{updated
9.23.05}
Literary Terms
Apostrophe
[quote
from YourDictionary.com:] An
address to a personified object or to a person who is absent. . . . This is a
literary term. Alfred Lord Tennyson's "In Memoriam, A.H.H." is a very
long apostrophe to a deceased friend. Suggested Usage: We have all done it. You are in a
supermarket with many distractions discussing the week's needs with your
spouse, when you turn around and see that all of your preceding words have been
an apostrophe. "As George enjoyed the evening out alone, he often uttered
apologetic apostrophes for his overindulgence to his wife." From Greek
apostrephein "to turn away," from apo- "off, away" +
strephein "to turn, twist." The prefix apo- shares the same origin as
German as "auf," English "off," and Latin ab- found in
"abstract." The stem is related to strophe "a turn,
stanza," also found in catastrophe "an overturning, ruin." <http://www.yourdictionary.com/wotd/wotd.pl?word=apostrophe>
[quote
from Wikipedia:] A literary genre refers to the divisions of literature into genres according
to particular criteria. Literary genres are also categories of marketing, literary
criticism and consumption. One of the areas in the study of literature is the difference between literary fiction on the one
hand and genre fiction or escapist fiction on the other. . . . Genres are often
divided into sub-genres. Literature can be organized according to the
"poetic genres" and the "prose genres". Poetry might be
subdivided into epic, lyric, and dramatic, while prose might be subdivided into
fiction and non-fiction. Further subdivisions of dramatic poetry, for instance,
might include comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and so forth. This parsing into
subgenres can continue: "comedy" has its own genres, for example,
including farce, comedy of manners, burlesque, and satire.
hyperbole
[quote
from Mark Canada:]
An extravagant exaggeration. From the Greek for "overcasting,"
hyperbole is a figure of speech that is a grossly exaggerated description or
statement. In literature, such exaggeration is used for emphasis or vivid
descriptions. In
drama, hyperbole is quite common, especially in heroic drama. Hyperbole is a
fundamental part of both burlesque writing and the “tall tales” from Western
America. The conscious overstatements of these tales are forms of hyperbole.
Many other examples of hyperbole can be found in the romance fiction and comedy
genres. Hyperbole is even a part of our day-to-day speech: "You’ve grown
like a bean sprout" or "I’m older than the hills." Hyperbole is
used to increase the effect of a description, whether it is metaphoric or
comic. In poetry, hyperbole can emphasize or dramatize a person’s opinions or
emotions. Skilled poets use hyperbole to describe intense emotions and mental
states. Othello uses hyperbole to describe his anger at the possibility of Iago
lying about his wife’s infidelity in Act III, Scene III of Shakespeare’s play Othello:
If
thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
On horror’s head accumulate;
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.
In this passage, Othello is telling Iago that if he
is lying then Othello will have no pity and Iago will have no hope for
salvation. Adding horrors with still more horrors, Othello is describing
his potential rage. Othello even declares that the Earth will be confounded
with horror at Othello’s actions in such a state of madness. [Canada, Mark. All American: Glossary of Literary Terms. N.d. University of North Carolina at Pembroke. 23 Sep. 2005 <http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm>.]
literal and figurative language
[quote
from answers.com:]
Many traditional academic analyses of language divided linguistic expressions
into two classes: literal and figurative. Expressions said to be in
figurative language are called figures of speech. . . . In the traditional
analyses, words in literal expressions denote what they mean according to
common or dictionary usage, while words in figurative expressions denote something
other than what they mean according to common or dictionary usage. Often, in
this framework, a particular instance of figurative language can/must be
reduced to literal language in order to find out what the expression might be
intended to mean. Sometimes the literal meaning of a particular figure of
speech is clear. We can confidently interpret the figure, "The ground is thirsty," to mean
"the ground is dry" because we know that the ground cannot literally
feel thirst (or anything else, for that matter). Other times, it is harder to
pinpoint the literal meaning of a figure of speech. If someone says, "When
I first saw her, my soul began to quiver," he might mean, "When I
first saw her, I began to fall in love," or "When I first saw her, I began
to panic," or something else entirely. Whereas the ground's thirst can
only sensibly apply to its dryness, the soul's quivering could refer to a whole
range of feelings, including mutually exclusive ones. Only someone familiar
with the speaker's feelings could accurately interpret this statement. . . .
