A Glossary of German Literary Terms

  • Poetry

    A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

  • Prose

    A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
    Poetry
    Term Definition
    ABSOLUTE POESIE (absolute poetry) An autonomous poetic creation which derives entirely from the artist's creative manipulation of language without recourse to any representation of empirical reality or values beyond the self-contained artistic ones. Such poetry is not concerned with describable subject-matter but with the manifestation of the creative act itself. It relies on the inherent powers of language controlled by artistic discupline. (see Baudelaire's poetic theory and practice, Benn's Probleme der Lyrik).
    ALLITERATION (alliteration) Consonance of the initial sounds in stressed words or syllables ("Haus und Hof"; "Mann und Maus").
    ANAPHER (anaphora) The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several consecutive phrases, sentences, or lines of verse.
    ASSONANZ (assonance) Repetition or similarity of vowel sounds in neighboring stressed words or syllables.
    BALLADE (ballad) Category of verse, which over the last 200 years has developed from an interweaving of literary and popular elements and is characterized by a mixture of three major genres, dramatic in its dialogue, lyric in its affinity to song, and epic in its narative content (see examples by Goethe, Bürger, Schiller).
    CHIASMUS (chiasm) The juxtaposition of two phrases or clauses with identical syntax, but reversed word order; "Die Kunst ist lang, und kurz ist unser Leben" (Goethe, Faust).
    CHIFFRE In modern poetry a figure of speech which no longer establishes an understandable link with recognizable outside reality but is private code of the poet's own making.
    DAKTYLUS (dactyl) Metrical foot of three syllables, the first stressed or long and the two following unstressed or short (xxx)
    ELLIPSE (ellipsis) Stylistic device: omission of word(s) in a sentence resulting in incomplete construction.
    ENJAMBEMENT The overflow of the syntactical structure into the next metrical line, so that the end of a verse line and the end of the sentence do not coincide.
    GEDICHT Term applied to any single literary composition written in verse, whether it be in the lyrical, the epic, or the dramatic mode. In its usual, lyrical mode the Gedicht may be characterized as an emotional, intellectual, and linguistic complex, which arises from the impulse to articulate an inner state or feeling and which employs language in its most musical, concentrated, and self-conscious form.
    HYPOTAXE (hypotaxis) The use of subordination.
    JAMBUS (iamb) Metrical foot of two syllables, the first unstressed or short and the second stressed or long (xx).
    KETTENREIM Rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded etc.
    LYRIK Term of Greek origin: "what can be sung to the lyre." Characteristic features to all common forms of Lyrik are verse, rhythm, and imagery--but not necessarily stanza division and rhyme--as well as brevity, concentration on the essential, contraction of complex thought to a point of density, which purposely suggest a variety of associations and hence interpretations.
    LYRISCHES ICH (poetic persona) The voice that speaks as "I" in a lyric poem but is not identical with the poet.
    MÄNNLICHER REIM (masculine rhyme) Rhyme which ends on a stressed or long syllable.
    METHAPHER (metaphor) Figure of speech which transfers a word from a context to which it originally belongs to a context to which it does not originally belong. A metaphor blends two originally separate spheres together to form a new identity ("der Mond, das Auge der Nacht" (Huchel), "die Kometen mit den Feuernasen" (Heym), "schwarze Milch der Frühe" (Celan)).
    METONYMIE (metonymy) Figure of speech in which the term for one thing is applied to another, with which it is closely related.
    METRIK Prosody. In a wider sense the study of the structural elements of verse (meter, rhythm) and its arrangement (rhyme, strophe, stanza). Meter in German verse is determined by the relationship between accented and unaccented syllables. The following traditional terms are accepted to describe metre: foot as the smallest metrical unit consisting of a combination of accented and unaccented syllables. A "Verszeile" consists of a series of feet, thus one speaks of e.g. a "vierfüßiger Jambus." In Germanic verse the accented syllables should coincide with the naturally stressed syllables of the words.
    OXYMORON (oxymoron) Figure of speech in which two incongruous or contradictory elements are juxtaposed ("helldunkel," "alter Knabe," "jumbo shrimp").
    PAARREIM (couplet) The rhyming of two consecutive verse lines to form a Reimpaar.
    PARATAXE (parataxis) The juxtaposition or accumulation of main clauses.
    PENTAMETER (pentameter) Metrical line consisting of five feet. Also refers to the specific symmetrical six-beat line that closes a distich.
    REIM (rhyme) Similarity or identity of sound. When accented vowels and any sounds following are identical, they constitute a rhyme. Rhyme most commonly occurs at the end of the verse line, but may also occur internally or inititally.
    REIMSCHEMA (rhyme scheme) the pattern of rhymes in a stanza or poem.
    SONNETT (sonnet) A poem of fourteen lines, usually iambic pentameter. The Italian form is divided into two parts: the eight line octave and the six line sestet each of which is further divided, the octave into quatrains with a parallel rhyme scheme and the steset into two tercets or triplets with variable rhyme patterns. The structure lends itself to the development of antithetic or dialectical arguments. The form is thought to have originated in Sicily and was perfected by the Italian poet Petrarca (1304-1374). The Shakespearean form, less common in Germany, consists of three questions and a couplet.
    SPONDEUS (spondee) Metrical foor consisting of two stressed or long syllables.
    STROPHE (stanza) A group of lines of various lengths which formed the first part of an ode or chorus lyric in ancient Greek drama. The chorus recited the "Strophe" as they moved from right to left, and the answering "Antistrophe" as they moved from left to right, and the "Epode" stading still. Within the context of poetry, the strophe is a fixed number of verse lines, which as a group forms the basic structural unit of a poem.
    SYNEKDOCHE (synechdoche) Figure of speech in which a part of something is used to express the whole, or the whole to express a part ("200 Köpfe" instead of 200 people, "Edel sei der Mensch" (Goethe) meaning all human beings)./TD>
    TROCHÄUS (trochee) A metrical foot of two syllables in which the stressed or long syllable is followed by an unstressed or short syllable.
    VERS (verse line) always refers to a single metrical line.
    WEIBLICHER REIM (feminine rhyme) Rhyme which ends on an unstressed or short sylllable.
    ZÄSUR (caesura) Strong pause or break within a verse line.

