Glossary of Literary Terms for Prose

These flashcards cover key literary terms useful for understanding works in prose and their applications in poetry and drama.

Allusion

An indirect reference to a person, event, or piece of literature.

Ambiguity

The quality of being open to more than one interpretation.

Archetype

A very typical example of a certain person or thing; a recurrent symbol or motif.

Author versus implied author

The actual writer of a text versus the persona or voice created by that writer.

Bildungsroman

A literary genre focusing on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood.

Climax

The most intense, exciting, or important point in a narrative.

Complication

An event or situation that introduces new problems or challenges to the narrative.

Conclusion

The end or finishing of a narrative, often resolving conflicts.

Crisis

A turning point in a narrative where the main character faces a conflict.

Dénouement

The final resolution or clarification of a dramatic or narrative plot.

Diegesis/narrative

The telling of a story or the story told within a narrative.

Epiphany

A moment of sudden and great revelation or realization.

Epistolary novel

A novel written as a series of documents, often letters or diary entries.

Ekphrasis

A vivid, often dramatic description of a visual work of art.

Foreshadowing/adumbration

A literary device used to give an indication or hint of what is to come later in the story.

Free, indirect discourse

A style of writing that blends the character's thoughts and the narrator's voice.

Freytag’s pyramid

A graphic representation of the structure of a narrative, particularly drama.

Inciting incident

An event that sets the main plot into motion.

In medias res

A narrative style where a story begins in the middle of the action.

Narrator

The person telling the story, who can be unreliable, omniscient, or have varying degrees of knowledge.

Stream of consciousness

A narrative mode that attempts to capture a character's thought processes in a continuous flow.

Verisimilitude

The appearance of being true or real, often used in discussing realism in literature.