Terms in Literary Analysis

A sample from
Baldick, Chris
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. 260 p.
Available full text in Literature Online (Duke Database)

Please be aware that there are many dictionaries of literary terms, and that it is important to consult dictionaries of literary terms in the language of the literature. The 900 terms below are the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

absurd, the
academic drama
acatalectic
accent
accentual verse
acephalous
acrostic
act
actant
Aestheticism
aesthetics
affective
afflatus
agitprop
agon
Alcaics
aleatory
Alexandrianism
alexandrine
alienation effect
allegory
alliteration
alliterative metre
alliterative revival
allusion
ambiguity
American Renaissance
amoebean verses
amphibrach
amphimacer
anachronism
anachrony
anacoluthon
Anacreontics
anacrusis
anadiplosis
anagnorisis
anagogical
analepsis
analogy
anapaest
anaphora
anatomy
Angry Young Men
Angst
antagonist
anthem
anticlimax
anti-hero
anti-masque
anti-novel
antiphon
antiphrasis
antistrophe
antithesis
antonomasia
anxiety of influence
aphorism
apocalyptic
Apollonian and Dionysian
apologue
apology
apophthegm
aporia
aposiopesis
apostrophe
apparatus
arbitrary
Arcadia
archaism
archetype
architectonics
argument
Aristotelian
art for art's sake
Asclepiad
aside
assonance
asyndeton
Attic style
aubade
Aufklärung
Augustan Age
aureate diction
automatic writing
autotelic
ballad
ballad metre
ballade
bard
bardolatry
baroque
bathos
beast fable
Beat writers
belatedness
bestiary
bibliography
binary opposition
black comedy
blank verse
blazon
Bloomsbury group
bob and wheel
bodice-ripper
bombast
bowdlerize
braggadocio
Brechtian
broadside
broken rhyme
bucolic poetry
burden
burlesque
Burns stanza
Byronic
cacophony
cadence
caesura
Cambridge school
campus novel
canon
canto
carnivalization
carol
Caroline
catachresis
catalectic
catalogue verse
catastrophe
catharsis
causerie
Celtic Revival
chapbook
character
characterization
cheville
chiasmus
chivalric romance
choral character
choriamb
chorus
chrestomathy
chronicle
chronicle play
circumlocution
classicism
clausula
clerihew
climax
closed couplet
closet drama
closure
code
codex
coinage
collage
collective unconscious
colloquialism
colophon
colportage
comedy
comedy of manners
comic relief
common measure
commonplace book
comparative literature
competence
complaint
conceit
concordance
concrete poetry
confessional poetry
confidant(e)
connotation
consonance
content
context
convention
conversation poem
corpus
coterie
country house poem
couplet
courtesy book
courtly love
crisis
criterion
criticism
critique
crossed rhyme
crown
crux
curtain-raiser
curtal sonnet
cut-up
cycle
dactyl
Dada
decadence
deconstruction
decorum
deep structure
defamiliarization
defective foot
deixis
demotic
demotion
dénouement
device
diachronic
diacritic
diaeresis
dialect
dialectic
dialogic
dialogue
diction
didactic
diegesis
digression
dimeter
diphthong
dipody
dirge
discours
discourse
discovery
dissemination
dissociation of sensibility
dissonance
distich
dithyramb
doggerel
domestic tragedy
double rhyme
drama
dramatic monologue
dramaturgy
dream vision
dub poetry
dumb show
duodecimo
duple metre
dystopia
eclogue
Edda
egotistical sublime
elegy
elision
ellipsis
embedded
emblem
empiricism
encomium
end-rhyme
end-stopped
Eng. Lit.
