Literary Terms and Genres Defined

Literary Devices

• Alliteration: Repetition of one or more phonemes.
• Anaphora: Repetition of a word at the beginning of each verse.
• Parallelism: Repeated similar grammatical structures.
• Polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions.
• Allegory: Transforms the overall meaning of a text to express a different idea, often using metaphor.
• Antithesis: Juxtaposition of words or sentences with opposite meanings.
• Hyperbole: Exaggeration of what is spoken.
• Metaphor: Identifying a real term with an imaginary one based on similarity.
• Metonymy: Designating one thing with the name of something closely related.
• Personification: Attributing human qualities to irrational or inanimate things.
• Simile (Comparison): Comparing two objects using a linking word (like or as).
• Synesthesia: Uniting two distinct sensory experiences.
• Asyndeton: Removal of conjunctions or linking words.
• Ellipsis: Omission of one or more words from a sentence.
• Hyperbaton: Alteration of the logical order of words in a sentence.

Lyric Subgenres

• Elegy: Expresses feelings of grief over the death of a loved one; also used for the transience of life and longing for lost youth.
• Eclogue: Structured as a dialogue between shepherds about love in a bucolic setting.
• Ode: A poem of some length, often serious in subject and elevated in style.
• Lyric (Song): Usually a short lyric poem, often set to music, expressing various feelings.
• Satire: Uses humor, irony, or exaggeration to expose and criticize individual or societal vices or follies.

Narrative Verse Subgenres

• Epic: A long poem recounting the heroic deeds of a central figure.
• Chanson de geste: An epic poem of oral origin, recounting the heroic deeds of a historical or legendary figure.
• Romance: A short narrative poem of oral origin, emerging in the 15th century from epic fragments, later becoming an autonomous genre.

Prose Fiction Subgenres

• Novel: A long work of prose fiction that develops a plot, characters, and setting.
• Short Story (Tale): A short story, fictional in whole or in part, similar to a novel but with fewer characters and a simpler plot.
• Legend: A fictional story originating from a historical event, often involving fantastic elements.
• Apologue: A story that conveys a moral lesson or code of conduct, often ending with an explicit moral.
• Epistle: A literary work written in the form of a letter, often addressing doctrinal, philosophical, moral, or satirical themes; sometimes written in verse, widely cultivated in Spanish literature.
• Fable: A short story, often featuring animals as characters, designed to teach a moral lesson.
• Essay: A piece of writing that analyzes and interprets a subject, presenting the author's argument or perspective.