LitWeb Flash Cards

Title Description Reference

acting the last of the four steps of characterization in aperformed play. NA

actionan imagined event or series of events; an event maybe verbal as well as physical, so that sayingsomething or telling a story within the story may bean event.

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allegory

as in metaphor, one thing (usually nonrational,abstract, religious) is implicitly spoken of in terms ofsomething concrete, but in an allegory thecomparison is extended to include an entire work orlarge portion of a work.

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alliterationthe repetition of initial consonant sounds through asequence of words for example, While I nodded,nearly napping in Edgar Allan Poes The Raven.

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allusiona referencewhether explicit or implicit, to history,the Bible, myth, literature, painting, music, and so onthat suggests the meaning or generalizedimplication of details in the story, poem, or play.

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ambiguity the use of a word or expression to mean more thanone thing. NA

amphitheater the design of classical Greek theaters, consisting of astage area surrounded by a semicircle of tiered seats. NA

analogy a comparison based on certain resemblances betweenthings that are otherwise unlike. NA

anapestic a metrical form in which each foot consists of twounstressed syllables followed by a stressed one. NA

antagonista neutral term for a character who opposes theleading male or female character. See hero/heroineand protagonist.

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antiheroa leading character who is not, like a hero, perfect oreven outstanding, but is rather ordinary andrepresentative of the more or less average person.

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archetypea plot or character element that recurs in cultural orcross-cultural myths, such as the quest or descentinto the underworld or scapegoat.

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arena stagea stage design in which the audience is seated all theway around the acting area; actors make theirentrances and exits through the auditorium.

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assonancethe repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence ofwords with different endings for example, Thedeath of the poet was kept from his poems in W. H.Audens In Memory of W. B. Yeats.

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aubade a morning song in which the coming of dawn iseither celebrated or denounced as a nuisance. NA

auditorsomeone other than the readera character withinthe fictionto whom the story or speech isaddressed.

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authorial timedistinct from plot time and reader time, authorialtime denotes the influence that the time in which theauthor was writing had upon the conception andstyle of the text.

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ballad

a narrative poem that is, or originally was, meant tobe sung. Characterized by repetition and often by arepeated refrain (recurrent phrase or series ofphrases), ballads were originally a folk creation,transmitted orally from person to person and age toage.

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ballad stanza

a common stanza form, consisting of a quatrain thatalternates four-beat and three-beat lines; lines 1 and3 are unrhymed iambic tetrameter (four beats), andlines 2 and 4 are rhymed iambic trimeter (threebeats).

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blank versethe verse form most like everyday human speech;blank verse consists of unrhymed lines in iambicpentameter. Many of Shakespeares plays are inblank verse.

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caesura

a short pause within a line of poetry; often but notalways signaled by punctuation. Note the twocaesuras in this line from Poes The Raven: Onceupon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak andweary.

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canon

when applied to an individual author, canon (likeoeuvre) means the sum total of works written by thatauthor. When used generally, it means the range ofworks that a consensus of scholars, teachers, andreaders of a particular time and culture consider great or major. This second sense of the word isa matter of debate since the literary canon in Europeand America has long been dominated by the worksof white men. During the last several decades, thecanon in the United States has expandedconsiderably to include more works by women andwriters from various ethnic and racial backgrounds.

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casting the third step in the creation of a character on thestage; deciding which actors are to play which parts. NA

centered (central)consciousness

a limited third-person point of view, one tied to asingle character throughout the story; this characteroften reveals his or her inner thoughts but is unableto read the thoughts of others.

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character

(1) a fictional personage who acts, appears, or isreferred to in a work; (2) a combination of apersons qualities, especially moral qualities, so thatsuch terms as good and bad, strong and weak, often apply. See nature and personality.

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characterization

the fictional or artistic presentation of a fictionalpersonage. A term like a good character can, then,be ambig-uousit may mean that the personage isvirtuous or that he or she is well presented regardlessof his or her characteristics or moral qualities.

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chorus

in classical Greek plays, a group of actors whocommented on and described the action of a play.Members of the chorus were often masked and reliedon song, dance, and recitation to make theircommentary.

