Blank

Term	Definition	Example
Absence / Presence	What essentially remains or is taken out of a text and its effect on what is being told.	The absence of multitudinous women's rights in "The Handmaid's Tale" emphasizes the dystopia women face in the universe of that world.
Aestheticism	A movement to appreciate beauty.	Many people care about assembling their social media feeds to follow a certain aesthetic, making the overall product more beautiful.
Amoebean Verses
Amoebean Verses	Poetic form in which two characters chant alternate lines in competition or debate with one another. Matching groups of verses assigned to two characters usually in singing contests. Each theme introduced by one character is ‘capped’ by the other; sometimes third party decides result.	An example of amoebean verses could be rap battling, also seen as an example of flyting below.
Antimetabole	Figure of speech using reversing order of phrasing to reflect an idea.	"Think and wonder. Wonder and think." This Dr. Seuss quote reverses the order of the words, creating profound effect on the reader, with each statement having separate meaning.
Apollonian	Based off of Apollo and Dionysus in Greek Mythology; Apollonian attributes- reason, culture, harmony, and restraint	Sculpting is the very Apollonian, since it involves form for its effect. Rational thought would also count, since it leads to distinctive decision-making.
Background	Opposite of foreground. In the text, but does not jump out at you, is not obvious. Thinking about historical/social background or background reading. Consider conditions in which the work was written.	In the original Star Wars trilogy, the politics that led to the war between the Empire and Rebellion is placed in the background, with more foreground focus on the current fight unravelling as a result.
Barcarole	Expression used to describe "boat songs" about traveling on water, originating from an Italian word "barca".	The nursery rhyme "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" would be a fine example of a barcarole for obvious reasons.
Camp	Similar to kitsch in the fact that it’s eccentric, excessive, and glorious. Taking things without value and placing massive value on them.	The outfits seen at the 2019's Met Gala placed emphasis on regular objects, following the campy theme of the event.
Canon	Confirmed collection of works that agree with the consistency of a work's universe.	Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Marvel movies all take place in their own separate fictional universes, so the writers of these universes control what is and is not canonical to the world(s).
Carnival / Absurd	Absurd references mid-twentieth century scripts that used silence as much as speech to emphasize surrealism. Carnival is a form of absurdity centering more on social/political concepts instead of philosophical.	"The Purge" has a carnivalesque plot, since all law becomes null for 24 hours, creating an absurd idea where rules are put on hold for a day.
Character	The identity of someone; Can be like the letter “a”, a character.	Part of Spider-Man and Batman's characters, respectively, revolve around their refusal to end one's life. This character trait motivates many of their decisions when fighting crime.
Characterization	The traits that define one’s being. Sort of like the idea of someone’s character, how they’re perceived. Tools and strategies we use to create or describe a character.	Characterization of Spider-Man and Batman would be their physical traits, so in this case the red and blue suit of Spider-Man and dark colors and mask of Batman's suit.
Chronicle Novel	Related series of novels following canonical sets of characters, settings, and plots to depict a larger, connected narrative.	The books in the "Game of Thrones" series follow the chronicles of the same plot, characters, settings, etc to tell a consistent overall story with a uniform end in mind.
Classicism	The use of ancient Greek or Roman principles/style in art/literature. Generally associated with harmony/strength used to emphasize form/craftsmanship.	Neoclassicism in 1660-1780 consisted of British literature trying to recreate Greek society, culture, art.
Comedy	A spectacle, what makes us laugh. Related to tragedy → seen as inferior/lower brow. What is ridiculous but laughable. Normally include happy endings.	"South Park" is a comedic cartoon, normally aimed at making a spectacle of society through applying a topical subject a group of fourth graders and their wacky town.
Conceit	Kind of metaphor that compares two very unlike things in a surprising way. Things you would not normally find connected. Very elaborate metaphor, sometimes using oxymorons/paradoxes.	"The Flea" by John Donne compares a flea to a woman's private parts using two unconventional forms of symbolism to make a comparison.
