Literary Terms, IRI-MIL
Want to be able to distinguish your limericks from your haikus and your paeans from your panegyrics? Dive deep into literary terms and forms.
Literary Terms Encyclopedia Articles By Title
Irish literature
Irish literature, the body of written works produced in Ireland or by Irish writers. This article discusses Irish......
irony
irony, linguistic and literary device, in spoken or written form, in which real meaning is concealed or contradicted.......
irregular ode
irregular ode, a rhymed ode that employs neither the three-part form of the Pindaric ode nor the two- or four-line......
Is cow tipping real?
Perhaps youâve heard stories of cow tipping. Peopleâusually young men and perhaps after a few beersâgo into fields......
Is Sinclair Lewisâs Most Famous Work Any Good?
One critique of Sinclair Lewisâs It Canât Happen Here is its lack of subtlety. Lewisâs novel, published in 1935,......
Is the Odyssey a True Story?
The short answer is that nobody knows if any of itâthe Trojan War and Odysseusâs subsequent meandering homeward......
Italian literature
Italian literature, the body of written works produced in the Italian language that had its beginnings in the 13th......
- Introduction
- Comic Verse, Poetry, Satire
- Petrarch, Poetry, Humanism
- Renaissance, Poetry, Humanism
- Renaissance, Epic, Lyric
- Baroque, Epic, Comedy
- Enlightenment, Neoclassicism, Satire
- Romanticism, Realism, Nationalism
- Risorgimento, Unification, Realism
- Modernism, Futurism, Neorealism
- Hermetic, Renaissance, Poetry
- Renaissance, Humanism, Poetry
- Experimentalism, Avant-Garde, Postmodernism
- Theatre, Comedy, Tragedy
- 21st Century Fiction
- Renaissance, Humanism, Poetry
Jack-oâ-lantern
Jack-oâ-lantern, in meteorology, a mysterious light seen at night flickering over marshes; when approached, it......
Jacobean literature
Jacobean literature, body of works written during the reign of James I of England (1603â25). The successor to Elizabethan......
Japanese literature
Japanese literature, the body of written works produced by Japanese authors in Japanese or, in its earliest beginnings,......
jazz poetry
jazz poetry, poetry that is read to the accompaniment of jazz music. Authors of such poetry attempt to emulate......
jongleur
jongleur, professional storyteller or public entertainer in medieval France, often indistinguishable from the trouvĂšre.......
journal
journal, an account of day-to-day events or a record of experiences, ideas, or reflections kept regularly for private......
journalism
At its most basic, journalism is the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and information to the public.......
jueju
jueju, a Chinese verse form that was popular during the Tang dynasty (618â907). An outgrowth of the lĂŒshi, it is......
jump rope rhyme
jump rope rhyme, any of innumerable chants and rhymes used by children, traditionally girls, to accompany the game......
Juvenalian satire
Juvenalian satire, in literature, any bitter and ironic criticism of contemporary persons and institutions that......
Kailyard school
Kailyard school, late 19th-century movement in Scottish fiction characterized by a sentimental idealization of......
Kannada literature
Kannada literature, the literature written in Kannada, which, like the other languages of South India, is of the......
katauta
katauta, a Japanese poetic form that consists of 17 or 19 syllables arranged in three lines of either 5, 7, and......
kavya
kavya, highly artificial Sanskrit literary style employed in the court epics of India from the early centuries......
Kazakh literature
Kazakh literature, the body of literature, both oral and written, produced in the Kazakh language by the Kazakh......
kenning
kenning, concise compound or figurative phrase replacing a common noun, especially in Old Germanic, Old Norse,......
khamseh
khamseh, in Persian and Turkish literature, a set of five long epic poems composed in rhyming couplet, or masÌnavÄ«,......
Khmer literature
Khmer literature, body of literary works of Khmer peoples of Southeast Asia, mainly Cambodia. The classical literature......
Klephtic ballad
Klephtic ballad, any of the songs and poems extolling the adventures of the Klephts, Greek nationalists living......
kobold
kobold, in German folklore, mischievous household spirit who usually helps with chores and gives other valuable......
Korean literature
Korean literature, the body of works written by Koreans, at first in Classical Chinese, later in various transcription......
Kuruc song
Kuruc song, any of the poems celebrating the adventurous life of the Kurucs, Hungarian partisans who fought against......
