Literary Terms #5

Dialogue

direct presentation of conversation between two or more characters

Genre

type, kind, sort of literature

Novella

long short story or short novel

Paradox

a statement that is self-contradictory on the surface but which reveals a subtler

meaning/truth upon reflection

Plot

pattern of happenings in a narrative; sequence of events

• Exposition

beginning of narrative that introduces setting, characters, and plot

• Generating circumstances

inciting incident that starts the plot moving

• Rising action

first part of narrative during which the tension between opposing

characters builds toward the climax

o Conflict

interplay between opposing forces (man, nature, society, self,

supernatural)

• Climax

turning point/most intense point of the story

• Falling action

action of a narrative which follows the climax and represents the

working out of the decisive action of the climax

• Denouement

end of falling action; final unraveling of plot; catastrophe; resolution

Point of view

relation assumed between narrator and the characters – who tells the story and how it

gets told

• Omniscient

the narrator has unlimited knowledge about characters’ thoughts and feelings –

told in 3rd person

• Limited omniscient

narrator tells the story from one character’s viewpoint and reveals

everything about that character but knows nothing about other characters except through

thoughts of that character

• First person

person telling the story is one of the characters

• Objective

narrator does not presume to know the thoughts and feelings of the characters –

he/she simply reports what can be seen or heard

Local Color/Regionalism

use in fiction of the environment, speech, customs, and setting of a particular

region

Pathos

writer’s tone which expresses pity and sorrow for the subject