Lit Terms #1

1. Rising action - Suspense increases, learn more about characters and conflict.

2. Climax - Turning point, main event of story.

3. Falling action- suspense decreases, learn outcomes/consequences of turning point.

4. Denouement - the end, loose ends are tied up.

Plot

traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon.

Myth

type, example of a person or thing

Archetype

long poem, narrating the adventures of heroic figures or the history of a nation.

Epic

main character of an epic poem that tells the story of a grand quest. 

Epic Hero

“in the middle of things” – much of the important action in the story occurred before the point at which the story begins

In Medias Res

an account of an event that happened before a story began

Flashback

excessive pride or vaulting ambition. Cocky, arrogant - a type of tragic flaw

Hubris

An event regarded as a portent of good or evil.

Omen

Animal, object, etc. given human qualities or characteristics 

Personification

When a character gets what he deserves.

Poetic Justice

Hinting at things to come

Foreshadowing

Reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art

Allusion

symbol is an object, person, place, etc. that means more than what it is 

Symbolism

The struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story.

Conflict

A character struggles with his or her own opposing desires, beliefs, or needs

Internal Conflict

A character struggles against an outside force (man vs. man, nature, society)

External Conflict

a short musical narrative song or poem that usually recounts a single exciting or dramatic episode

Ballad

poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines

Blank Verse

The ordinary form of spoken or written language without metrical structure

This is how WE talk/write

Prose

Sentence structure

Syntax

set of facts or circumstances surrounding an event or a situation in a piece of literature

Context

a saying that takes on special meaning, different from the actual words that make it up

Idiom

A difference between appearances and reality

Irony

When the audience knows something the characters do not know. 

Dramatic Irony

irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.

Situational Irony

Words used to suggest the opposite of what is meant

Verbal Irony