ENGL2020 Fictional terms Flashcards
Antagonist
Usually a character who opposes the protagonist. Sometimes this person is a villain, but he/she can also be a hero. However, the protagonist may act as his/her own antagonist in some
situations, and a societal force/situation may also be the antagonist.
Climax
The moment that is the turning point or that involves a pivotal decision, which causes the tension of the fiction to peak.
Complication (Rising Action)
The section of a fiction where matters become complicated and the conflict
or tension of the piece begins to develop.
Conflict
The opposition of people or forces upon which the action of the fiction depends. This tension may occur between characters or social/political views. Sometimes the conflict is internal as it involves
a character’s psychological struggles.
Denouement (Resolution)
The ending section of a fiction wherein the action comes to a meaningful
conclusion, one with its own particular mood that provides some form of resolution to the issues brought
up over the course of the narrative.
Flashback
When the chronological flow of a fiction is interrupted to narrate a scene or scenes that occurred earlier, oftentimes involving a back-story or detail that is essential to how we understand events
in the present.
Foreshadowing
A moment in a narrative that provides a fairly specific hint as to what will happen in the future.
Genre
A category or type of fiction having a particular form or focus.
Image
A literal or figurative representation of a person, animal, object, setting perceived through the five senses or though our feelings.
Interior Monologue
Sometimes, a narrator will reveal his/her own or another character’s thoughts as if
spoken aloud. When a participating narrator does so, it is called direct interior monologue in that the thoughts are revealed by the person having them. When a non-participating narrator offers up the
thoughts of one of the characters, this situation is termed indirect interior monologue.
Irony
When a commentator means the opposite of what he/she actually says or writes.
Limited Omniscient Narrator
When a non-participating narrator has access to the thoughts of only one character.
Major Characters
They are at the center of the plot and are detailed as per their appearance and
personalities.
Metaphor
A figurative image wherein an implied analogy is created by comparing or identifying one thing with another although they have no literal connection.
Minor Characters
They are on the periphery of the action and are not fully sketched out.
Naïve Narrator
A participating narrator who does not fully realize the full truth of the situations being
described or experienced. Thus, the reader often knows more about the reality of the story than this type of narrator.
Non-Participating Narrator
This type of narrator generally reveals the story through the third person,
referring to characters by their names or by third-person pronouns. It may comment on the action of the story being told but does not participate in it.
Objective (Dramatic) Narrator
A type of non-participating narrator that describes characters only from the outside, thus never revealing their thoughts.
Omniscient Narrator
This type of narrator knows everything that is happening and all the characters’ thoughts.
Participating Narrator
This narrator is both a character in the story and the teller of it.
Plot
A sequence of events arranged in a meaningful pattern.
Point of View
The perspective through which the author tells the fiction, which helps shape readers’
response to the story being told.
Protagonist
The principal or leading character of a fiction, sometimes a heroic figure that we identify with. But this person may also be a villain.
Setting
The environment or surroundings in a fiction. It can include the time period when the narrative occurs or even the specific location where a scene takes place.
Similie
A figurative image wherein an explicit comparison or stated similarity between apparently unrelated objects, living beings, or experiences is made using “like” or “as.”
Symbol
A real person, object, or experience in a narrative that stands for or suggests something else, often an abstract idea.
Stereotype
When characters are outlined based on a particular defining trait or traits, often on
commonly held assumptions about particular kinds of individuals or groups.
Stream of Consciousness
A type of writing wherein a character’s perceptions and thoughts are presented as occurring in a jumbled form so as to create a sense of the person’s inner reality.
Theme
The central and dominant idea in a literary work.
Tone
The mood of a fiction, or section thereof, that the author is trying to evoke in the reader concerning a character, a setting, or a situation.
Unreliable Narrator
When a participating narrator offers up comments about characters or situations that are actually incorrect, whether due to a deliberate attempt to deceive or to mental illness.