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classical unitiesas derived from Aristotles Poetics, the principles ofstructure that require a play to have one action thatoccurs in one place and within one day.

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climaxalso called the turning point, the third part of plotstructure, the point at which the action stops risingand begins falling or reversing.

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colloquial dictiona level of language in a work that approximates thespeech of ordinary people. The language used bycharacters in Toni Cade Bambaras Gorilla, MyLove is a good example.

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comedy

a broad category of dramatic works that are intendedprimarily to entertain and amuse an audience.Comedies take many different forms, but they sharethree basic characteristics: (1) the values that areexpressed and that typically present the conflictwithin the play are social and determined by thegeneral opinion of society (as opposed to beinguniversal and beyond the control of humankind, as intragedy); (2) characters in comedies are often definedprimarily in terms of their society and their rolewithin it; (3) comedies often end with a restorationof social order in which one or more characters takea proper social role.

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conception

the first step in the creation of any work of art, butespecially used to indicate the first step in thecreation of a dramatic character, whether for writtentext or performed play; the original idea, when theplaywright first begins to construct (or even dream

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about) a plot, the characters, the structure, or atheme.

conclusionthe fifth part of plot structure, the point at which thesituation that was destabilized at the beginning of thestory becomes stable once more.

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concrete poetrypoetry shaped to look like an object. RobertHerricks Pillar of Fame, for example, is arrangedto look like a pillar. Also called shaped verse.

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confessional poema relatively recent (or recently defined) kind inwhich the speaker describes a state of mind, whichbecomes a metaphor for the larger world.

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conflicta struggle between opposing forces, such as betweentwo people, between a person and something innature or society, or even between two drives,impulses, or parts of the self.

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connotation what is suggested by a word, apart from what itexplicitly describes. See denotation. NA

controlling metaphors

metaphors that dominate or organize an entire poem.In Linda Pastans Marks, for example, thecontrolling metaphor is of marks (grades) as a wayof talking about the speakers performance of roleswithin her family.

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conventionsstandard or traditional ways of saying things inliterary works, employed to achieve certain expectedeffects.

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cosmic irony

a type of irony that arises out of the differencebetween what a character aspires to and what so-called universal forces deal him or her; such ironyimplies that a god or fate controls and toys withhuman actions, feelings, lives, outcomes.

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criticism See literary criticism. NA

culture

a broad and relatively indistinct term that implies acommonality of history and some cohesiveness ofpurpose within a group. One can speak of southernculture, for example, or urban culture, or Americanculture, or rock culture; at any one time, each of usbelongs to a number of these cultures.

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curiosity the desire to know what is happening or hashappened. NA

dactylic the metrical pattern in which each foot consists of astressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones. NA

denotation a direct and specific meaning. See connotation. NA

descriptive structure a textual organization determined by therequirements of describing someone or something. NA

diction an authors choice of words. NA

discriminated occasion the first specific event in a story, usually in the formof a specific scene. NA

discursive structure a textual organization based on the form of a treatise,argument, or essay. NA

dramatic irony

a plot device in which a character holds a position orhas an expectation that is reversed or fulfilled in away that the character did not expect but that we, asreaders or as audience members, have anticipatedbecause our knowledge of events or individuals ismore complete than the char-acters.

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dramatic monologue a monologue set in a specific situation and spoken toan imaginary audience. NA

dramatic structure a textual organization based on a series of scenes,each of which is presented vividly and in detail. NA

dramatis personaethe list of characters that appears either in the playsprogram or at the top of the first page of the writtenplay.

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echo a verbal reference that recalls a word, phrase, orsound in another text. NA

elegyin classical times, any poem on any subject writtenin elegiac meter; since the Renaissance, usually aformal lament on the death of a particular person.

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English sonnet see Shakespearean sonnet. NA

enjambmentrunning over from one line of poetry to the nextwithout stop, as in the following lines byWordsworth: My heart leaps up when I behold / Arainbow in the sky.

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epica poem that celebrates, in a continuous narrative, theachievements of mighty heroes and heroines, usuallyin founding a nation or developing a culture, anduses elevated language and a grand, high style.