Note that most modern academic analyses of language no longer maintain a strict
distinction between literal and figurative language. Cognitive linguistics, in
particular, may ultimately declare all distinction between literal language and
figurative language outdated. How many kinds of figurative language are there?
Classical and traditional linguistics by some counts identified more than two
hundred and fifty different figures. More recently, some have boiled the number
into a much smaller number; some, for example, claim to be able to classify all
figurative language as either metaphor or metonymy.
metaphor
[quoted from knowgramming.com:] A comparison of two dissimilar things which does
not use "like" or "as," e.g., "my love is a red, red
rose" (Lilia Melani) <http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html>. Metaphor is defined as the
substitution of one idea or object with another, used to assist expression or
understanding. The
definition of metaphor is generally divided into "living" and
"dead" metaphors, which refer to metaphors which are still considered
"novel" versus those which have been incorporated into normal usage.
The dividing line between these two is very hazy, and may depend on the
culture, language, region, dialect or jargon it is found in. Metaphor is often used as a
teaching tool, or to convey difficult concepts. It is found throughout
languages and is considered by many to be essential to language. Since metaphor
allows for the substitution of ideas across differing areas of study, it is
considered by some to be an interdisciplinary Rosetta Stone. Common examples of metaphor
include "the Internet is an information superhighway" as a
living metaphor and "I am open to suggestions" as a dead
metaphor. Metaphor is often confused
with simile, the difference being that the metaphor draws a parallel between
concepts, while the simile points to poetic similarities. Click
here for an extended explanation of the difference between the two <http://knowgramming.com/metaphor.htm>.
metonymy
[quoted from answers.com:] A figure of speech in which
one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely
associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States
government or of the sword for military power.
paradox
[quote from wordnet.princeton.edu:] A statement that
contradicts itself: "'I always lie' is a paradox because if it is true
it must be false" <http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=paradox>. [quote from mistupid.com:] Statement or sentiment that
appears contradictory to common sense yet is true in fact. Examples of paradox
are "mobilization for peace" and "a well-known secret agent"
<http://www.mistupid.com/literature/litterms.htm>.
personification
[quote
from thefreedictionary:] A figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are
endowed with human qualities or are represented as possessing human form, as in
Hunger sat shivering on the road or Flowers danced about the lawn
<http://www.thefreedictionary.com/personification>. Also, anthropomorphism,
or the "attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or
behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena" <http://www.answers.com/topic/anthropomorphism>.
Also, prosopopeia, which "is used most frequently today as a
synonym of personification, a very common rhetorical device whereby we speak as
though inanimate objects are human: 'My car prefers high-test gasoline.'
'Justice is blind,' is prosopopeia in this sense. The common phrase 'Mother
Nature' personifies nature and when we claim that a piece of software is
unforgiving, we are doing the same" <http://www.yourdictionary.com/wotd/wotd.pl?date=2004-05-07>.
simile
[quoted
from academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu:] A stated comparison (usually formed with like
or as as) between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have
certain qualities in common. [For example] "He was like a cock who thought
the sun had risen to hear him crow" (George Eliot, Adam Bede) <http://www.nt.armstrong.edu/term6.htm>. A comparison of two
dissimilar things using "like" or "as", e.g., "my love
is like a red, red rose" (Robert Burns) <http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html>.
symbol
[quoted
from www.virtualsalt.com:] Something that on the surface is its literal self but which also has
another meaning or even several meanings. For example, a sword may be a sword
and also symbolize justice. A symbol may be said to embody an idea. There are
two general types of symbols: universal symbols that embody universally
recognizable meanings wherever used, such as light to symbolize knowledge, a
skull to symbolize death, etc., and constructed symbols that are given symbolic
meaning by the way an author uses them in a literary work, as the white whale
becomes a symbol of evil in Moby Dick. <http://www.virtualsalt.com/litterms.htm>