Basic Glossary of Literary Terms

Act: A major division in a play. Each act may have one or more scenes. Greek plays were performed as continuous wholes, with interpolated comment from the Chorus. Horace appears to have been the first to insist on a five-act structure. At some stage during the Renaissance the use of five acts become standar practice among French dramatists.
    Plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries have natural breaks which can be taken as act divisions. Shakespeare's plays are usually divided into five acts, and these acts are themselves divided into individual numbered scenes. Much of this division is the work of individual editors, rather than being explicit in the original editions of the plays. The playwright Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) was the first editor to divide the plays up systematically into acts and scenes, and to indicate locations for each scene; his six-volume edition of Shakespeare's works was published in 1709. Various attempts have been made to work out a consistent pattern for the five act play, such as by saying that the first act sets the scene and provides background information, the second and third acts move the action forward at ever-increasing speed, the fourth act provides the turning point in the action, and the fifth act concludes the story with a fierce climax and provides the dénouement.
    In shaping their plays Elizabethan dramatists were influenced by Roman models (e.g. Seneca). The act divisions were marked as such by later editors. Ben Jonson was largely responsible for introducing the five-act structure in England. From the second half of the 17th century the vast majority of plays were in five acts. the introduction of the proscenium and the curtain (unknown in the Elizabethan theatre) during the Restoration period had some influence on structure. In the Restoration period the curtain rose at the end of the prologue (which was spoken on the forestage) and stayed out of sight until the end of the play. By c. 1750 the curtain was dropped regularly to mark the end of an act. Ibsen (1828-1906) cut the number of acts to four. Dramatists like Chekhov (1860-1904) and Pirandello (1867-1936) also used four. Since early in the 20th century most playwrights have preferred the three-act form, though the two-act play is not uncommon. In modern productions, especially in the cases of five-and four-act plays, there is only one curtain-drop and interval. Thus the first three or two acts are run together without a break. Many modern plays are written and presented in a sequence of scenes. Pirandello, Shaw, Brecht and Beckett, among others, have been responsible for an increased flexibility. T.W. Baldwin gives an illuminating account of Elizabethan methods in Shakespeare's Five-Act Structure (1947).

action: Two basic meanings may be distinguished: (1) the main story (in cinematic jargon 'story-line') of a play, novel, short story, narrative poem, etc.: (2) the main series of events that together constitute the plot. Action is fundamental to drama, and implies motion forward. Much action is achieved without physical movement on stage, or even without anything being said. An essential part of action is the unfolding of character and plot.

allegory: Is an extended metaphorical narrative in which a figure (say, Spenser's Redcrosse Knight) stands for a specific quality (Holiness). An allegory is a story or narrative, usually of some length, which carries a second meaning or relevance, as well as that of its surface story; and allegory is usually a method of telling one story whilst seeming to tell another. None of Shakespeare's plays are direct allegories in the sense that they seek to tell one story by means of another, but a number of his plays have been seen as having allegorical content. Possibly the most famous example is Macbeth, which has been seen as an allegory of the fall of man (the Adam and Eve story) that features in Christian doctrine. According to this Macbeth represents uncorrupted man, and Lady Macbeth the temptress or Eve figure whose action leads to their mutual destruction. Other plays, such as The Tempest or The Winter's Tale, can be interpreted on a number of levels, some of them allegorical.

alliteration: (L. 'repeating and playing upon the same letter) A figure of speech in which consonants, especially at the beginning of words, or stressed syllables, are repeated. It is a very old device indeed in English verse (older than rhyme) and is common in verse generally. It is used occasionally in prose. In OE poetry alliteration was a continual and essential part of the metrical scheme and until the late Middle Ages was often used thus. However, alliterative verse becomes increasingly rare after the end of the 15th century, and alliteration - like assonance, consonance and onomatopoeia - tends more to be reserved for the achievement of the special effect. A sequence of repeated consonantal sounds in a stretch of language. The matching consonants are usually at the beginning of words or stressed syllables. Alliteration is common in poetry and prose, and is one of the most easily identifiable figures of speech. Relating to the texture or onomatopoeic nature of language; words which start with similar sounding consonants coming close together in the text (also sometimes known as head-rhyme)

ambiguity: Ever since William Empson published Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930) this term has had some weight and importance in critical evaluation. In brief, Empson's theory was that things are often not what they seem, that words connote at least as much as they denote - and very often more. Empson explained thus: 'We call it ambiguous... when we recognize that there could be a puzzle as to what the author meant, in that alternate views might be taken without sheer misreading... An ambiguity, in ordinary speech, means something very pronounced, and as a rule witty or deceitful'. He uses the word in an extended sense and finds relevance in any 'verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language'. 'The machinations of ambiguity', he says, 'are among the very roots of poetry'.
    He distinguishes seven main types, which may be summarized as follows:
1. When a detail is effective in several ways simultaneously.
2. When two or more alternative meanings are resolved into one.
3. When two apparently unconnected meanings are given simultaneously.
4. When alternative meanings combine to make clear a complicated state of mind in the author.
5. A kind of confusion when a writer discovers his idea whileactually writing. In other words, he has not apparently preconceived the idea but come upon it during the act of creation.
6. Where something appears to contain a contradiction and the reader has to find interpretations.
7. A complete contradiction which shows that the author was unclear as to what he was saying.