enjambment
Enlightenment, the
envelope
epic
epic simile
epic theatre
epideictic
epigone
epigram
epigraph
epilogue
epiphany
episodic
episteme
epistle
epistolary novel
epistrophe
epitaph
epithalamion
epithet
epizeuxis
epode
eponymous
epos
epyllion
equivoque
erasure
Erziehungsroman
eschatology
essay
euphony
euphuism
excursus
exegesis
exemplum
existentialism
exordium
experimentalism
explication
exposition
expressionism
expurgate
extempore
extravaganza
eye rhyme
fable
fabliau
fabula
fabulation
faction
falling rhythm
fancy
fantastic, the
fantasy
farce
feminine ending
feminine rhyme
Festschrift
feuilleton
ficelle
fiction
figure
first-person narrative
fit
fixed forms
flyting
foil
folio
folk song
folklore
folktale
foot
foregrounding
form
formalism
formulaic
fourteener
frame narrative
free indirect style
free verse
function
fustian
Futurism
galliambics
Geneva school
genre
Georgian poetry
Georgic
ghazal
gloss
gnomic
goliardic verse
Gothic novel
grammatology
grapheme
graveyard poetry
grotesque
Grub Street
gynocritics
hagiography
haiku
half-rhyme
Harlem Renaissance
Hellenistic
hemistich
hendecasyllabics
hendiadys
heptameter
hermeneutic circle
hermeneutics
hermeticism
hero
heroic couplet
heroic drama
heroic poetry
heteroglossia
hexameter
hiatus
higher criticism
historical novel
history play
hokku
holograph
Homeric
homily
homology
homonym
homophone
homostrophic
Horatian
horizon of expectations
hubris
Hudibrastic verse
huitain
humanism
HUMOURS
hymn
hypallage
hyperbaton
hyperbole
hypermetrical
hypotactic
iamb
icon
ictus
idiolect
idiom
idyll
illocutionary act
imagery
imagination
Imagism
implied author
implied reader
impressionism
incantation
incremental repetition
indeterminacy
index
Index, the
induction
inflection
inscape and instress
intentional fallacy
interior monologue
interlude
internal rhyme
interpolation
intertextuality
intonation
intrigue
intrusive narrator
invective
inversion
invocation
ionic
irony
aperçu
avant-garde
belles-lettres
Bildungsroman
bovarysme
bricolage
canzone
carpe diem
cénacle
chanson de geste
chanson
chant royal
claque
commedia dell' arte
conte
coup de théâtre
ébat
deus ex machina
différance
dizain
donnée
double entendre
dramatis personae
drame
écriture
eiron
Encyclopédistes
énoncé
envoi
épater les bourgeois
erlebte Rede
fin de siécle
Grand Guignol
hamartia
histoire
in medias res
In Memoriam stanza
jeu d'esprit
knittelvers
künstlerroman
laisse
langue
lisible
Märchen
Minnesänger
mise en scéne
mise-en-abyme
negative capability
no (Japanese drama)
nom de plume
obiter dicta
oeuvre
ottava rima
pastourelle
philosophes
Pléiade, la
poète maudit
préciosité, la
récit
reverdie
rime riche
roman à clef
roman-feuilleton
roman-fleuve
samizdat
Schauerroman
sententia
sjuzet
succès d'estime
terza rima
UT PICTURA POESIS
verismo
vers de société
volta
vraisemblance
Weltanschauung
Weltschmerz
Zeitgeist
Jacobean
jeremiad
jingle
jongleur
jouissance
Juvenalian
juvenilia
kabuki
kenning
kitchen-sink drama
Kitsch
lacuna
lai
lament
lampoon
lapidary
Latinate
Leavisites
legend
leitmotif
leonine rhyme
lexis
libretto
light verse
limerick
lipogram
litany
literal
literariness
literati
literature
litotes
littérateur
liturgical drama
local color writing
logocentrism
longueur
lyric
macaronic verse
Machiavel
machinery
madrigal
magic realism
malapropism
mannerism
Martian poets
marvellous, the
masculine ending
masculine rhyme
masque
matter of Britain
maxim
measure
medievalism
medium
meiosis
Meistersinger
melodrama
memoir-novel
Menippean satire
metacriticism
metadrama
metafiction
metalanguage
metalepsis
metaphor
metaphysical poets
metonymy
metre
metrics
mime
mimesis
minimalism
minstrel
miracle play
misprision
mnemonic
mock epic
mock-heroic
mode
modernism
monodrama
monody
monologue
monometer
monorhyme
morality play
morpheme
morphology
motif
Movement, the
multi-accentuality
muse
mystery play
myth
myth criticism
mythopoeia
narratee
narration
narrative
