Literary Terms: C - D

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Colloquialisms –

non-standard or non-grammatical use of language in everyday speech

Colonnade –

a line of pillars with a roof behind the skene in Ancient Greek Theater

Comedy of manners –

a comedy which makes fun of the manners or customs of a specific segment of the society; uses exaggeration

Comedy –

a form of literature originating in the plays of the Classical Greek era which include a theme of new life often through a marriage; though to have evolved from the aspect of the rebirth of the god in the Dionysian rituals

Commercial literature –

literature written to appeal to popular audiences and not written with any deeper meaning to be conveyed

Common measure –

a ballad stanza generally rhyming in alternating pairs

Concrete poem –

a poem whose words or letters are laid out on the page to reflect the theme of the poem.

Concrete words –

words that name something that can be seen, touched, heard, or otherwise experienced through the senses

Confessional poems –

a movement beginning in the 1950s where the subject of poems were the very personal experiences of the poet beyond just a yearning for love or a specific emotional reaction

Conflict –

the friction between the goals of the protagonist (the main character – doesn’t have to be the “good” character) and the forces against the protagonist, called the antagonist

Connotation –

the understood or implied meaning of a word as opposed to the literal meaning such as the word home which has more meaning than just where a person lives.

Consonance –

use of consonants for rhyming

Conventional symbols –

symbols with a generally understood meaning across cultures with similar usages such as the various road signs or even computer icons

Conventional theme –

a theme topic that has been commonly used such as loss of innocence

Conventional word order –

subject – verb – object along with any modifying words adjacent to the words modified

Couplet –

a poem or stanza of two line

Crime fiction –

a type of fiction whose plot revolves around solving a crime

Cultural context –

the consideration of the cultural setting in order to do a character analysis such as the pre-Women’s Movement in America in a rural community in the 1920s or 1930s.

Cultural setting –

the ethnic, religious, or other setting relating to culture such as sociological

Denotation –

the dictionary definition of a word

Deus ex machina –

a plot contrivance to unexpectedly save a character from a seemingly inescapable, problematic situation often associated with a divine intervention; first used in Ancient Greek and Roman theatre where mechanical devices were used, such as a pulley to lower a god or goddess onto the set to take the character back into the heavens

Dialogue –

a conversation between or among characters

Diction –

the way words are written or spoken such an formal or informal

Drama –

a form of literature presented where parts are written for actors to perform and the action is revealed primarily through the dialogue of the characters and the action includes high emotional content; the modern usage includes television and film

Dramatic irony (tragic irony) –

an irony created when the audience knows something a character does not know

Dramatic monologue –

a lyric poem where the speaker expresses strong emotions or ideas to silent listeners.

Dramatic poetry –

a poem that almost entirely uses dialgue between characters

Dynamic character –

a character that changes during the story