Literary terms 2024-2026 7A & 8A

44 Literary terms

Fiction

Prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events. Short stories and novels are examples of this type of writing. Some writers base their writing on actual events and people, adding invented characters, dialogue, setting, and plots. Other writers rely on imagination alone.

Novel

A long work of fiction- It contains such elements as characters, plot, conflict, and setting. The writer (novelist) develops these elements. In addition to a main plot, it may contain one or more subplots, or independent, related stories. It may also have several themes.

Novella

A work of fiction that is longer than a short story, but shorter than a novel.

Short Story

A brief work of fiction. Like a novel, it presents a sequence of events, or plot. The plot usually deals with a central conflict faced by a main character, or protagonist. The events communicate a message about life or human nature. This message, or central idea, is the story’s theme.

Plot

Sequence of events in which each event results from a previous one and causes the next. In most novels, dramas, short stories, and narrative poems, it involves both characters, and a central conflict.

Exposition

Introduces the setting (the time and place of the story), the characters, and the basic situation (conflict is often introduced at the end of this part of the plot).

Rising Action

Events that increase the tension.

Climax

The tuning point of the story. It is the high point in the action of the plot. It is the moment of greatest when the outcome of the plot hangs in balance.

Falling Action

Is the part of the story when the conflict lessens; events that follow the climax.

Resolution

Is the story’s conclusion; final outcome is achieved; loose ends are tied up.

Character

A person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work. The main, or major, one is the most important in the story, poem, or play. A minor one is one who takes part in the action but is not the focus of attention.

Setting

The time and place of the action. It includes all the details of a place and time - the year, the time of day, even the weather.

Theme

Central message, concern, or purpose of a literary work. It can usually be expressed as a generalization, or a general statement, about human beings or about life. It is not a summery of the plot.

Point of View

The perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told. It is either a narrator outside the story or a character in the story.

Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces. It is one of the most important elements of stories, novels, and plays because it causes the action. There are two types: internal and extern.

Flashback

A scene within a story that interrupts the sequence of events to relate events that occurred in the past.

Foreshadowing

The author’s use of clues to hint at might happen later in the story.

External Conflict

One in which a character struggles against some kind of outside force, such as another person. Another one may occur between a character and some force of nature.

Internal Conflict

It takes place within the mind of a character. The character struggles to make a desicion, take an action, or overcome a feeling.

First Person Point of View

Told by a character who uses the first person pronoun “I”.

Third Person Point of View

There are two kinds, limited and omniscient. They are called “Third Person” because the narrator uses third-person pronoun such as he or she to refer to the characters.

Omniscient Point of View

In stories told from this point of view, the narrator knows and tells about what each character feels and thinks.

Limited Point of View

In stories told from this point of view, the narrator relates the inner thoughts and feelings of only one character, and everything is viewed fro this character’s perspective.

Dialect

The form of a language spoken by people in a particular region or group. They differ in pronunciation, grammar, and word choice. The use of it gives a short story a more authentic feel and helps the characters’ words sound more realistic.

Dialogue

A conversation between the characters. In poems, novels, and short stories, it is usually set off by quotation marks to indicate a speakers exact words.

Protagonist

The main character in a literary work. It is often a person but can be an animal.

Antagonist

This is a character or force in conflict with the main character.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds. Writers use this device to draw attention to certain words, ideas, to imitate sounds, and to create musical effects.

Tone

The writers attitude to his or her’s audience or subject. It can often be described by a single adjective, such as formal or informal, serious or playful, bitter, or ironic.

Mood

The feeling created in a read by a literary work or passage. It is also known as atmosphere.

Figurative Language

Writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally. The many types are known as figures of speech. Common figures of speech include metaphor, personification, and simile. Writers use these techniques to state ideas in vivid or imaginative ways.

Hyperbole

A form of figurative language that uses exaggeration for effect.

Imagery

A technique of writing with images.

Images

Words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses. Writers use these to describe how their subjects look, sound, feel, taste, and smell.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else. It works by pointing out similarity between two unlike things.

Motive

A reason that explains or partially explains a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech. Writers try to make their character’s thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech as clear as possible.

Narrative

A story. Novels and short stories are fictional examples. Biographies and autobiographies are nonfictional examples.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words that imitate sounds. Crash, buzz, screech, hiss, neigh, jingle, and cluck are all examples.

Personification

Figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics.

Repetition

The use, more than once, of any element of language - a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence.

Simile

A figure of speech that uses like or as to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas. Everyday speech contains these, such as “pale as a ghost”, “good as gold”, “spread like wildfire”, and “clever as a fox”.

Symbol

Anything that stands for or represents something else. These are common in everyday life. A dove with in olive branch in its beak means peace. A blindfolded woman with a balance scale stands for justice.

Universal Theme

A message that is expressed regularly in many different cultures and time periods. Folk tales, epics, and romances often contain these like the importance of courage, the power of love, and the danger of greed.

Allusion

A reference to something else. In literature, its frequently used to reference cultural works (e.g. a biological story or a Greek myth).

Comedy

A literary work, especially a play, which is light, often humerus or satirical, and ends happy. They frequently depict ordinary characters faced with temporary difficulties and conflicts.

Drama

A story written to be preformed by actors. Although it is meant to be preformed, one can also read the script, or written version and imagine the action.

Script

Made up of dialogue and stage directions.

Dialogue

The words spoken by the actors.

Acts

This is how drama is divided.

Stage Directions

Notes included in drama to describe how the work is to be preformed or staged. These are usually printed in italics or inclosed within (parentheses) or [brackets]. They describe the movements, costumes, emotional states, and ways of speaking of the characters.

Scene

A section of uninterrupted action in the act of a drama.

Playwright

A person who writes plays

Tragedy

A work of literature, especially a play, That results in a catastrophe for the main character. In modern drama, the main character can be an ordinary person, and the cause of it can be soe evil in society itself.

Set

The scenery used for a play or a movie.

Theater

A building or outdoor area in which plays and other dramatic performances are given.

Prop

A portable object other than furniture or costumes used on the set of a play or movie.

Static Character (Flat)

One-sided and often stereotypical.

Dynamic Character (round)

Fully developed and exhibits many traits - often both faults and virtues.

Characterization

The act of creating and developing a character. Authors use two types of characterization: direct and indirect.

Tragedy

A genre of story in which a hero is brought down by his/her own flaws like greed, over-ambition, or even excess of love, honor, or loyalty.

Tragic Hero

A type of character in a tragedy and is usually the protagonist. They typically have heroic traits that earn them sympathy of the audience but also have flaws or mistakes that ultimately lead to their own downfall.

Indirect Characterization

A writer depends on the reader to draw conclusions about the character’s traits. Sometimes writers tells what other participants in the story say and think about a character.

Direct Characterization

A writer states the character’s traits or characteristics.

Pun

A joke based on the interplay of homophones - words with the same pronunciation but different meanings. It can also play with words that sound similar, but not exactly the same. The joke’s humor comes form the confusion of the meanings.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that links two opposite or contradictory words, to point out an idea or situation that seems contradictory or inconsistent but on closer inspection turns out to be true.