American Literature: Terms & Concepts

The word book has come to have many meanings, e.g., any collection of sheets of paper, wood, or other material sewn or bound together; a division of a written work (books of the Bible, books of Caesar's Gallic War); and statements of financial accounting (bookkeeping). MORE

Popular form of comedy employing improvised dialogue and masked characters that flourished in Italy from the 16th to the 18th cent. MORE

Particular kind of work within an art form, differentiated by its structure, content, or style. For instance, the novel is a literary genre and the historical novel is a genre of the novel. MORE

Assessment and interpretation of literary works. The term ‘criticism’ is often taken to mean exclusively adverse comment, but in fact it refers to all literary assessment, whether positive or negative. MORE

Figure of speech using an analogy or close comparison between two things that are not normally treated as if they had anything in common. MORE

The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to US literature for children. MORE

In the arts, the use of symbols to concentrate or intensify meaning, making the work more subjective than objective. MORE

In speech, emphasis given a particular sound, called prosodic systems MORE

From Dictionary of Shakespeare
A group of two or more syllables in a metric line of verse, one of which is more strongly emphasized or stressed than the others, that forms the basis of the rhythm. MORE

In prosody, a line to be scanned in five feet (see versification). The third line of Thomas Nashe's "Spring" is in pentameter: "Cold doth / not sting, / the pret / ty birds / do sing." MORE

Or rime, the most prominent of the literary artifices used in versification.MORE

From The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
The act of discovery or interp. of the meter (q.v.) of a poem as realized in one of its lines; also the graphic transcription thereof, usually by symbols, numbers, or letters either above the line or alone. S. is a notation system for meter in metrical poetry just as sheet music notates music or writing notates speech. MORE

A Japanese verse form consisting of five lines, the first and third having five syllables, the others seven. [C19: from Japanese, from tan short + ka verse]. MORE

Principles of metrical practice in poetry. In different literatures poetic form is achieved in various ways; usually, however, a definite and predictable pattern is evident in the language. MORE