College Literature - Norton Notes

scene

section or subdivision of a play or narrative that presents continuous action in one specific

setting

plot

the author

sequences and paces events so as to shape our response and interpretation.

action

refer to the events recounted in a fictional work.

flashbacks

events that occurred before the story’s opening

in medias res

Still other stories begin

somewhere in the middle of the action or, to use the Latin term,

flashforward

a story might jump forward in time to recount a later

episode or event

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing occurs when an author merely gives the

reader subtle clues or hints about what will happen later in the story.

subplot

A plot that receives significantly less time and

attention than another

exposition , rising

action , climax or turning point, falling action , and conclusion or resolution.

The five main parts or phases of plot are?

discriminated occasion

When an author slows down to home in on a

particular moment and scene,

External Conflict

when it pits a character against

something or someone outside that character—another character or characters or some

impersonal force (e.g., nature or society).

Internal Conflict

when the opposing forces

are two drives, impulses, or parts of a single character.

Conflict

struggle between opposing forces.

exposition

first phase or part of plot , which sets the scene, introduces and identifies characters, and

establishes the situation at the beginning of a story or play.

rising action

second of the five phases or parts of plot , in which events complicate the situation that

existed at the beginning of a work, intensifying the initial conflict or introducing a new one.

inciting incident

an action that sets a plot in motion by creating conflict ; also called destabilizing event .

climax

the third part of plot , the point at which the action stops rising and begins falling or

reversing; also called turning point.

complication

in plot, an action or event that introduces a new conflict or intensifies the existing one,

especially during the rising action phase of plot .

epiphany

sudden revelation of truth, often inspired by a seemingly simple or commonplace event.

crisis

in plot, the moment when the conflict comes to a head, often requiring the character to

make a decision; sometimes the blank is equated with the climax or turning point

falling action

fourth of the five phases or parts of plot , in which the conflict or conflicts move toward

resolution.

deus ex machina

literally, “god out of the machine” (Latin); any improbable, unprepared-for plot contrivance

introduced late in a literary work to resolve the conflict

conclusion/resolution

, the fifth and last phase or part of plot , the point at which the

situation that was destabilized at the beginning becomes stable once more and the conflict is

resolved.

epilogue

in fiction, a short section or chapter that comes after the conclusion , tying up loose ends

and often describing what happens to the characters after the resolution of the conflict ; (2)

in drama, a short speech, often addressed directly to the audience, delivered by a character

at the end of a play.

dénouement

literally, “untying,” as of a knot (French); a plot -related term used in three ways: (1) as a

synonym for falling action , (2) as a synonym for conclusion or resolution, and (3) as the

label for a phase following the conclusion in which any loose ends are tied up.

plot summary

brief recounting of the principal action of a work of fiction , drama , or narrative poetry,

usually in the same order in which the action is recounted in the original work rather than in

chronological order.

romance

(1) originally, a long medieval narrative in verse or prose written in one of the Romance

languages (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.) and depicting the quests of knights and other

chivalric heroes and the vicissitudes of courtly love; also known as chivalric romance ;

(2) later and more broadly, any literary work, especially a long work of prose fiction ,

characterized by a nonrealistic and idealizing use of the imagination; (3) commonly

today, works of prose fiction aimed at a mass, primarily female, audience and focusing

on love affairs.

epic

long narrative poem that celebrates the achievements of mighty heroes and heroines ,

usually in founding a nation or developing a culture, and uses elevated language and a

grand, high style. Other epic conventions include a beginning in medias res , an

invocation of the muse, a journey to the underworld, battle scenes, and a scene in which

the hero arms himself for battle. Examples include Beowulf and Homer’s Iliad. A mock

epic is a form of satire in which epic language and conventions are used to depict

characters , actions , and settings utterly unlike those in conventional epics, usually

(though not always) with the purpose of ridiculing the social milieu or types of people

portrayed in the poem.

tragedy

work, especially of drama, in which a character (traditionally a good and noble person

of high rank) is brought to a disastrous end in his or her confrontation with a superior

force (fortune, the gods, human nature, universal values), but also comes to understand

the meaning of his or her deeds and to accept an appropriate punishment. In some cases,

the protagonist ’s downfall can be the direct result of a fatal but common character flaw.

Examples include Sophocles’s Antigone and William Shakespeare’s Othello .

comedy

a broad category of literary, especially dramatic, works intended primarily to entertain and

amuse an audience.

narrator

someone who recounts a narrative or tells a story. Though we usually instead use the term

speaker when referring to poetry, narrative poems include at least one speaker who

functions as a narrator.

voice

verbal aspect of point of view , the acknowledged or unacknowledged source of a story’s

words; the speaker ; the “person” telling the story and that person’s particular qualities of

insight, attitude, and verbal style.

focus

visual component of point of view , the point from which people, events, and other details

in a story are viewed; also called focalization .

point of view

perspective from which people, events, and other details in a work of fiction are viewed;

also called focus, though the term point of view usually includes both focus and voice.

style

distinctive manner of expression; each author’s style is expressed through their diction ,

rhythm , imagery , and so on.

tone

attitude a literary work takes toward its subject or that a character in the work conveys,

especially as revealed through diction.

irony

situation or statement characterized by a significant difference between what is expected

or understood and what actually happens or is meant.

Verbal irony

occurs when a word

or expression in context means something different from, and usually the opposite of,

what it appears to mean; when the intended meaning is harshly critical or satiric,

Situational irony

occurs when a character holds a position or

has an expectation that is reversed or fulfilled in an unexpected way.

auditor

imaginary listener within a literary work, as opposed to the actual reader or audience

outside the work.

dialogue

usually, words spoken by characters in a literary work, especially as opposed to words

that come directly from the narrator in a work of fiction; (2) more rarely, a literary work

that consists mainly or entirely of the speech of two or more characters; examples include

Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Ruined Maid” and Plato’s treatise Republic.

Havent done character need to do that

Haven’t done character need to do that

setting

time and place of the action in a work of fiction, poetry, or drama.