Literary Terms

  1. Allegory

A story within a story; The physical text is a “surface story”, the symbolic meaning is an “underneath story”

  1. Allusion

A reference to another literary work or a previous part of the current work

  1. Characterization

A literary device; happens anytime author shares details of character inside story

  1. Conflict (Internal and External) 

Internal - Happens when character faces oppositional situations, such as man vs. self, or internal conflicts, desires, values, etc 

External - Happens when character faces struggle between opposite force, such as character vs. character or character vs. society

  1. Fable

Short, fictional story where story teaches a moral lesson; use humanized objects, animals, or parts of nature as characters in story; sub-genre of fantasy 

  1. Foil 

Character who is opposite of main character to highlight traits of main character

  1. Foreshadowing

Hints or signs about the future in the story; uses imagery or symbolism to suggest the future

  1. Irony

When a character or situation does/or becomes something that we don’t expect it to be

  1. Metaphor

Implicitly compares two things, typically states one thing is another

  1. Personification

Giving human traits to nonhuman things such as objects, situations, etc.  

  1. Setting

Time and place of the story

  1. Similes

A literary term; use “like” or “as” to compare two things; similar to metaphor

  1. Symbols/Symbolism

Use of words or images to symbolize specific concepts, objects, or people

  1. Theme

Main subject being discussed or described in a writing, movie, etc. 

  1. Archetype

Original model or type of replicas or copies of an object or story