Literary Terms Flashcards
Flat Characters
A character whose personality traits can only be described in a few words
Round Characters
A character whose personality traits are complex and have multiple aspects/sides (more like a real person)
Static Characters
A character who is the same sort of person at the end of the story as at the beginning (doesn’t change throughout the story)
Dynamic Characters
A character who undergoes a permanent change in moral qualities, personal habits, or outlook (a person that changes and evolves throughout the story)
Stock Characters
A personified stereotype, one whose nature is familiar to us from prototypes in literature; A type of character in a narrative whom audiences recognize across many narratives
Antagonists
The person/force that works against the protagonist
Protagonists
The main character of a story; The central character; We care about him/her/them and follow his/her/their struggle with interest
Symbol
An object or action that signifies something beyond its literal meaning
Suspense
The quality in a story that makes the reader eager to discover what will happen next (feeling of being excited/on the edge of your seat);
Reader’s curiosity is combined with anxiety about the fate of a sympathetic character(mystery/ dilemma to create anxiety and curiosity)
Setting
The place and time in which a story’s action takes place - time might include year, season, time of day;
The culture, ways of life, and shared beliefs of the characters (the atmosphere)
Theme
A main idea or an underlying message of a literary work that may be state directly or indirectly; Theme comes from the subject; The universal truth - isn’t 1 single word
Foreshadowing
An indication or suggestion of what might happen later in the text
Conflicts
An important element of a story’s plot that involves a clash of ideas, desires, or wills; Often sets in motion the rising action of the plot
Types of Conflicts
External and Internal Conflicts
Person vs Person
External Conflict:
The main characters will be opposed by or will oppose the actions, reactions, motivations of another character or characters.
Person vs Environment
External Conflict:
Nature serves as the obstacle for characters; A natural calamity such as a typhoon or tsunami
Person vs Society
External Conflict:
These are conflicts where the main characters’ firm beliefs are against norms that the entire society as a whole endorses. It could be social evils or discrimination practiced by society that is opposed by a minority.
Person vs Supernatural
External Conflict:
Conflict between the main characters fighting against an evil force that’s trying to harm them and others close to them, a supernatural creature, monster or entity that stands as an otherworldly obstacle for your protagonist in achieving their mission(not real)
Person vs Self
Internal Conflict:
The protagonist’s emotional journey consists of overcoming their own internal struggles
Point of View
Point of view is the mode of narration that an author employs to let the readers “hear” and “see” what takes place in a story or poem
Irony
A situation or use of language involving some kind of discrepancy between what is expected and what actually happens; The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect
Alliteration
The repetition of initial consonant sounds in successive words; The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
Personification
Giving inanimate objects, animals or ideas human characteristics
Metaphor
A comparison between two basically different things that have something in common; Do NOT contain the words like or as
