Fin de siecle:A French term meaning ‘‘end of the
century.’’ The term is used to denote the last
decade of the nineteenth century, a transi-
tion period when writers and other artists
abandoned old conventions and looked for
new techniques and objectives.
First Person:SeePoint of View
Folk Ballad:SeeBallad
Folklore:Traditions and myths preserved in a
culture or group of people. Typically, these
are passed on by word of mouth in vari-
ous forms—such as legends, songs, and
proverbs—or preserved in customs and cer-
emonies. This term was first used by W. J.
Thoms in 1846.
Folktale:A story originating in oral tradition.
Folktales fall into a variety of categories,
including legends, ghost stories, fairy tales,
fables, and anecdotes based on historical
figures and events.
Foot:The smallest unit of rhythm in a line of
poetry. In English-language poetry, a foot is
typically one accented syllable combined
with one or two unaccented syllables.
Form:The pattern or construction of a work
which identifies its genre and distinguishes
it from other genres.
Formalism:In literary criticism, the belief that
literature should follow prescribed rules of
construction, such as those that govern the
sonnet form.
Fourteener Meter:SeeMeter
Free Verse:Poetry that lacks regular metrical
and rhyme patterns but that tries to capture
the cadences of everyday speech. The form
allows a poet to exploit a variety of rhyth-
mical effects within a single poem.
Futurism: A flamboyant literary and artistic
movement that developed in France, Italy,
and Russia from 1908 through the 1920s.
Futurist theater and poetry abandoned tra-
ditional literary forms. In their place, fol-
lowers of the movement attempted to
achieve total freedom of expression through
bizarre imagery and deformed or newly
invented words. The Futurists were self-con-
sciously modern artists who attempted to
incorporate the appearances and sounds of
modern life into their work.
G
Genre:A category of literary work. In critical
theory, genre may refer to both the content of
a given work—tragedy, comedy, pastoral—
and to its form, such as poetry, novel, or
drama.
Genteel Tradition: A term coined by critic
George Santayana to describe the literary
practice of certain late nineteenth- century
American writers, especially New Eng-
landers. Followers of the Genteel Tradition
emphasized conventionality in social, reli-
gious, moral, and literary standards.
Georgian Age:SeeGeorgian Poets
Georgian Period:SeeGeorgian Poets
Georgian Poets:A loose grouping of English
poets during the years 1912-1922. The Geor-
gians reacted against certain literary schools
and practices, especially Victorian wordiness,
turn-of-the-century aestheticism, and con-
temporary urban realism. In their place, the
Georgians embraced the nineteenth-century
poetic practices of William Wordsworth and
the other Lake Poets.
Georgic:A poem about farming and the farmer’s
way of life, named from Virgil’sGeorgics.
Gilded Age:A period in American history during
the 1870s characterized by political corrup-
tion and materialism. A number of impor-
tant novels of social and political criticism
were written during this time.
Gothic:SeeGothicism
Gothicism:In literary criticism, works character-
ized by a taste for the medieval or morbidly
attractive. A gothic novel prominently fea-
tures elements of horror, the supernatural,
gloom, and violence: clanking chains, terror,
charnel houses, ghosts, medieval castles,
and mysteriously slamming doors. The
term ‘‘gothic novel’’ is also applied to novels
that lack elements of the traditional Gothic
setting but that create a similar atmosphere
of terror or dread.
Graveyard School:A group of eighteenth-cen-
tury English poets who wrote long, pictu-
resque meditations on death. Their works
were designed to cause the reader to ponder
immortality.
Great Chain of Being:The belief that all things
and creatures in nature are organized in a
hierarchy from inanimate objects at theGlossary of Literary Terms