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epigramoriginally any poem carved in stone (on tombstones,buildings, gates, and so forth), but in modern usage avery short, usually witty verse with a quick turn atthe end.

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expectationthe anticipation of what is to happen next (seecuriosity and suspense), what a character is like orhow he or she will develop, what the theme ormeaning of the story will prove to be, and so on.

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exposition

that part of the structure that sets the scene,introduces and identifies characters, and establishesthe situation at the beginning of a story or play.Additional exposition is often scattered throughoutthe work.

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extended metaphor a detailed and complex metaphor that stretchesthrough a long section of a work. NA

falling action the fourth part of plot structure, in which thecomplications of the rising action are untangled. NA

farcea play characterized by broad humor, wild antics,and often slapstick, pratfalls, or other physicalhumor.

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figurative

usually applied to language that uses figures ofspeech. Figurative language heightens meaning byimplicitly or explicitly representing something interms of some other thing, the assumption being thatthe other thing will be more familiar to the reader.

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figures of speech comparisons in which something is pictured orfigured in other, more familiar terms. NA

first-person narratora character, I, who tells the story and necessarilyhas a limited point of view; may also be anunreliable narrator.

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flashbacka plot-structuring device whereby a scene from thefictional past is inserted into the fictional present ordramatized out of order.

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flat character

a fictional character, often but not always a minorcharacter, who is relatively simple; who is presentedas having few, though sometimes dominant, traits;and who thus does not change much in the course ofa story. See round character.

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focus the point from which people, events, and otherdetails in a story are viewed. See point of view. NA

foil one character that serves as a contrast to another. NA

formal diction language that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal. Seecolloquial diction and informal diction. NA

free verse poetry characterized by varying line lengths, lack of NA

free verse traditional meter, and nonrhyming lines. NA

genre the largest category for classifying lit-eraturefiction, poetry, drama. See kind and subgenre. NA

haikuan unrhymed poetic form, Japanese in origin, thatcontains seventeen syllables arranged in three linesof five, seven, and five syllables, respectively.

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hero/heroinethe leading male/female character, usually largerthan life, sometimes almost godlike. See antihero,protagonist, and villain.

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heroic couplet rhymed pairs of lines in iambic pentameter. NA

hexametera line of poetry with six feet: She comes, | shecomes | again, | like ring | dove frayed | and fled(Keats, The Eve of St. Agnes).

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high (verbal) comedyhumor that employs subtlety, wit, or therepresentation of refined life. See low (physical)comedy.

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hyperbole overstatement characterized by exaggeratedlanguage. NA

iamb a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllablefollowed by a stressed one. NA

iambic pentameter

a metrical form in which the basic foot is an iamband most lines consist of five iambs; iambicpentameter is the most common poetic meter inEnglish: One com | mon note | on ei | ther lyre | didstrike (Dryden, To the Memory of Mr. Oldham)

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imagerybroadly defined, any sensory detail or evocation in awork; more narrowly, the use of figurative languageto evoke a feeling, to call to mind an idea, or todescribe an object.

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imitative structurea textual organization that mirrors as exactly aspossible the structure of something that alreadyexists as an object and can be seen.

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implied authorthe guiding personality or value system behind atext; the implied author is not necessarilysynonymous with the actual author.

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informal dictionlanguage that is not as lofty or impersonal as formaldiction; similar to everyday speech. See colloquialdiction, which is one variety of informal diction.

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initiation storya kind of short story in which a characteroften butnot always a child or young personfirst learns asignificant, usually life-changing truth about theuniverse, society, people, himself or herself.

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in medias resin the midst of things; refers to opening a story inthe middle of the action, necessitating filling in pastdetails by exposition or flashback.

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ironya situation or statement characterized by a significantdifference between what is expected or understoodand what actually happens or is meant. See cosmicirony, dramatic irony, and situational irony.

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Italian sonnet see Petrarchan sonnet. NA

kind a species or subcategory within a subgenre; initiationstory is a subcategory of the subgenre short story. NA

LitWeb Flash Cards

Title Description Reference

limericka light or humorous verse form of mainly anapesticverses of which the first, second, and fifth lines areof three feet; the third and fourth lines are of twofeet; and the rhyme scheme is aabba.

