Bouira University Academic Year : 2022 / 2023

English Department
Module: Initiation to Literary Texts Teacher: Hizia Chenane
Target Audience: First Year Students.

Course number Two: Literary Terms

Objectives of studying Literary Terms:

- To introduce students with different genres or types of poetic literary terms.

- To assist them study English literature through the task of interpreting the presence
and the effect of these literary terms in contriving the varied themes dealt with in
the literary text in which they have occurred.
- To make them understand literary forms in comparison with different literary genres.
- To introduce students with literary devices and figurative language.

Theoretically speaking, literary terms are words used in review, criticism and
classification of literary works such as stories, poetry, drama, and essays. There is no
definite list of such words. Terms that are used recurrently for the objectives described
above are identified as “literary terms”. The latter are frequently utilized to illustrate and
construe varied forms of writing by a writer.

Irony : A form of expression in which the intended meaning of the words is the opposite of
their literal meaning. One form of this form we can set forth Verbal Irony. The latter takes
place when a person says one thing and means another. For example, saying “Nice guy”
about someone you don’t appreciate. In the other side we can find the Situational irony
which takes place when the outcome of a situation is the opposite of what was expected.

Metaphor : a figure of speech that compares or equates seemingly unlike things. In contrast
to a simile, a metaphor implies the comparison instead of stating it directly; hence, there is
no use of connections such as like or as.

Non-Fiction : it is a factual prose writing. Non-fiction deals with real people and experiences.
Among the categories of non-fiction are biographies, autobiographies, essays.

Personification : A figure of speech in which an animal, object, or idea is given human form
or characteristics.

Example of personification:

“The thunder screamed through the murky clouds”. Here, the thunder is the non-
human and the trait of screaming is something that a human may do.

Simile : A figure of speech using “like” or “as” to compare seemingly unlike things.
Analogy: A comparison between two things, based on one or more elements that they
share. Analogies can help the reader visualize an idea. I n informational texts, analogies are
often employed to explain something unfamiliar in terms of something known. In literature,
most analogies are expressed in metaphors or similes.

Example: Citizen is to president as solar system is to galaxy.

Anthropomorphism: Representing animals or things as if they had human emotions and

potentials. Fables and fairy tales often contain anthropomorphism.

Example: The wild storm brought with it howling wind and fierce lightning.

Allegory: where every aspect of a story is representative, usually symbolic, of something else
outside the text, usually a larger abstract concept or distinctive historical circumstance. As a
literary device, an allegory is defined as a form of “extended metaphor”, or “symbolic
representation”.

Autobiography: The fictional account of a person’s life written by that person.

Biography: the account of a person’s life and career written by someone other than the
subject. Biographies can be short or book-length.

Fiction: A prose narrative in which situations and characters are invented by the writer.
Some aspects of a fictional work may be based on facts or realistic experiences. Fiction
includes short stories, novels, and novellas.

Figurative language: language used for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly.
Expressions of figurative language are not literally true but express some truth beyond the
literal level. Although it appears in all kinds of literary writing, figurative language is
especially prominent in poetry.

Historical Fiction: a novel, novella, play, short story, or narrative poem that sets fictional
characters against a historical background and contains many details about the period in
which it is set.

Idiom: a figure of speech that belongs to a particular language, people, or region and whose
meaning cannot be obtained, and might even appear outlandish (absurd), by joining the
meanings of the words composing it. You would be using an idiom if you said you caught a
cold.

Imagery: language that emphasizes impressions of the senses to help the reader of a literary
work see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the scenes in the work.

Fable: a short, simple tale that teaches a moral. The characters in a fable are often animals
who speak and act like people.
Allusion: a reference in a work of literature to a well-known character, place, or situation in
history, politics, or science or from another work of literature, art … etc. It is up to the reader
to draw a connection to the subject of illusion. It can insinuate to historical event, literary
work, myth, work of art … etc.

Examples :
* At times parents need the insight of Solomon to take decisions.
* The girl’s love of sweets was her Achilles heel. (This sentence alludes to
Achilles, the warrior of Greek mythology, who could only be harmed if
Something hit his heel. This means that Achilles’ only weakness was his
heel.
Connotation: is a complex literary device wherein the intended meaning is not stated plainly
and is instead conveyed in indirect means. Connotation leaves a little of the meaning
unstated so that the reader can interpret it for himself.
Example: And once again, the night darkness is covering everything.
Hyperbole: is a literary device wherein the writer uses specific words and phrases that
overstress and overemphasize the basic crux of the statement in order to produce a grander,
more perceptible effect. It relies on descriptions which exaggerates, usually employing
extremes and / or superlatives to convey a positive or negative attribute.
Examples: I am so tired I cannot walk another inch.
I waited in the line for centuries. (i.e., the wait time was extremely
Long.)
Parody: a comical story that makes fun of another well-known story by imitating it at the
level of characters, plot, themes, setting. These elements may all be changed for humorous
upshot.

Task: Consult books which are under the title of Dictionary of Literary Terms to identify the
meaning of the following terms: poetics, Genre, aesthetics.

 For further readings, you can consult the different books which take the title of
Dictionary of Literary Terms. You can also consult the book: Introduction to Literature.
Its first chapter is devoted to define some frequent literary terms.