English Literary Terms

Non-Fiction: Writing that is true or factual.

Fiction: Writing that is not true; it comes from the writer's imagination.

Subplot: A minor storyline, secondary to the main plot.

Plot: A series of interwoven events that make up a story.

Antecedent Action: Significant action that takes place before the story begins.

Exposition: Background information the reader needs to know to understand the story.

Introduction: Catches the reader's interest, introduces characters and setting.

Rising Action: Builds towards the climax, conflict develops or becomes more complicated.

Climax: The turning point of the story, the highest point of emotional intensity.

Anticlimax: Occurs if the climax is a let-down to what was expected, a sudden shift from a serious or elevated mood to a comical or trivial one.

Falling Action: Part of the story that immediately follows the climax and lasts until the end, leads to an ending which becomes increasingly inevitable, conflicts are solved.

Denouement: "Unknotting" of a plot and conflict after the climax.

Suspense: Anxiousness or uncertainty about the outcome of an action.

Mystery: Something not understood or beyond understanding, something which baffles, confuses, or bewilders.

Dilemma: A choice between two courses of action, both of which are distasteful.

Predicament: A situation that is difficult to get out of or presents a problem that is too difficult to solve.

Conflict: The struggle or confrontation between a protagonist and an opposing force or within himself.

Internal Conflict: The struggle between a character and himself/herself.

External Conflict: The struggle between a character and an outside force. Person vs. Person Person vs. Nature Person vs. Society * Person vs. Supernatural

Physical Setting: Where a story takes place.

Chronological Setting: When a story takes place.

Mood or Atmosphere: The feeling or emotional colouring of the story (e.g., haunting, peaceful, sad)

Theme: The central idea of a story. Is implied rather than directly stated. Is the message the story is trying to get across. Is a suggestion or idea about human life, not an instruction.

Moral: A lesson or message the author wants the reader to learn from the story. Is an instruction.

Character: Individuals included in stories.

Protagonist: The main character. The action revolves around this character.

Antagonist: Is usually also a main character. Is in opposition to or in conflict with the protagonist. Is not always the "bad guy."

Secondary or minor Characters: play a supporting role in the story, are less important in the story’s development

  • Round Character:

    • Well-developed

    • Complex

    • Described in great detail

  • Flat Character:

    • Not well-developed

    • One-dimensional

    • Reader does not learn much about them

  • Dynamic Character:

    • Undergoes a change during the story

  • Static Character:

    • Has no significant changes during the story

  • Stereotype:

    • Fits a fixed pattern

    • Familiar figures in fiction (e.g., the absent-minded professor)

  • Stock Character:

    • Standard support character

    • Flat character

  • Motivation:

    • Causes a character to do what he/she does

    • Characters must have sufficient and plausible motivation for a reader to find the story realistic or effective

  • Foil:

    • Character whose behavior, attitudes, and opinions contrast with those of the protagonist

    • Helps the reader to better understand the character and motivation of the protagonist

  • Antihero:

    • Protagonist who has none of the qualities normally expected of a hero

    • Humorous take-off of the glamorous romantic hero stereotype

    • Reader normally feels superior to such characters

  • Epiphany:

    • Moment of significant realization and insight experienced by the protagonist

  • Foreshadowing:

    • The author gives hints or clues as to what will happen later in the story.

  • Flashback:

    • A quick review of past facts or events.

    • An interruption in the current events of the story that is portrayed as having occurred in the past (before the story where the episode is).

  • Irony:

    • A literary device that reveals the opposite or contradictory meanings.

  • Verbal Irony: When what is said turns out differently from what is expected.

  • Situational Irony: When what happens turns out differently from what is expected.

  • Dramatic Irony: Contrast between what a character says and thinks and what the reader or audience knows to be true.

  • Dialogue:

    • What is spoken by the characters in a story.

    • Creates a natural, realistic situation.

    • Can reveal character, social status, and geographic region, social class, or a particular people.

  • Dialect:

    • A form of speech characteristic of a geographic type or personality.

  • Pun:

    • A play on words.

    • A humorous imitation of a serious writing.

  • Parody:

    • Different meanings of a word in which it can be taken as having two or more different meanings.

  • Satire:

    • The use of sarcasm or irony to ridicule an idea, person, or thing, often to provoke change.

  • Contrast:

    • The overlap or mixing of situations, characters, settings, moods or points of view in order to clarify meaning, purpose, or character, or to heighten certain moods.  

  • Juxtaposition:

    • The dramatic contrasts that are deliberately placed side by side within a story.

  • Style:

    • Manner in which the author expresses his or her thoughts and feeling.

    • Can be determined by diction, sentences, and images.