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limited point of view orlimited focus

a perspective pinned to a single character, whether afirst-person-or a third-person-centeredconsciousness, so that we cannot know for sure whatis going on in the minds of other characters; thus,when the focal character leaves the room in a storywe must go, too, and cannot know what is going onwhile our eyes or camera is gone. A variation onthis, which generally has no name and is oftenlumped with the omniscient point of view, is thepoint of view that can wander like a camera fromone character to another and close in or move backbut cannot (or at least does not) get inside anyoneshead and does not present from the inside anycharacters thoughts.

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literary criticism

the evaluative or interpretive work written byprofessional interpreters of texts. It is criticism notbecause it is negative or corrective, but ratherbecause those who write criticism ask hard,analytical, crucial, or critical questions about theworks they read.

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litotesa figure of speech that emphasizes its subject byconscious understatement. An example fromcommon speech is to say Not bad as a form ofhigh praise.

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low (physical) comedyhumor that employs burlesque, horseplay, or therepresentation of unrefined life. See high (verbal)comedy.

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lyric

originally, a poem meant to be sung to theaccompaniment of a lyre; now, any short poem inwhich the speaker expresses intense personalemotion rather than describing a narrative ordramatic situation.

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major (main) characters those characters whom we see and learn about themost. NA

meditationa contemplation of some physical object as a way ofreflecting upon some larger truth, often (but notnecessarily) a spiritual one.

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memory devicesalso called mnemonic devices; these devicesincluding rhyme, repetitive phrasing, and meterwhen part of the structure of a longer work, makethat work easier to memorize.

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metaphor

(1) one thing pictured as if it were something else,suggesting a likeness or analogy between them; (2)an implicit comparison or identification of one thingwith another unlike itself without the use of a verbalsignal. Sometimes used as a general term for figureof speech.

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meter

the more or less regular pattern of stressed andunstressed syllables in a line of poetry. This isdetermined by the kind of foot (iambic anddactylic, for example) and by the number of feet perline (five feet = pentameter, six feet = hexameter, forexample).

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minor characters those figures who fill out the story but who do notfigure prominently in it. NA

modestyle, manner, way of proceeding, as in tragicmode; often used synonymously with genre, kind,and subgenre.

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monologuea speech of more than a few sentences, usually in aplay but also in other genres, spoken by one personand uninterrupted by the speech of anyone else. Seesoliloquy.

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motifa recurrent device, formula, or situation thatdeliberately connects a poem with common patternsof existing thought.

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myth

like allegory, myth usually is symbolic andextensive, including an entire work or story. Thoughit no longer is necessarily specific to or pervasive ina single cultureindividual authors may now besaid to create mythsmyth still seems communal orcultural, while the symbolic can often involve privateor personal myths. Thus stories more or less

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universally shared within a culture to explain itshistory and traditions are frequently called myths.

narrative structurea textual organization based on sequences ofconnected events usually presented in astraightforward chronological framework.

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narrator the character who tells the story. NA

natureas it refers to a person?it is his (or her) nature?arather old term suggesting something inborn,inherent, fixed, and thus predictable. See character,personality.

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occasional poem a poem written about or for a specific occasion,public or private. NA

octametera line of poetry with eight feet: Once u | pon a |midnight | dreary | while I | pondered, | weak and |weary (Poe, The Raven).

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octave the first eight lines of the Italian,or Petrarchan,sonnet. See also sestet. NA

odea lyric poem characterized by a serious topic andformal tone but no prescribed formal pattern. SeeKeatss odes and Shelleys Ode to the West Wind.

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oeuvre the sum total of works verifiably written by anauthor. See canon. NA

omniscient point of view

also called unlimited point of view; a perspectivethat can be seen from one characters view, thenanothers, then anothers, or can be moved in or outof any characters mind at any time. Organization inwhich the reader has access to the perceptions andthoughts of all the characters in the story.

