Novel A novel is fiction in a prose rather than in verse. It is narrative, it has characters, action, plot and is of a certain length.

Picaresque novel Picaro is Spanish for rouge. Tradition of the 16th century. Portray a sharp-witted rouge living off his wits, while travelling through a variety of low life settings. It is episodic, lacks sophisticated plot, complexity or character development. (Daniel Defoe - Moll Flanders) Epistolary novel It is told through letters exchanged between different characters. It flourished in the 18th century. (Samuel Richardson - Pamela) Historical novel Events and characters set in a well-defined historical context. May include both fictional and real characters. It has detailed description of the manners, buildings, institutions and scenery of its chosen setting. Attempts to convey a sense of historical verisimilitude. (Sir Walter Scott) Regional Novel Special focus of attention on the life of a particular well-defined geographical region. Charles Dickens descriptions of London. Satirical novel More concerned to draw attention to what he or she is attacking than to create characters, situations and events that are believable. (Mart Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) Bildungsroman Novel of formation and education. Concentrates on character development from early youth to maturity. (Charles Dickens -David Copperfield) Roman clef Novel with a key. It can be unlocked given the right key. It refers to real people, places or events in disguised form so that once one realizes what the work is about it all become apparent. (Thomas Mann - The magic mountain) Roman Noir Gothic novel. Introduces stock characters and situations from a horror film: gloomy medieval settings, ancient castles, secret rooms and passages ruled over by a sinister nobleman tortured by a guilty secret. Strongly supernatural elements. (Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto) Roman these Thesis novel. Has a particular thesis or argument underlying it. Concerned to encourage social reform, correction of a particular wrong. (Harriet Beecher Stow Uncle Toms Cabin, slavery in the US)

Roman Fleuve Series of sequence novel, that can be read individually, but deals with recurring characters and common events which for a sequence and which complement one another. (Balzac La Comedie Humaine) Roman Feuilletion Novel that is published in installments in unabridged form by a daily newspaper. Unusual today was more common in the 19th century. Science fiction Flourishing and still developing genre. Some links it to fantastic literature. It is characterized by settings involving interplanetary travel, advanced technology and usually set in the future. Its events are often convincible but not actual. (Jules Verne is considered father of sci-fi) Nouveau roman New novel. Recent development coming from France. Fictional compositions are deliberately distorted or flouted in order to disorient the reader and to achieve a different sort of effect. Metafiction Fiction about fiction. Novel or short novel that deliberately breaks fictive illusions and comments directly upon its own fictive nature an composition. Lawerence Sterne Tristam Shandy the narrator jokes and teases the reader in way like turn back pages for example. Faction Fact and fiction comes from American author Truman Capote like his own novel In cold Blood. Bring actual historical events to life for the reader and is on borderline between fact and fiction, but using imagined detail to increase readability and verisimilitude. Short story Can be read in one sitting. Limits itself to a brief span of time, rather than showing characters developing and maturing, it will show them at some moment of crisis. Rarely have complex plot. Focus is on a particular situation rather than a chain of events. Writer will use shock tactics like unexpected endings, dramatic unveilings or surprising plot twist. Narrative prose Describe an action or series of actions to tell a story. Descriptive prose Describes scenes, objects and people or even a persons feelings in a way that the reader can imagine them vividly.

Argumentative prose Its about ideas and not about actions or objects. A problem is presented, an argument is built logically around it and often the author draws conclusion from this, giving his view of the question. Character There are major or minor characters. Flat (undeveloped, with only a small feature to them) and round (with wider range of features), stock characters etc. Plot Is an ordered, organized sequence of events and actions. Type of plots to show different principles that can lie behind a novels plot. Conflict (Nostromo), mystery (many of Dickens novels), pursuit or search (The Castle), journey (Gullivers travels) or test (The Shadow Line) Structure It involves plot, thematic and form. It refers to our sense of a novels overall organization and patterning. The component parts fit together to produce a totality, a satisfying whole. Setting There are realistic, conventional and stylized settings. Highly realistic setting like Thomas Manns The Magic Mountain Theme Could be overt or covert. It can be consciously intended and indicated by the author or discovered by the reader/critic. Symbol and image

Speech and dialogue The novelist follows conventions in the representation of speech and dialogue. People in novels tend to talk in complete sentences with few indicated hesitations and mistakes of grammar, like um and er etc. Contrast Placing of opposite pictures side by side is often used to balance a narrative and keep the reader interested in two things at one. Two situations run parallel until they finally meet, often at the climax of the story. (Hemingway The old man and the sea) The ingredients of drama are characters represented by actors, action described by gestures and movement, thought implied by dialogue and action, spectacle represented by scenery and costume, audience who respond to this complex mixture. Drama is an experience in which we participate in many levels at once.