    Prose
    Term Definition
    ANALYTISCHE ERZÄHLUNG Novel or story in which the plot is not presented in chronological sequence; instead the background to the present situation is revealed as the narrative progresses.
    AUKTORIALES ERZÄHLEN characterized by the presence of an identifyable narrator who intervenes in and comments on the narrative. Although this authorial narrator may appear at first sight to be identical with the author, this is not the case. The narrator is as much a creation of the author as are the characters of the novel, and as much an integral part of the novel structure. As opposed to the "Ich-Erzähler," the authorial narrator is usually not involved in the action of the narrative, but relates events from a distance. As opposed to the "personale Erzählsituation," where the narrative voice is focused primarily on the characters, the authorial narrator has a personality which is revealed in his style of presentation and his comments on the narrative.
    DOPPELGÄNGER a person physically resembling another or an alter ego, ghostly double, a person who can be in two or more places at once.
    ERLEBTE REDE In prose works a specific technique for rendering the mostly unuttered thoughts of a person. Compare the following examples, one for direct speech and one for reported speech: Sie sagte:" Muß ich das wirklich tun?"; Sie fragte sich, ob sie das wirklich tun müsse; in "erlebter Rede" this becomes: Mußte sie das wirklich tun? combining elements from direct speech and from reported speech, offering the author the advantages of both. The "erlebte Rede" enables the author to incorporate a character's innermost thoughts and feelings into his or her own discourse in a subtle way.
    ERZÄHLER The term is synonymous with the English "narrator" or "narrative voice," and refers to a fictional figure in a narrative, not to be identified with the author. This narrator figure can be a fully-drawn character participating in the action of the narrative, speaking in the first person singular or through the medium of his letters; in the third person novel the narrator can be at any point on a scale from a fully-developed figure to complete anonymity. The narrator figure can be used to control the point of view; he can claim omniscience or can admit the limitations of his knowledge; he can address the reader directly; he can comment on the action and can introduce material extraneous to the narrative. The narrator can also be to varying degrees conscious of his own function as narrator, and aware of his own abilities or weaknesses.
    ERZÄHLUNG This is the most neutral and general of the group of terms which refer to short or medium length fiction. It is not properly used for fiction of novel length nor for a story employing subject matter which is fantastic or supernatural ("Märchen"). But it is used freely over the rest of the spectrum of fictional works, when not displaced by one of the more restricted terms ("Novelle," "Kurzgeschichte," "Anekdote").
    ERZÄHLZEIT, ERZÄHLTE ZEIT
  • "Erzählzeit" is the time taken to read a narrative, as opposed to narrated time, the time-span covered by the narrative. An investigation of the relationship between "Erzählzeit" and "erzählte Zeit" can illuminate aspects of structure and narrative technique.
  • KURZGESCHICHTE
  • The term "Kurzgeschichte" is a loan from the English "short story," but its meaning is nevertheless somewhat more restricted than the English term and means a brief often pointed story which has a distinct twist in its ending. The form has been extensively used by the younger, post WW II generation of writers while in the 19th century the "Novelle" was the most popular short fiction genre.
  • LEITMOTIV Originally a musical term, later applied to literature also. In literature it involved verbal repetition in different contexts thus attaining various associations. The "Leitmotiv" is essentially a structural device which enables part of a larger work to be linked through association, resulting in a more thoroughly integrated whole.
    NOVELLE entered the German language at about the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries and is derived from the Italian "novella" ("something new"). Because of its length, characters and situations in the "Novelle" are more rounded out than those of the "Kurzgeschichte," but not developed in the extensive way characteristic of the novel. The "Novelle" is a highly artistic form with great attention to formal composition (it contains an "unerhörte Begebenheit" (Goethe), a clear turning point in the plot (Tieck), and symbolism and a sharp outline (Heyse)).
    STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS A narrative technique in which the thoughts and emotions of the protagonist are related directly to the reader. The result is a sequence of associations and a diminished presence of the narrator. In its most radical form, which eliminates the narrator altogether, this technique is called interior monologue ("innerer Monolog").
    VORAUSDEUTUNG The purpose of prefiguration can be achieved by the use of analogical sub-plots or the fate of minor characters, or through anticipatory symbolism. In most contexts, "Vorausdeutung" serves to heighten tension or create a sense of inevitability.