narratology
narrator
naturalism
nemesis
neoclassicism
neologism
Neoplatonism
neo-realism
New Comedy
New Criticism
new historicism
nonce word
nonsense verse
nouveau roman, le
novel
novelette
novella
Novelle
numbers
nursery rhyme
objective correlative
occasional verse
occupatio
octave
octavo
octosyllabic
ode
Old Comedy
omniscient narrator
onomatopoeia
oral tradition
oratory
organic form
Ossianism
oxymoron
paean
paeon
pageant
palaeography
palimpsest
palindrome
palinode
panegyric
pantomime
parable
paradigm
paradox
paraliterature
parallelism
paraphrase
paratactic
Parnassians
parody
paronomasia
passion play
passus
pastiche
pastoral
pathetic fallacy
pathos
patronage
pattern poetry
pentameter
performative
periodic sentence
periodical
peripeteia
periphrasis
perlocutionary act
peroration
persona
personification
Petrarchan
phenomenology
philistine
philology
phoneme
phonetics
phonocentrism
phonology
picaresque novel
Pindaric
pirated
plagiarism
Platonism
pleonasm
plot
poetaster
poetic diction
poetic drama
poetic justice
poetic licence
poeticism
poetics
poetry
point of view
polemic
polyphonic
polysemy
polysyndeton
pornography
portmanteau word
postmodernism
post-structuralism
pot-boiler
poulter's measure
practical criticism
Pre-Raphaelites
preromanticism
prescriptive
primitivism
problem play
proem
prolepsis
proletcult
prologue
promotion
propagandism
props
proscenium arch
prose
prose poem
prosody
prosopopoeia
protagonist
prothalamion
proverb
psalm
pseudo-statement
psychomachy
pun
purple patch
pyrrhic
quantitative verse
quarto
quatrain
quintain
reader-response criticism
realism
recension
reception theory
recessive accent
recto
redaction
reductionism
referent
reflectionism
refrain
register
Renaissance
repartee
repetend
Restoration comedy
revenge tragedy
revision
revue
rhapsody
rhetoric
rhetorical question
rhyme
rhyme royal
rhyme scheme
rhythm
riddle
rising rhythm
rococo
rodomontade
roman à thèse
roman à tiroirs
romance
romantic comedy
romantic irony
Romanticism
rondeau
rondel
roundel
roundeley
rune
Russian Formalism
S & F
saga
salon
Sapphics
satire
satyr play (or satyric drama)
scansion
scatology
scenario
scene
scheme
scholasticism
science fiction
Scottish Chaucerians
screenplay
scriptible
self-reflexive
semantics
seme
semiotic, the
semiotics
Senecan tragedy
sensation novel
sensibility
sentimental comedy
sentimental novel
septet
sestet
sestina
Shavian
short measure
short story
sibilance
sign
signified
signifier
silver-fork novel
simile
skald
Skeltonics
sketch
slave narrative
socialist realism
sociology of literature
Socratic
solecism
soliloquy
sonnet
soubrette
Spasmodic School
speech act theory
Spenserian stanza
spondee
Spoonerism
sprung rhythm
squib
stanza
stave
stichic
stichomythia
stock character
stock response
story
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
stress
strong-stress metre
strophe
structuralism
Sturm and Drang
style
stylistics
subgenre
sublime, the
subplot
substitution
subtext
surfiction
Surrealism
syllabic verse
syllepsis
syllogism
symbol
Symbolic, the
Symbolists
synaeresis
synaesthesia
synchronic
syncope
synecdoche
synonym
synopsis
syntagm
syntax
synthesis
tableau
tail-rhyme stanza
tall tale
tanka
tenor
tercet
tetralogy
tetrameter
text
textual criticism
texture
theatre in the round
theatre of cruelty
theme
thesis
third-person narrative
threnody
tone
topographical poetry
topos
touchstone
tract
tradition
tragedy
tragic flaw
tragicomedy
Transcendentalism
travesty
treatise
trilogy
trimeter
triolet
triple metre
triple rhyme
triplet
trochee
trope
troubadour
trouvère
truncation
turn
type
typography
typology
ubi sunt
uncanny, the
unities, the
university wits
univocal
unreliable narrator
Urtext
utopia
variorum edition
vatic
vaudeville
verisimilitude
vernacular
verse
verse paragraph
versification
verso
Vice, the
vignette
villain
villanelle
virelay
voice
Vorticism
vulgate
weak ending
well-made play
Wertherism
wit
zeugma