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Superglossary - Literature Category: General > Literature Date & country: 11/12/2013, USA Words: 1716

Textual Variant
A version of a text that has differences in wording or structure compared with other texts, especial

Texture
In the thought of John Crowe Ransom and the New Critics, 'texture' involves poetic details such as t

Textus Receptus
The text of the Greek New Testament based on Erasmus' Greek text. In spite of considerable errors an

Thanatos
Freud's term for a subconscious desire for self-destruction--a secret longing to die--a death wish.

The Above
Also called 'the aloft' and sometimes used interchangeably with 'the Heavens,' this term refers to t

The Aloft
Also called 'the above' and sometimes used interchangeably with 'the Heavens,' this term refers to t

The Body Politic
The monarchial government, including all its citizens, its army, and its king. Political theory in t

The Cotton Library
One of the most important collections of Old and Middle English texts.

The E Text
(Also called the E Document or the Elohist Text) In biblical scholarship, the editorial abbreviation

The Elect
John Calvin's Puritan doctrines emphasized God's prescience and omnipotence and de-emphasized human

The Elohist Text
(Also called the E Document or the Elohist Text) Not to be confused with 'electronic' or digital tex

The Four Elements
The alchemical theory that all matter was composed of four components

The Guiot Manuscript
Technically referred to as MS Bibliothèque Nationale f. Fr. 794, this mid-thirteenth-century manu

The J Text
(Also called the J Document or the Yahwist Text) In biblical studies, this abbreviation refers to th

The Nine Muses
The nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who had the power to inspire artists, poets, singers, and w

The Other World
A motif in folklore and mythology in which an alternative world exists in conjunction with the physi

The P Text
In biblical scholarship, the common editorial abbreviation for the Priestly Text (see below, or clic

The Sublime
The Greek rhetorician Longinus wrote a treatise On the Sublime, which argued that sublimity (loftine

The Troubles
A period of social unrest in Northern Ireland during the 1970s that profoundly influenced Irish poet

The Vulgate
Saint Jerome's Latin anthologized compilation and translation of the Bible, prepared in the fourth c

Theater In The Round
A performance taking place on an arena stage. See arena stage.

Theater Of Dionysus
The outdoor theater in Athens where Greek drama began as a part of religious rituals on the sloped s

Thegn
A warrior who has sworn his loyalty to a lord in Anglo-Saxon society. In return for a gift of weapon

Thematic Vowel
In linguistics, a vowel attached to the end of an Indo-European root word to form a stem.

Theme
A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work. The theme can take th

Theocrasy
Not to be confused with theocracy, theocrasy is the process by which aspects of two or more separate

Theodicy
In theological writings, this term refers to a defense of God's goodness or justice in the face of e

Theogony
In mythology, an account of the gods' origins and their genealogy.

Theomarchy
Strife or warfare among the gods, especially in the sense of this activity as a subplot (overplot?)

Therianthropic
This adjective refers to any mixture of human and animal traits together in a single description. Th

Theriomorphic
Another term for therianthropic, above. (Grk, therios [beast] + morphos [shape], noun form theriomor

Thesis
(1) In an essay, a thesis is an argument, either overt or implicit, that a writer develops and suppo

Thiasos
In ancient Greece, a thiasos was an organized group of women devoted to the worship of Aphrodite. Ea

Thing
While the althing was the closest organization the Icelandic Vikings had to America's federal or nat

Third Wall
Usually referred to as the 'fourth wall,' depending upon how a stagebuilder numbers the sides of the

Thirteener
A stanza rhyming ABABABABCDDDC. The 1994 edition of the E.E.T.S. produced a version of the Wakefield

Three Unities
In the 1500s and 1600s, critics of drama expanded Aristotle's ideas in the Poetics to create the rul

Threefold Death
According to Dan Wiley's entry in Duffy's Medieval Ireland

Threnody
Another term for a dirge.

Thrust Stage
Another term for an apron stage.

Tilde
A diacritic marking usd in languages like Spanish and Portugeuse. It looks like this

Tiring-House
An enclosed area in an Elizabethan theater where the actors awaited their cue to go on stage, change

Tmesis
Intentionally breaking a word into two parts for emphasis. Goldwyn once wrote, 'I have but two words

Tocharian
A branch of the Indo-European family of languages--now extinct. Unusually, Tocharian was geographica

Token
Nathaniel Hawthorne's term for a private symbol. He also refers to private symbols as emblems. Examp

Tone
The means of creating a relationship or conveying an attitude or mood. By looking carefully at the c

Toponym
A place-name, such as 'Detroit' or 'Transylvania,' or 'Rooster Rock.' Toponyms are fascinating on a

Tory
Tories)

Total Depravity
A doctrine associated with John Calvin's doctrine of Infant Damnation and Saint Augustine's and Sain

Totemism
In its most specific sense, the term applies to the religious practices of the Native American Ojibi

Trace
In literary criticism, Jacques Derrida uses the term trace to describe the remnant of all non-presen

Tract
A brief pamphlet or leaflet dealing with a political or religious argument. (from Latin, tractare, '

Tradition
The beliefs, attitudes, tendencies, and ways of representing the world through art

Tragedy
A serious play in which the chief character, by some peculiarity of psychology, passes through a ser

Tragic Flaw
Another term for the tragic hero's hamartia. See discussion under hamartia and tragedy.

