Literary Terms: K - N

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Kabuki dramas –

Japanese dance drama characterized by ornate costumes and make-up

Kinetic imagery –

an image which creates a sense of motion or movement such as the wind in the trees

Limerick  – 

a type of poem, usually humorous, consisting of five lines where the first, second,and fifth lines rhyme with each other and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, form arhymed couplet.

Limited omniscient –

a limited omniscient narrator only knows about the story and characters from a limited perspective such as one of the characters who does not know everything

Line –

a line of poetry is what is written on one line; not necessarily a sentence

Literary symbols –

symbols that are used within a piece of literature to represent a person, object, or situation in that piece of literature such as pink ribbons representing the purity and innocence of a character who is wearing them.

Literary canon –

a collection of literature that is generally considered significant

Literature –

any style or genre of writing whose primary focus is the expression or communication of feelings or narrating of events in a way that is not common speech and uses figurative language as opposed to writing to keep records or communicate information.

Lyric –

a form of poetry which expresses feelings or observations

Master of Revels –

an appointed person to decide which plays would be performed in Elizabethan Theater

Meditation –

a lyric poem which starts by observing a specific object and then drawing some philosophical inferences

Metafiction –

writings about fiction

Metaphor –

a direct comparison or equivalence

Metaphysical poets –

a poetic movement during the 1600s characterized by analysis, complex form, and themes associated with intellect over emotions

Metaphysical poets –

a poetic movement during the 1600s characterized by analysis, complex form, and themes associated with intellect over emotions

Meter –

the recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of poetry of specific length

Metonymy –

referring to one thing by something else it is associated with: the crown refers to the king

Micro fiction –

a type of short-short story ranging from a few words to a paragraph of less than 250 words

Middle Ages –

a historic period from the late 500s AD to the middle of the 1400s.

Modern short story –

a short story characterized by an apparent lack of action or conflict and/or without resolution

Modern Theater –

began in the late 1800s and is characterized by events and characters based on reality; inspired by the realism movement in art and literature

Modernism –

a literary movement beginning in the early 1900s spurred by the industrial age, a first World War I, and challenges to established Christianity which characterized by feelings of loss of “old ways” and an unknown, insecure future

Monologue –

a long speech-like expression by one character where the other present characters are silent; used more commonly in plays than fiction; a dramatic monologue is a particularly emotional expression

Mood –  

the feeling that is created in the reader as a result of the tone or atmosphere in a work such as anger.  Tone is created by how the author describes the characters, setting, and events such as gloomy or humorous.  Atmosphere is the general feeling of the work itself.  Mood and atmosphere are sometimes used interchangeably.

Moral –

a lesson learned as a result of actions that occurred in a story

Morality plays –

developed and performed in the 1300s and 1400s which were allegories demonstrating Christian principles

Motivation –

the reasons a character takes or does not take action

Mystery plays –

developed during the 900s through the 1500s which are representations of stories from the Bible and gradually fell from popularity with the production of drama such as the works of Shakespeare

Myth –

a traditional story which explains the world and existence of humans usually as part of a cluster of such stories and which is a reflection of a religious belief system or social values of a culture

Narrative –

a story or poem about a sequence of events; a story

Narrator –

the person through whose perspective, knowledge, and voice a story is told

Near rhyme –

approximate rhyme

No plays –

highly stylized Japanese performance art from which Kabuki dramas evolved

Novel –

a longer piece of fiction characterized by more plot and character development than a short story

Novella –

a piece of fiction shorter than a novel and longer than a short story; usually thought of as a short novel