Fiction Section Flashcards
Formula fiction
Often characterized as “escape literature”, formula fiction follows a pattern of conventional reader expectations.
Canon
Those works generally considered by scholars, critics, and teachers to be the most important to read and study, which collectively constitute the “masterpieces” of literature.
Plot
An authors selection and arrangement of incidents in a story to shape the action and give the story a particular focus.
In medias res
The common strategy of beginning a story in the middle of the action. The story is entered on the verge of something important.
Flashback
A narrated scene that marks a break in the narrative in order to inform the reader or audience member about events that took place before the opening scene of a work.
Character
A character is a person presented in a dramatic or narrative work, and characterization is the process by which a writer makes the character seem real to the reader.
Exposition
A narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work, that provides necessary background, information about the characters and their circumstances.
Rising action
The first part of the story in which complication creates some sort of conflict for the protagonist.
Conflict
The struggle within the plot between opposing forces. The protagonist engaged in the conflict with the antagonist.
Foreshadowing
The introduction early in a story of verbal and dramatic hints that suggest what is to come later.
Protagonist
The main character of a narrative; its central character who engages the readers interest and empathy.
Hero/heroine
Central character who engaged the readers interest and empathy.
Antagonist
The character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that apposes the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of the story.
Suspense
The anxious anticipation of a reader or an audience as to the outcome of a story, especially concerning the character with whole sympathetic attachments are found.
Climax
The moment of greatest emotional tension in a narrative, usually marking s turning point in the plot at which the rising action reverses to become the falling action
Resolution
The conclusion of a plots conflicts and complications.
Dénouement
A French term meaning “unraveling” or “unknotting” used to describe the resolution of the plot that follows the climax.
Characterization
The process by which a writer makes the character seem real to the reader.
Showing
Allows the author to present a character talking and acting, and let’s the reader infer what kind of person the character is.
Telling
The author intervenes to describe and sometimes evaluate the character for the reader.
Motivate action
Occurs when the reader or audience is offered reasons for how the characters behave, what they say, and the decisions they make.
Plausible
Action by a character in a story that seems reasonable, given the motivations presented.
Dynamic character
Undergoes some kind of change because of action in the plot.
Static character
A character does not change throughout the work, and the readers knowledge of the character does not grow.
Foil
A character in work whose behavior and values contrast with those of another character in order to highlight the distinctive temperament of that character.
Flat character
Embodies one or two qualities, ideas, or traits that can be readily described in a brief summary.
Stock characters
Characters that embody stereotypes such as the “dumb blonde” or the “mean stepfather”.
Round characters
Characters more complex than flat or stock characters, and often display the inconsistencies and internal conflicts found in the most real people.
Setting
The physical and social context in which the action of a story occurs.
Point of view
Refers to who tells us the story and how it is told. What we know and how we feel about the events in a work are shaped by the authors choice of point of view.
Narrator
The voice of the person telling the story, not to be confused with the authors voice.
Omniscient narrator
An all-knowing narrator who is not a character in the story and who can move from place to place and pass back and forth through time.
Editorial omniscience
Refers to an intrusion by the narrator in order to evaluate a character for a reader.
Neutral omniscience
Narration that allows the characters actions and thoughts to speak for themselves.
Limited omniscient narrator
Occurs when an author restricts a narrator to the single perspective of either a major or minor character.
First-person narrator
The I in the story presents the point of view of only one character.
Unreliable narrator
Reveals an interpretation of events that is somehow different from the authors own interpretation of those events.
Naive narrator
Characterized by youthful innocence.
Symbol
A person, object, image, word or event that evokes a range of additional meaning behind and usually more abstract than its literal significance.
Conventional symbols
Have meanings that are widely recognized by a society or culture.
Literary symbol
A setting, character, action, object, name, or anything else in a work that maintains its literal significance.
Allegory
A narration or description usually restricted to a single meaning because it’s events, actions, characters, settings and objects represent specific abstractions or ideas.
Theme
The central meaning or dominant idea in a literary work.
Style
A distinctive and unique manner in which a writer arranged words to achieve particular effects.
Diction
A writers choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning and style.
Tone
The author’s implicit attitude toward the reader or the people, places, and events in a work as revealed by the elements of the authors style.
Irony
A literary device that uses contradictory statements or situations to reveal a reality different from what appears to be true.
Verbal irony
Consists of a person saying one thing but meaning the opposite.
Sarcasm
A strong form of verbal irony that is calculated to hurt someone through false praise
Situational irony
Exists when there is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens due to forces beyond human comprehension or control.
Objective point of view
The writer tells what happens without stating more than can be inferred from the stories action and dialogue
