English 509: Fall 2004

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Syllabus

Important Terms




Important Literary Terms
Listed below are some common (and not so common) literary terms that you should be familiar with.  This is, of course, not a complete list of terms – it is simply a list of terms that I will expect you to be ready to use in discussion and papers.  If you cannot define these terms, be sure to look them up.  It’s a good idea to have a dictionary of literary terms on hand in any case, but if you don’t have one, you can also find a number of them at the library.  I’ve listed some here:

•    The concise Oxford dictionary of literary terms [electronic resource] / Chris Baldick.  INTERNET
     DATABASE

•    A glossary of literary terms / M.H. Abrams.  PN41 .A184 1988
•    Literary terms : a dictionary / by Karl Beckson and Arthur Ganz. PN41 .B334 1975 REFERENCE  
•    A dictionary of literary terms / J. A. Cuddon.  PN41 .C83 1977B REFERENCE
•    The Bedford glossary of critical and literary terms / Ross Murfin, Supryia M. Ray.      PN44.5 .M86
      1998

•    Literary terms and criticism: a student's guide / John Peck and Martin Coyle. PN44.5 .P38 1984
•    A handbook of literary terms / compiled by H. L. Yelland, S. C. J. Jones and K. S. W. Easton. 
     PN44.5 .Y4 1966

•    Critical terms for literary study / edited by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin.  PN81 .C84
     1995


Terms:
 
•    Alliteration
•    Allusion
•    Anadiplosis
•    Analogy
•    Anaphora
•    Antagonist
•    Antithesis
•    Aphorism
•    Apostrophe
•    Assonance
•    Ballad
•    Bardolatry
•    Blank Verse
•    Blazon
•    Caesura
•    Conceit (n.)
•    Consonance
•    Couplet
•    Doggerel
•    Dramatic Monologue
•    End-rhyme
•    End-stopped
•    Enjambment
•    Folio
•    Foot
•    Genre
•    Heroic Couplet
•    Hyperbole
•    Iamb
•    Imagery
•    In Medias Res
•    Irony
•    Kenning
•    Litotes
•    Lyric
•    Masque
•    Metaphor
•    Meter (Metre)
•    Metonymy
•    Monologue
•    Octavo
•    Onomatopoeia
•    Oral tradition
•    Oxymoron
•    Panegyric
•    Paradox
•    Parody
•    Pastoral
•    Pentameter
•    Personification
•    Petrarchan
•    Prologue
•    Prose
•    Prosody
•    Pun
•    Quarto
•    Scansion
•    Satire
•    Simile
•    Soliloquy
•    Sonnet
•    Stanza
•    Synecdoche
•    Synonym
•    Wit