INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF LITERATURE
What is Literature?
Literature is an expression of one’s minds and feelings making use of language, form and imagination as special tools. Literature can also be seen as writings in prose or verse that have excellence of form or expression and presenting ideas of permanent or universal interest.
Types of literature
Literature has two major types
1. Oral literature
2. Written literature
1. Oral Literature is the traditional knowledge and beliefs of cultures that are transmitted by word of mouth. It is the vehicle of transmission of culture, beliefs, thoughts and customs of a given community from one generation to another.
Oral literature has the following forms:
(a) Legend: A legend is a story about the origin of a people, the heroes or heroines who had fought or overcome difficulties to see the country or town founded.
(b) Myth: A myth is a story of historical events that serve to show worldview of a people or practice, belief or natural phenomenon or the deeds of gods or supernatural beings.
(c) Folktales: folktales are native stories whose authors are unknown, not affected by time and place but are transmitted by words of the mouth. Folktales are used for entertainment and dictate purposes.
(d) Proverbs: A proverb is a short expression of popular wisdom. A proverb is primarily meant to give advice, warning and to teach moral lessons.
(e) Riddles: This is a deliberately mysterious or ambiguous question requiring a thoughtful and often wise answer.
2. Written literature: this is the opposite of the oral. It is the literature formally written down or passed across in the written form. It principally depends on writing skills or creativity. Examples of written form of literature include: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, The lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka
IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
1. Literature entertains us: when we engage in reading novels, reciting poems or watching plays it uplifts our spirit and it fills leisure moments.
2. Literature mirrors life and show us who we really are: it enables us to learn about our past as well as our present and learn about variety of cultures
3. Literature brings refinements of character: literature brings out reasoning related to character motivation, visualization of actions, characters and creative responses.
4. Literature develops our vocabulary skills and speaking manners: good literary materials expose the readers to correct sentence patterns, standard story structures and varied word usage.
5. Literature teaches morals: literature draws a line between good and evil and teaches us to stick to the good by showing us the negative consequences of the evil.
6. Literature gives us insight into other people’s culture and makes us value them from different races and ethnic groups. It makes people from culturally diverse backgrounds begin to appreciate and admire other people’s culture.
7. Literature is a major tool for the preservation of culture: without literature, the riches of our culture would have been forgotten in the advent of civilization.
8. Literature helps to establish career concepts: for people who have limited knowledge of careers, literature expands their ideas for potential careers.
9. Literature is a good informative and correction tool: literature is a simple and useful means of passing information across
10. Literature performs therapeutic functions: literary therapy is often considered an effective treatment for people who have severe emotional and psychological problem
11.
GENRES OF LITERATURE
The genres of literature refer to category of literary composition. There are three genres of literature and they are: Drama, prose and poetry.
DRAMA
Drama is the imitation of actions. It is a play written for actors to perform on stage, in a theatre or on a platform before an audience.
Characteristics of drama
1. It is written in acts and scenes
2. It makes use of dialogue
3. It can be scripted or non-scripted
4. It is action centred
5. It involves much of impersonation and imitation
6. It is best appreciated when acted on the stage or in a theatre
7. It makes use of dramatis personae
Elements of drama
1. Stage: A platform usually in theatre, where actors and actresses, dancers perform. A stage is otherwise described as the physical representation of the world of the play.
2. Audience: A group of people watching a performance of a play on stage. Drama is an audio-visual literary work. The audience sees and hears the dialogue of the actors who translate a play to drama on the stage. The audience serves as the element of measuring the success or failure of the play.
3. Dialogue: This means conversation between the characters or actors and actresses in a play or drama. Dialogue is also found in other literary works like poetry and prose.
4. Act: It is a major division in the action of play just as the novel has chapters so also a play is divided into ACTS.
5. Scenes: scenes are a continuous section of action in an unchanged locality. Simply put, a scene is a logical unit into which an act is divided.
6. Comic Relief: It is a humorous scene or funny incident or speech in a serious drama. In a tragedy such humorous scenes are usually introduced to provide relief from emotional intensity.
