An intro of Literary Terms

Act: A major division in the action of the play. Such a division was introduced into England by Elizabethan dramatists, who imitated the roman playwright Seneca by structuring the action into five acts.

Affective Fallacy: It is defined as the error of evaluating a poem by its effects- especially its emotional effects- upon the reader.

Allusion: In a work of literature is a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage.

Chorus: Among the ancient Greeks the chorus was a group, wearing masks, which sang or chanted verse while performing dance like maneuvers at religious festivals.

Comic Relief: It is the use of humorous characters, speeches, or scenes in a serious or tragic work, especially a dramatic work.

Criticism: It is the branch of study concerned with defining, classifying, expounding, and evaluating works of literature.

Doggerel: It is a term applied to rough, heavy footed, and jerky versification.

Elizabethan Age: It denotes the period of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, 1558-1603. this was the a time of great development in English commerce, maritime power and nationalist feeling- the defeat of the Spanish Armada occurred in 1588.

Epiphany: It means “a manifestation”, and by Christian thinkers was used to signify a manifestation of God’s presence in the world.

Figurative Language: It derives from what we apprehend as the standard significance or sequence of words, in order to achieve special meaning or effect.

Heroic Couplet: Lines of iambic pentameter which rhyme in pairs aa,bb and so on.