Is Latin for "into the middle of things." It usually describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle.

The meaning or interpretation of a fictional work that the author had in mind when they were creating it.

A form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

A form of irony that is expressed through a work's structure: an audience's awareness of the situation in which a work's characters exist differs substantially from that of the characters'.

Departing from a literal use of words; metaphorical.

The expression or holding of opinions at variance with those previously, commonly, or officially held.

A figure of speech that refers to a well-known story, event, person, or object in order to make a comparison in the readers' minds. For instance, imagine a writer needs to explain her main character's struggle against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent.

Two principal methods of describing the meanings of words.

A set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art.

A conceit is a kind of metaphor that compares two very unlike things in a surprising and clever way.

A story with two levels of meaning. First, there's the surface of the story. You know, the characters and plot and all that obvious stuff. Then there's the symbolic level or the deeper meaning that all the jazz on the surface represents.

Unrhymed verse, especially the unrhymed iambic pentameter most frequently used in English dramatic, epic, and reflective verse.