Kyrgyz literature
Kyrgyz literature, the written works of the Kyrgyz people of Central Asia, most of whom live in Kyrgyzstan. A smaller......
kyrielle
kyrielle, a French verse form in short, usually octosyllabic, rhyming couplets. The couplets are often paired in......
KĂŒnstlerroman
KĂŒnstlerroman, (German: âartistâs novelâ), class of Bildungsroman, or apprenticeship novel, that deals with the......
lament
lament, a nonnarrative poem expressing deep grief or sorrow over a personal loss. The form developed as part of......
lampoon
lampoon, virulent satire in prose or verse that is a gratuitous and sometimes unjust and malicious attack on an......
Lao literature
Lao literature, body of literature written in Lao, one of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia and the official......
Latin American literature
Latin American literature, the national literatures of the Spanish-speaking countries of the Western Hemisphere.......
- Introduction
- Chronicles, Discovery, Conquest
- Historians, New World, Colonialism
- Enlightenment, Colonialism, Revolution
- Plays, Theater, Drama
- 19th Century, Realism, Romanticism
- 20th Century, Magic Realism, Boom
- Modern Novel, Magical Realism, Postcolonialism
- Boom Novels, Magic Realism, Postmodernism
- Modern Essay, Magic Realism, Postcolonialism
Latin literature
Latin literature, the body of writings in Latin, primarily produced during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire,......
Latvian literature
Latvian literature, body of writings in the Latvian language. Latviaâs loss of political independence in the 13th......
lauda
lauda, a type of Italian poetry or a nonliturgical devotional song in praise of the Virgin Mary, Christ, or the......
lay
lay, in medieval French literature, a short romance, usually written in octosyllabic verse, that dealt with subjects......
legend
legend, traditional story or group of stories told about a particular person or place. Formerly the term legend......
LehrstĂŒck
LehrstĂŒck, a form of drama that is specifically didactic in purpose and that is meant to be performed outside the......
leonine verse
leonine verse, Latin or French verse in which the last word in the line rhymes with the word just before the caesura......
leprechaun
leprechaun, in Irish folklore, fairy in the form of a tiny old man often with a cocked hat and leather apron. Solitary......
lifestyle journalism
Lifestyle sections generally were introduced into American daily newspapers in the 1970s and typically evolved......
light verse
light verse, poetry on trivial or playful themes that is written primarily to amuse and entertain and that often......
limerick
limerick, a popular form of short, humorous verse that is often nonsensical and frequently ribald. It consists......
lipogram
lipogram, a written text deliberately composed of words not having a certain letter (such as the Odyssey of Tryphiodorus,......
List of 10 Old Wivesâ Tales
Old wivesâ tales are traditional beliefs that are not based on fact. They are a form of superstition or cultural......
List of Agatha Christie Mystery Books
English author Agatha Christie is widely regarded as the queen of mysteries. She wrote about 70 detective novels......
List of Byronic Heroes
A moody and brooding outcast. A haunted heartthrob. A rebel with or without a cause. A man hell-bent on destruction,......
List of Day Jobs of Famous Writers
The life of a writer is often stereotyped as one of self-imposed seclusion, bottomless cups of coffee (or something......
list of films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Costumed heroes have appeared in films since the Golden Age of Hollywood, with crimefighters such as the Shadow,......
List of first lines of famous literary works
âUtility ought to be the principal intention of every publication.â So reads the first line in the preface of the......
list of science-fiction writers
This is a list of science-fiction writers, ordered alphabetically by...
List of Unfinished Works
On an autumn day in 1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge began writing the poem âKubla Khan,â which he claimed to have......
literary criticism
literary criticism, the reasoned consideration of literary works and issues. It applies, as a term, to any argumentation......
literary journalism
literary journalism, a wide-ranging category that can include journalism, memoirs and other autobiographical writing,......
literary sketch
literary sketch, short prose narrative, often an entertaining account of some aspect of a culture written by someone......
literature
In its simplest definition literature is a body of written works. However, the name has traditionally been applied......
literature, popular
popular literature, any written work that is read, or is intended to be read, by a mass audience. In its broadest......
