English 2350 Literary Terms

Most professions have specialized vocabularies. People who work in those professions know, understand, and use terms that may not be used by the general population. Additionally, words that may have a certain meaning in one context may have a different meaning when used by members of a certain profession. For example, members of the medical profession and members of the construction or building profession both talk about "joints." However, we know they are not talking about the same kind of joint!  When we talk about texts, both literary and non-literary, the English profession (and for that matter most well educated people) use a specific vocabulary to discuss what they have seen or read. The following list includes many of the terms we will use as we examine the assigned readings in this class. You should be able to use most of these terms in a discussion of our readings and to demonstrate a working knowledge of this vocabulary by the end of the semester. We will talk about some of the terms in the course of class lectures, but you are primarily responsible for defining and understanding the terms with which you are unfamiliar.