Context	Provides situational reference for why or how something is being discussed/taking place. Useful because outsiders require it to understand why something is being discussed/taking place.	The phrase "she's not very good" could have multiple meanings based on context. "She" could be anything or anyone, and they could not "not good" at a variety of things, begging for more elaboration to understand intended meaning.
Decentering	Intentionally shifts main point of attention to something else in the story, inside or outside.	"The Penelopiad" by Margaret Atwood tells the story of "The Odyssey" from the perspective of Odysseus' wife, Penelope, as he left her for decades.
Deus Ex Machina	Originally "god from machine", now predominantly referencing a swift, usually unlikely solution to a plot's problem that seems unsolvable or impending.	In The Star Wars episode "Return of the Jedi," Han Solo is able to save Lando Calrissian just before an untimely death in the sarlacc pit, showcasing a convenient act of heroism just when needed, in a somewhat unrelaistic way, to further the plot.
Dialogue	Writers/authors cannot replicate real conversation, it will always be fabricated. Dialogue is created because people fall into roles during discourse → in the moment. Two or more people talking in a book/movie/etc.	Tarantino is a director known for tightly written dialogue in his screenplays, with a short example here, from "Pulp Fiction": [Jules Winnfield] "What country are you from?" // [Brett] "What? What? Wh – ?" // [Jules Winnfield] “What” ain’t no country I’ve ever heard of. They speak English in What?"
Dionysian	Based off of Apollo and Dionysus in Greek Mythology. Dionysian attributes- excess, irrationality, lack of discipline, and unbridled passion.	Intoxication and insanity are Dionysian, as are all forms of blissful ecstasy. Music also represents Dionysus, as it appeals to emotion, not reason.
Discourse	Greater analysis of a conversation, not a dialogue. Conversation that is happening surrounding something. So many different definitions of it, hard to differentiate form dialogue.	Political discourse can be found on Twitter, debates, mainstream media.
Dynamic VS Static	One who undergoes major change in personality, character, or perspective in the story VS one who remains the same in a story. Background character, no major change.	Brian Reed's character remains static throughout S-Town, being a narrator who is just retelling his story, without being too actively involved in the plot. Meanwhile, Tyler undergoes much change, namely in the toll John's death took on him.
Elision	Silencing or ignoring a vowel's presence in a word or phrase by combining the shortened word with another word, using the suppression to lessen syllable count.	The words "over there" and be combined into a much shorter "o'er".
End Stop	A line of poetry ends with a period or definite punctuation mark, such as a colon.	"Bright Star" by John Keats contrasts enjambment with each line being punctuated, rather than continued by the following, shown in the first two lines: “Bright Star, would I were as stedfast as thou art — Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night,"
Enjambment	The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.	Lines 2-3 of "Endymion" by John Keats shows two lines of poetry that pour over from one to the other: "Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness but still will keep".
Figure of Speech	Expression of words commonly used to articulate complex meaning apart from the literal meaning of the words themselves.	When someone tells another person that guy is "the hottest guy alive," they are not referring to the guy's temperature, nor is he literally the most attractive person ever. This figure of speech is both a metaphor and a hyperbole to describe someone's attractiveness.
Flashback	Shifting the timeline of a story's narration, often used to detailedly feature an explanation for something that happens later in the chronological sequence of the plot.	In "Harry Potter," J.K. Rowling implemented a device to relay memories to another person, letting them experience them from the perspective of the memory's host, to show Harry flashbacks from people such as Dumbledore and Snape.
Flyting	Exchanging "slang" lines of poetry between two opposing poets who wish to publicly humiliate and attack the other.	Rap battles, especially when formatted as diss tracks, are modern day examples of flyting.
Foreground	What appears closest/most prominent to someone. Can be different based on audience - subjective. Contrasted by background.	S-Town, in the beginning, focused more on John and his life in the foreground, with the potential murder case's fishy details being pushed to the background. Character introduction took the front seat, forcing the overall plot development to the backseat.
Gaps & Silences	Sections of a text leaving the audience with unanswered questions. What is said without being explicitly stated.	In "Little Red Riding Hood," there is no scene depicting the wolf devouring the titular female character's grandma, but the audience can fill in this gap upon realizing the wolf took her clothes and attempted to imitate the grandmother.
