Literary Terms

Complete guide to literary theory for UGC NET English Literature. Covers major theories, key thinkers, important terms, and quick revision notes in simple language.

📝 INTRODUCTION

Are you preparing for the UGC NET English Literature exam and struggling with complex literary theories? Don’t worry—this blog simplifies major theories like Structuralism, Feminism, Postcolonialism, and more into easy, exam-ready concepts. With short explanations, key thinkers, and important terms, this guide will help you revise quickly and score better in your exam.

⭐Literary Terms (Very Important for NET)

• Mimesis – Imitation of reality (Aristotle)
• Catharsis – Emotional purification
• Hamartia – Tragic flaw of hero
• Peripeteia – Sudden reversal
• Anagnorisis – Recognition/realization
• Fancy vs Imagination – Mechanical vs creative (Coleridge)
• Willing Suspension of Disbelief – Accept fiction as real (Coleridge)
• Pathetic Fallacy – Nature reflects human emotion (John Ruskin)j
• Stream of Consciousness – Flow of thoughts
• Interior Monologue – Inner speech of character
• Bildungsroman – Growth of protagonist
• Picaresque Novel – Adventures of rogue hero
• Epiphany – Sudden realization (James Joyce)
• Objective Correlative – Emotion via objects (T. S. Eliot)
• Intentional Fallacy – Ignore author (W. K. Wimsatt)
• Affective Fallacy – Ignore reader
• Defamiliarization – Make strange (Viktor Shklovsky)
• Foregrounding – Highlighted language (Jan Mukarovsky)
• Différance – Meaning delayed (Jacques Derrida)
• Death of the Author – Reader creates meaning (Roland Barthes)
• Panopticon – Surveillance society (Michel Foucault)
• Hybridity – Mixed culture (Homi K. Bhabha)
• Subaltern – Voiceless people (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak)
• Diegesis – Narration of story
• Mimesis – Showing/imitating reality
• Metafiction – Fiction about fiction
• Self-reflexivity – Text aware of itself
• Interpellation – Ideology shapes identity (Louis Althusser)
• Hegemony – Dominance by consent (Antonio Gramsci)
• Reification – Treating humans as objects
• Alienation – Feeling disconnected (Marxism)
• Carnivalesque – Social roles reversed (Mikhail Bakhtin)
• Dialogism – Multiple voices in text (Bakhtin)
• Polyphony – Many independent voices
• Chronotope – Time + space in narrative (Bakhtin)
• Simulacra – Copy without original (Jean Baudrillard)
• Pastiche – Imitation of styles
• Parody – Humorous imitation
• Hypertextuality – Text linked to other texts
• De-centering – No central meaning
• Binary Collapse – Breaking oppositions
• Ambiguity – Multiple meanings (William Empson)
• Tension – Opposing forces in text (Allen Tate)
• Paradox – Contradictory truth (Cleanth Brooks)
• Irony – Opposite meaning than stated
• Organic Unity – All parts form a whole (New Criticism)
• Close Reading – Detailed text analysis
• Intentional Fallacy – Ignore author (W. K. Wimsatt)
• Affective Fallacy – Ignore reader response
• Objective Correlative – Emotion through objects (T. S. Eliot)
• Deferral of Meaning – Meaning is delayed (Jacques Derrida)
• Discourse – System of knowledge (Michel Foucault)
• Ideology – Set of beliefs (Marxism)
• Heteroglossia – Multiple voices (Mikhail Bakhtin)
• Monologism – Single authoritative voice
• Hybridity – Mixed culture (Homi K. Bhabha)
• Mimicry – Imitation with difference (Bhabha)
• Subversion – Challenging authority
• Canon Formation – Selection of “great works”

📚 CONCLUSION

Mastering literary theories becomes easy when you focus on key concepts, thinkers, and their works. Instead of memorizing long explanations, revise short definitions and patterns regularly. With consistent practice, you can confidently solve theory-based questions in UGC NET and other competitive exams.

Literary Theory

UGC NET English

Literary Criticism

Structuralism

Postmodernism

Feminism Theory

Postcolonialism

NET English Notes

English Literature Study