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onomatopoeia a word capturing or approximating the sound ofwhat it describes; buzz is a good example. NA

orchestra in classical Greek theater, a semicircular area usedmostly for dancing by the chorus. NA

overplot a main plot in fiction or drama. NA

overstatement exaggerated language; also called hyperbole. NA

oxymoron a figure of speech that combines two apparentlycontradictory elements, as in wise fool (sophomore). NA

parable a short fiction that illustrates an explicit morallesson. NA

paradoxa statement that seems contradictory but mayactually be true, such as That I may rise and stand,oerthrow me in Donnes Batter My Heart.

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parodya work that imitates another work for comic effect byexaggerating the style and changing the content ofthe original.

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pastoral

a poem (also called an eclogue, a bucolic, or anidyll) that describes the simple life of country folk,usually shepherds who live a timeless, painless (andsheep-less) life in a world full of beauty, music, andlove.

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pastoral play a play that features the sort of idyllic world describedin the definition for pastoral. NA

pentameter a line of poetry with five feet: Nuns fret | not at |their con | vents nar | row room (Wordsworth). NA

personathe voice or figure of the author who tells andstructures the story and who may or may not sharethe values of the actual author.

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that which distinguishes or individualizes a person;

personality its qualities are judged not so much in terms of theirmoral value, as in character, but as to whether theyare pleasing or unpleasing.

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personification (or prosopopeia) treating an abstraction as if it werea person by endowing it with humanlike qualities. NA

Petrarchan sonnet

also called Italian sonnet; a sonnet form that dividesthe poem into one section of eight lines (octave) anda second section of six lines (sestet), usuallyfollowing the abbaabba cdecde rhyme scheme or,more loosely, an abbacddc pattern.

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plot/plot structure the arrangement of the action. NA

plot summary

a description of the arrangement of the action in theorder in which it actually appears in a story. Theterm is popularly used to mean the description of thehistory, or chronological order, of the action as itwould have appeared in reality. It is important toindicate exactly in which sense you are using theterm.

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plot time the temporal setting in which the action takes placein a story or play. NA

point of viewalso called focus; the point from which people,events, and other details in a story are viewed. Thisterm is sometimes used to include both focus andvoice.

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precision exactness, accuracy of language or description. NA

presentationthe second step in the creation of a character for thewritten text and the performed play; therepresentation of the character by the playwright inthe words and actions specified in the text.

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props articles and objects used on the stage. NA

proscenium arch an arch over the front of a stage; the prosceniumserves as a frame for the action on stage. NA

protagonistthe main character in a work, who may be male orfemale, heroic or not heroic. See antagonist, antihero,and hero/ heroine. Protagonist is the most neutralterm.

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protest poem a poetic attack, usually quite direct, on allegedlyunjust institutions or social injustices. NA

psychological realism

a modification of the concept of realism, or telling itlike it is, which recognizes that what is real to theindividual is that which he or she perceives. It is theground for the use of the centered consciousness, orthe first-person narrator, since both of these presentreality only as something perceived by the focalcharacter.

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reader time the actual time it takes a reader to read a work. NA

realismthe practice in literature of attempting to describenature and life without idealization and withattention to detail.

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red herring a false lead, something that misdirects expectations. NA

referentialwhen used to describe a poem, play, or story,referential means making textual use of a specifichistorical moment or event or, more broadly, makinguse of external, natural, or actual detail.

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reflective (meditative)structure

a textual organization based on the pondering of asubject, theme, or event, and letting the mind playwith it, skipping from one sound to another or torelated thoughts or objects as the mind receivesthem.

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represent to verbally depict an image so that readers can seeit. NA

rhetorical trope traditional figure of speech, used for specificpersuasive effects. NA

rhyme scheme the pattern of end rhymes in a poem, often noted bysmall letters, e.g., abab or abba, etc. NA

rhythm

the modulation of weak and strong (or stressed andunstressed) elements in the flow of speech. In mostpoetry written before the twentieth century, rhythmwas often expressed in regular, metrical forms; inprose and in free verse, rhythm is present but in amuch less predictable and regular manner.

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rising actionthe second of the five parts of plot structure, inwhich events complicate the situation that existed atthe beginning of a work, intensifying the conflict orintroducing new conflict.

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rite of passage

a ritual or ceremony marking an individuals passingfrom one stage or state to a more advanced one, oran event in ones life that seems to have suchsignificance; a formal initiation. Rites of passage arecommon in initiation stories.

