Irony

Irony Definition:

    The use of irony in literature refers to playing around with words such that the meaning implied by a sentence/word is actually different from the literal meaning derived. Often, irony is used to suggest the stark contrast of the literal meaning being put forth. The deeper, real layer of significance is revealed not by the words themselves but the situation and the context in which they are placed.

Example:
Writing a sentence such as, “Oh! What fine luck I have!”. The sentence on the surface conveys that the speaker is happy with their luck but actually what they mean is that they are extremely unhappy and dissatisfied with their (bad) luck.

Internal Rhyme

Internal Rhyme Definition:

     In literature the internal rhyme is a practice of forming a rhyme in only one lone line of verse. An internal rhyme is also known as the middle rhyme because it is typically constructed in the middle of a line to rhyme with the bit at the end of the same metrical line.
   Example:
The line from the famed poem Ancient Mariner, “We were the first that ever burst”.

Imagery

Imagery Definition:
   In literature, one of the strongest devices is imagery wherein the author uses words and phrases to create “mental images” for the reader. Imagery helps the reader to visualize and therein more realistically experience the author’s writings. The usage of metaphors, allusions, descriptive words and similes amongst other literary forms in order to “tickle” and awaken the readers’ sensory perceptions is referred to as imagery. Imagery is not limited to only visual sensations, but also refers to igniting kinesthetic, olfactory, tactile, gustatory, thermal and auditory sensations as well.

Example:
    The gushing brook stole its way down the lush green mountains, dotted with tiny flowers in a riot of colors and trees coming alive with gaily chirping birds.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole Definition: A hyperbole is a literary device wherein the author uses specific words and phrases that exaggerate and overemphasize the basic crux of the statement in order to produce a grander, more noticeable effect. The purpose of hyperbole is to create a larger-than-life effect and overly stress a specific point. Such sentences usually convey an action or sentiment that is generally not practically/ realistically possible or plausible but helps emphasize an emotion. Example: “I am so tired I cannot walk another inch” or “I’m so sleepy I might fall asleep standing here”

Hyperbaton

Hyperbaton Definition: A hyperbaton is a literary device wherein the author plays with the regular positioning of words and phrases and creates a differently structured sentence to convey the same meaning. It is said that by using a hyperbaton, words/ phrases overstep their conventional placements and result in a more complex and intriguing sentence structure. This literary device is used to add more depth and interest to the sentence structure. Example: “Alone he walked on the cold, lonely roads”. This sentence is a variation of the more conventional, “He walked alone on the cold, lonely roads”.

Hero

Hero Definition: Hero is a figure of great national or even cosmic importance. The epic hero has super human strength, common character or intellect fighting for nation or collective interest.

Haiku

Haiku Definition: (sometimes spelled hokku) is a Japanese poetic form that represents, in seventeen syllables, ordered into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, the poet's emotional or spiritual response to a natural object, scene, or season of the year. The strict form, which relies on the short, uniform, and unstressed syllabic structure of the Japanese language, is very difficult in English; most poets who attempt the haiku loosen the rule for the number and pattern of the syllables. The haiku greatly influenced Ezra Pound and other Imagists, who set out to reproduce both the brevity and the distinctiveness of the image in the Japanese original. Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" is a well-known instance of the haiku in the loosened English form; see this poem under imagism

Gothic Novel

GOTHIC NOVEL Definition: The word Gothic originally referred to the Goths, an early Germanic tribe, then came to signify "germanic," then "medieval." "Gothic architecture" now denotes the medieval type of architecture, characterized by the use of the high pointed arch and vault, flying buttresses, and intricate re- cesses, which spread through western Europe between the twelfth and six- teenth centuries. The Gothic novel, or in an alternative term, Gothic romance, is a type of prose fiction which was inaugurated by Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1764)—the subtitle refers to its setting in the middle ages—and flourishedt hrough the early nineteenth century. Some writers followed Walpole's example by setting their stories in the medieval period; others set them in a Catholic country, especially Italy or Spain.

Change yourself

 

Free Verse

Free Verse Definition: Free Verse is sometimes referred to as "open form" verse, or by the French term vers libre. Like traditional verse, it is printed in short lines instead of with the continuity of prose, but it differs from such verse by the fact that its rhythmic pattern is not organized into a regular metrical form—that is, into feet, or recurrent units of weak- and strong-stressed syllables. (See meter.) Most free verse also has irregular line lengths, and either lacks rhyme or else uses it only sporadically. (Blank verse differs from unrhymed free verse in that it is metrically regular.)

Foil

Foil Definition:

      The term ‘foil’ refers to a literary device where the author creates a character whose primary purpose is to create a contrast to another character by laying emphasis or drawing attention to the latter’s traits and characteristics through the former’s obviously contradictory ones.
 
Example:
In the popular book series, Harry Potter, the character of Hogwarts principal Albus Dumbledore, who portrays ‘good’, is constantly shown to believe in the power of true love (of all forms and types) and is portrayed as a strong, benevolent and positive character while the antagonist Lord Voldemort, who depicts the evil and ‘bad’ in the series is constantly shown to mock and disbelieve the sentiment of love and think of it as a foolish indulgence, a trait that is finally his undoing.

