English Literature key terms

A country gentleman and landowner with a prominent position in the local community; the title does not necessarily mean he is a nobleman.

The practical choices through which drama creates meaning in performance, including entrances, exits, sounds, props and the positioning of actors.

An instruction in a play concerning performance, such as movement, tone of voice, costume, scenery or lighting.

An object used by actors on stage; it can also carry symbolic meaning.

A Soviet movement encouraging increased productivity, associated with the celebrated worker Alexei Stakhanov. Boxer can be compared with its ideal of an exceptionally productive model worker.

The policies and system of rule associated with Joseph Stalin, including concentrated personal power, coercion and the repression of opposition.

A group of lines forming a section of a poem, usually separated from other groups by a blank line.

A character whose central attitudes or values do not significantly change during a text, even if their emotions or circumstances change.

A verse of a song. Dickens calls the five chapters of A Christmas Carol ‘staves’, presenting them as the carol’s five verses and connecting the novella’s structure to its title.

An oversimplified representation that assigns supposedly fixed characteristics to members of a group.

A servant responsible for managing a household and overseeing its affairs and other servants.

Responsible care for property and for people affected by its management, such as an estate’s tenants and servants.

A rapid exchange in which characters answer each other in single lines of verse, often conveying conflict or quick thinking.

A philosophy which values reason and self-control, including accepting unavoidable suffering and death without being ruled by emotion.

A style that follows the movement of a character’s thoughts through associations, digressions and changes of subject.

The emphasis placed on a syllable when it is spoken.

A structural connection in which a later moment recalls an earlier one, encouraging readers to compare them.

A repeated or corresponding event, setting or relationship that invites readers to compare different parts of a text.

A change that overturns an established pattern, such as a usually talkative character becoming silent while a silent character calls after them.

A structural arrangement in which later events echo earlier ones, often revealing a significant change.

The arrangement and sequence of events in a literary work, including connections, contrasts and turning points.

Darwinian language for the pressures on organisms competing to survive and reproduce. It does not mean that survival always belongs to the strongest or most intelligent.

An experience of awe, wonder and sometimes terror prompted by something so vast or powerful that it makes human beings feel small or limited.

A secondary storyline which connects with and helps develop the main action of a play.

An adult who takes on the care or upbringing of a child in place of the child’s biological parent.

The underlying feelings, intentions or tensions suggested beneath a character’s words and actions.

The growth of a town or city into surrounding areas through the construction of new housing and streets.