There exists already glossaries of ‘literary terms’ online. Though, I’m not very sure of them. The glossaries I’ve used in the past have focused on ‘literary devices’ or ‘imagery’. These provide terminology for naming particular usage of language. But literature is not literature because it uses language in a certain way. It’s literature because it is aligned with a certain set of facts, characteristics, concepts or traits. The terms which are used by academics or critics to discuss literary texts don’t always appear in those ‘linguistic’ glossaries.
Also, a glossary needs to reflect the particular types of lessons being delivered; they need to fit in with the overall intent and the objectives. A glossary can be unique to a department because it reflects the lessons they have committed to delivering, and there are so many that departments are unlikely to be identical.
The glossary attributed to Discipline of English reflects the overall intention of our learning journey. It is routed in academic texts, and theoretical perspectives. Whilst most terms appear in the very lessons themselves, some arise from articles published on the site.
Every department should have a glossary, and so wide is the potential range of terms, that it comes to be part of the identity of the literary tradition being upheld by the department. Ours can be found in the curriculum page.
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