B
Ballad:A short poem that tells a simple story and
has a repeated refrain. Ballads were origi-
nally intended to be sung. Early ballads,
known as folk ballads, were passed down
through generations, so their authors are
often unknown. Later ballads composed by
known authors are called literary ballads.
Baroque:A term used in literary criticism to
describe literature that is complex or ornate
in style or diction. Baroque works typically
express tension, anxiety, and violent emo-
tion. The term ‘‘Baroque Age’’ designates a
period in Western European literature
beginning in the late sixteenth century and
ending about one hundred years later.
Works of this period often mirror the qual-
ities of works more generally associated with
the label ‘‘baroque’’ and sometimes feature
elaborate conceits.
Baroque Age:SeeBaroque
Baroque Period:SeeBaroque
Beat Generation:SeeBeat Movement
Beat Movement:A period featuring a group of
American poets and novelists of the 1950s
and 1960s—including Jack Kerouac, Allen
Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Bur-
roughs, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti—who
rejected established social and literary val-
ues. Using such techniques as stream of con-
sciousness writing and jazz-influenced free
verse and focusing on unusual or abnor-
mal states of mind—generated by religious
ecstasy or the use of drugs—the Beat writers
aimed to create works that were unconven-
tional in both form and subject matter.
Beat Poets:SeeBeat Movement
Beats, The:SeeBeat Movement
Belles- lettres:A French term meaning ‘‘fine let-
ters’’ or ‘‘beautiful writing.’’ It is often used as
a synonym for literature, typically referring
to imaginative and artistic rather than scien-
tific or expository writing. Current usage
sometimes restricts the meaning to light or
humorous writing and appreciative essays
about literature.
Black Aesthetic Movement:A period of artistic
and literary development among African
Americans in the 1960s and early 1970s. This
was the first major African-American artistic
movement since the Harlem Renaissance and
was closely paralleled by the civil rights and
black power movements. The black aesthetic
writers attempted to produce works of art that
would be meaningful to the black masses. Key
figures in black aesthetics included one of its
founders, poet and playwright Amiri Baraka,
formerly known as LeRoi Jones; poet and
essayist Haki R. Madhubuti, formerly Don L.
Lee; poet and playwright Sonia Sanchez; and
dramatist Ed Bullins.
Black Arts Movement: See Black Aesthetic
Movement
Black Comedy:SeeBlack Humor
Black Humor:Writing that places grotesque ele-
ments side by side with humorous ones in an
attempt to shock the reader, forcing him or
her to laugh at the horrifying reality of a
disordered world.
Black Mountain School:Black Mountain College
and three of its instructors—Robert Creeley,
Robert Duncan, and Charles Olson—were all
influential in projective verse, so poets working
in projective verse are now referred as members
of the Black Mountain school.
Blank Verse:Loosely, any unrhymed poetry, but
more generally, unrhymed iambic pentam-
eter verse (composed of lines of five two-
syllable feet with the first syllable accented,
the second unaccented). Blank verse has been
used by poets since the Renaissance for its
flexibility and its graceful, dignified tone.
Bloomsbury Group:A group of English writers,
artists, and intellectuals who held informal
artistic and philosophical discussions in
Bloomsbury, a district of London, from
around 1907 to the early 1930s. The Blooms-
bury Group held no uniform philosophical
beliefs but did commonly express an aver-
sion to moral prudery and a desire for
greater social tolerance.
Bon Mot:A French term meaning ‘‘good word.’’
Abon mot is a witty remark or clever
observation.
Breath Verse:SeeProjective Verse
Burlesque:Any literary work that uses exagger-
ation to make its subject appear ridiculous,
either by treating a trivial subject with pro-
found seriousness or by treating a dignified
subject frivolously. The word ‘‘burlesque’’
may also be used as an adjective, as in ‘‘bur-
lesque show,’’ to mean ‘‘striptease act.’’Glossary of Literary Terms