Literary Terms, KYR-NOB
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
kyrielle, a French verse form in short, usually octosyllabic, rhyming couplets. The couplets are often paired in......
Künstlerroman, (German: “artist’s novel”), class of Bildungsroman, or apprenticeship novel, that deals with the......
lament, a nonnarrative poem expressing deep grief or sorrow over a personal loss. The form developed as part of......
lampoon, virulent satire in prose or verse that is a gratuitous and sometimes unjust and malicious attack on an......
Lao literature, body of literature written in Lao, one of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia and the official......
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, the body of writings in Latin, primarily produced during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire,......
Latvian literature, body of writings in the Latvian language. Latvia’s loss of political independence in the 13th......
lauda, a type of Italian poetry or a nonliturgical devotional song in praise of the Virgin Mary, Christ, or the......
lay, in medieval French literature, a short romance, usually written in octosyllabic verse, that dealt with subjects......
legend, traditional story or group of stories told about a particular person or place. Formerly the term legend......
Lehrstück, a form of drama that is specifically didactic in purpose and that is meant to be performed outside the......
leonine verse, Latin or French verse in which the last word in the line rhymes with the word just before the caesura......
leprechaun, in Irish folklore, fairy in the form of a tiny old man often with a cocked hat and leather apron. Solitary......
light verse, poetry on trivial or playful themes that is written primarily to amuse and entertain and that often......
limerick, a popular form of short, humorous verse that is often nonsensical and frequently ribald. It consists......
lipogram, a written text deliberately composed of words not having a certain letter (such as the Odyssey of Tryphiodorus,......
Old wives’ tales are traditional beliefs that are not based on fact. They are a form of superstition or cultural......
This is a list of science-fiction writers, ordered alphabetically by...
literary criticism, the reasoned consideration of literary works and issues. It applies, as a term, to any argumentation......
literary sketch, short prose narrative, often an entertaining account of some aspect of a culture written by someone......
literature, a body of written works. The name has traditionally been applied to those imaginative works of poetry......
popular literature, any written work that is read, or is intended to be read, by a mass audience. In its broadest......
Lithuanian literature, body of writings in the Lithuanian language. In the grand duchy of Lithuania, which stretched......
litotes, a figure of speech, conscious understatement in which emphasis is achieved by negation; examples are the......
littérature engagée, (French: “engaged literature”), literature of commitment, popularized in the immediate post-World......
local colour, style of writing derived from the presentation of the features and peculiarities of a particular......
long metre, in poetry, a quatrain in iambic tetrameter with the second and fourth lines rhyming and often the first......
low comedy, dramatic or literary entertainment with no underlying purpose except to provoke laughter by boasting,......
lyric, a verse or poem that is, or supposedly is, susceptible of being sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument......
lüshi, a form of Chinese poetry that flourished in the Tang dynasty (618–907). It consists of eight lines of five......
macaronic, originally, comic Latin verse form characterized by the introduction of vernacular words with appropriate......
Macedonian literature, literature written in the South Slavic Macedonian language. The earliest Macedonian literature,......
MacGuffin, element in a work of fiction that drives the plot and motivates the characters despite being relatively......
magic realism, chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion......
mahakavya, a particular form of the Sanskrit literary style known as kavya. It is a short epic similar to the epyllion......
malapropism, verbal blunder in which one word is replaced by another similar in sound but different in meaning.......
Malayalam literature, body of writing in the Malayalam language of South India. The earliest extant literary work......
manga, individual comic strip, comic book, or graphic novel originating in Japan or, collectively, Japanese comic......
comedy of manners, witty, cerebral form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and affectations......
maqāmah, Arabic literary genre in which entertaining anecdotes, often about rogues, mountebanks, and beggars, written......
Marathi literature, body of writing in the Indo-Aryan Marathi language of India. With Bengali literature, Marathi......
Marinism, (Italian: “17th century”), style of the 17th-century poet Giambattista Marino (q.v.) as it first appeared......
marwysgafn, (Welsh: “deathbed song”), religious ode in which the poet, sensing the approach of death, confesses......
masculine rhyme, in verse, a monosyllabic rhyme or a rhyme that occurs only in stressed final syllables (such as......
If you’re a book lover, you’ve probably been asked the eternal bookworm’s question: If you were stranded on a desert......
mas̄navī, a series of distichs (couplets) in rhymed pairs (aa, bb, cc, and so on) that makes up a characteristic......
melodrama, in Western theatre, sentimental drama with an improbable plot that concerns the vicissitudes suffered......
memoir, history or record composed from personal observation and experience. Closely related to, and often confused......