Graphic Novel	Story told through comics, utilizing art, panels, and speech bubbles to tell a story in absence of the traditional novelistic format.	Many graphic novels, between DC and Marvel intellectual properties, have been adapted as feature length films in today's movie industry, the most popular way to receive stories.
Heteroglosia	The coexistence of distinct varieties within a single "language". Diversity of voices, styles of voices, or point of view.	The language "Parseltongue" spoken by snakes, exemplifies heteroglossia seen in Harry Potter.
Hiatus	Separation of pronunciation seen sometimes when placing two vowels next to each other. Also can mean a break in a sentence's structure.	The letters "ea" make a uniform sound when in "mean," but separate sounds when in "meander," which shows their hiatus.
Iambic Pentameter	Lines in poetry or text with five metrical feet, with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.	Shakespeare's "shakespeare: "But, soft! what a light through yonder widow breaks?" exhibits a meter of iambic pentameter.
Idiolect	The specific dialect a person or character speaks in.	Tom Haverford's rant about his nicknames for food in "Parks & Recreation" showcases his idiolect, beginning with the sentences: "Zerts are what I call desserts. Tray-trays are entrees. I call sandwiches sammies, sandoozles, or Adam Sandlers."
Image	Strictly visual or verbal representation of something. Can be framed - start, middle, end. Color, brightness, saturation, filters can be changed visually.	In S-Town, John paints an image with words when describing Roger in Ch 2: "It's really amusing to see how he can balance a cigarette on that one tooth. And the whole time he's talking —this cigarette is just bouncing around all over that one tooth, and he never loses that son of a bitch."
Imagery	Implementing figurative language to symbolize or depict objects, actions, ideas, or settings in a way that appeases the physical senses.	Ronald Dahl is fantastic at using imagery, specifically to describe characters, such as his description of Miss Trunchbull in "Matilda": "She had once been a famous athlete, and even now the muscles were still clearly in evidence. You could see them in the bull-neck, in the big shoulders, in the thick arms, in the sinewy wrists and in the powerful legs."
Interlude	Brief play believed to have been conducted by small groups during brief intervals of breaking periods that took place during important events during the rise of theater in London.	Rap songs today showcase modern day interludes, which today are usually verbal skits, stories, or instrumentals transitioning from one song to another.
Intertext	The shaping of a text meaning by another text. Relates to intertextuality. Sort of like a spin off - almost like an illusion.	The "Percy Jackson" series involves a lot of intertextuality to Greek mythology, affecting its plot and characters.
Jingle	Musical phrase or song that utilizes repetition and jubilant tone to catch the listener's attention and spread awareness for a business or institution.	Now used in media, such as Ricola's song at the end of their commercials. Originally used by the likes of Edgar Allen Poe to implement sound over meaning in short poetry.
Jouissance	French for 'enjoyment." Normally used in a sexual sense, but Jouissance does not necessarily mean "pleasure". Joussance represents bliss in a conventionally erotic way, versus the innocent bliss of "pleasure".	Fifty Shades of Grey showcases Jouissance in the characters dignified enjoyment of sexual enjoyment.
Juvenilia	Word for works written during its writer's youth.	The movie "Superbad" was co-written by Seth Rogen when he was a teenager, and didn't get made until he'd finished co-developing it as an adult, making the movie juvenilia.
Katabasis	Literary narration of a journey to the underworld, land of the dead, etc.	Both "Dante's Inferno" and certain books in "The Odyssey" represent some demonstrations of katabasis in classic literature.
Lampoon	Literary attack toward someone, normally in prose, belittling and insulting their character.	Many television hosts today lampoon Trump, insulting him to the point he's shown as a caricature of a person for his actions.
Literariness	What makes a given work a literary work. Relation between different uses of language, where varying usages contrast each other contextually. Sum of special linguistic and formal properties that distinguish literary texts from non-literary texts (according to Russian Formalism).	Many properties give Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" more literariness than the likes of many novels written today, mainly the time period it was written in.