7. Catastrophe and Denouement: This refers to the turning point in the life or actions of the protagonist in an unfolding play. This turning point may result in success or failure for the protagonist. The misery is solved or the misunderstanding is cleared away at this point in the play. If the play is a tragedy, this turning point is termed catastrophe. But in both tragedy and comedy, this change of event is commonly referred to as Denouement. Denouement is also called Resolution.
8. Dialogue: Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people
1. Music: This is the use of songs, dances and choruses to pass message in any dramatic performance.
2. Audience: This is the spectators of a stage drama or theatrical performance.
TYPES OF DRAMA
1. Comedy: This is a play of good and happy light-hearted events. It usually ends on a happy note. Comedy has the following types:
(a) High comedy: This is a simple but serious comedy with noble characters and elevated dialogue which the aim is to appeal to the intellect and arouse thoughtful laughter by showing inconsistencies and disagreement in human nature.
(b) Low comedy: This type of comedy lacks seriousness of purpose and has little appeal to reasoning. The main features include misunderstandings, abuses, fighting and drunkenness. It is an opposite of high comedy
(c) Romantic comedy: In romantic comedy, serious and unpretentious love is the major concern and interest. True love is the main drive in this type of comedy.
(d) Comedy of manners: A comedy of manners is concerned with satirizing society’s manners. Comedy of manners usually employs an equal amount of both satire and farce resulting in a hilarious set-up of a particular social group.
(e) Sentimental comedy: Sentimental means evoking feelings. In sentimental comedies, middle-class protagonists triumphantly overcome a series of moral trials. These plays aim to produce tears rather than laughter and reflect contemporary philosophical conceptions of humans as inherently good but capable of being led astray by bad example.
2. Tragedy: A play that is serious, full of sadness and ends most often in death or bloodshed or other forms of calamities. Tragedy has the following types
(a) Classical tragedy: This is a tragic play of ancient Greeks or Romans
(b) Modern tragedy: This is a form of tragedy that breaks the traditional forms and techniques of the classical tragedy. The protagonist in modern tragedy may not even die.
(c) Revenge tragedy: This is a dramatic genre in which the protagonist seeks revenge for an imagined or actual injury.
(d) Domestic tragedy: This is the kind of tragedy that deals with domestic life of middle class rather than royal or noble ranks. It concerns family affairs rather public matters of state.
3. Tragic-comedy: it is a play that possesses the feature of both tragedy and comedy and often ends on a happy note.
4. Farce: this is a drama that is full of ridiculous events intended to make people laugh. It is a comedy of extravagant humour
5. Melodrama: this is a sensational and romantic drama. It is meant for the purpose of creating excitement, sensation and shock in the audience. In this type of drama, a character may jump from a ten storey building and drive a car into the sea.
6. Closet drama: this is a drama that is read rather than performed on the stage.
7. Satire: a type of drama which shows the ills of society and the foolishness of human beings in a light-hearted way or with the aim of correcting it.
PROSE
Prose is a long narrative piece of writing with a wide range of characters, events and experiences written in a straight forward language. Prose is a kind of writing than is not poetic.
Characteristics of prose
1. It is written in chapters and paragraphs
2. It deals with imagination or intellect
3. It is not always musical and may not contain any rhyme scheme
4. It is written to inform and instruct
5. It uses the original or every day spoken language
6. It may be factual or non-factual
7. It uses rich stock of idioms, proverbs, anecdotes, parables etc
Classification of prose
Prose is classify in Fiction and Non-fiction
Types of Fiction
1. Fiction: fiction is stories that are made up and not based on fact. Major types of fiction are literature fiction, commercial fiction, science fiction, animal fiction and adventure fiction
Categories of fiction are:
(a) Mystery: A mystery is something that is impossible or difficult to figure out. It can be a secret, riddle or a puzzle hence needs intelligence in other to reveal the unknown.
(b) Humourous: humour is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement.
(c) Fantasy: fantasy is a genre of fiction that is commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomenon as primary plot element, theme or setting.
(d) Fable: fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse that features animals, mythical creatures, inanimate objects or forces of nature that illustrates an interpretation of moral lesson.