Lithuanian literature
Lithuanian literature, body of writings in the Lithuanian language. In the grand duchy of Lithuania, which stretched......
litotes
litotes, a figure of speech, conscious understatement in which emphasis is achieved by negation; examples are the......
littérature engagée
littĂ©rature engagĂ©e, (French: âengaged literatureâ), literature of commitment, popularized in the immediate post-World......
liveblogging
Liveblogs are a news format that is native to the Web and is now an established part of the news ecology in many......
local colour
local colour, style of writing derived from the presentation of the features and peculiarities of a particular......
local journalism
Local journalism is broadly defined as a professional practice and a product that is specific to a geographic area......
long metre
long metre, in poetry, a quatrain in iambic tetrameter with the second and fourth lines rhyming and often the first......
longform journalism
Longform journalism is a relatively recent name for a journalistic genre that goes by many names: literary journalism,......
low comedy
low comedy, dramatic or literary entertainment with no underlying purpose except to provoke laughter by boasting,......
lyric
lyric, a verse or poem that is, or supposedly is, susceptible of being sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument......
lĂŒshi
lĂŒshi, a form of Chinese poetry that flourished in the Tang dynasty (618â907). It consists of eight lines of five......
macaronic
macaronic, originally, comic Latin verse form characterized by the introduction of vernacular words with appropriate......
Macedonian literature
Macedonian literature, literature written in the South Slavic Macedonian language. The earliest Macedonian literature,......
MacGuffin
MacGuffin, element in a work of fiction that drives the plot and motivates the characters despite being relatively......
magazine journalism
Magazine journalism refers to the practice of producing journalistic content for magazines, typically emphasizing......
magic realism
magic realism, chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion......
mahakavya
mahakavya, a particular form of the Sanskrit literary style known as kavya. It is a short epic similar to the epyllion......
malapropism
malapropism, verbal blunder in which one word is replaced by another similar in sound but different in meaning.......
Malayalam literature
Malayalam literature, body of writing in the Malayalam language of South India. The earliest extant literary work......
manga
manga, individual comic strip, comic book, or graphic novel originating in Japan or, collectively, Japanese comic......
manners, comedy of
comedy of manners, witty, cerebral form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and affectations......
maqÄmah
maqÄmah, Arabic literary genre in which entertaining anecdotes, often about rogues, mountebanks, and beggars, written......
Marathi literature
Marathi literature, body of writing in the Indo-Aryan Marathi language of India. With Bengali literature, Marathi......
Marinism
Marinism, (Italian: â17th centuryâ), style of the 17th-century poet Giambattista Marino (q.v.) as it first appeared......
marwysgafn
marwysgafn, (Welsh: âdeathbed songâ), religious ode in which the poet, sensing the approach of death, confesses......
masculine rhyme
masculine rhyme, in verse, a monosyllabic rhyme or a rhyme that occurs only in stressed final syllables (such as......
Massive Tomes: 10 of the Worldâs Longest Novels
If youâre a book lover, youâve probably been asked the eternal bookwormâs question: If you were stranded on a desert......
masÌnavÄ«
masÌnavÄ«, a series of distichs (couplets) in rhymed pairs (aa, bb, cc, and so on) that makes up a characteristic......
melodrama
melodrama, in Western theatre, sentimental drama with an improbable plot that concerns the vicissitudes suffered......
Memoir
Memoir, history or record composed from personal observation and experience. Closely related to, and often confused......
Menippean satire
Menippean satire, seriocomic genre, chiefly in ancient Greek literature and Latin literature, in which contemporary......
mermaid
mermaid, a fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a human being and the tail of a fish. Similar......
mester de clerecĂa
mester de clerecĂa, poetic mode in Castilian literature of the mid-13th to 14th centuries known for its scholarship......
mester de juglarĂa
mester de juglarĂa, popular poetic mode in Castilian literature that was developed by Castilian minstrels between......
metaphor
metaphor, figure of speech that implies comparison between two unlike entities, as distinguished from simile, an......
metonymy
metonymy, (from Greek metĆnymia, âchange of name,â or âmisnomerâ), figure of speech in which the name of an object......
metre
metre, in poetry, the rhythmic pattern of a poetic line. Various principles, based on the natural rhythms of language,......
Middle Comedy
Middle Comedy, style of drama that prevailed in Athens from about 400 bc to about 320 bc. Preoccupied with social......
Miles Gloriosus
Miles Gloriosus, stock figure in theatrical comedies from Roman times to the present whose name derives from a......