.
22. Dramatic Monologue
A dramatic monologue is a poem in which a single speaker addresses a silent listener or audience and reveals his or her thoughts and personality.
Example: “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning.
23. Elegy
An elegy is a poem that mourns the death of a person or expresses sorrow over loss, death, or a tragic event.
Example: “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray.
24. Epic
An epic is a long narrative poem written in a grand and elevated style and dealing with heroic actions, national events, or significant themes.
Example: “Paradise Lost” by John Milton.
25. Epilogue
An epilogue is a concluding section of a literary work, especially a drama, novel, or long poem.
26. Fable
A fable is a short story, often featuring animals as characters, that teaches a moral lesson.
27. Farce
Farce is a type of comedy that uses exaggerated situations, physical humor, and absurd events to produce laughter.
28. Fiction
Fiction is imaginative literature, usually written in prose, that tells invented or partly invented stories.
Example: “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding.
29. Foot
A foot is the basic metrical unit of a line of poetry, consisting of a particular arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.
30. Genre
Genre means a category or type of literature.
Examples: Epic, drama, comedy, tragedy, lyric, and ballad.
31. Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a deliberate and obvious exaggeration used for emphasis or effect.
Example: “I have told you a thousand times.”
32. Image
An image is a word or expression that creates a mental picture or appeals to the senses of the reader.
33. Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific and systematic study of language.
34. Limerick
A limerick is a humorous five-line poem with an AABBA rhyme scheme.
35. Lyric
A lyric is a short poem that expresses the personal feelings, thoughts, or emotions of the speaker. It is often musical in quality.
Example: The odes of John Keats.
36. Melodrama
Melodrama is a dramatic form characterized by exaggerated emotions, sensational events, clear distinctions between good and evil, and often a happy ending.
37. Metaphor
A metaphor is an implied or direct comparison between two different things without using “like” or “as.”
Example: “Time is a thief.”
38. Metaphysical Poetry
Metaphysical poetry is a type of 17th-century English poetry characterized by intellectual wit, complex ideas, unusual comparisons, paradoxes, and conceits.
Major poets include John Donne, George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell.
39. Metre
Metre is the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
40. Mock-Epic
A mock-epic is a satirical poem that uses the grand style, conventions, and language of an epic to treat a trivial or ordinary subject.
Example: “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope.
41. Novel
A novel is a long fictional prose narrative involving characters, events, settings, and a plot.
42. Novelette
A novelette is a work of fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.
43. Objectivity
Objectivity in literature refers to presenting characters, events, or subjects without strong personal involvement or emotional intrusion by the writer.
44. Octave
An octave is an eight-line stanza. It is also the first eight-line section of an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet.
45. Ode
An ode is a lyric poem, usually serious and elevated in tone, that addresses or celebrates a person, object, event, or idea.
46. Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two apparently contradictory words are placed together to create a meaningful expression.
Example: “Sweet sorrow.”
47. Plot
Plot is the arrangement and sequence of events or incidents in a literary work.
48. Prologue
A prologue is an introductory section of a play, novel, or other literary work that provides background or introduces the story.
49. Prose
Prose is ordinary written or spoken language that does not follow a regular metrical pattern like poetry.
50. Prosody
Prosody is the study of the meter, rhythm, rhyme, and other structural features of poetry.
51. Protagonist
The protagonist is the main character or central figure in a literary work.
52. Pun
A pun is a play on words that uses words with similar sounds or multiple meanings to create humor or a special effect.
53. Periods of English Literature
The major periods of English literature are commonly divided into:
- Old English or Anglo-Saxon Period
- Middle English Period
- Renaissance Period
- Restoration Period
- Neoclassical Period
- Romantic Period
- Victorian Period
- Modern Period
- Postmodern Period
54. Romanticism
Romanticism was a literary and artistic movement that emphasized imagination, emotion, nature, individual experience, and freedom rather than strict adherence to reason and classical rules.
55. Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of using language effectively and persuasively, especially in speaking or writing.
56. Satire
Satire is a literary technique that uses humor, irony, ridicule, or exaggeration to expose and criticize human weaknesses, follies, or social problems.
Example: “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope.
57. Short Story
A short story is a brief work of prose fiction that usually focuses on a limited number of characters and events.
58. Simile
A simile is a comparison between two different things using words such as “like” or “as.”
Example: “He is as brave as a lion.”
59. Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a speech in which a character speaks aloud while alone on stage, revealing his or her inner thoughts and feelings to the audience.
60. Sonnet
A sonnet is a lyric poem consisting of fourteen lines, usually written in a regular rhyme scheme and meter.
Major types include the Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet and the English (Shakespearean) sonnet.
61. Stanza
A stanza is a group of lines in a poem that forms a unit, often separated from other groups by a space.
62. Subjectivity
Subjectivity in literature refers to the expression of the writer’s or speaker’s personal thoughts, feelings, opinions, and experiences.
63. Symbol
A symbol is a person, object, place, action, or idea that represents or suggests a deeper meaning beyond its literal meaning.
Example: A dove can symbolize peace.