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epigraph
a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme
prolepsis
the representation of a thing as existing before it actually does or did so, as in- he was a dead man when he entered. (A flash forward)
polysyndeton
repetition of conjunctions in close proximity (as we have ships and men and money)
Plot
the sequence of events
*Exposition or introduction
*Rising action (introduction of conflict)
*Climax
*Falling action (denouement)
*resolution
Setting
Time and Place where the story takes place
Characterization
the way an author establishes distinctive qualities (moral, intellectual, physical and emotional) of a person in a narrative.
Indirect characterization
characterization by means of dialogue and/or what other characters say about the character
Direct characterization
when the author directly informs the readers of the character’s qualities.
Protagonist
the main character of a narrative, often its hero or heroine
Antagonist
a character who is in real or imagined opposition to the protagonist (called a villain if evil)
Antihero
a protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. He or she may be bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, or merely pathetic. Often what antiheroes learn, if they learn anything at all, is that the world isolates them in an existence devoid of God and absolute values. Yossarian from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is an example of an antihero.
Round character
a full, complex, multi-dimensional character whose personality reveals some of the richness we are accustomed to observing in actual people
Dynamic character
a character who undergoes a permanent change in morality in the story
Flat character
a simple, one-dimensional, usually unchanging character who shows none of the human depth or complexity of a round character
Static character
a character who does not change throughout the work, and the reader’s knowledge of that character does not grow
Stock Character
conventional characters who appear in numerous works, especially works of the same type, and behave in predictable ways. Examples include the cruel stepmother in fairy tales, or the hardboiled detective in mystery stories. These characters sometimes serve as a stereotype.
Foil character
a character who parallels another major character and by sharp contrast, serves to stress and highlight the distinctive qualities of both
Persona
the fictional mask or identity that a narrator uses to tell a story
Point of view (also perspective)
Refers to who tells us a story and how it is told. What we know and how we feel about the events in a work are shaped by the author’s choice of point of view. The teller of the story, the narrator, inevitably affects our understanding of the characters’ actions by filtering what is told through his or her own perspective. The various points of view that writers draw upon can be grouped into two broad categories
third-person
narrator uses he, she, or they to tell the story and does not participate in the action
first-person
narrator uses I and is a major or minor participant in the action.
second-person
you, is also possible, but is rarely used because of the awkwardness of thrusting the reader into the story, as in "You are minding your own business on a park bench when a drunk steps out and demands your lunch bag."
objective
point of view employs a third-person narrator who does not see into the mind of any character. From this detached and impersonal perspective, the narrator reports action and dialogue without telling us directly what the characters think and feel. Since no analysis or interpretation is provided by the narrator, this point of view places a premium on dialogue, actions, and details to reveal character to the reader.
Theme
a general concept or doctrine, whether implicit or asserted, which an imaginative work is designed to incorporate and make persuasive to the reader. The story need not have any “moral message”, but the theme can just be a complicated, nuanced issue that the writer attempts to explore and better understand through their writing of the story.
In media res
beginning “in the middle of things”. The process of limiting exposition and jumping right into the story, starting right in the middle of the conflict/story.
Verisimilitude
the appearance of being real or true; using details to give the appearance of being true to life
Anaphora
the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.
Epiphany
a moment of discovery or realization, a lightbulb moment
Rhetoric
the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.
Ethos
An appeal based on the integrity, reliability, and experience of the speaker
Logos
An appeal based on logic: statistics, credible sources, facts, reason
Pathos
An appeal based on emotion: appealing to a sense of justice, tapping into hope, anger, pity or any strong emotion to persuade the audience.
Imagery
when poets, writers, and speakers use language in ways that stimulate the reader’s senses or his/her imaginative recall of sense experience. The effect is to make a text more concrete rather than abstract.
Visual
appeals to your sense of sight (paints a picture in your mind)
Aural
appeals to your sense of sound (gives you a chance to hear it)
Olfactory
appeals to your sense of smell (explains how something smells)
Tactile
appeals to your sense of touch (tell you what you can feels)
Gustatory
appeals to your sense of taste (explains the sensation on your taste buds and in your mouth)
Epistrophe
ending a series of lines, phrases, sentences, or clauses with the same word
Anaphora
repetition of a word or words at the beginning of lines in poetry or prose
Magical Realism
a literary style in which writers interweave realism in representing ordinary events with fantastic or dreamlike elements. The fantastic elements are communicated in such a way as to make them seem as real and unquestionable as the ordinary elements.
Irony
dissembling or hiding what is actually the case in order to achieve special rhetorical or artistic effects; OR recognition of a reality differing from the masking appearance.
Dramatic irony
when the reader’s awareness of a reality differs from the reality the characters perceive
Verbal irony
figurative language in which the intended meaning differs sharply from the literal meaning, eg. sarcasm, the taunting use of apparent praise for dispraise.
Situational irony
when what occurs in the plot differs sharply from what the characters and/or readers expect.
Gothic Literature
type of fiction that develops a brooding atmosphere of gloom and terror, represents events that are uncanny, macabre, or melodramatically violent, and often deals with aberrant psychological states.
doppelgänger
person who is a look-alike to another person, and is often a foil in literature. Doppelgängers are often harbingers of bad things to come, and can often be evil twins to the protagonist. Doppelgängers are usually identified because they look so much like the main character, yet they could also resemble someone else in personality or behavior.
Tone
the writer or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, audience, or events of the text. Word choice (diction), details, imagery, and sentence structure (syntax) all contribute to the understanding of tone. Tone is the result of other literary choices made by the author. Keep in mind that all texts have tone.
Pathetic fallacy
A fallacy of reason in suggesting that nonhuman phenomena act from human feelings, as suggested by the word "pathetic" from the Greek pathos; a literary device wherein something nonhuman found in nature—a beast, plant, stream, natural force, etc.—performs as though from human feeling or motivation. In Jack London's To Build a Fire, "The cold of space," London writes, "smote the unprotected tip of the planet, . . ." The word "smote" suggests nature deliberately striking the northern tip of the earth with severe cold. The poetry of William Wordsworth is replete with instances of pathetic fallacy—weeping streams, etc.
Epistolary
a literary work in the form of letters