Tragicomedy
A experimental literary work--either a play or prose piece of fiction--containing elements common to

Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is an American philosophical, religious, and literary movement roughly equivalent

Transfer Of Meaning
A change in meaning--often poetic in origin--in which a word's referent alters by a figure of speech

Transformational Grammar
An influential theory of grammar associated with the linguist Noam Chomsky. This theory, also known

Transitive
This term refers to a verb or a verbal phrase that contains or can take a direct object, which contr

Transitus Mundi
The theme of life's ephemeral or transient nature, especially when that thematic exploration ends by

Translatio
The medieval idea of what modern individuals might mistakenly call 'translation.' Translatio is the

Translation
The act of conveying the meaning of words in one language by attempting to say the same thing in ano

Transliteration
The representation of the symbols appearing in one language's writing system by those of another lan

Travel Literature
Writings that describe either the author's journey to a distant and alien place, or writings which d

Travesty
Debasement of a serious subject or serious literary work either accidentally or through intentional

Traws Fantach
A derogatory adjective in Welsh poetic criticism for a poetic line contains a single scheme, trope,

Treaty Of Wedmore
The agreement signed by King Alfred the Great and the Viking leader Guthrum in 878. This divided Eng

Triad
A collection of three ideas, concepts, or deities loosely connected--as opposed to a pure trinity in

Trial By Combat
A means of resolving disputes between knights in which both agree to meet at an agreed-upon time and

Tribrach
In Greek poetry, a three-syllable foot in which each foot is unstressed or short--rarely used in Eng

Trick Ending
Another term for an O. Henry ending.

Tricolon
The repetition of a parallel grammatical construction three times for rhetorical effect. See discuss

Trigraph
A combination of three symbols or letters to indicate a single sound phonetically. For instance, the

Trilogy
A group of three literary works that together compose a larger narrative. Early types of trilogy res

Trimeter
A line consisting of three metrical feet. This short line is most common in English nursery rhymes,

Trinity
A grouping or relationship of three divine persons thought in some way to be equivalent or identical

Triolet
A stanza of eight lines using only two rhymes, with the first line repeating three times. Here is an

Triple Rhyme
A trisyllabic rhyme involving three separate syllables to create the rhyme in each word. For instanc

Triplet
A tercet that forms a complete stanza by itself.

Tristich
Another term for a tercet. (Greek, 'three lines')

Tritagonist
In the earliest Greek dramas, the play consisted of a single actor standing on stage speaking and si

Trivium
The study of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, which in medieval education formed the basis of a bachelo

Trochaic Meter
Poetry in which each foot consists primarily of trochees (poetic feet consisting of a heavy stress f

Trochaic Rhyme
Another word for double rhyme in which the final rhyming word consists of a heavy stress followed by

Trochee
A two-syllable unit or foot of poetry consisting of a heavy stress followed by a light stress. Many

Trope
Trope has two meanings

Tropological
Not to be confused with either typology or the rhetorical device of the trope, the term tropological

Troubadour
A medieval love poet of southern France between 1100-1350 who wrote and sang about the theme of fin

Trouv
A medieval poet of northern France, especially Picardy, who wrote and sang in lang d'oïl and comp

True Rhyme
Another term for perfect rhyme or exact rhyme. See exact rhyme.

Tudor
A reference to the period in England during which the ruling monarchs came from the Tudor family (14

Tudor Interlude
Short tragedies, comedies, or history plays performed by either professional acting troupes or by st

Turn
Also called a volta, a turn is a sudden change in thought, direction, or emotion at the conclusion o

Twist Ending
Another term for an O. Henry ending.

Tynged
A magical taboo or restriction placed on a hero in Welsh literature, the Welsh equivalent to the Iri

Type
An earlier figure, event, or symbol in the Old Testament thought to prefigure a coming antitype (cor

Type Character
A literary character with traits commonly associated with a particular class of people.

Typographic Justification
In printing and typing, the placement of letters and spacing so that the end or beginning of each li

Typological Classification
In linguistics, this schema is a 'grouping of languages based on structural similarities and differe