Flashback

Flashback Definition: Flashback is a literary device wherein the writer/ author depicts the occurrence of specific events to the reader, which have taken place before the present time the narration is following, or events that have happened before the events that are currently being unfolded in the story. Flashback devices that are commonly used are past narratives by characters, depictions and references of dreams and memories and a sub-device known as authorial sovereignty wherein the author directly chooses to refer to a past occurrence by bringing it up in a straightforward manner. Flashback is used to create a background to the present situation, place or person. Example: Back in the day when Sarah was a young girl… You can see flashbacks used very often in movies. For example, is is common in movies for there to be a flashback that gives the viewer a look into the characters life when they were younger, or when they have done something previously. This is done to help the viewer better understand the present situation.

Evocation

Evocation Definition: Getting inspiration or guidance or courage from the goddess of Muse before doing any hard task especially in the beginning of an epic.

09/11/17

Mantra to oneself

Epic

Epic Definition:

     Epic is a long narrative poem, on a great and serious subject related in an elevated style and centered on a heroic or quasidivine figure on whose actions defend on the fate of tribe or nation or the human race.

Epilogue

Epilogue Definition:
 
      Epilogues are an inherent part of any story or poem and are essential to the structure of any written form. The epilogue is an important literary tool that acts as the afterword once the last chapter is over. The purpose of an epilogue is to add a little insight to some interesting developments that happen once the major plot is over. Epilogues often act as a teaser trailer to any possible sequels that might be created later. Sometimes the epilogue is used to add a little bit about the life/future of the main characters after the story itself has unfolded and wrapped up. Epilogues are an interesting faction because they can be written in a number of ways: sometimes the same narrative style as adopted in the story is continued while at other times one of the characters might take up the narrative or speak one-to-one with the audience.

Example:
       In a remarkably contemporary moment at the end of The Tempest, Shakespeare's wizard Prospero addresses the audience directly, breaking down the boundaries of the play. He informs them that the play is over, his powers are gone, and thus his escape from the play's island setting depends on their applause--that they, in effect, get to decide his fate. This serves as a Epilogue for Shakespeare's tragi-comedy The Tempest.

Essay

Essay Definition:

   Any short composition in prose that undertakes to discuss a matter, express a point of view, persuade us to accept a thesis on any subject, or simply entertain. The essay differs from a "treatise" or "dissertation" in its lack of pretension to be a systematic and complete exposition, and in being ad- dressed to a general rather than a specialized audience; as a consequence, the essay discusses its subject in nontechnical fashion, and often with a liberal use of such devices as anecdote, striking illustration, and humor to augment its appeal.

Elegy

Elegy

Definition:

      In Greek and Roman literature, "elegy" denoted any poem written in elegiac meter (alternating hexameter and pentameter lines). The term was also used, however, to refer to the subject matter of change and loss frequently ex- pressed in the elegiac verse form, especially in complaints about love. In accordance with this latter usage, "The Wanderer," "The Seafarer," and other poems in Old English on the transience of all worldly things are even now called elegies. In Europe and England the word continued to have a variable application through the Renaissance. John Donne's elegies, written in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, are love poems, although they re- late to the sense of elegy as lament, in that many of them emphasize mutability and loss. In the seventeenth century the term elegy began to be limited to its most common present usage: a formal and sustained lament in verse for the death of a particular person, usually ending in a consolation.

Examples are the medieval poem The Pearl and Chaucer's Book of the Duchess (elegies in the mode of dream allegory); Alfred, Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam (1850), on the death of Arthur Hallam; and W. H. Auden's "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" (1940). Occasionally the term is used in its older and broader sense, for somber meditations on mortality such as Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (1757), and the Duino Elegies (1912-22) of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke on the transience both of poets and of the earthly objects they write poems about.

Diction

Diction Definition:
    Diction is the distinctive tone or tenor of an author’s writings. Diction is not just a writer's choice of words it can include the mood, attitude, dialect and style of writing. Diction is usually judged with reference to the prevailing standards of proper writing and speech and is seen as the mark of quality of the writing. It is also understood as the selection of certain words or phrases that become peculiar to a writer.

     Example:
Certain writers in the modern day and age use archaic terms such as ‘thy’, ‘thee’ and ‘wherefore’ to imbue a Shakespearean mood to their work.

Drama

Drama

       Drama is a form of literature which is written in dramatic dialogue form to be performed by some characters on the stage before the audience. A drama can be compared to the mountain. It comes to life when it is taken in the performance of actors who accept the roles of characters and speak the dialogues.

Denotation

Denotation Definition:

    Denotation refers to the use of the dictionary definition or literal meaning of a word. Example: They made a house. In the above sentence, house is meant literally as in a building where a family lives. If the word "home" was used instead in the above sentence in place of "house", the meaning would not be so literal as there are many emotions associated with the word "home" beyond simply the structure where people live.

Dramatic Monologue

Dramatic Monologue Definition:

     A speech delivered when a character is either alone or isolated on the stage. In dramatic monologue or soliloquy, the character freely gives vent to his feelings. The audience overhears the character talking himself or herself. The Monologues could be private as well as public.

Catharsis

Catharsis Definition: Catharsis is the emotional arouse which makes pity and fear to the audiences after watching the end of tragedy.