ملتقى طلاب وطالبات جامعة الملك فيصل,جامعة الدمام

للي ما يقدر ينزل الباور بوينت
Lecture 15

Glossary of Literary Terms
Allegory
The term derives from the Greek word allegoria, meaning ‘speaking otherwise’. In literature, it describes a story
whose characters or action can be interpreted to have a hidden meaning.
Aphorism
A pithy observation or definition, often regarding society or morality.
Blank verse
Unrhymed verse written in iambic pentameter (see below).
Calvinism
The variety of Protestant theology associated with French religious reformer John Calvin (1509–64) and his
followers.
Canon
A body of literary works deemed to be of the highest quality or significance.
Caroline
Of, or relating to, the reign of Charles I (1625–49).
Catholicism The branch of Christianity presided over by the Pope in Rome. Catholicism was the dominant form of
Christianity in Renaissance Europe.
Cavalier poetry
Poetry written by supporters of Charles I (1625–49). As well as a tendency to idealise the monarchy, Cavalier poetry is
characterised by its prizing of friendship, hospitality, liberty and the classical concept of the ‘Good Life’.
The Civil War
The internal English war (1642–49) between the supporters of Parliament (known as Parliamentarians or Roundheads)
and the supporters of the King (known as Royalists or Cavaliers). The war was won by the Parliamentarians and resulted
in the overthrow and execution of Charles I (1649).
Classical
Of, or relating to, ancient Greek or Roman literature, art or culture.
Closet drama
A play written to be read rather than performed.
Comedy
In the Renaissance, comedies were defined by their happy endings and their characteristic focus on non-noble
characters, rather than by their use of humour, although visual and verbal comedy is often a feature of them.
Country-house poem
The English ‘country-house’ poem was an invention of the early seventeenth century and is defined by its praise of a
country-house estate and its (usually male) owner.
Counter-Reformation
The late sixteenth-century movement to reform the Catholic Church of Rome from within, stimulated by the Protestant
Reformation (see below).
Eclogue
A short pastoral poem, often in the form of a dialogue between shepherds, derived from Virgil’s Eclogues.
Elegy
A poem of mourning for an individual or a lament for an event.
Elizabethan
Of, or relating to, the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603).
Encomium
A poem or speech in praise of someone or something.
Epic
Usually a long narrative poem about the heroic deeds of a legendary figure and a nation’s history.
Folio
A book made up of sheets of paper folded once to create two leaves (four pages). In the Renaissance the folio format
was expensive and tended to be reserved for learned or prestigious works such as the Bible.
The ‘Golden Age’
An idyllic time in classical mythology when there was believed to be peace, harmony, and plenty; men and women did
not need to work or farm, living instead o nature’s freely provided bounty.
History play
A play which dramatises a story about reputedly historical characters and events.
Humanism
An intellectual movement originating in Renaissance Italy that encouraged the fresh study of classical literature, and
which emphasised the importance of learning as a means of improving one’s self.
Iambic pentameter
Verse in which each line contains five iambic feet; an iambic ‘foot’ consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable. This is the most common metrical form in English poetry. When used for unrhymed poetry it is known
as blank verse (see above).
Iconoclasm : The destruction of images used in religious worship.
Jacobean
Of, or relating to, the reign of James I (1603–25).
Lutheranism
The Protestant theology associated with sixteenth-century church reformer, Martin Luther.
Lyric
A short poem, often in the first-person, concerned with expressing the speaker’s thoughts or emotions.
Masque
An elaborate form of courtly entertainment, combining music, dance, spectacle and poetry.
Metaphysical poetry
A type of seventeenth-century poetry, especially associated with John Donne, characterised by its plain, colloquial style,
its metrical and rhythmic variety and its use of original, often surprising, analogies or ‘conceits’.
Morality play
An allegorical moral drama dramatising the battle between good and evil in the human soul; the protagonist is usually a
representative of mankind, while other characters personify abstract qualities such as virtues and vices.
Mystery plays
Short Medieval plays dramatising episodes from the Bible.
Pastoral
Traditionally a type of poetry dealing with shepherds and country life, but extended to include pastoral drama and prose
fiction in the Renaissance. The representation of rural life is typically idealised, rather than realistic. Traditionally,
pastoral was the humblest poetic genre, but there was a classical tradition of using it to comment covertly on political
issues, and a Christian tradition of equating shepherds with Christ and his ministers. The latter led some Medieval and
Renaissance authors to use pastoral as a vehicle for ecclesiastical satire.
Pathetic fallacy
The attribution of human feelings to inanimate objects or animals.
Petrarchan
A poetic mode that takes its name from Italian poet Francesco Petrarch (1303–74). As well as establishing a fashion for
sonnets, Petrarch’s poems have a number of recurrent features, which were widely imitated. These include a
preoccupation with a beautiful but distant mistress and the use of antitheses to describe the extremity
of the poet’s love.
Protestantism
The name given to the Christian churches which broke away from the Catholic Church of Rome during the sixteenth-
Century Reformation
Satire
Refers to literature which attacks contemporary individuals or social vices.
Senecan style
A curt prose style, characterised by the terseness and brevity of its clauses, named after Roman author, Seneca (c. 4bc-
ad 65), upon whose writing it was modelled.
Sonnet
A lyric poem consisting of fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter. The genre was popularised by Italian poet
Francesco Petrarch. There are two main types of sonnet in the Renaissance: Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets, which are
divided into an octave and a sestet, rhyming abbaabba cdecde, and English (or Shakespearean) sonnets, divided into
three quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.
Stuart
Of, or relating, to the reign of the Stuart royal family in Scotland (1371 –1714) and Britain (1603–49, 1660–1714).
Tragedy
A serious play about the downfall of a (usually elite) protagonist, often ending with his or her death.
Tragicomedy
A play which combines elements of comedy and tragedy. Renaissance tragicomedies are often serious in tone and
Subject matter but generally avoid extreme suffering or death, and end ‘happily’.
‘Unities’
The classical dramatic theory derived from Aristotle which suggested that the action of a play should be unified and
should take place in one location, over the course of one day.