English 2201 Narrative Terms

Foreshadowing

A technique for providing clues about events that may happen later in the story.

Antagonist

The character who struggles or fights against the protagonist.

Protagonist

The main character in a story, novel, or play.

Flashback

A technique for presenting something that happened earlier (often prior to when the reader begins the story) that helps explain something about the current situation.

Setting

The environment or surroundings in which a story takes place. (Time, Place, Circumstance)

Mood

An emotional state or feeling created by the author's attitude toward the subject or theme.

Imagery

Language that creates pictures and sensory impressions. This appeals to your senses of touch (tactile), taste (gustatory), sight (visual), sound (auditory), and smell (olfactory).

Fiction

Genres of narration that may be based on events and characters that are not real.

Non-fiction

Any piece of writing about actual people, places, or events.

Figurative Language

Suggests similarities in things that are not usually compared. There are five main kinds of this: Hyperbole, Metaphor, Simile, Understatement, and Personification.

Hyperbole

An over-exaggerated statement. This can be used for emphasis.

Metaphor

A direct comparison between two unrelated nouns (persons, places, or things) without using like or as. These make connections that broaden our understanding of the subject of a poem.

Personification

The assigning of human traits to things, colors, qualities and ideas. There are many ways to personify things so that they seem human. This adds a human dimension to a poem and contributes to our understanding of the poem.

Simile

A comparison between two unlike nouns (persons, places, or things) using like or as to bridge the connection.

Understatement

The opposite of exaggeration.

Characterization

The way an author creates characters within a story. This includes the development of the characters appearance, background, feelings and thoughts.

Indirect Characterization

When the author shows the character in action and lets the reader draw their own conclusions.

Direct Characterization

When the author tells the reader directly about the character.

Resolution

The part of the story, after the climax, which pulls together all the loose threads of the story.

Dialect

The way a language is spoken in a particular region of place.

Point of View

The perspective the author establishes to tell the story.

Complication

Any obstacle that increases the tension of the story, also labeled conflict.

Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces. This can take the form of man vs. man, man vs. himself, man vs. nature etc. May also be called intrapersonal (internal) or interpersonal (external).

Narrator

The speaker of the selection. If this is also a character who participates in the story, it is important not to confuse the this with the author - who may, in fact, hold a very different attitude toward the selection.

Tone

The writer's attitude towards the subject that he/she is writing about.

Dialogue

The actual words that the characters speak. Author's use this skillfully in the short story to portray character and dramatize conflict.

Plot

The author's arrangement of events that make up the story of a text.

Irony

The use of words to express a meaning opposite to or different from the word's literal meaning, eg., Thanks for ruining my day. A situation can be of this type when there is a contrast between what a character or author says and what she or he actually means, or a contrast between what a character or reader expects and what really happens.

Dramatic Irony

A technique that increases suspense by letting readers know more about the dramatic situation than the characters know.

Atmosphere

The overall emotional impression of tone, e.g., cheerful, anxious, tense, foreboding.

Style

The characteristic ways that an individual author uses language, including word choice, length and complexity of sentences, patterns of sound, and the use of imagery and symbols

Literal Language

Language that means exactly what it says.

Exposition

Background material about characters, setting, and dramatic situation with which the author introduces the essentials of the story to the reader.

Falling Action

The part of the story following the climax, in which there is a sharp decline in the dramatic tension.

Structure

The framework that determines how a story is put together - it's skeleton. This includes four basic parts: exposition, complication, climax, and resolution.

Theme

The central idea about life that emerges from a work of literature, eg., persistence will be rewarded, appearances can be deceiving

Character

A person in a play, novel, short story, or poem.

Rising Action

The part of the story, including the exposition, in which the tension rises.

Symbol

Any image, object, character, or action that stands for an idea beyond its literal meaning.

Verbal Irony

The use of figures of speech such as hyperbole and understatement to create an ironic effect

Genre

A term meaning literary form. For example, poem, narrative, essay, etc.

Climax

The dramatic turning point in a literally work's plot, eg., in a pursuit-based plot. This often happens when the pursued is finally caught.

Suspense

The feeling of excitement and curiosity that keeps readers turning the pages; created by making readers wonder how the conflict will be resolved, what choice the protagonist will make, or what will happen next.

Motivation

The act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way, sometimes called motive.

Prologue

A preface or introductory part of a poem or novel. Often in verse, calling attention to the theme of a play.

Tragic Hero

A great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat.

Tragic Flaw

The character defect that causes the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy; hamartia

Subplot

A secondary or subordinate plot, as in a play, novel, or other literary work; underplot.

Parody

A humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing.

Situational Irony

Irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.