(e) Allegory: Allegory is a rhetorical device in which characters or events in a literary, visual or musical art form represent or symbolize ideas.
(f) Parables: A parable is a succinct, didactic story in prove or verse which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles.
(g) Romance: Romance is the expressive and pleasure feeling from an emotional attraction towards another person associated with love.
(h) Folktales: A folktale is a story or legend handed down from generation to generation by oral retelling.
2. Non-fiction: Non-fiction is a story based on real facts and information.
Types of Non-fiction
(a) Biography: A book about a person’s life written by someone else is a biography.
(b) Autobiography: A book that someone writes about his or her own life is known as an autobiography.
(c) Memoir: A book a person writes about a particular time in his or her life, it does not cover from birth to death.
(d) Diary or Journey: A day by day account of a person’s life. A personal diary may include a person’s experiences, thoughts or feelings.
(e) Travels: The genre of travel literature includes outdoor literature, exploration, adventure literature.
Forms of fiction and non-fiction
1. Novella: A novella is a written fictional prose narrative longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.
2. Novelogue: A novelogue is a story told almost exclusively through dialogue. A novelogue is designed to be read in the same amount of time it takes to watch a movie.
3. Novel: A novel is a long prose narrative that is normally in prose which describes fictional characters and events usually in the form of a sequential story.
4. Short story: A short story is a brief work of literature usually written in narrative prose.
ELEMENTS OF PROSE
1. Plot: This is the main events of a novel, devised and presented by the author as an interrelated sequence. A plot can be:
(a) Chronological/Linear plot: This is when the story begins from the beginning and there is a movement in chronological or linear order to the end of the story.
(b) Inorganic or Episodic: This is when the story does not go in a sequential manner.
2. Setting: setting is the historical moment in time and geographical location in which a story takes place and helps initiate the main backdrop and mood of the story. Settings involves the following:
(a) Geographical setting: This involves the landscape, scenery and the location of the place.
(b) Social setting: This has to do with the social life of the people like hunting, fishing farming and the general culture of the people.
(c) Time setting: This is the actual time of the events in the narrative.
3. Character: A character is a person in a narrative work of arts such as a novel, play, television series or film. Types of character include:
(a) Flat Characters: flat characters are minor characters in a work of fiction, they are not complex and do not undergo change
(b) Round Characters: Round characters are major characters in a work of fiction; they are complex and undergo development, sometimes to surprise the reader.
4. Style: Is the manner a writer uses words to create his literary work. The way a writer or a poet writes what they have to express.
5. Theme: The theme is the central meaning or idea in a narrative.
6. Narrative Techniques: Narrative techniques are the methods that authors use to tell their stories. Types of narratives includes:
(a) First Person Narrator: This is technique by which the writer tells his story as though he was one of the characters in the story. The writer uses I, We, Us instead of He/ She, They, Them.
(b) Third Person Point Of View: Here the writer uses the third person pronouns (he/ she). The narrator/ writer stands apart from the character.
(c) Third Person Limited Point Of View: This is a narrative technique by which the writer describes the action as a single character might see them. The writer sees the events through the eyes of his narrator.
(d) Third Person Omniscient: It is the method in which the narrator/ writer reports on what many characters are thinking and feeling.
(e) Stream Of Consciousness: It is a narrative technique by which the audience or reader is made to follow the mind or thoughts of the narrator. The story is usually not told in the order the events took place or in the order of time.
POETRY
Poetry is defined as an imaginative work of art expressed in strong feelings and emotions. It can also be seen as the beautiful arrangement of words in lines. Forms of poetry include: poems, songs, recitation, hymns and nursery rhymes.
