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40 Literary Terms Book Lovers

Should Know

Literary terms are words we use when we

discuss, classify, criticise and analyse poetry
and books. Here are 40 that will improve your
bookish vocabulary.

40 Literary Terms Book Lovers

Should Know

1. Aphorism: Short, sweet little sayings expressing

an idea or opinion familiar to everyone. Dorothy
Parker was a particularly adroit user of aphorisms.
2. Apostrophe: Beyond a term for daily punctuation, ×
apostrophe also pulls audiences aside to address a 
 person, place or thing currently not present. O,
Shakespeare! Such a sterling example of apostrophe
use!
3. Applicability: The venerable Lord of the
Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien coined this term when
badgered one too many times about whether or not
his beloved fantasy series was supposed to be a
World War II allegory. It wasn’t, but he thought
readers could apply such an interpretation to the
text without losing anything.
4. Bete noire: While not an exclusively literary term,
many critics do use it to denote the idea of
avoidance found in many narratives. Family
dramas, for example, are almost obligated to
involve some sort of elephant in the room.
5. Bildungsroman: Coming-of-age stories, known
as bildungsroman, are the warm, cosy socks of the
literary world. For extra bibliophile points, try
tossing out the term “kunstlerroman” when
appropriate. That’s a special kind of bildungsroman
following the growth of an artist or other creative
type.
6. Bowdlerize: Because of his numerous silly cuts
and edits to Shakespeare (SHAKESPEARE!),
Thomas Bowdler has become immortalised as the
unintentional founder of yet another word for
censorship and needless meddling.
7. Byronic hero: Popularised by romantic poet Lord
Byron’s life and works, this jaded, flawed hero
archetype typically exhibits highly emotional,
erratic, disrespectful and self-destructive behaviours
isolating him or her from the rest of the world.
Basically, Byronic heroes were emo before emo
was a thing.
8. Caesura: Typically found in ancient Greek and
Latin poetry, caesura represent pauses after a word,
though not at the end or foot of a piece.
×
9. Death of the author: As hair-rippingly awful as 
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against books (which would be absurd and rather RECENT POSTS
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have little to no bearing on a textual interpretation. 8 Fantastic Writing
10. Denouement: The denouement occurs shortly Masterclasses For You
after a story’s climax, but before its end. This serves Janet Burroway’s 3
to wrap up any dangly bits the author wishes to Principles Of Effective
resolve. Narrative Setting
11. Didactic: Everyone knows didactic literature, even How To Write An Epic
if they don’t know the fancy term. It takes on an First Page
academic tone meant to educate, carrying with it BLACK FRIDAY – Buy
connotations of heavy-handedness. Three Workbooks & Get
12. Epigraph: Many writers like to include quotes or One Free
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his warning about shooting anyone wanting to An Author’s Tone
critically analyse Huckleberry Finn famously 75 Words That
parodied this trope. Iron Chef’s use of a George Describe Smells – A
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13. Epistolary: Frankenstein, The Perks of Being a Sounds – A Resource
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14. Fin de siècle: Pick up some Oscar Wilde for a
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15. Foil: Foils are characters meant to play off one
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another’s tics and quirks, like Leopold Bloom and
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and Dr. John Watson. Or Batman and Robin.
140 Words To Describe 
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16. Hamartia: Aristotle coined this word to describe 30 Examples To Help
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aristocrat’s ego, gluttony or silly mistake rather than ONLINE COURSES
outright sin. How To Write A Book
17. Heresy of paraphrase: New Critic Cleanth How To Write A Short
Brooks believes in the impossibility of discerning Story
meaning in poetry, and that it’s entirely possible to How To Write For
just enjoy its mere existence at a specific point in Children
space and time. How To Write A Memoir
18. Hubris: Hubris, or raging ego with a heaping How To Blog
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helping of overestimation on the side, oftentimes
How To Write A
brings about hamartia — and not always in Greek
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19. Humours: Ancient Greeks and Romans believed
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20. In medias res: Modern literary narratives use the ARCHIVES
in medias res device, which drops audiences
Click to view
straight into the middle of the action and builds
upon the recent past as the tale unfolds.
21. Intertextuality: Literary critics comparing
different works to one another, especially as they
relate to retellings and references, practice
intertextuality — as do the writers using the device.
Adapting religious or traditional stories remains
popular in almost every nation’s canon.
22. Irony: ‘Irony takes many forms. In irony of
situation, the result of an action is the reverse of
what the actor expected. Macbeth murders his king
hoping that in becoming king he will achieve great
happiness. Actually, Macbeth never knows another
moment of peace, and finally is beheaded for his
murderous act. In dramatic irony, the audience
knows something that the characters in the drama
do not. For example, the identity of the murderer in
×
a crime thriller may be known to the audience long 
before the mystery is solved. In verbal irony, the
 contrast is between the literal meaning of what is
said and what is meant. A character may refer to a
plan as brilliant, while actually meaning that (s)he
thinks the plan is foolish. Sarcasm is a form of
verbal irony.’ (source)
23. Literary agent hypothesis: Bookworms with a