Tragedy Dramatic representation of serious and important actions, which turn out disastrously for the main character. Emphasize the nobility of the hero, fate, the wrong action of his with a resolution that includes death, exile etc. Tragi-comedy They do not adhere strictly to the structure of tragedy. It has some of the qualities of comedy. Comedy A dramatic form meant to entertain, we know that no great disaster will occur. Deals in an amusing way with ordinary characters in everyday situations. High comedy Comedy of manners marked by grace, wit and elegance. (Shakespeare Midsummer Nights Dream) Low comedy Coarse type of comedy used for comic relief. The mirth it provokes come from the belly rather than the brain. Contains violent actions and ribald jokes. Exploits peoples relish at seeing others humiliated or ridiculed. (Boccaccio Decameron, Chaucer The Canterbury Tales) Implied reader

Simile Direct comparison with the words: like and as. Metaphor Not direct comparison, only implied. The poet does not say the object is like another, he says it is another. Personification When inanimate objects are given a human form, or are made to speak. Alliteration Repetition of the same sound at frequent intervals. Rhyme Line endings in poetry. Words that have the same sound like night and sight, one syllable words called masculine rhymes. Two syllable words called feminine rhymes. Metre Regular arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Free verse No constant rhythmic pattern, no regular arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. Iambic pentameter U |, most commonly used in English. Couplets If the iambic pentameters rhyme in pairs. Stanza Group of lines shaped in a way that every group has the same number of lines, the same number of stressed syllables and the same pattern of rhymes. Sonnet Consists of 14 lines. Petrarchan and the Shakespearean sonnet forms. Poetry Cannot be identified by shape or any other characteristics. A poem is a sequence of words that the reader must try to understand. Anagnorosis

Catastrophe The final resolution of a plot in a tragedy. Usually involving a death. Characterization A representation of a person in dramatic works. Comedy of manners Kind of comedy representing the complex and sophisticated code of behaviour current in fashionable circles of society, where appearances count for more than true moral character. It revolves around lust and greed. Crisis A decisive point in the plot of a play or story, upon which the outcome of the remaining action depends. Denouement The clearing up of the complications of the plot in a play or story; usually a final scene or chapter in which mysteries, confusions, and doubtful destinies are clarified. Diction The choice of words used in a literary work.

Didactic Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive. Most European literary works of the Middle Ages have a strong didactic element, usually doctrines of the Church. Figure of speech

Form

Genre A literary genre is a recognizable and established category of written work. Gynocritics The branch of modern feminist literary studies that focuses on women as writers, as distinct from the feminist critique of male authors. Hero/Heroine The main character in a narrative or dramatic work. The more neutral term is protagonist is often preferable. Imagism

Implied author

Irony Literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions is clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character. Metonymy Used to replace the name of one thing with the name of something else closely associated with it, e.g. the bottle for alcoholic drink, the press for journalism etc. Motif A recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature. A motif may also be two contrasting elements in a work, such as good and evil. New historicism

Nonsense verse A kind of humorous poetry that amuses by deliberately using strange nonexistent words and illogical ideas. Peripeteia A sudden reversal of a character's circumstances and fortunes. Point of view The position or vantage-point from which the events of a story seem to be observed and presented to us. Post-structuralism Reader response criticism Satire The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Style

Syntax The way in which words and clauses are ordered and connected so as to form sentences; or the set of grammatical rules governing such word-order. Theme Common thread or repeated idea throughout a literary work. A theme is a thought or idea the author presents to the reader. Generally, a theme has to be extracted as the reader explores the passages of a work. Tone The mood or atmosphere of a work, although in some uses it refers to the author's attitude to the reader (e.g.formal, intimate)or to the subject-matter (e.g.ironic, light, solemn, satiric, sentimental). Tragic flaw The defect of character that brings the protagonist's downfall in a tragedy (Othello's jealousy is a famous example). Verse