  • Tone:

    • Evidence of the writer's attitude which is revealed in the choice of words, figures of speech, etc.

  • Symbolism: -using one thing to stand for or represent something else, may be an object, person, situation, or action which has a literal meaning, but suggests or represents other meanings as well

  • Imagery: descriptions and figures of speech that help the mind to form pictures

  • realism: any subject matter on techniques that create a “true-to-life” impression for the reader

  • Verisimilitude: a life-like quality possessed by a story as revealed through its plot, setting, conflict, and characterization

  • Vicarious experience: the feeling a reader has when emotionally and imaginatively involved in a story

  • Allusion: a brief, direct, or indirect reference to a familiar figure, place, or event, from history, literature, mythology, or the bible.

  • universality: a story is broad enough to be applied to most people at any time or place

  • Syntax: the way in which words are arranged to form sentences, clauses, or phrases; sentence structure

  • Diction: style of writing, the manner of expressing ideas in words

  • Analogy: comparison of two or more similar objects

  • Anecdote: short summary of a humorous event to make a point

  • Epitaph: short verse written in memory of someone

  • Expository: kind of writing that explains something

  • Gothic: characterized by mystery, castles, supernatural events, old mansions, etc.

  • Hyperbole: figure of speech that is an exaggeration or overstatement

  • malapropism: humorous play on words resulting from two similar words being misused

  • novella: story longer than a short story but not as long or complex as a novel

  • Soliloquy: Monlogue revealing the thoughts of a character, usually alone on a stage.

  • Allegory: a narrative in which there are always at least two levels of meaning (1) the literal (2) the moral ex. everyman

  • Ambiguity: any word usage, however slight, which allows room for alternative reactions

  • Ambivalence: a term used when alternatives exist in the quality of a poet’s experience; when we sense that he/she is responding to the same person, or situation, in several different ways.

  • Apostrophe: a person not present is spoken to, or, more usually, a personified abstraction of something inanimate is addressed.

  • Ballad: a song that tells a story. refrains, repetitions, and elemnts of the supernatural create the characteristics atmosphere. The usual stanza form is a quatrain. Ex. “Barbara Allen”

  • Elegy: a serious meditative poem, particularly poems concerned with death or loss. Ex “Elegy written in a country churchyard”

  • Euphony: the use of pleasant and musical diction

  • Explication: close examination of a poem including diction, content, poetic devices and imagery.

  • Metonymy: Greek: “a change of name.” a figure of speech in which the name of some object or idea is substituted for another to which it has some relation, as a cause for its effect, Ex. Milton makes use of the device in the line “When I consider how my light is spent.” Where he substitutes light for the related word vision.

  • Octave (Octet): the first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.

  • Ode: a long lyric poem, serious in subject, and dignified in style. Often a poem of praise.

  • Parable: a short allegorical tale, intended to bring out an analogy between the story as told and some general moral truth; usually teaches a lesson

  • Parallelism: a balance of grammatical elements in lines of poetry or prose.

  • Refrain: the repetition of a phrase, a line or a series of lines at the same point in each stanza throughout the poem.

  • Juxtaposition: the overlap or mixing of situations, characters, settings, moods, or points of of view in order to clarify meaning, purpose or character or to enhance certain moods. Juxtaposition involves placing dramatic contrasts side-by-side.

  • Stream of consciousness: a style of writing in which the thoughts and feelings of a character are written in a natural way, without logic or interruption.

  • Vicarious experience: the feeling a reader gets when becoming emotionally and imaginatively involved in a story, particularly if he or she identifies with the character and his experiences and can picture being there in the centre of the action.

  • Anticlimax: an event or conclusion that is an abrupt shift from the important to the comical or trivial is an anticlimax.

  • Character sketch: a charracter sketch is a description of acharacter’s moral and dispositional qualities using nouns, adjectives, and specific examples and quotations from a story. it does not normally describe the character’s physical appearance and attire.

  • Indeterminate ending: a story ending in which there is no clear outcome or result is called an indeterminate ending.

  • Omniscent POV: An omniscient point of view allows the narrator to know everything about all characters, including their thoughts, feelings, and motivations, as well as events happening anywhere in the story's world. This perspective enables the narrator to provide a godlike overview, revealing information the characters themselves may not be aware of.

  • Limited Omniscent POV: A limited omniscient point of view focuses on the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a single character, while still narrating in the third person. The narrator has deep insight into that character's perspective but remains unaware of the inner workings of other characters' minds.

  • Objective or Dramatic POV: An objective or dramatic point of view presents events and dialogue without revealing any characters' inner thoughts or feelings, similar to a camera recording the scene. The narrator remains neutral and detached, leaving the audience to infer emotions and motivations based on actions and speech.