Some Literary Terms Defined

Catachresis [catachrestic (adj.)]: “From the Greek for ‘misuse,’ a term referring to the incorrect or strained use of a word. Catachresis often involves a mixed or ‘illogical’ metaphor. The phrase tooth of a comb is a strict example of catachresis since combs do not really have teeth. The meaning of the word dry is strained when we refer to a town in which liquor cannot be purchased as ‘dry’” (41).

Farce [farcical (adj.)] “From the Latin farcire, meaning ‘to stuff,’ a type of low comedy that employs improbable or otherwsie ridiculous situations and mix-ups, slapstick and horseplay, and crude and even bawdy dialogue… Comedies and dramas may contain farcical elements without being farcical themselves” (120).

Genre [generic (adj.)]: “From the French genre for ‘kind’ or ‘type, the classification of literary works on the basis of their content, form, or technique” (146).

Gothic [also gothic novel]: “A word that originally referred to a Germanic tribe, the Goths, the term Gothic today is usually used to connote the medieval world in general and, in particular, a style of architecture that originated in France and that flourished ruing the Medieval Period… When applied to literature, Gothic has been used both positively and pejoratively to refer to a genre characterized by a general mood of decay, action that is dramatic and generally violent or otherwise disturbing, loves that are destructively passionate, and settings that are grandiose, if gloomy and bleak.

… The gothic novel arose in late eighteenth-century England and… elements of the Gothic novel and Gothic literature in general have persisted up to our own day… Dark, mysterious medieval castles, chock full of secret passageways and (apparently) supernatural phenomena are common elements used to thrill the reader. Gothic heroes and heroines tend to be equally mysterious, with dark histories and secrets of their own… Exaggeration and emotional language are frequently employed by Gothic writers, who typically emphasize story line and setting over character and characterization. They seek to evoke an atmosphere of terror, often from an unidentifiable source” (148-149).

Melodrama [melodramatic (adj.)]: “Originally any drama accompanied by music which was used to enhance the emotional impact and mood of the performance… In the Victorian Period, melodrama came to emphasize the conflict between pure good and evil. Its heroes and heroines were inevitably completely moral and upright, but terrorized, harassed, or otherwise troubled by thoroughly despicable villains. No matter what the ostensible subject matter, the chief concern of melodrama was to elicit the desired emotional response form the audience. To this end, writers frequently employed improbable situations, malevolent intrigue, and stock elements to produce feelings in the audience ranging from pity to terror to joy to moral indignation.

Today melodrama and melodramatic are generally used pejoratively, although they may still be used in a purely descriptive sense for any work that relies on sensational events and improbabilities for dramatic effect” (209).

Metaphor [metaphoric (adj.)]: “A figure of speech… that associated two unlike things; the representation of one thing by another… [Unlike similes] metaphors use no connective word to make their comparison” (210).

Metonymy [metonym (n.), metonymic (adj.)]: “A figure of speech (more specifically a trope), in which one thing is represented by another that is commonly and often physically associated with it. To refer to a writer’s handwriting as his or her ‘hand’ is to use a metonymic figure.

Like other figures of speech (such as metaphor), metonymy involves the replacement of one word or phrase by another; thus, a monarch might be referred to as ‘the crown.’

…The following sentence from the opening paragraph of George Eliot’s Adam Bede …involves metonymy: ‘With this drop of ink at the end of my pen, I will show you the roomy workshop of Mr. Jonathan Bruge, carpenter and guilder, in the village of Hayslope.’ A ‘drop of ink,”’ of course, cannot describe the workshop to readers, but the words used by a writer can. The ‘drop of ink’ thus serves as a metonym for ‘words’” (214-215).

Pastoral: “1.) As an adjective, a term that can be applied to any work with a rural setting and that generally praises a rustic way of life. 2.) As a noun, a term that refers to a literary mode historically and conventionally associated with shepherds and country living… Pastoral elements, settings, and themes, moreover, …crop up in a variety of nonpastoral works” (270-271).

Tragedy [tragic (adj.)]: “A serious and often somber drama… that typically ends in disaster and that focuses on a character who undergoes unexpected personal reversals” (403).

All of the above citations are from:

Murfin, Ross and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998.