CHARACTERISTICS OF POETRY
1. It is written in lines and stanzas
2. It deals with imagination and emotion
3. It is usually musical and written in rhyme pattern
4. The language is usually patterned
5. It is technical, full of figurative expressions
6. It is meant to be memorized and recited
7. It uses poetic license.
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
1. Imagery: It is a language that produces pictures in the mind of a reader or a listener. In other words, it is a form of language which calls up picture in the mind. Imagery appeals to the following senses: Visual sense (sight), Aural sense (hearing), Olfactory sense (smell), Gustatory sense (taste), Tactile sense (touch), Thermal sense (heat), Motion
2. Rhythm: It can be described as the movement of thought to facilitate mood and meaning in poetry. For example, the pounding of an engine, a moving vehicle, a flowing stream all show rhythm.
(a) Rhyme: It is the repetition of similar sounds in different words.
(b) Internal Rhyme: If the rhyming words are in the middle of a line of poem, the kind of rhyme thus form is called internal rhyme.
(c)
End Rhyme: It is a
form of rhyme that occurs at the end of each line
(d) Rhyme- scheme: The pattern or sequence of in which words rhyme with each other. It is usually denoted aa, bb, cc, dd, e.t.c.
(e) Alternate Rhyme-Scheme: It occurs when first line of a poem rhymes with the third. The second, with the fourth, the fifth with the seventh e.t.c.
3. Theme: Is the basic idea expressed by a literary work. It is the central idea or observation about life.
4. Subject Matter: Subject-matter is what is discussed by a literary work while the theme is derived from the comments on what is discussed or how the writer discusses the subject-matter. The things, people and events a writer writes about are the subject matter.
5. Mood: It is the author’s or poet’s state of mind at the time of writing his poem. Put differently, it is the emotional attitude of the poet to his theme. The mood may be meditative, reflective, sad, happy etc.
6. Stanza: This is a group of lines or collection of verses to form a division or section of a poem. Stanza has the following types:
(a) Couplet: Two line stanza with similar rhyme
(b) Triplet: Three line stanza
(c) Quatrain: Four line stanza with alternate rhymes
(d) Quintet: five line stanza
(e) Sestet: Six line stanza
(f) Octet: Eight line stanza
7. Metre: This is formal sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry. It is metre that determines the rhyme of a poem. There are five main metres:
(a) Iambic: in iambic, an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one.
(b) Trochaic: in Trochaic, the metre is stressed-unstressed
(c) Dactylic: in Dactylic, each foot has three syllables, one unstressed followed by two unstressed.
(d) Anapestic: in anapestic, two unstressed is followed by a stressed.
(e) Spondaic: In spondaic, there is two successive syllables of metre
8. Tone: is the inner voice which sends the feelings of the poet or the poet’s persona to the reader. A tone may be of sorrow, anger, resignation, ridicule, contempt, sarcasm, joyous e.t.c
KINDS OF POETRY
1. Lyric: This is a kind of poetry in which the speaker expresses strong personal feelings.
2. Sonnet: This is a poem made up of fourteen lines.
(a) Shakespearean sonnet is also called English sonnet. It is named after William Shakespeare who is a foremost writer of this type of poem. It has four divisions.
(b) Pertrechan or Italian sonnet is a poem named after the poet Francesco Pertrach.
3. Narrative poem: This is a poem that tells a story.
4. Ode: This is a meditative poem which addresses itself to a person or thing in which the good qualities of such a person or object are highlighted.
5. Pastoral poem: It is a poem which describes the simple life of rural people especially of shepherd around whom are beauty, love, music and values which remain forever green.
6. Ballad: This is a poem that always goes with an unknown authorship. It is written in a narrative verse passed down from one generation to another with words of mouth.
7. Epic: This is a long narrative poem that celebrates real historical events, historic achievements, heroic figures.
8. Lullaby: This is a soft melodious song meant to keep children quiet, peaceful and happy.
9. Elegy: This is a poem written to remember a sad situation.
10. Dirge: This is a poem used to lament or express grief on the occasion of someone’s death.
11. Panegyric: This is a poem meant to praise the heroes and their deeds or attributes of individual or group.
12. Blank verse/Free verse: This refers to a poem that does not have any rhyme.
13. Idyll: a short poem that expresses a peaceful and happy scene.
POETIC DEVICES
FIGURES OF SPEECH
A Figure of speech is a word or phrase that has a meaning than the literal or common meaning.
