Lit terms 6

Bildungsroman

a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character.

Suspense

The quality of a short story, novel, or narrative poem that makes the reader or audience uncertain or tense about the outcome of events.

Setting

The time and place in which an event in a short story, novel, play or narrative poem takes place.

Novel

An extended fictional prose narrative. Often the term implies that some organizing principle—plot, theme, or idea—should be present in a narrative that is called a novel.

Stream of Consciousness

a style of interior monologue in prose fiction representing the character’s unspoken thoughts; The continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind; a literary method of blending such mental processes in fictional characters.

Dialogue

The speech of characters in any kind of narrative, story or play.

Dialect

a nonstandard subgroup of a language with its own vocabulary and grammatical features. Writers often use regional dialects that reveal a person’s economic or social class.

Foreshadowing

The use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest future action.

Simple Sentence

Contains one independent clause, composed of a subject and a verb.

Compound Sentence

Contains two independent clauses joined by a conjunction or semi-colon.

Complex Sentence

an independent clause and one or more subordinate (dependent) clauses.

Compound-Complex Sentence

Contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent/subordinate clauses