AP 12 End-of-Year Vocabulary Review: Literary Terms (PROSE/DRAMA: CHARACTER, STRUCTURE, NARRATION)

archetype

in art, a pattern character, or idea that recurs and conveys a universal symbolic meaning

caricature

exaggerated depiction of a character or incident, often using distortion of parts or characteristics

dynamic/round character

a character whose personality changes or evolves (or appears to have the capacity for such change) through a work

static/flat character

simple character who does not change or evolve/develop during course of a narrative

stock character

simple literary character who remains undeveloped; one who is a stereotype (i.e., the sidekick)

foil

character that serves as contrast to highlight opposing traits in another character

persona

voice or character representing speaker in a literary work; role a character plays

tragic hero

a hero in a tragedy who makes an error in judgement or has a fatal flaw that combines with fate and/or external orces to bring about his/her downfall

denoument

the final outcome of a literary work, often including the resolution of main dramatic complication

montage

composition made by juxtaposing/superimposing images; cascade of images in cinema/literature

in media res

opening of epic “in middle of things;” a character usually recounts what occurred earlier

deus ex machina

unexpected, improbable character/device/event that suddenly untangle/resolves a plot problem

aside

brief moment in a play in which a character speaks “under their breath” only for audience to hear

colloquialism

a local or regional dialect expression

monologue

a dramatic soliloquy or long speech

internal monologue

a type of narration in which the author depicts the interior thoughts of a single individual

stream-of-consciousness

narrative style like internal monologue, with little order or coherence to convey jumble of thoguths

soliloquy

in drama, a section in which a character reveals thoughts without addressing a listener, usually poses a dilemma and weighs the pros/cons, declaring a final decision at the end

omniscient narrator

a third-person narrator who knows all of the characters’ thoughts and motivations, limited omniscient narration indicated the narrator has knowledge of one character or more, but not all

first, second, or third person narrator

the different forms of narration that indicate drammatically the vantage point of the speaker (1st person- “I”; 2nd person- “you”; 3rd person - “they", “he,” “she”)

point of view

the attitude or outlook of a narrator or a character in a literary work (not necessarily the narrator)