Literary terms directory
Literary Forms
Literary forms describe established kinds, structures, and modes of literary expression.
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- AphorismLiterary FormAn aphorism is a brief, self-contained statement that presents an observation, principle, or generalization in memorable form. It may sound wise or provocative without being universally true.
- BildungsromanLiterary FormA Bildungsroman is a novel of formation that traces a protagonist's intellectual, moral, psychological, or social development. Coming of age is common, but the defining emphasis is sustained formation rather than the protagonist's age alone.
- EkphrasticLiterary FormEkphrastic writing is literary writing that vividly describes, addresses, interprets, or imaginatively responds to a visual artwork. Ekphrasis names the practice; ekphrastic is the adjective describing the resulting passage or work.
- EpilogueLiterary FormAn epilogue is a distinct concluding section placed after a work's principal action or argument. It may show later consequences, change perspective, reflect on events, or deliberately complicate closure.
- PrologueLiterary FormA prologue is a distinct opening section that precedes a work's principal action or argument. It may supply context, frame the telling, establish a voice, or present an earlier event without functioning as the first chapter.
- SatireLiterary FormSatire is a literary mode that exposes or criticizes folly, vice, institutions, or social conditions through strategies such as irony, exaggeration, parody, and ridicule. It may entertain as well as provoke judgment, and it need not target one character or prescribe a reform.
- StanzaLiterary FormA stanza is a grouped unit of lines within a poem, commonly marked by spacing and sometimes by a recurring metrical, rhythmic, or rhyme pattern. It functions as a structural grouping, somewhat like a paragraph in prose, but it is not itself a genre.
- TragedyLiterary FormTragedy is a dramatic or narrative genre centered on grave conflict, suffering, loss, or reversal and shaped to serious emotional and intellectual effect. Classical theories influence the term, but not every tragedy requires a fatal flaw, inevitable fate, or the protagonist's death.
- VerseLiterary FormVerse most broadly means language composed in poetic lines, especially in contrast with prose; it can also mean a line of metrical writing. In some contexts, including songs and popular usage, verse names a grouped section, so readers must identify the relevant sense.