Manifesto	Assorted collection of justified intentions and philosophies, normally in favor of one's politics.	The Communist Manifesto outlined the perspectives and beliefs of communism, and attempted to justify these rationales in doing so.
Metaphor	Using a phrase comparatively or symbolically to represent a literal phenomenon / experience; when one thing means another	"Look at the pot calling the kettle black" is a metaphor because it involves no pots or kettles, but instead implies that someone is calling out a person or thing for something they are guilty of themselves.
Motif / Lemotif	Symbol, situation, image, or words used in a literature following a uniform theme.	The film "American Beauty" implements a heavy motif on roses, symbolizing innocence and lust, among many other themes seen throughout the movie's plot.
Mythology	A body of relatedness a given belief or system. Set of stories or beliefs about a particular person, institution, or situation.	"The Odyssey" follows Odysseus in the world of Greek mythology, with the writer, Homer, including many acts of divine intervention from Poseidon, Circe, Polyphemus, etc.
Neologism	A word or phrase that has recently been coined into existence.	The word "meme" is a neologism, being just around a decade old, having no prior meaning in linguistic history.
Objective Correlative	An external equivalent for an internal state of mind; thus any object, scene, event, or situation that may stand for or evoke a given mood or emotion instead of a subjective expression of it. "What’s on the inside should match the outside".	T.S. Elliot highlighted tons of objective correlative examples in Hamlet, where Shakespeare wrote Hamlet to verbalize his emotions descriptovely to the audience, rather than showing them.
Old English	Anglo-Saxon: all language specific to the 5-12th century.	"The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," from the 12th century, begins "An. M.LXVI. On þyssum geare man halgode þet mynster æt Westmynstre..." which, in modern English, would translate to "1066 In this year the monastery at Westminster..."
Onomatopoeia	Using letters to form a referential sound via words, in efforts to add effect, imagery, or function to a sentence in exclamatory fashion.	"Zap", "Brr", and "Hiss" are all onomatopoeias invented to give off auditory sounds in reference to real world noises.
Other / Marginalization	The unexplored or undiscussed; excluded from the majority	Jeff Kinney's hit series "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" showcased Rowley, the narrator's best friend, as somewhat of a sidekick, making him the other. Rowley escaped this marginalization recently when Kinney released "Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal," which showed audiences the marginalized perspective of the "Wimpy Kid" universe.
Paradox	Seemingly contradictory statement forcing the reader to give second thought on its validity, which usually turns out to be true.	Wadsworth's "The Child is the father of man". At first, this seems wrong, but it's true because men's children grow up to father mankind themselves.
Pastoral	Genre in which shepards or country-dwellers are shown in simplicity/innocence. Biblical terms: live in a wild state of nature, after expulsion from Garden of Eden. “Back-to-nature” often underwrites sense of community and belonging - “a place for everyone and everyone in their place”. Typically, the relationship between these two contrasting views of pastoral literature drives the plot and main issues.	Christopher Marlow's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is clearly pastoral, especially evident in the first couplet of the second quartet "There will we sit upon the rocks / And see the shepherds feed their flocks".
Periodical	Regularly released literary work, being published on a set schedule.	Magazines like National Geographic, Time, and People are periodicals, published weekly or monthly to the public.
Personification	Utilizing literary terms to give inanimate objects lively actions or emotions, representatively.	Act 3, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" features the phrase "And when she weeps, weeps every little flower". Obviously, flowers cannot weep, but in personifying them as weeping, the writer shows how the entire scene is "feeling" sadness for the main character.
Point of View	Narrator/character/reader all have different POVs. What engages us as a reader is a gliding POV, with a fixed POV being “boring”.	Brian was able to shake up the S-Town podcast when he decided to switch from sharing Tyler's POV to John's cousin's POV, each POV basically corroborating the other's.
Post-Modernist / Post-Structuralist	Modernism focuses more on 20th century sense of culture, nostalgia, and overall materialism that industrialized into society. Meanwhile structuralism, emerging from the French around the 1960's, centered more on objective truth and empiricism.	Whereas "The Matrix" could be Post-Modernist, it would not be Post-Structuralist, because Neo takes the pill that allows him to escape the imprisonment of his world. In Post-Structuralism, there is no escape from the structure of society.
