Vocabulary for Literary Analysis

A collection of vocabulary flashcards defining key narrative elements, craft-based narrative techniques, structural components, and analytical literary lenses.

Structure

How the parts of the work are assembled and organized.

Motif

A recurring element, image, idea, or phrase in a story that helps explain the central theme.

Symbolism

The idea that a concrete thing represents an abstract thing beyond itself.

Diction

Word choice used by an author or character.

Syntax

Word order and sentence construction, which plays a crucial part in establishing an author's narrative voice.

Dramatic Irony

A situation where the reader or audience is aware of the outcome of the narrative before the characters are.

Reader Response Lens

An analytical approach focusing on how readers actively create meaning from a text through their own lived experiences, personal reactions, and subjective reflections.

Biographical Lens

An analytical approach that analyzes a literary work through the life, personal circumstances, and historical background of the author.

Gender Lens

An analytical approach that evaluates how literature portrays gender roles, power imbalances, and gender-based attitudes.

Historical Lens

An analytical approach that places a text within its broader social, political, cultural, and economic era.

Postcolonial Lens

An analytical approach that examines the impacts of colonialism on identity, culture, and power, focusing on "othering" and cultural displacement.

Race or Ethnicity Lens

An analytical approach that investigates how literature reflects, celebrates, or critiques racial constructs and ethnic identities.

Social / Advocacy Lens

An analytical approach that analyzes literature through the framework of economic class and social power structures.

Archetypal Lens

An analytical approach that identifies universal character types, recurring symbols, narrative patterns, and shared myths across literary works.