1. 1. Irony: An irony is saying a word and meaning the opposite. An irony is used when there is a contradiction between what is said, done and meant or perceived. Examples:
(a) My school football team is the best that they haven't won a match in ten years
(b) The man was so rich that he could not buy a car
(c) Chief Bigo is so generous that he can even take money from a street beggar
(d) Rondodo is a very brilliant student, having failed in his promotion exams
2. 2. Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares unrelated subjects directly without using ‘as’ or ‘like’. Examples:
(a) All the world’s a stage
(b) We are dead goats
(c) Tunde is a Tiger in the fight
(d) His heart is a stone
(e) She is the salt of the earth
3. 3. Simile: this is a figure of speech used in comparing two unlike things using the words ‘as’ or ‘like. Examples:
(a) Emeka is as brave as a lion
(b) Mr. Gori is like an old pig
(c) The ship went through the waves as a plough goes through rough ground
(d) Chief Ogbere is as black as charcoal
(e) He walks as fast as a soldier
(f) Oko fights like a lion
(g) His legs are as slim as ropes
4. 4. Personification: This is a figure of speech that attributes human characteristics or sensibilities to inanimate objects, abstract ideas and animals. Examples:
(a) The house could not stop singing aloud
(b) Lagos does not sleep at night
(c) Hope reigns forever in my heart
(d) Love conquers all people
(e) Life does not treat Sister Peperempe well
(d) Evil has given birth to so many children
5. 5. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences. Examples:
(a) How now, brown cow.
(b) Our echoes roll from soul to soul
(c) Thou foster child or silence and slow time
6. 6. Consonance: This is the repetition of identical or similar consonants across words, particularly at the word ending. Examples:
(a) Take the book back
(b) We welcomed women wherever they were
(c) Seven virgins have moved here
7. 7. Alliteration: This is the repetition of consonant sounds in a word or series of words in a quick successive manner. Alliteration uses a sequence of words in which the initial letter is the same. Examples:
(a) Health, happiness and hope for the new year
(b) Willful waste makes woeful want
(c) Blue baby bonnets burns furiously
(d) The pastor pray for peace
(e) I saw a plantain planter planting plantain in his plantain plantation
(f) Full fish followed our forefathers' footsteps
8. 8. Onomatopoeia: Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates, resembles or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. It uses words whose sound suggests their meaning such as boom, zoom hiss, crunch, buzz. Examples:
(a) The snake hissed
(b) The gun boomed
(c) The car zoomed off
(c) Grunt, grunt goes the Whoosh
9. 9. Pun: this is a play on words usually done for deliberate humorous effect. It is an amusing use of words that have the same sound spelling but different meanings.
(a) The man drunk with beer was laid on his bier
(b) You are better late than be late
(c) The sole trader mends soles and wins souls for Christ
(c) The head boy has headed us into trouble
1 10. Rhetorical question: A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question that is asked to make a point. It is a question in which no answer is expected. It is not asked for information but for effect. Examples:
(a) Is the Pope a Catholic?
(b) Can death kill any person?
(c) Does a baby grow?
1 11. Euphemism: This is a figure of speech in which an offensive statement is presented in a pleasant and harmless. Examples:
(a) Musa has embarked upon a journey of no return
(b) You are telling me a fairy tale
(c) He led the class from the class
(d) Olu the Rambo is now the guest of the president (This means imprisoned)
(e) The old man passed away peacefully
1 12. Paradox: A paradox is a statement or set of statements where impossible contradiction is presented. The purpose of paradox is to arrest attention and provoke fresh thought. Examples:
(a) The child is the father of the man
(b) Cowards die many times before their death
(c) Failures are the pillars of success
(d) The best way to learn a language is to speak it.
1 13. Oxymoron: it is a figure of speech where two opposite words are placed together to form a contradiction. Examples:
(a) The world is a global village
(b) The death of the president caused a deafening silence in the country
(c) The food is just a fine mess
(d) Women are necessary evils
(e) He is a wise fool
(f) The lady's pregnancy is an open secret
1 14. Apostrophe: This is a direct address to the dead, to the absent or to a personified object or idea. Apostrophe breaks of from normal speech and speaks to an imaginary person or even to an abstract quality or idea. Examples:
(a) O death! You are so cruel
(b) Heaven tell me, why does he speak thus?