Quatrain	Four lines of poetry in a verse or stanza; can rhyme or not.	Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the Thing with Feathers": “Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul / And sings the tune without the words / And never stops at all…”
Realism	Detailed attention to the routine texture of social life. Any movement that offers fresh, realistic view of reality.	Brian's detailed retelling of John's maze in S-Town added to the overall realism of the nature and scenery on John's property to the listener.
Rhetorical Question	A question asked not to be sincerely answered but instead to leave a thought-provoking effect from the asker to the listener.	When people ask "are you stupid?" they do not warrant an answer, rather you to consider that you might, indeed, be acting stupidly.
Round VS Flat	Round characters are dynamic, developing throughout the text. Meanwhile, flat characters see little development, remaining largely the same as the plot unravels.	While we see much change, growth, and development in Harry throughout the "Harry Potter" series (round), Hagrid remains largely unchanged (flat). Despite being the first being to introduce Harry into the world of magic, the audience never sees any dynamic change in Hagrid's character, making his role in the series rather flat.
Science Fiction	Prose dedicating the literary universe to a concept revolving around the evolution or decay of humanity as we know it, often placed at a different period in time to explain the exaggerated science of the story.	"Star Wars" was a science fiction movie that revolutionized the genre, being one of many to set science fiction stories in space, centering around characters with abilities and resources nonexistent in nonfiction stories.
Simile	Using "like" or "as" to metaphorically compare one object or experience to another.	"Happy as a clam" is a simile, since one is comparing their happiness to that of being inside a safe, comfortable clam shell (a strange simile, to be sure, but a simile nonetheless).
Soliloquy	A speech especially made dramatic like a monologue (spoken to no one).	Act 2 Scene 1 of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" features the titular character articulating his obvious preconceived guilt toward killing the King. Macbeth speaks aloud to himself about seeing blood on the dagger, expressing his inner thoughts to the audience and furthering the foreshadowing of the story.
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.	Brian Reed used syntax to effectively emulate how many Alabamians spoke in the podcast S-Town.
Tragedy	Genre of experience, normally including an unhappy ending. Any period between individual and hostiles. Progression from order to disorder, loss of high status. Spectacle that arouses pity/fear artificially, called catharsis.	"Romeo and Juliet" would be one of the most famous tragedies, due to how long its been around making it's unhappy ending well-known. The two had mutual love for another, but hostile persecution from their families drove them to die in each other's arms.
Trilogy	Three separate yet connected works of writing. The three separate works usually come together to contribute to the overarching plot line of the trilogy.	The "Back to the Future" movies each follow the same set of characters, continuing the plot from the previous movie to further the overarching plot as a whole.
Utopia	Constructed version of an idealized, advanced society of people living and working together in harmonic rhythm seen as superior to reality.	"The Truman Show" placed a normal man in fabricated, controlled surroundings his whole life, trying to make his life as utopian as possible. His defiance to this utopia begs the question of whether or not humanity would truly accept a utopia.
Villain	The antagonist to a story's protagonist(s). Evil intentions with ill-willed actions to achieve them.	The Wicked Witch of the West was the villain to Dorothy's heroine role, trying to stop Dorothy's journey home on numerous occasions in "The Wizard of Oz".
Volta	The Italian term for the 'turn' in the argument or mood of a sonnet, occurring (in the Italian form of sonnet) between the octave and the sestet, at the ninth line.	In "Italian Sonnet" by James DeFord, there is a noticeable turn in tone from the eighth to ninth line: "Accept my love, live for today / Your roses wilted, as love spurned"
Wit	Ability of a literary character to think quickly on their feet, associated during the Renaissance as the capacity to quickly "invent" things.	Odysseus telling Polyphemus his name was "Nobody" so that Polyphemus' cries would be misinterpreted showcased Odysseus' wit in "The Odyssey".
Zeugma	Utilizing one figure of speech to encapsulate two other subjects in the sentence under its meaning.	"Josh attacked the strange man with a fire in his eyes and fists" applies the metaphorical fire to both Josh's eyes and fists, creating a zeugma.