Glossary of Terms

This glossary includes basic definitions of terms pertaining to literature and essays about literature. To learn more about how these terms apply within the context of a particular genre and to see additional illustrations of these terms, please visit the general, fiction, poetry or drama sections of this web site.

Argument

A literary “argument” is your specific approach to the literary selection that you are discussing. It is synonymous with your thesis statement, the central idea that you are developing in your essay. For example, if your thesis statement for Kate Chopin’s “The Story Of An Hour” is that “Louise Mallard’s reaction to the news of her husband’s death reflects her changing attitude about her role as a proper wife,” your argument will focus on your reasons for supporting this idea.

In writing a literary essay, you need to discuss the component parts of the selection you have chosen. Your analysis requires explanation, interpretation and commentary. In particular, your analysis should focus on various literary characteristics: characterization, plot development, narrative techniques, themes, symbolism, etc. For example, you could discuss Mrs. Mallard’s character change in “The Story Of an Hour” (a short story); you could discuss gender role themes in “A Doll’s House” (a drama); or you could discuss symbols that Edward Arlington Robinson uses in “Richard Cory” (a poem).

Characterization

Literary characters are fictional creations—imaginatively created, of course, but with real human characteristics. As real human beings, they behave according to psychological impulses and fictional events that affect their lives. Literary characters may undergo significant change or remain unchanged during the course of a short story or novel or drama.

Citation

Immediately after quoting or paraphrasing from a primary or secondary source, include relevant information within parentheses. (See Fiction, Poetry or Darma for models.)

Comedy

A comedy is a humorous play that shows the foibles and peculiarities of human beings and events, for example, A Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Odd Couple.

Criticism  (See also “Secondary Sources” below.)

Criticism is an analysis that seeks to evaluate or interpret the meaning and/or worth of a literary text. You may be asked to locate and use critical articles for a literary paper. (See the OCC Library website (“Research Resources and Guides for Specific Classes”: English 152 page)   for titles of reference volumes and online data bases that provide critical articles for literary research.)

Critical Approaches (For more detailed explanations, refer to your literature anthology.)

There are several critical approaches that may be used in analyzing literature. The following are brief definitions of five common critical approaches.  If you are asked to use a particular type of criticism, study the literary work to discover how it reflects that particular perspective. For example, if you use gender criticism, you would emphasize the effect of the social roles that men and women play in your analysis.

·        Formalist criticism focuses on interpreting the meaning of text and
    evaluating its literary merit, without considering such issues as historical
    background. A formalist critical approach generally involves studying the
    structural elements of a literary work (plot, setting, characterization,
    point of view, etc.)

·        Gender criticism focuses on social roles that men and women play--
    husband, wife, father, mother, friend, lover, worker or citizen—and how
    these roles affect the development of character, plot, etc.

·        Historical criticism focuses on actual historical events that may affect the
    development of character, plot, etc.

·        Psychological criticism focuses on a character’s motivation or other
    psychological issues that affect his or her behavior. For example,
    psychological criticism might address the subconscious source of Hamlet’s
    melancholy.

·        Reader-response criticism focuses on the perceived interaction among the
    reader, the author and the text of a literary selection.

Diction

Diction refers to a writer’s particular word choices in a literary text.  Generally, literary diction can be assigned one of three levels: high (formal) diction contains formal or abstract word choices (for example, “offspring”); middle (semi-formal) diction contains standard word choices (for example, “child”); and low (informal) diction contains informal, sub-standard, or dialectical word choices (for example, “kid”).

Direct Quotation  (See also “Paraphrase” below.)

In a direct quotation, a passage from a text is inserted verbatim (i.e., word-for-word) in an essay. Be sure to enclose direct quotations within quotation marks. (See also “Long Quotations.”) You should include verbatim quotations from the primary source--i.e., the literary selection that you are analyzing-- whenever such quotations are appropriate. However, when quoting from secondary sources, limit direct quotations to no more than ten to fifteen percent of your paper (although you may paraphrase additional information from secondary sources).

Drama

Drama is a type of literature (i.e., a literary genre) that includes plays about humorous, serious or tragic subject matter. (Examples: Comedy Of Errors, Fences or Oedipus The King). Of course, dramatic literature can be read, but it can also be performed.

Ellipsis

An ellipsis is the use of three dots that indicate the omission of one or more words from a quoted passage. For example, in “The Story Of An Hour,” Chopin narrates that Mrs. Mallard “wept…with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” When you omit a portion of text, be sure that the omitted words do not distort the author’s meaning or create a sentence fragment error.