(c) Life, why are you treating me like this!
(d) O death, where is thy sting!
(e) O grave, where is thy victory!
(f) Zik, why did you die and leave us as orphans? Nigeria needs you now!
1 15. Hyperbole: Hyperbole is the use of deliberate exaggeration to evoke strong feelings or create a strong impression. Examples:
(a) I was so hungry that I could eat a horse
(b) I was so tired that I could sleep for a year
(c) I have warned you a million times to desist from evil company
(d) At the scene of the accident, human blood was flowing like river
(e) The man had the strength of a thousand elephants
(f) He sneezed and all men ran for cover
1 16. Litotes: This is the figure of speech that twists an expression by showing the positive statement in it contrary. In other words, it is a double negative. It is also called an understatement. Examples:
(a) Your points are not bad
(b) That is not an unimportant issue
(c) The new king is not lacking wisdom
1 17. Allusion: This is an implied or indirect reference to a person, event, thing or part of another text. The thing alluded to may require some form of prior knowledge. Examples:
(a) I must demand a pound of flesh from you.
(b) He sold him in shekels and silver, much more than thirty
(c) I must Quixote until a cast off from my land is done.
1 18. Epigram: This is a brief, interesting, memorable which excite surprise and arrest attention. It is a short witty saying of proverbial wisdom.
(a) Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
(b) He makes no friend who never made a foe
(c) Adeyinka never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one.
1 19. Metonymy: This is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is not called it own name but by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. Examples:
(a) Tinubu studied Shakespeare in the university
(b) The pen is mightier than the sword
(c) Lord, give us our daily bread (‘bread' here means food)
(d) The bullets took over the government of Nigeria in 1966 (meaning soldiers)
20. Anaphora: This is the repletion of a similar word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences or verses especially for poetic effect. Examples:
(a) Mad world!
Mad Kings!
Mad composition
(b) I came,
I saw,
I conquered
(c) With malice toward none,
With charity for all,
with firmness in the right
2 21. Synecdoche: This is a figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole or the whole of something used to represent part of it. Examples:
(a) This school needs lots of hands
(b) Grey hairs are not needed in Nigerian politics
(c) Nigeria lends Ghana a helping hand
2 22. Inversion: This is the reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence.
This figure of speech is common in poetry. Examples
(a) The fear of him did many a great men quake
(b) Young was he when he first sat on the throne
(c) Wakeful he lay when yet low was the sun
2 23. Antithesis: This is a figure of speech that uses two opposite independent clauses in order to highlight a point.
(a) Many are called but few are chosen
(b) To err is human, but to forgive is divine
(c) It has been said we are good, but I say we are bad.
(d) Money is the root of all evil, poverty is the fruit of all goodness
(e) The ignorant condemn learning, but the learned condemn ignorance
2 24. Pathetic fallacy: this is the speech that directs the human emotional feelings or responses to nature, inanimate object or animals. It is an advanced form of personification.
(a) The river wept and refused to flow
(b) The sky showed its gloomy face today
(c) We all saw the flowers weeping profusely.
2 25. Repetition: this is the figure of speech in which a word or group of words or an idea is expressed more than once in a passage or poem for emphasis or to gain attention
(a) It’s a mad, mad, mad world
(b) Vanities of vanities: you are vain, he is vain, all is vanity.
(c) The woods decay, the woods decay and fall
26. Climax: This is a systemic arrangement of ideas, terms, items or expressions in such a way that the most important is put last. Examples
(a) Some books are to be tasted, others to be chewed, while few are to be swallowed and digested
(b) The flood swept away the man's wife, his car, motorcycle, bicycle and slippers
(c) The robber was shot, beaten and later carried away.
27. Anti-climax: This is the opposite of climax. This is an arrangement of ideas, terms, items or expression in such a way that the most important ones come first while the least important is put last. Examples are:
(a) The flood swept away the man's wife, his car, motorcycle, bicycle and slippers
(a) The robber was shot, beaten, and later carried away.