anachronism: (GK. 'back-timing) A historically inaccurate episode or event. In literature anachronisms may be used deliberately to distance events and to underline a universal verisimilitude and timelessness - to prevent something being 'dated'. Shakespeare adopted this device several times. Two classic examples are the references to the clock in Julius Caesar and to billiards in Antony and Cleopatra - (when a clock chimes in Julius Caesar, clocks had not been invented in Roman times, in which the play is supposedly set). Shaw also does it in Androcles and the Lion when the Emperor is referred to as 'The Defender of the Faith'. Webster adopted this device in The Duchess of Malfi, when the Cardinal says: 'We need go borrow that fantastic glass/ Invented by Galileo the Florentine, / To view another spacious world i'th' moon, / An look to find a constant woman there.' This lines are an anachronistic reference to the telescope constructed by Galileo in 1609 after he had heard of the one made by the Dutch spectacle-maker Nippershay.

anagnorisis : (GK 'recognition') A term used by Aristotle in Poetics to describe the moment of recognition (of truth) when ignorance gives way to knowledge. According to Aristotle, the ideal moment of anagnorisis coincides with peripeteia, or reversal of fortune. The classic example is in Oedipus Rex when Oedipus discovers he has himself killed Laius.

antagonist: In drama or fiction the antagonist opposes the hero or protagonist. In Othello Iago is antagonist to the Moor. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Farfrae is antagonist to Henchard. In The Duchess of Malfi, Bosola is antagonist to the Duchess.

anticlimax: According to Dr. Johnson's definition (and he appears to have been the first to record the word) it is 'a sentence in which the last part expresses something lower than the first'. In fact, a bathetic declension from a noble tone to one less exalted. The effect can be comic and is often intended to be so. A good example occurs in Webster's The Duchess of Malfi: some critics says that Act V is an anti-climax. The climax of the play can be seen as the death of the Duchess at the end of Act IV. If anti-climax is to be avoided, then our interest must be successfully transferred to another character or other issues. If the play is essentially about the Duchess, then there will be anti-climax.

anti-masque: An innovation by Ben Jonson in 1609. It took the form of either a buffoonish and grotesque episode before the main masque or an interlude, similarly farcical, during it.

antimetabole: (Gk 'opposite change/variety) The repetition of words in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order. As in this example by Dr Jonnson in one of his Rambler essays: 'It ought to be the first endeavour of a writer to distinguish nature from custom, or that which is established because it is right from that which is right only because it is established'. See also chiasmus.

apron stage: A stage or acting area that juts out into the auditorium, leaving the actors surrounded by audience on three sides. It is sometimes called a 'thrust stage'.

Aristotelian drama: Aristotle was a Greek philosopher of the fourth century BC who endeavoured to deduce what were the essential ingredients for theatrical success. Later defined as the Unities, his studies incorporated plot, theme, narrative technique, characterisation and the handling of time and place. Three rules for dramatic structure had been derived from the writings of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). They were: Unity of Action, which stated that a play should consists of a single united action, with no sub-plots; Unity of Time, which stated that the action of a play should not last more than about twenty-four hours; and Unity of Place, which stated that the action should all happen in the same place. Plays written up to, and including, the Elizabethan era were, more often than not, constructed on an Aristotelian model. An Aristotelian pattern demanded consistency with the three Unities: Action. Time and Place. From Action there had to be an absence of confusing subplots, Time must portray events taking place within a constricted period, probably no more than a day, and the setting throughout needed to be restricted to one Place. These Unities were considered vital ingredients for a dramatist in his endeavour to maintain audience credibility.. The French dramatists of the sixteenth century adhered closely to these rules, considering that to break them would confuse the audience and make it more difficult for them to suspend their disbelief. A good example of an English play of the period which observes the unities is Ben Jonson's The Alchemist (1610); but Shakespeare displays no regard for the rules in the structure of his plots, and neither does Webster. In The Duchess of Malfi the Unity of Action is more or less preserved, there is no regard for the Unity of Time

Aristotle: a Greek philosopher (384-322 BC), whose Poetics (observations about Tragedy collected by his followers) in an early and influential example of empirical criticism. By the examination of examples Aristotle attempts to analyse those features that make some tragedies more successful than others. He focuses on the nature of the plot and its cnnections with a moral pattern, the typifying features of the tragic hero, and the play's intensity of focus in time and place (later called the Unities).

aside: a device in common use in drama whereby a character addresses the audience whilst other characters are still on stage. (It contrasts with soliloquy when a character on stage alone addresses the audience.) It is normally the playwright's intention that what is said is said sincerely. An aside is a common dramatic convention in which a character speaks in such a way that some of the characters on stage do not hear what is said, while others do. It may also be a direct address to the audience, revealing the character's views, thoughts, motives and intentions.

Augustan age: originally a golden age of Roman literature a hundred years before and after the time of the birth of Christ when the writing of Horace, Virgil and Ovid flourished. The term is now usually applied to a period of English writing in the first half of the eighteenth century, notably of Addison, Steele, Pope and Swift. The style common to both periods is one of taste, refinement and patriotism.
    During the reign of the Emperor Augustus (27 BC-AD 14) many distinguished writers flourished, notably Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Tibullus. The term has been applied to that period of English history in which Dryden, Pope, Addison, Swift, Goldsmith, Steele and, to some extent, Johnson lived and imitated their style: that is the final decades of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. So the phrase suggests a period of urbane and classical elegance in writing, a time of harmony, decorum and proportion. Goldsmith contributed an essay to The Bee on 'the Augustan Age in England', but he confined it to the reign og Queen Anne (1702-14). In French literature the term is applied to the age of Corneille, Racine and Molière.

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