literature

See also authors; books; criticism; dante; drama; language; language style; literary style; manuscripts; printing; reading; rhetoric and rhetorical devices; verse; writing.

Alexandrianism

the style and theories of the Greek writers of Alexandria, 325-30 B.C., whose style was highly ornamented and obscure and favored such forms as the elegy, epigram, epyllion, and lyric and also ventured into the drama. —Alexandrianist, n., adj.

allegory

an art form, as a story, painting, or sculpture, in which the components have a symbolic, figurative meaning. —allegorist, allegorizer, n. —allegorical, adj.

anachorism

the placing of a scene, character, event, etc., where it clearly does not belong, either for special effect or as an oversight. See also anachronism. —anachoristic, adj.

anachronism

an error in chronology, as the placing of an event or figure in a period or scene in which it did not or could not belong. —anachronistic, adj.

anthology

a collection of stories, poems, or other literary material. See also christianity. —anthologist, n.

antiphrasis

the satirical or humorous use of a word or phrase to convey an idea exactly opposite to its real significance, as Shakespeare’s “honorable men” for Caesar’s murderers. —antiphrastic, adj.

autoplagiarism

the act or process of plagiarizing one’s own work.

belletrism, belles-lettrism

the view that literature is a fine art, especially as having a purely aesthetic function. —belletrist, n. —belles lettres, n. —belletristic, adj.

bestiary

an allegorical or moralizing commentary, usually medieval and sometimes illustrated, based upon real or fabled animals.

bestsellerism

the condition of having a book on the bestseller list.

bowdlerism

the expurgation of a literary work in a highly prudish manner. Also bowdlerization. —bowdlerize, v.

cinquecentism

the revival in arts and letters in the 16th century in Italy. —cinquecentist, n., adj.

criticism

1. the act or art of analyzing the quality of something, especially a literary or artistic work, a musical or dramatic performance, etc.

2. a critical comment, article, or essay; critique. —critic, n.

culturist

a person who is well acquainted with culture, as literature, the arts, etc., and who advocates their worth to society.

diplomatology

the analysis of original texts or documents.

duecentism

the art and literature of 13th-century Italy. —duecentist, n., adj.

epistolography

the art or practice of writing letters. —epistolographic, adj.

erotographomania

an abnormal interest in erotic literature.

essayism

1. the habit of writing essays.

2. the quality that allows a composition to be called an essay. —essayist, n.

florilegium

an anthology or select collection of literary pieces.

glossography

the writing or compilation of marginal or interlinear notes in a manuscript text. —glossographer, n.

harmonist

a scholar of literature who shows parallels or harmony between passages from different authors. See also music.

imagism

a theory or practice of a group of English and American poets between 1909 and 1917, especially emphasis upon the use of common speech, new rhythms, unrestricted subject matter, and clear and precise images. —Imagist, n. —Imagistic, adj.

Mekhitarist

a member of an order of Armenian monks, founded in 1715 by Mekhitar da Pietro, dedicated to literary work, especially the perfecting of the Armenian language and the translation into it of the major works of other languages.

melodramaticism

an emphasis in narrative or dramatic literary works on the sensational in situation or action. —melodramatist, n. —melodramatic, adj.

memoirism

the art or practice of writing memoirs. —memoirist, n.

Micawberism

the excessively optimistic outlook of Wilkins Micawber, a character from Dickens’s novel David Copperfield. —Micawberish, adj.

paleography

1. ancient forms of writing, as in inscriptions, documents, and manuscripts.

2. the study of ancient writings, including decipherment, translation, and determination of age and date. —paleographer, palaeographer, n. —paleographic, palaeographic, adj.

Parnassianism

the theories and practice of a school of French poets in the 19th century, especially an emphasis upon art for art’s sake, careful metrics, and the repression of emotive elements. —Parnassian, n., adj.

Pecksniffianism

the quality of being hypocritical or selfish like Dickens’s character Seth Pecksniff in the novel Martin Chuzzlewit. —Pecksniffery, n. —Pecksniffian, adj.

pornographomania

an abnormal interest in pornography.

purism

strict adherence to particular concepts, rules, or ideals of form, style, etc., either as formulated by the artist or as dictated by a school with which the artist is allied, See also art; criticism; language. —purist, n., adj.

regionalism

a quality in literature that is the product of fidelity to the habits, speech, manners, history, folklore, and beliefs of a particular geographical section, as Thomas Hardy and Wessex. —regionalist, n. —regionalistic, adj.

scholiast

an ancient commentator on the classics, especially the writing of marginalia (scholia) on grammatical and interpretive cruxes. —scholiastic, adj.

sillography

the writing of satires. —sillographer, n.

storiology

the systematic study of folklore and folk literature, especially concerning origin and transmission. —storiologist, n.

Struldbrugism

the actions or characteristics of the imaginary inhabitants of Luggnagg, a country created by Swift in Gulliver’s Travels.

symbolism

the principles of a literary movement originated during the latter part of the 19th century in France and highly influential in literature written in English, characterized especially by an emphasis upon the associative character of verbal, often private, symbols and the use of synesthetic devices to suggest color and music. —Symbolist, n., adj.

teratology

1. a type of mythmaking or storytelling in which monsters and marvels are featured.

2. a collection of such stories. —teratologist, n. —teratological, adj.

tetralogy

a series of four related works. —tetralogist, n. —tetralogical, adj.

theotechny

the introduction of gods or supernatural entities into a dramatic or literary work, especially to resolve situations. —theotechnic, adj.

trilogy

a series of three related works. —trilogist, n. —trilogical, adj.

Wertherism

the condition of having romantic qualities like Werther, a character from Goethe’s The Sorrows of Werther. —Wertherian, adj.

Xanaduism

a variety of academic or literary research attempting to find the sources behind works of the imagination, named after a noted study of this kind, John Livingston Lowes’ Road to Xanadu (1927), an inquiry into Coleridge’s poem, “Xanadu.” —Xanaduist, n., adj.