postmodern bent will find the literary agent
hypothesis fascinating. It posits that authors of
fiction serve as “literary agents” to real events,
changing around the reality to make for a more
compelling narrative. Like the philosophy from
which it stems, this critique style enjoys playing
around with the nature of the known and unknown
world.
24. Magic realism: Like the best surrealist paintings,
magic realism blends the wholly terrestrial with the
wholly oneiric to form one frightfully beautiful,
emotional atmosphere. Anyone fortunate enough to
have read Like Water for Chocolate by Laura
Esquivel will know exactly how much it can
punctuate a novel and make it something
memorable and special.
25. Malapropism: When used properly, deliberately
replacing words with different ones (usually
homophones) can really make a humorous scene
pop. This technique comes from the character Mrs.
Malaprop, created by Richard Brinsley Sheridan for
his play The Rivals, whose verbal quirks reflected
such things.
26. Meiosis: Satirical works, particularly those hailing
from Britain, will oftentimes use understatement to
hilarious effect. Impress or (more likely) annoy
book club friends by using the technical term
‘meiosis’ instead.
27. Meta: Though meta as a word and a prefix usually
means an abstract offshoot of a concept, many
critics today use it to mean a self-referential text.
×
This list is meta because it’s aware of its list status. 
Also, it’s kind of scared of this newfound
 awareness, and its lack of maturity may cause a
lashing out at those trying to help. Please teach it to
love.
28. Mise en scène: While mostly used in cinema or
theatre critique, literary aficionados can still (and
often do) use ‘mise en scène’ to describe the
setting, mood, and atmosphere of a text.
29. Picaresque: Swashbucking adventure stories with
a scrappy, ne’er-do-well scamp of a protagonist are
a beloved narrative staple. This episodic style of
fiction deals with the adventures of a rough and
dishonest but appealing hero. Known as
‘picaresques’, they’ve heavily influenced a diverse
selection of authors and spawned some of the
world’s most lauded works.
30. Purple prose: Authors oft-utilising egregiously
eloquent, ornate prose possessed of sterling calibre
and astronomical romanticism may indubitably find
themselves indicted for their ‘purple prose’. There’s
a time and a place for eloquence, but it definitely
isn’t every time and every place. Any text referring
to eyes as “orbs” without any sort of irony is
automatically guilty of this linguistic sometimes-
offense. No matter what. No exceptions. Also,
every romance novel ever written. Even if a long-
lost manuscript attributed to Bukowski ever
materialised and proved a romance novel, it would
still be made of purple prose.
31. Roman-à-clef: Real-life figures and adventures
oftentimes end up thinly and not-so-thinly
appearing as fiction in a device critics like to call
roman-à-clef because it sounds fancy. Hundreds of
examples exist, but some of the most popular can be
found in Jack Kerouac’s oeuvre.
32. Scène à faire: This critical phrase refers to idioms
and tropes audiences expect of a narrative and
authors feel obliged to provide, particularly when it
×
comes to genre fare. 
33. Sobriquet: Sobriquets are nicknames almost
everybody knows when they encounter them in
speech or text, such as ‘The Big Apple’ for New
York City, where every American novel ever
written takes place. Even the ones set in Texas.
34. Syllogism: Rhetoric buffs amongst the bookworm
set need to know the definition of syllogism, lest the
Ghost of Aristotle arise and get its poltergeist on. It
involves a 3-part deductive, logical reasoning
structure comprised of the major premise, minor
premise and conclusion.
35. Synecdoche: When readers encounter a part
meant to represent a whole, they’ve come face to
face with the synecdoche who sold the world. Moby
Dick’s iconic albino tail, for example, symbolises
the entire cetacean.
36. Tranche de vie: Use ‘tranche de vie’ in place of
‘slice of life’ to sound all sophisticated and French
when discussing Raymond Carver’s Cathedral.
37. Trope: Tropes actually have a few definitions, but
are frequently used to refer to familiar literary
devices, events and archetypes. A great many of the
vocabulary words listed here, for instance. They can
also be metaphors or other types of figurative
language. [They are frequently used in fantasy and
science-fiction.]
38. Ubi sunt: At some point in their lives, everyone
reads a literary work about the transience of
mortality and how people are really just ants, man,
ants in this big cosmic soup. At some point in their
lives, everyone reads an ubi sunt, they just didn’t
know there was a Latin phrase for it because that
language is dead.
39. Unreliable narrator: Humbert Humbert, that
scumbag around whom Vladimir
Nabokov’s Lolita, is one of literature’s most
notable unreliable narrators. Readers can’t exactly
×
trust everything these speakers say. Try layering an 
unreliable narrator on top of the literary agent
 hypothesis for hours of mind-bending
metaedutainment!
40. Verisimilitude: An easy way to remember
‘verisimilitude’ involves noting that unreliable
narrators don’t practice it.

[Note: This post was originally found via

Stumbleupon 40 Literary Terms Every
Bookworm Should Know – but the link no
longer works]

For more literary terms, follow these links:

1. Dictionary of Literary Terms

2. Purdue Literary Terms

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Top Tip: If you want to learn how to write a

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Posted on 23rd September 2012 (20,938 views)

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 This article has 2 comments

Heather Fox
10th August 2014

Surely One Hundred Years of

Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
is a better example of Magic
Realism? LIke Water For Chocolate
doesn’t hold a candle to it!

Furit
15th June 2015

Wow, this is fully writen terms ,

thanks you so much

Comments are now closed.

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