LITERARY APPRECIATION
§ Suspension of disbelief: This is a dramatic convention which demands that we pretend that the people and event we see in a drama are real. In the performance of a play, actors imitate the characters in the play.
§ Soliloquy: It refers to a speech made by a character to himself in a play. It occurs when a character says aloud his thoughts to the hearing of the audience i.e. when a character is thinking aloud. It is aimed at revealing to the audience what is going on in the mind of the character.
§ Interior Monologue or Aside: This is a convention in which a character talks to himself to the hearing of the audience. The other characters are to pretend they do not hear even though they hear what the character is saying to himself. The audience also suspends their disbelief that the audiences do not hear.
§ Unity of Time: It is a dramatic concept that demands that the time in a play should be limited to specific number of hours.
§ Unity of Action: a plot of an action should be naturally conceived to derive all its part from a common action that unifies them. Put differently, all the plots in a play should be properly connected to a major one
§ Unity of Place: It is an idea that all the actions in a play should take place in one location.
§ Didactic Literature: It is a literary work meant to teach moral, branch of theoretical, religious or practical knowledge various forms of satire are didactic.
§ Satire: It is a literary work which lampoons human follies and frailties or vices as well as institutions with a view to correcting them.
§ Allegory: Imaginary narratives in which human beings and events have a symbolic meaning (i.e. represent ideas such as justice or freedom). The narrative may talk about something but has another thing in focus.
§ Epistolary: It is a novel written in the form of letter
§ Fable: A short story used to illustrate moral lessons in which animals talk and act like human beings
§ Foreshadowing: A character may say something which gives clue about a future event casually, or an event which foretells what would happen later in the literary work or may take place. When this occurs, we call it foreshadowing.
§ Euphony: It is the pleasantness of sound.
§ Atmosphere: this is the overall emotional feeling that the details a writer uses create.
§ Cacophony: Harshness or unpleasantness of sound
§ Diction: It simply means choice of words of a poet or choice of words of other literary writer.
§ Characterization: It refers to the creation of characters in a literary work by giving blood and flesh to fictitious people.
§ Flashback: It is a technique used to recall events that happen before the point at which the work begins or events that occurred earlier.
§ Protagonist: It refers to the leading character in a prose work or drama. It is a word derived from a Greek word, AGON
§ Antagonist: The chief character who opposes the leading character, e.g. in the Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, Shylock is the antagonist.
§ Suspense: It is a technique used by a writer to arouse curiosity in the reader. This he may do by mentioning an important event that occurred without stating its cause. He gradually reveals what led to the event as the work unfolds. Suspense is usually used to sustain the interest of the reader.
§ Prompter: Somebody who stays behind a scene to remind actors who forget their lines.
§ Playwright: Somebody who writes play
§ Dramatist: A person who writes a play and takes part in the action.
§ Novelist: One who writes a novel.
§ Poet: A person who writes a poem
§ Poetic licence: It is the freedom a poet has to enable him use words out of their ordinary usage in order to achieve special effect
§ Poetic Justice: Comeuppance on character in a literary work is called poetic justice.
§ Narrator: The person who explains what is happening in a work of literature.
§ Motif: A dominant or repeated idea in a work of art. It is also defined as the formula idea or pattern which forms the main base on which a work of literature is made or developed.
§ Parody: A poem meant to amuse which copies the style, characters and content of a know poet or writer to mock him.
§ Pathos: A quality which arouses feeling of pity, sorrow and sympathy from audience
§ Actor: A male acting in the performance of a play
§ Actress: A female who acts in drama. Example: Genevieve Nnaji is a popular Nigerian actress.
§ Anthology: A book containing collection of poems written by different poets.
§ Bathos: If is a literary device in which word or ideas are arranged in descending order of importance, form the sub line to the ridiculous. E.g. she was once managing director, later his wife and now his house help.
