Fiction Basics

Question 0

A term used by Aristotle in the Poetics to describe the moment of tragic recognition in which the protagonist realizes some important fact or insight, especially a truth about himself, human nature, or his situation

Answer 0

Anagnorisis

Question 1

An emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety

Answer 1

Catharsis

Question 2

The moment in a play, novel, short story, or narrative poem at which the crisis reaches it’s point of greatest intensity and is thereafter resolved

Answer 2

Climax

Question 3

The opposition between two characters, two large groups of people, or between the protagonist and a larger problem such as forces of nature, ideas, public mores; may also be internal

Answer 3

Conflict

Question 4

Involves a situation in a narrative in which the reader knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know

Answer 4

Dramatic irony

Question 5

The portion of a story that introduces background information such as setting, characters, events that occurred before the main plot, etc

Answer 5

Exposition

Question 6

All of the action in a play that follows the turning point; leads to the resolution or conclusion of the story

Answer 6

Falling action

Question 7

A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events

Answer 7

Flashback

Question 8

Suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative; provides hints about what will happen next

Answer 8

Foreshadowing

Question 9

A diagram of dramatic structure that show the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution in a story

Answer 9

Freytag’s pyramid

Question 10

Saying one thing and meaning another–includes verbal, dramatic, and situational

Answer 10

Irony

Question 11

The sudden reversal of fortune on a story, play, or any narrative in which there is an observable change in direction

Answer 11

Peripetia

Question 12

The structure and relationship of actions and events in a work of fiction

Answer 12

Plot

Question 13

The outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events, an aftermath that usually occurs near the final stages of the plot

Answer 13

Resolution

Question 14

An increase in tension or uncertainty developing out of the conflict the protagonist faces

Answer 14

Rising action

Question 15

The general locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which the action of a fictional or dramatic work occurs

Answer 15

Setting

Question 16

Accidental events occur that seem oddly appropriate, such as the poetic justice of a pickpocket getting his pocket picked

Answer 16

Situational irony

Question 17

Framework of a work of literature; the organization or overall design of a work

Answer 17

Structure

Question 18

elements that are separate from the structure of the poem, and they are significantly of interest in a technical sense, but they cannot be captured in a paraphrase or summary

Answer 18

Texture

Question 19

A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work

Answer 19

Theme

Question 20

When everything comes together in a story

Answer 20

Unity of action

Question 21

A speaker makes a statement in which it’s actual meaning differs sharply from the meaning that the words ostensibly express; sarcasm

Answer 21

Verbal irony

Question 22

The sense that hat one reads is “real” or at least realistic and believable

Answer 22

Verisimilitude