literature
Books and essays
Literature is written work, especially of artistic merit—novels, poetry, drama, essays.
The term often implies enduring value: the literature of the Romantic period, American literature.
More broadly, literature means the body of writing on a subject: medical literature, campaign literature.
The adjective literary describes qualities associated with serious writing, sometimes disparagingly: a literary style that felt overwrought.
Accepted authoritative works
- masterpieceSupreme artistic achievement
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- AustenLiterary family name
- DickensSurname of Victorian novelist
Tolstoy · Dostoevsky · Homer · Cervantes · Dante · Goethe · Chaucer · Milton
New and unusual
- short storyBrief prose fiction
- novellaShort fictional book
- fantasyImaginative mental wandering
- science fictionSpeculative fiction with technological themes
mystery · thriller · romance · horror · dystopia · magical realism · adventure · fable
Written life account
- memoirWritten personal recollection
- autobiographySelf-penned life narrative
- essayShort argumentative prose work
- journalismNews gathering and dissemination
reportage · chronicle · history · treatise · manifesto · travelogue · exposé · documentary
Metered poetic passage
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
- rhymeMatching terminal sounds
- meterDevice that measures usage
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
haiku · ode · ballad · elegy · epic · lyric · couplet · quatrain
Account of events
- voiceSound from throat
- toneQuality of sound
- moodPrevailing emotional condition
- themeCentral recurring concept
motif · symbolism · irony · foreshadowing · flashback · point of view · unreliable narrator · stream of consciousness
Methodical study of parts
- interpretationAssigned meaning
- theoryExplanatory set of principles
- commentaryExplanatory remarks on events
- reviewCritical written assessment
hermeneutics · deconstruction · structuralism · postcolonial · feminist · Marxist · formalism · reader-response
One who renders between languages
- adaptationFitting to new conditions
- fidelityLoyalty or exactness
- equivalenceState of being equal
- localizationAdapting for specific markets
multilingual · source text · target language · transcreation · domestication · bilingual · polyglot · Penguin Classics
Recreation or staged drama
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- tragedyDisastrous or sorrowful event
- comedyWork meant to amuse
- tragicomedyGenre blending sorrow and mirth
monologue · soliloquy · dialogue · act · scene · script · dramaturgy · catharsis
canon
Accepted authoritative works
- masterpieceSupreme artistic achievement
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- AustenLiterary family name
Dickens · Tolstoy · Dostoevsky · Homer · Cervantes · Dante · Goethe · Chaucer · Milton · Virgil
novel
New and unusual
- short storyBrief prose fiction
- novellaShort fictional book
- fantasyImaginative mental wandering
science fiction · mystery · thriller · romance · horror · dystopia · magical realism · adventure · fable · satire
biography
Written life account
- memoirWritten personal recollection
- autobiographySelf-penned life narrative
- essayShort argumentative prose work
journalism · reportage · chronicle · history · treatise · manifesto · travelogue · exposé · documentary · diary
verse
Metered poetic passage
sonnet · haiku · ode · ballad · elegy · epic · lyric · couplet · quatrain · imagery
narrative
Account of events
theme · motif · symbolism · irony · foreshadowing · flashback · point of view · unreliable narrator · stream of consciousness · diction
analysis
Methodical study of parts
- interpretationAssigned meaning
- theoryExplanatory set of principles
- commentaryExplanatory remarks on events
review · hermeneutics · deconstruction · structuralism · postcolonial · feminist · Marxist · formalism · reader-response · close reading
translator
One who renders between languages
- adaptationFitting to new conditions
- fidelityLoyalty or exactness
- equivalenceState of being equal
localization · multilingual · source text · target language · transcreation · domestication · bilingual · polyglot · Penguin Classics
play
Recreation or staged drama
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- tragedyDisastrous or sorrowful event
- comedyWork meant to amuse
tragicomedy · monologue · soliloquy · dialogue · act · scene · script · dramaturgy · catharsis · chorus
- artsartist, creativity, expression, songs, painting
- Arts & Sciencescreativity, music, painting, sculpture, dance
- booksnovel, textbooks, study guides, book, paperback
- cultural artsart, music, dance, theater, opera
- culturemusic taste, beliefs, food preferences, custom, festivals
- fields of studyart, music, mathematics, history, biology
literatureoral tradition
Culture passed by speech
speech · orality · spoken word · oral culture · oratory
literaturepulp fiction
Sensational cheap literature
trash · schlock · drivel · dime novels · genre fiction
literatureignorance
Absence of knowledge
illiteracy · philistinism · anti-intellectualism · barbarism
- children's literatureBooks aimed at youth
- classic literatureEnduring fictional works
- European literatureWritten works from Europe
- German literatureBooks from Deutschland
- Irish literatureWriting from Ireland
- Japanese literatureWriting from Nippon