§ Anti – Climax: Otherwise termed bathos. It is the opposite of climax. It is the arrangement of event or ideas in descending order, i.e. from highest to lowest, Example: Okoh lost hisone million Naira, his wallet and his handkerchief. Ojo lost his wife, his building and motorcycle.
§ Burlesque: It is a poem that ridicules ideas or objects.
§ Consume irony: It is also called irony of fate. It occurs in a literary work in which god or divine force is presented as if deliberately dominating the affair of the chief character, giving him false hopes only to frustrate and humiliate him at the end.
§ Anthonomesia: A literary device that employs the name of a well known person or place to represent some quality in a similar person, place, event or object E.g.
§ Caricature: It is the ridiculous imitation of one person of another person’s manner and character.
§ Enjambment: It is also referred to as run-on-line. Enjambment occurs When ideas or thought unit run from one line of a poem into another without pause. The line flows on and on into the one following it.
§ Mime: It is a drama performed without speaking. The actors use only gestures and gesticulations in acting the play.
§ Malapropism: It is the wrong use of a word which is far from the meaning of what you want even though the word sounds like the correct one.
§ Inversion: It is the technique use in turning a sentence upside down against the normal grammatical order of the clause, phrase or sentence. E.g. For man’s salvation Jesus died.
§ Lineation: It is the arrangement of poem in lines
§ Catharsis: It is a term used to describe the purgation of emotion. It is otherwise described as transfer of feeling from actors to the audience in a play performance
§ Cast: A group of people who represent character on a stage performance.
§ Prologue: It is defined as short speech at the beginning of a literary work. It also means introductory part of work of literature
§ Meiosis: A figure of contrast that reduces somebody or an object to an inconsequential size or status even though theperson or object is actually bigger than what is suggested. This is used mainly for the sake of comic irony. E.g. Thompson is but an eye of Marcus.
§ Exposition: It is the act of explaining and making clear the background of event or actions that will occur in advance so as to capture the audience or reader’s attention.
§ Anagnorisis: It is an element of tragedy. A point at which a tragic hero discovered for the first time, the trap set for him. He is usually helpless against his fate at this point, hence he cannot retrace his steps Example: The point at which Macbeth discovers that Macduff was not born of a woman.(Macbeth, William Shakespeare). The three witches had earlier assured him that no man born of a woman could kill him thus when he realized that Macduff was not born of a woman, it dawned on him that he could be killed by him yet it was two late for him to retrace his steps.
§ Tragic Flaw: It is also called harmatia. It the weakness or fault in hero which, exploited by forces against him, often causes his down –fall
§ Interlude: It refers to an interval or breaks between two parts of a drama or play
§ Epilogue: It is a short speech at the end of a literary work.
§ Dues ex Machina: It is the sudden turn of event in a literary work.
§ Clown: A character who dresses in a funny manner and tries to amuse people by his jokes, actions and tricks. Climax: It is the peak or highest point in a work of art where feelings are most intense. It also means the arrangement of ideas or events in ascending order. E.g. I came, I saw, I conquered- Shakespeare William.
§ Theatre: It is the arena, structure or a space where play are performed.
§ Foil: A character that contrasts with the virtues of another character and as such emphasizes the qualities of the other character.
§ Caesura: A pause near the middle of a line of poetry. It is introduced by a punctuation mark
§ Prosody: It is the patterns of sounds and rhythms in poetry. It is also the study of the pattern in which poetry is written (versification)
§ Sarcasm: The use of words that are opposite of what you mean with the intentions to hurt or to be unpleasant to somebody or to
§ Epitaph: An inscription or words written on a dead person’s gravestone or tomb.
§ Epithet: It is an adjective or phrase used to describe a person or an object either to praise or criticize.
§ Transferred Epithet: An epithet transferred from what it rightly belongs to another it does not belong.
§ Realism: A style that depicts persons or objects in Literature as they are in real life. It also means the quality of resembling real life.
§ Verisimilitude: this is similar to realism. It is the quality of appearing to be real or true. A novel that lacks verisimilitude is termed Romance.
§ Travelogue: it is a literary work depicting a person’s travel experiences.
§ Curtain Raiser: short play staged before the main action in a theatre.