Genre

In-text Citation

(See “Citation” above.)

An introductory head note is an editor’s critical, biographical or historical introduction to a literary text. When quoted, a head note must be attributed to the editor of the text, not to the author of the work of literature.

Long Quotation

Long quotations of more than four typed lines should be indented ten spaces after an introduction by a lead-in sentence and a colon. (Press the Tab key twice instead of once to indent ten spaces.) You do not need to use quotation marks because the indented form indicates that the material is quoted. (Of course, if there are quotation marks in the quoted text, you should include them.)

Example (from Daniel Deneau’s critical article on “The Story of an Hour”):

          One critic analyzes Louise Mallard’s newfound freedom: And,
          as more sophisticated readers may ask, is the degree of
          "self-assertion" or freedom that she thinks she has attained
          a real possibility in a world of normal human relationships?
          Obviously readers’ preconceptions about love and marriage
          and independence will dictate different answers to these
          questions. (Deneau)*

*Note that the period precedes the in-text citation when you use the long indented form for a quotation.  Note also that specific page references may be omitted for relatively short Internet articles.

Meter

Meter consists of rhythmic patterns in lines of poetry.  A poem’s dominant meter may be analyzed by marking the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in the poem’s words and then noting repeated patterns.  Stressed syllables generally are marked with a right slash (/); unstressed syllables generally are marked with a broad u-shaped symbol  (u).

Example:

The opening lines of the poem, “Richard Cory,” basically follow an exact metrical count; therefore, from them a pattern of five metrical feet (sets of accented and unaccented syllables) may be established for the poem.

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is a category of prose writing that explains real issues, such as political, economic, scientific or social problems. It is based on factual information, rather than on imaginative content (although  non-fiction writing can certainly be creative).

Paraphrase  (See also “Direct Quotation” above and “Summary” below.)

A paraphrase is a line-by-line restatement or rewording of an original text.  Paraphrase is used especially in referring to secondary critical sources. Between forty and fifty percent of your literary essay may be obtained from paraphrased information from critical sources.

Poetic form consists of the structural elements that comprise a poem.  These include imagery, figurative language, poetic speaker, tone, meter, and sound devices.

Point of View

Primary Source

A primary source in literature is an original text—a short story, novel, poem, play or memoir—which you will read and analyze. Examples: Kate Chopin’s short story, "The Story Of An Hour"; Arthur Miller’s play, Death Of A Salesman; and Edward Arlington Robinson’s poem, "Richard Cory."

A quotation within quoted text requires single quotation marks, but the double quotation marks are still required for the entire quotation.

Example: "She [Mrs. Mallard] said it over and over under her breath: ‘Free, free, free!’"*

*Note especially the way that the single and double quotation marks close consecutively after the exclamation point.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the musical flow of syllabic intonation and accent in poetic lines.

A secondary source is an analytical or critical text that explains or interprets the primary source. Secondary sources can be found in collections of essays in books, in academic journals, and in online data bases. Secondary sources may also include biographical information about an author’s background.

The following is an example from a critical article by Daniel Deneau:

Critic Daniel Deneau identifies a turning point in "Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour":  "At one crucial point, however, this relatively clear and realistic story becomes problematic, perhaps even enigmatic—that is, the passage in which Chopin attempts to account for the direct cause of Louise’s awakening" (2).

Symbol

A literary symbol is an object or an idea that represents something about a character or a fictional issue. For example, in Kate Chopin’s “The Story Of An Hour,” the signs of spring that Mrs. Mallard sees from her bedroom window (“the tops of trees that were all aquiver”) represent a reawakening or new beginning in her life.

Titles of texts are presented according to literary genre.

• Short Stories: Capitalize and place quotation marks around the title of a short story:
  "The Story of an Hour"

• Novels: Capitalize and either underline or italicize the title of a novel:
  The Scarlet Letter
  The Scarlet Letter


• Poems: Capitalize and place quotation marks around the title of a poem:"Richard Cory"

• Drama: Capitalize and either underline or italicize the title of a play:       
Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman

Tragedy (for example, Hamlet) is a serious play that (in the classical sense) involves a heroic or noble character who suffers a fall or major defeat. A modern tragedy, such as Death of a Salesman, may have an ordinary human being as the protagonist.

The “Works Cited” page is presented at the conclusion of your essay. It contains an alphabetized listing of all the books and articles that you have actually quoted, paraphrased or summarized, as well as the primary source that is the topic of your paper. A “Works Cited” list is not the same as a bibliography, which is a reading list of appropriate sources.MLA Guidelines