Menippean satire, seriocomic genre, chiefly in ancient Greek literature and Latin literature, in which contemporary......
mermaid, a fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a human being and the tail of a fish. Similar......
mester de clerecía, poetic mode in Castilian literature of the mid-13th to 14th centuries known for its scholarship......
mester de juglaría, popular poetic mode in Castilian literature that was developed by Castilian minstrels between......
metaphor, figure of speech that implies comparison between two unlike entities, as distinguished from simile, an......
metonymy, (from Greek metōnymia, “change of name,” or “misnomer”), figure of speech in which the name of an object......
metre, in poetry, the rhythmic pattern of a poetic line. Various principles, based on the natural rhythms of language,......
Middle Comedy, style of drama that prevailed in Athens from about 400 bc to about 320 bc. Preoccupied with social......
Miles Gloriosus, stock figure in theatrical comedies from Roman times to the present whose name derives from a......
Milesian tale, originally one of a group of works written in Greek by Aristides of Miletus (2nd century bc), consisting......
minstrel, (from Latin ministerium, “service”), between the 12th and 17th centuries, a professional entertainer......
miracle play, one of three principal kinds of vernacular drama of the European Middle Ages (along with the mystery......
mirror for princes, genre of advice literature that outlines basic principles of conduct for rulers and of the......
miscellany, a collection of writings on various subjects. One of the first and best-known miscellanies in English......
mock-epic, form of satire that adapts the elevated heroic style of the classical epic poem to a trivial subject.......
det moderne gennembrud, literary movement, beginning about 1870, dominated by the Danish critic Georg Brandes,......
Modernist literature, the body of written works produced during Modernism, a period of experimentation in the arts......
Mongolian literature, the written works produced in any of the Mongolian languages of present-day Mongolia; the......
Monk’s Tale stanza, a stanza of eight five-stress lines with the rhyme scheme ababbcbc. The type was established......
monodrama, a drama acted or designed to be acted by a single person. A number of plays by Samuel Beckett, including......
monogatari, Japanese works of fiction, especially those written from the Heian to the Muromachi periods (794–1573).......
monologue, in literature and drama, an extended speech by one person. The term has several closely related meanings.......
monometer, a rare form of verse in which each line consists of a single metrical unit (a foot or dipody). The best-known......
monorhyme, a strophe or poem in which all the lines have the same end rhyme. Monorhymes are rare in English but......
morality play, an allegorical drama popular in Europe especially during the 15th and 16th centuries, in which the......
moro-moro, the earliest known form of organized theatre in the Philippines; it was created by Spanish priests.......
mosaic rhyme, a type of multiple rhyme in which a single multisyllabic word is made to rhyme with two or more words,......
muckraker, any of a group of American writers identified with pre-World War I reform and exposé literature. The......
muwashshaḥ, (Arabic: “ode”), an Arabic poetic genre in strophic form developed in Muslim Spain in the 11th and......
mystery play, one of three principal kinds of vernacular drama in Europe during the Middle Ages (along with the......
mystery story, ages-old popular genre of tales dealing with the unknown as revealed through human or worldly dilemmas;......
Märchen, folktale characterized by elements of magic or the supernatural, such as the endowment of a mortal character......
nanxi, one of the first fully developed forms of Chinese drama. Nanxi emerged in the area around Wenzhou in southern......
narratology, in literary theory, the study of narrative structure. Narratology looks at what narratives have in......
narrator, one who tells a story. In a work of fiction the narrator determines the story’s point of view. If the......
National Book Awards, annual awards given to books of the highest quality written by Americans and published by......
Nayanar, any of the Tamil poet-musicians of the 7th and 8th centuries ce who composed devotional hymns of great......
Nebula Award, any of various annual awards presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).......
negative capability, a writer’s ability, “which Shakespeare possessed so enormously,” to accept “uncertainties,......
Negritude, literary movement of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s that began among French-speaking African and Caribbean......
Neorealism, Italian literary and cinematic movement, flourishing especially after World War II, seeking to deal......
Nepali literature, the body of writings in the Nepali language of Nepal. Before the Gurkha (Gorkha) conquest of......
New Comedy, Greek drama from about 320 bc to the mid-3rd century bc that offers a mildly satiric view of contemporary......
New Novel, avant-garde novel of the mid-20th century that marked a radical departure from the conventions of the......
New Zealand literature, the body of literatures, both oral and written, produced in New Zealand. Like all Polynesian......
Newbery Medal, annual award given to the author of the most distinguished American children’s book of the previous......
Newdigate Prize, poetry prize founded in 1805 by Sir Roger Newdigate and awarded at the University of Oxford. The......
newspeak, propagandistic language that is characterized by euphemism, circumlocution, and the inversion of customary......
neōteros, any of a group of poets who sought to break away from the didactic-patriotic tradition of Latin poetry......
nix, in Germanic mythology, a water being, half human, half fish, that lives in a beautiful underwater palace and......
noble savage, in literature, an idealized concept of uncivilized man, who symbolizes the innate goodness of one......