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Basic Glossary of Literary Terms
F
fable: (L. fabula 'discourse, story') A short narrative in prose or verse which points a moral. Non-human creatures or inanimate things are normally the characters. The presentation of human beings as animals is the characteristic of the literary fable and is unlike the fable that still flourishes among primitive peoples. A short tale or story conveying a clear moral lesson, as in the sixth-century Aesop's Fables.
falling action: That part of a play which follows the dénouement or climax.
Faust theme: At some time during the 16th century a late medieval legend about a man who sold his soul to the Devil became linked with the man called Johann Faust (c. 1488-1541), an itinerant conjuror. The first known account of this man's life, the Historia von D. Johann Fausten, was published in 1587 and described a magician's pact witg the Devil. The publication coincided with a noticeable increase of interest in demonology and Satanism in Europe; an interest which was to continue late into the 17th century and produced an astonishing number of demonologies, as well as ecclesiastical and civil measures against Satanism.
farce: A play intended to provoke non-censorious laughter by presenting absurd and ridiculous characters and actions. Complicated plots, mistaken ideas, and marital infidelity are the stuff of farce. Texts, usually plays, which aim to make people laugh in a very basic way. Plot is more important than character in farce; the comedy is normally physical rather than intellectual.
feminine ending: An extra unstressed syllable at the end of a line of verse. Common in blank verse, with the slack eleventh syllable, as in the third line of these three from George Chapman's De Guina (the first two have masculine endings): A line of verse ending on a weak or unstressed syllable.
feminine rhyme: When words of two or more syllables rhyme it is known as feminine or double rhyme. It is particularly common in humorous verse, as in the first two lines of this flippant epitaph:
feminism: a philosophy embracing economics, politics, literature and indeed every aspect of the humanities, and which seeks to posit women on an equal footing with men; and in doing so to show how men have established and reinforced their historical dominance. The development of feminism has been rapid since 1945 but was articulated much earlier by Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf.
flat and round characters: Terms used by E. M. Foster in Aspects of the Novel (1927) to describe two basically different types of character - and characterization. A 'flat' character does not change in the course of a story or play; a 'round' one develops and thus alters. Foster cites Mrs Micawber as a flat character and Becky Sharp as a round one. Shakespeare's Henry IV (Pts I and II) provides a suitable contrast in the shape of Hotspur and Prince Hal. The former is a 'flat' character; the Prince changes and develops considerably in the course of the play. A 'flat' character is one who is one-dimensional, often characterised through one feature or mannerism. He or she is a type, a 'caricature', or someone who behaves with little depth and complexity. A 'rounded' character is more complex, can surprise the reader with his or her actions, and can change or grow over the course of a book or play. In general, flat characters are simple, and rounded characters are complex. Thus in Great Expectations (1861) by Charles Dickens (1812-70) Pi, the hero, is a round character, whilst Trabb's Boy (who has only the one feature of being cheeky) is a flat character.
Folio: (L. folium 'leaf') Made by folding a printer's sheet once only, to form two folios or four pages. It also refers to editions of Shakespeare's plays published after his death: the First Folio appeared in 1623. There were three others in 1632, 1663 and 1685. A large page size, formed by a single fold in a sheet of printer's paper, giving four pages (or sides). :
O incredulity! the wit of fools,
That slovenly will spit on all things fair,
The coward's castle, and the sluggard's cradle.
Here lie I and my four daughters,
Killed by drinking Cheltenham waters.
Had we but stuck to Epsom salts,
We wouldn't have been in these here vaults.
