Literary Vocabulary: Exam 3

Tragedy

A literary work, usually a drama, which deals with human themes; several elements are involved: hamartia, hubris, catharsis, nemesis; in a tragedy, a hero will fall due to elements within the personality.

Hubris

Excessive pride, especially found within the tragic hero.

Local color

The interests or flavor of a specific locality as expressed in a story through language.

Narrative

The story of fictional or actual events as told by the teller.

Naturalism

A factual representation, conforming to nature, especially in art and literature.

Realism

A truthful representation, with an inclination toward pragmatism, that is accurate to life’s expression.

Short Story

A fictional prose, dealing essentially with a single conflict, which can be read in a single session and has a single plot line.

Pleasure Principle

The concept that pleasure is the only thing that matters and any manner of attaining it is fine; often this is the role of the Id, the earliest part of the developing personality.

Reality Principle

The function which monitors the Id; the concept that some things are more important than immediate pleasure, namely, the continuation of pleasure after the initial gaining of it.

Denouement

The final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

Drama

A full-length work of fiction that is written in dialogue, meant to be performed upon a stage.

Flashback

Stopping the flow of the narrative to return to a setting or event earlier in the tale, even to events that predate the earliest part of the plot.

Hamartia

The tragic flaw of a tragic hero; that which will make the hero fall; this needs to be a trait that is generally considered a good thing.

Description

The words the author uses to fully detail a place or thing; these words will bring pictures to the mind.

Symbol

Something which stands for and represents itself but also stands for something much greater than itself.

Climax

A moment of great intensity in the plot of a literary work, generally bringing events to a head and leading to the conclusion.

Novel

A full-length prose fiction where narrative is the chief story-telling element and several conflicts, settings, and characters will dwell.

Parallelism

A structural arrangement of parts of a sentence, sentences, paragraphs, and larger units of composition by which one element of equal importance with another is similarly developed and phrased.

Pathetic Fallacy

False emotionalism in writing resulting in a too impassioned description of nature; it is the carrying over to inanimate objects the moods and passions of a human being.

Histrionics

A deliberate display of emotion for effect.

Hagiography

A biography that idealizes or idolizes the person (especially a person who is a saint).

Idiomatic

Of or pertaining to, or conforming to, the mode of expression peculiar to a language.

Metonymy

A figure of speech that substitutes the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horseracing.