AUTEUR
French for author, this term denotes a film director who makes the same film again and again and again.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A detailed list of the books from which the author plundered all his or her good ideas.
CIRCUMLOCUTION
The rhetorical device of circumlocution can be seen by the reader or made evident to the reader when a writer chooses to compose phrases, clauses, or sentences that are inordinately complex, exaggerated, long-winded, or otherwise unnecessarily verbose in order to demonstrate, convey, show, or express an idea, image, or meaning that might have been demonstrated, conveyed, shown, or expressed via the use of shorter, simpler, more direct phrases, clauses, or sentences that demonstrate brevity.
Inexperienced writers, especially composition students, are advised to use circumlocution to pad their writing and meet the assigned word count.
DESCRIPTIVIST
A grammarian who holds strong opinions and judgments about prescriptivists.
EXPOSITION
Telling without showing. Exposition can be extremely useful to the reader, who will slight the author who successfully employs it.
FREE INDIRECT STYLE
James Wood Approved!™
GOLDEN AGE
A comforting, nebulous fantasy.
HAGIOGRAPHY
A biography composed entirely of distortions, half-truths, and outright lies.
INNUENDO
The funny dirty bits that make you feel clever.
JARGON
Trade-specific diction employed (preferably clumsily) to confuse the average reader and offend the expert reader.
KINDLE
Early 21st-century reading device, often mistaken as a harbinger of literary doom.
LITERALLY
An adverb that most often means figuratively.
MYTH
The most enduring—and therefore most true—kind of story.
NEGATIVE CAPABILITY
A writer’s ability to just chill and not know. (Also useful for lazy frauds).
OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW
A comforting, nebulous fantasy.
PRESCRIPTIVIST
A grammarian who holds strong opinions and judgments about descriptivists.
QUEST
The story-teller’s scheme. Make it up as you go along. Steal as necessary.
REALISM
A comforting, nebulous fantasy.
SEBALDIAN
An adjective used to describe a literary work that is not quite as good as anything by W.G. Sebald.
TRAGEDY
A work often mistaken as more serious or more important or more literary than a comedy.
UNIVERSAL SYMBOL
A comforting, nebulous fantasy.
VULGARITY
A specific type of lucidity that authors sometimes use.
WELTSCHMERZ
The emotional byproduct of attempting to maintain comforting, nebulous fantasies.
XANAX
A stop-gap for bouts of Weltschmerz.
YOKNAPATAWPHA COUNTY
Faulkner’s Middle-earth.
ZYZZYVA
Zyzzyva is a real word, and this fact should give us all some small measure of hope..
(Previous entries here and here and here.).
Tagged: Books, dictionary of literary terms, list, Lists, Literature, Rhetoric