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round characters

complex characters, often major characters, who cangrow and change and surprise convincinglythatis, act in a way that you did not expect from whathad gone before but now accept as possible, evenprobable, and realistic.

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sarcasm a form of verbal irony in which apparent praise isactually harshly or bitterly critical. NA

satire a literary work that holds up human failings toridicule and censure. NA

scanning/scansion Scansion is the process of scanning a poem,analyzing the verse to show its meter, line by line. NA

a character, you, who tells the story andnecessarily has a limited point of view; may be seen

second-person narrator as an extension of the reader, an external figureacting out a story, or an auditor; may also be anunreliable narrator.

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sestet the last six lines of the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet.See also octave. NA

sestina

an elaborate verse structure written in blank versethat consists of six stanzas of six lines each followedby a three-line stanza. The final words of each line inthe first stanza appear in variable order in the nextfive stanzas, and are repeated in the middle and atthe end of the three lines in the final stanza, as inElizabeth Bishops Sestina.

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set the design, decoration, and scenery of the stageduring a play. NA

setting the time and place of the action in a story, poem, orplay. NA

Shakespearean sonnet

also called an English sonnet; a sonnet form thatdivides the poem into three units of four lines eachand a final unit of two lines (4+4+4+2 structure). Itsclassic rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg, but thereare variations.

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shaped verse another name for concrete poetry; poetry that isshaped to look like an object. NA

similea direct, explicit comparison of one thing to another,usually using the words like or as to draw theconnection. See metaphor.

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situation the context of the literary works action, what ishappening when the story, poem, or play begins. NA

situational ironyin a narrative, the incongruity between what thereader and/or character expects to happen and whatactually does happen.

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skenea low building in the back of the stage area inclassical Greek theaters. It represented the palace ortemple in front of which the action took place.

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soliloquy a monologue in which the character in a play isalone and speaking only to him-or herself. NA

sonneta fixed verse form consisting of fourteen linesusually in iambic pentameter. See Italian sonnet andShakespearean sonnet.

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spatial setting the place of a poem, story, or play. NA

speaker the person, not necessarily the author, who is thevoice of a poem. NA

Spenserian stanzaa stanza that consists of eight lines of iambicpentameter (five feet) followed by a ninth line ofiambic hexameter (six feet). The rhyme scheme isababbcbcc.

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spondee a metrical foot consisting of a pair of stressedsyllables (Dead set). NA

stage directions

The words in the printed text of a play that informthe director, crew, actors, and readers how to stage,perform, or imagine the play. Stage directions arenot spoken aloud and may appear at the beginning ofa play, before any scene, or attached to a line ofdialogue. The place and time of the action, thedesign of the set itself, and at times the charactersactions or tone of voice are dictated through stagedirections and interpreted by the group of people thatput on a performance.

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stanza

a section of a poem demarcated by extra linespacing. Some distinguish between a stanza, adivision marked by a single pattern of meter orrhyme, and a verse paragraph, a division governedby thought rather than sound pattern.

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stereotype

a characterization based on conscious or unconsciousassumptions that some one aspectsuch as gender,age, ethnic or national identity, religion, occupation,marital status, and so onis predictablyaccompanied by certain character traits, actions, evenvalues.

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stock charactera character that appears in a number of stories orplays, such as the cruel stepmother, the braggart, andso forth.

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structure the organization or arrangement of the variouselements in a work. NA

stylea distinctive manner of expression; each authorsstyle is expressed through his/her diction, rhythm,imagery, and so on.

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subgenrea division within the category of a genre; novel,novella, and short story are subgenres of the genrefiction.

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subject

(1) the concrete and literal description of what astory is about; (2) the general or specific area ofconcern of a poemalso called topic; (3) also usedin fiction commentary to denote a character whoseinner thoughts and feelings are recounted.

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subplot another name for an underplot; a subordinate plot infiction or drama. NA

suspense the expectation of and doubt about what is going tohappen next. NA

syllabic versea form in which the poet establishes a precisenumber of syllables to a line and repeats it insubsequent stanzas.

