Literary Genres, Elements, and Media Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering genres, narrative structures, literary elements, camera techniques, points of view, and key concepts from the lecture notes.

Creative Non Fiction

Stories depicting real-life events, places, people, and experiences, telling a true story in an artistic or literary way.

Setting (Creative Non Fiction)

The real time and place where the nonfiction story or event happened.

Descriptive Imagery (Creative Non Fiction)

Detailed descriptions that help the reader visualize and experience a real person, place, or event.

Figurative Language (Creative Non Fiction)

Creative expressions, such as similes, metaphors, and personification, used to make real experiences more vivid.

Plot (Creative Non Fiction)

The sequence of real events in the story, arranged in a way that creates meaning and keeps the reader interested.

Character (Creative Non Fiction)

The real people involved in the story or experience.

Fiction

Literature that uses ordinary language to depict significant human experience, featuring elements such as character, setting, plot, and point-of-view, with kinds including short stories and novels.

Descriptive Imagery (Fiction)

Words that help the reader imagine what something looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels like.

Poetry

A literary form that uses figurative language and may be lyric, narrative, or dramatic.

Structure (Poetry)

The way a piece is organized and arranged, such as its paragraphs, stanzas, or sections.

Rhyme

The repetition of similar sounds, usually at the end of lines.

Rhythm

The pattern or flow of sounds and words as they are read.

Meter

The regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Drama

Refers to a life story of actors and actresses, usually performed on a stage.

Dramatic Plot Structure

A form of storytelling where events usually follow a chronological sequence.

Episodic Plot Structure

A chronological storytelling structure consisting of a series of loosely related incidents tied together by a common theme or central character.

Parallel Plot Structure

A storytelling structure involving weaving two or more dramatic plot structures together to form a whole.

Flashback Plot Structure

A storytelling structure that uses scenes and events that happened before the primary timeline of the story or essay.

Comics

Stories told through a combination of images and words, usually arranged in panels.

Graphic Novels

Longer, book-length stories told mainly through sequential art (a series of images arranged to show events).

Panel

A single box or section in a comic that shows one scene or moment.

Gutter

The space between two panels in a comic.

Tier

A row of panels arranged horizontally across a comic page.

Splash

A large panel, usually taking up most or all of a page, used to highlight an important scene.

Spread

A scene or image that covers two facing pages of a comic.

Caption

A box containing narration, descriptions, or information about the scene.

Speech Bubble

A shape containing a character's spoken words or dialogue.

Act I – Introduction

Introduces the characters, setting, and main problem or conflict.

Act II – Rising Action

The stage where conflict develops, problems become more difficult, and the story builds toward its climax.

Act III – Resolution

The stage where the main conflict reaches its ending, and the story's problems are resolved.

Movies

Visual forms of storytelling that use moving images, sound, dialogue, music, and acting to tell a story or present information, usually presented as a single, complete production.

TV Shows

Programs created for television or streaming platforms that use images, sound, dialogue, and acting to entertain, inform, or tell stories, usually divided into episodes and potentially multiple seasons.

Close Up

A very close shot where the camera lens focuses on a particular detail or a character's face.

Medium Shot

A shot where the camera lens shows part of a background and/or a character's upper body.

Full Shot

A shot where the camera lens shows the full view of a character.

Long Shot

A shot that shows an object or character at a distance.

Straight-on Angle

A camera angle where the camera is at the same height as the object.

High Angle

A camera angle where the camera is filming from above the object.

Low Angle

A camera angle where the camera is filming from below the object.

Oblique Angle

A camera angle where the camera is tilted sideways.

Lighting

The use and arrangement of light in a film or TV show to control visibility, mood, atmosphere, and the audience's focus.

High Key Lighting

Lighting in film or TV that is bright and illuminating.

Low Key Lighting

Lighting in film or TV that is darker and has more shadows.

Editing

How the director decides to cut and put together scenes to dictate the pace and flow of the movie or episode, affecting its storytelling.

Oral Tradition

The practice of passing stories, beliefs, history, customs, and knowledge from one generation to another through spoken words, rather than written records.

Point of View

The perspective from which the story is told, defining who the narrator is and what gets told in a text.

First-person Point of View

A narrative perspective where the narrator uses the pronoun 'I', indicating direct involvement in the story based on authorial experience.

Second-person Point of View

A narrative perspective that addresses the readers by using the pronoun 'you'.

Third-person Point of View

A narrative perspective using third-person pronouns (he, she, or they), implying the narrator is outside the events or actions.

Limited Third-person Point of View

A third-person perspective where the narrator does not have complete access to the thoughts and experiences of the story's characters.

Omniscient Third-person Point of View

A third-person perspective where the narrator is all-knowing, having complete access to the thoughts and experiences of all characters.

Narrative Structure

The writer's manner of sequencing and telling the elements and events in a story or the ideas presented in a text.

Linear Structure

A narrative structure where the writer narrates a story from beginning to end, following the natural sequence of events in relation to time.

Fractured or Nonlinear Structure

A narrative structure where the writer does not follow chronological order and instead jumps through certain points in the timeline.

Circular Structure

A narrative structure where writers end their texts with where they began.

Parallel Narrative Structure

A storytelling technique where two or more storylines or events are presented alongside each other, often showing similarities or differences.

Interactive Structure

A narrative structure that allows readers to choose what happens next, leading to new choices and several alternative outcomes or endings.

Atmosphere

Also called mood or ambience, it is the feeling the author is trying to evoke in their readers.

Symbol

Something that represents or stands for something else.

Symbolism

Whenever an object (the symbol) is used to represent another concept beyond its literal meaning.

Irony

Occurs when what is expected is the opposite of what actually happens.

Dramatic Irony

Occurs in literature when the audience or reader knows more about the events in the story than the characters in the text.

Situational Irony

Occurs when the actual outcome of a situation is very different from what is expected to happen.

Verbal Irony

Refers to saying something that is the opposite of what is actually meant.

Figures of Speech

Literary devices wherein words are intentionally used to convey meanings beyond their literal or ordinary use.

Autobiography

When people write the story of their own lives.

Biography

A narration of a person's life that is written by another person or a writer referred to as a biographer.

Factual Evidence (Biography)

Information based on real facts, records, interviews, or reliable sources about a person's life.