Literature Metalanguage

GOOD LUCK U LITERATES

Protagonist

the leading character or one of the major characters in a play, film, novel, etc.

Antagonist

a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy and rival of the protagonist

Protagonist

the leading character or one of the major characters in a play, film, novel, etc.

Antagonist

a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy and rival of the protagonist

False Protagonist

the character readers and viewers initially believe to be the protagonist, but in fact is just another supporting character.

Secondary Character

those in stories who play a significant role, and appear in multiple scenes, but who are not the main focus of the primary plot

Supporting Character

a character who isn't the main focus in the story but instead supports the protagonist

Major Character

an important figure at the center of the story's action or theme

Minor Character

characters that will act on the story in a smaller way

Crime Genre

a story that is centered around the solving of a crime

Epistolary

literary work in the form of letters

Philisophical Genre

literary works that inspire thoughtful reflections on such topics as the human condition, the meaning of life, the nature of reality, the distinction between right and wrong, the purpose of society, and any other big-picture inquiry

Political Genre

employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories

Satire Genre

stories that target and attack bad habits and vices through humor

Non-Fiction

writing that is about real events and facts, rather than stories that have been invented

Novel

a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism

Novella

a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories

Play

a type of literary work that is designed for performance in a theater in front of an audience

Poetry

a type of literature typically written in verse that uses figurative language, or language that can have different meanings from what is literally said

Short Story

a work of prose fiction that can be read in one sitting—usually between 20 minutes to an hour

Iambic pentameter

a line of verse composed of ten syllables arranged in five metrical feet (iambs), each of which consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

Blank Verse

poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines

Free Verse

poetry that doesn't use any strict meter or rhyme scheme

First Person

the narrator is a person in the story, telling the story from their own point of view

Second Person

The narrator describes the reader's actions, thoughts, and background using "you."

Third Person

the narrator exists outside the events of the story, and relates the actions of the characters by referring to their names or by pronouns like he, she, or they.

Third Person Objective

a narrative style that uses a neutral, unbiased narrator who doesn't reveal the thoughts or feelings of the characters

Third Person Omnipresent

can see everything, this narrator has no biases and can present the thoughts, feelings, and actions of multiple characters

Third Person Limited

Has access to the thoughts and emotions of just one character

Alternating narrative view

a narrative technique where a story is told from the perspectives of different characters, with each character's point of view taking turns as the primary perspective.

Stream of Consciousness

a narrative technique where the thoughts and emotions of a narrator or character are written out such that a reader can track the fluid mental state of these characters

Linear Narrative

a story in chronological order

Non-Linear Narrative

doesn't follow a traditional, chronological order from beginning to end

Anti-Climax

a moment of tension that is dramatically undercut instead of receiving a payoff

Climax

the most intense moment within a story

Conflict

a literary device that presents the struggle between two sides due to a disagreement in values, desires, motivations etc

Denouement

the final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

Dialogue

the exchange of spoken words between two or more characters

Exposition

an element of literature that introduces the key background information of a narrative

Subplot

a secondary strand of the plot that is a supporting side story for any story or for the main plot

Trope

the repetitive use of a word, plot device, theme, image, or figure by an author.

Turning Point

a moment in the plot when a character must make a decision that will change the course of the story

Culture

the beliefs, customs, values, and activities of a particular group of people at a particular time

Geographical Setting

a setting that involves the place of where the scenes of the story take place

Social Setting

encompasses the relationships between characters within a story and their interactions with society at large

Dystopia

An imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible

Utopia

a seemingly perfect society, one without flaws, where everyone is content and conflict and strife are unknown

Active Voice

sentence that contains a subject taking some type of action or interacting with an object or another person, e.g Someone will walk her dog.

Passive Voice

when the doer of the action is not the subject of the sentence, e.g Her dog will be walked.

Allegory

a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance

Alliteration

repetition of the same sound at the start of a series of words in succession

Allusion

an implied or indirect reference to a person, event, or thing or to a part of another text

Ambivalance

a state of having simultaneous conflicting reactions, beliefs, or feelings towards some object

Ambguity

a word, phrase, statement, or idea that can be understood in more than one way

Antithesis

a literary device that positions opposite ideas parallel to each other, e.g. good vs evil

Bildungsroman

a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood, AKA coming of age

Characterisation

the act of creating and describing characters in literature

Cliffhanger

a literary device that ends a section of a story in a stunning event or a big dramatic question

Colloquialism

words and expressions that become commonplace within a specific language, geographic region, or historical era

Complex Sentence

consists of at least a minimum of one dependent clause and one independent clause, combined by a subordinating conjunction

Compound Sentence

a sentence that has at least two independent clauses joined by a comma, semicolon or conjunction

Connotation

secondary, implied, or associative meanings and emotions that a word carries beyond its literal definition

Context

the type of setting and circumstances in which a piece of writing is written

Denouement

the resolution of conflict in a narrative plot structure

Diachronic

concerned with the way in which something, especially language, has developed and evolved through time.

Dialect

a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group

Elision

the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking e.g. I’m or Let’s

Emjambent

the continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break

Epiphany

any moment when a character has a moment of realization

Euphemism

a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant e.g. what the flip instead of what the fuck

Foreshadowing

a narrative device in which a storyteller gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story

Hyperbole

extravagant exaggeration used to emphasize a point e.g. her smile was a mile wide

Idiom

a phrase or expression that usually presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase e.g. turn a blind eye

Imagery

words that trigger the reader to recall images, or mental pictures, that engage one of the five senses

Juxtaposition

the close placement of contrasting ideas, images, or entities, with the intent of highlighting the contrast between those entities

Iamb

a metrical unit consisting of two syllables where an initial unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable e.g. re-TURN

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable e.g. She has a heart of gold

Meter

describes the rhythm (or pattern of beats) in a line of poetry

Motif

a repeated pattern—an image, sound, word, or symbol that comes back again and again within a particular story

Neologism

any newly formed word, term, or phrase that nevertheless has achieved popular or institutional recognition

Onomatopoeia

the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is name e.g. pop or bang

Oxymoron

a figure of speech that combines contradictory words with opposing meanings e.g awfully good

Paradox

a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true

Parody

an imitation of the style and manner of a particular writer or school of writers

Pathos

appeals to the emotions and ideals of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them

Periphrasis

the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer e.g. Saying “more happy” instead of “happier”

Personification

the representation of a thing or idea as a person or by the human form e.g. the flowers danced in the breeze

Positioning

how the author orientates themselves in relation to their chosen subject matter and their readers/audience

Rhetoric

the art or skill of speaking or writing formally and effectively especially as a way to persuade or influence people

Rhythm

the beat and pace of a poem

Simile

a comparison between two things, usually using the words 'like' and 'as' e.g. they fought like cats and dogs

Simple Sentence

a sentence that consists of one independent clause and no dependent clauses

Solioquy

a monologue that is delivered when the character is alone

Stereotype

clichéd or predictable characters or situations

Symbol

an object, a person, a situation, or an action that has a literal meaning in a story but suggests or represents other meanings

Tautology

a statement that repeats an idea, using near-synonymous morphemes, words or phrases, effectively "saying the same thing twice" e.g. If I perish, I perish

Tone

the attitude that a character or narrator or author takes towards a given subject

Tragedy

a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character

Vernacular

the informal spoken language of a particular region, culture, or group, e.g. Americans go to college, Australians go to university

Hamartia

a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine

Indent

start (a line of text) or position (a block of text) further from the margin than the main part of the text.

Metonymy

a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.