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symbol

a person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literarywork that designates itself and at the same timefiguratively represents or stands for something NA

symbol else. Often the thing or idea represented is moreabstract, general, non-or superrational; the symbol,more concrete and particular.

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symbolic poema poem in which the use of symbols is so pervasiveand internally consistent that the larger referentialworld is distanced, if not forgotten.

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syntax the way words are put together to form phrases,clauses, and sentences. NA

technopaegnia the art of shaped poems in which the visual forceis supposed to work spiritually or magically. NA

temporal setting the time of a story, poem, or play. NA

terza rimaa verse form consisting of three-line stanzas inwhich the second line of each stanza rhymes with thefirst and third of the next.

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tetrameter a line of poetry with four feet: The Grass | divides |as with | a comb (Dickinson). NA

tetrameter coupletrhymed pairs of lines that contain (in classicaliambic, trochaic, and anapestic verse) four measuresof two feet or (in modern English verse) fourmetrical feet.

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theme(1) a generalized, abstract paraphrase of the inferredcentral or dominant idea or concern of a work; (2)the statement a poem makes about its subject.

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third-person narratora character, he or she, who tells the story; mayhave either a limited point of view or an omniscientpoint of view; may also be an unreliable narrator.

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thrust stage a stage design that allows the audience to sit aroundthree sides of the major acting area. NA

tone the attitude a literary work takes toward its subjectand theme. NA

topic(1) the concrete and literal description of what astory is about; (2) a poems general or specific areaof concern. Also called subject.

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tradition an inherited, established, or customary practice. NA

traditional symbolssymbols that, through years of usage, have acquiredan agreed-upon significance, an accepted meaning.See archetype.

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tragedy

a drama in which a character (usually a good andnoble person of high rank) is brought to a disastrousend in his or her confrontation with a superior force(fortune, the gods, social forces, universal values),but also comes to understand the meaning of his orher deeds and to accept an appropriate punishment.Often the protagonists downfall is a direct result ofa fatal flaw in his or her character.

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trochaic a metrical form in which the basic foot is a trochee. NA

trochee a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllablefollowed by an unstressed one (Homer). NA

turning pointthe third part of plot structure, the point at which theaction stops rising and begins falling or reversing.Also called climax.

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underplot a subordinate plot in fiction or drama. Also called asubplot. NA

understatement language that avoids obvious emphasis orembellishment; litotes is one form of it. NA

unity of time

one of the three unities of drama as described byAristotle in his Poetics. Unity of time refers to thelimitation of a plays action to a short period NA

usually the time it takes to present the play or, at anyrate, no longer than a day. See classical unities.

unlimited point of view

also called omniscient point of view; a perspectivethat can be seen from one characters view, thenanothers, then anothers, or can be moved in or outof any characters mind at any time. Organization inwhich the reader has access to the perceptions andthoughts of all the characters in the story.

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unreliable narrator

a speaker or voice whose vision or version of thedetails of a story are consciously or unconsciouslydeceiving; such a narrators version is usually subtlyundermined by details in the story or the readersgeneral knowledge of facts outside the story. If, forexample, the narrator were to tell you that Columbuswas Spanish and that he discovered America in thefourteenth century when his ship the Golden Hindlanded on the coast of Florida near present-dayGainesville, you might not trust other things he tellsyou.

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verbal ironya statement in which the literal meaning differs fromthe implicit meaning. See dramatic irony andsituational irony.

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verse paragraph see stanza. NA

villain the one who opposes the hero and heroinethat is,the bad guy. See antagonist and hero/heroine. NA

villanelle

a verse form consisting of nineteen lines divided intosix stanzasfive tercets (three-line stanzas) and onequatrain (four-line stanza). The first and third linesof the first tercet rhyme, and this rhyme is repeatedthrough each of the next four tercets and in the lasttwo lines of the concluding quatrain. The villanelle isalso known for its repetition of select lines. A goodexample of a twentieth-century villanelle is DylanThomass Do Not Go Gentle into That GoodNight.

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the acknowledged or unacknowledged source of a

voice storys words; the speaker; the person telling thestory.

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word order the positioning of words in relation to one another. NA