Literary Terms Flashcards
Alliteration
The repetition of initial consonant sounds
Analogy
A comparison between two or more things that are similar in some ways but otherwise unalike
Anecdote
A brief story about an interesting, amusing, or strange event
Antagonist
A character or force in conflict with the main character
Atmosphere
Mood
Autobiography
The story of the writer’s own life, told by the writer
Biography
A form of nonfiction in which a writer tells the life story of another person
Character
A person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work
Main/Major Character
The most important character in a story
Minor Character
A character who takes part in the action but is not the focus of attention
Flat Character
A character that is one-sided and often stereotypical
Round Character
A character who is fully developed and exhibits many traits–often both faults and virtues
Dynamic Character
A character who changes or grows during the course of the work
Static Character
A character who does not change
Characterization
The act of creating and developing a character
Climax
Turning Point
Comedy
A literary work, especially a play, which is light, often humorous or satirical, and ends happily
Concrete Poem
A poem with a shape that suggests its subject
Conflict
A struggle between opposing forces
External Conflict
A conflict in which a character struggles against some outside force
Internal Conflict
A conflict that takes place within the mind of a character
Connotations
The set of ideas associated with a word it in addition to its explicit meaning
Denotation
The dictionary definition of a word
Description
A portrait, in words
Development
The increasing of the conflict in the plot
Dialect
The form of a language spoken by people in a particular region or group
Dialogue
A conversation between characters
Drama
A story written to be performed by actors that is divided into acts, which are divided into scenes
Essay
A short nonfiction work about a particular subject
Informal Essay
An essay that uses casual or conversational language
Historical Essay
An essay that gives facts, explanations, and insights about historical events
Expository Essay
An essay that explains an idea by breaking it down
Narrative Essay
An essay that tells a story about a real-life experience
Informational Essay
An essay that explains a process
Persuasive Essay
An essay that offers an opinion and supports it
Exposition
The introduction, or the part of the work that introduces the characters, setting, and basic situation
Expository Writing
Writing that explains or informs
Fable
A brief story or poem, usually with animal characters, that teaches a lesson, or moral, which is usually stated at the end of the fable
Fantasy
Highly imaginative writing that contains elements not found in real life
Fiction
Prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events
Figurative Language
Writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally
Figure of Speech
A type of figurative language, which is writing that is not meant to be taken literally
Flashback
A scene within a story that interrupts the sequence of events to relate events that occurred in the past
Folk Tale
A story composed orally and then passed from person to person by word of mouth
Foot
A group of weak and strong stresses in a meter divided by vertical lines
Foreshadowing
The author’s use of clues to hint at what might happen later in the story
Free Verse
Poetry not written in a regular, rhythmical pattern, or meter
Genre
A division or type of literature, the three major ones being poetry, prose, and drama
Haiku
A three-line Japanese verse form, where the first and third lines each have five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the poem is generally of a scene from nature
Hero/Heroine
A character whose actions are inspiring, or noble
Historical Fiction
A literary work where real events, places, or people are incorporated into a fictional or made-up story
Images
Words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses, and writers use images to describe how their subjects look, sound, feel, taste, and smell
Imagery
The use of images, which are words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses, and writers use images to describe how their subjects look, sound, feel, taste, and smell
Irony
Literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions
Journal
A daily, or periodic, account of events and the writer’s thoughts and feelings about those events
Legend
A widely told story about the past–one that may or may not have foundation in fact
Letters
Written communication from one person to another
Limerick
A humorous, five-line poem with a specific meter and rhyme scheme, the rhyme scheme being aabba
Lyric Poem
A highly musical verse that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker
Media Accounts
Reports, explanations, opinions, or descriptions written for television, radio, newspapers, and magazines
Metaphor
A figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else, where it works by pointing out a similarity between two unlike things
Meter
The rhythmical pattern of a poem
Mood
Atmosphere
Moral
A lesson taught by a literary work, which is usually directly stated at the end of a fable
Motivation
A character’s motivation can be needs, such as food and shelter, or feelings, such as fear, love, and pride, and a motive is a reason that explains or partially explains a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech
Motive
A reason that explains or partially explains a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions, or speech, which can be needs, such as food and shelter, or feelings, such as fear, love, and pride
Myth
A fictional tale that explains the actions of gods or heroes or the origins of the elements of nature
Narration
Writing that tells as story
Narrative
A story that can be either fiction or nonfiction
Narrative Poem
A story told in verse that often has all the elements of short stories
Narrator
A speaker or character who tells a story, and the narrator can be from the first-person or third-person point of view
Nonfiction
Prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about real people, places, objects, or events
Novel
A long work of fiction
Novella
A fiction work that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel
Onomatopoeia
The use of words that imitate sounds
Oral Tradition
The passings of songs, stories, and poems from generation to generation by word of mouth
Personification
A type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics
Perspective
The perspective is the point of view, or vantage point, from which the story is told, which can be third-person, where the narrator is outside of the story, or first-person, where the narrator is a character in the story
Persuasion
Writing or speech that attempts to convince the reader or listener to adopt a particular opinion or course of action
Playwright
A person who writes plays
Plot
The sequence of events
Poetry
One of the three main types/genres of literature, the others being prose and drama
Point of View
The point of view is the perspective, or vantage point, from which the story is told, which can be third-person, where the narrator is outside of the story, or first-person, where the narrator is a character in the story
Problem
A conflict, or a struggle between opposing forces
Prose
The ordinary form of written language, and also one of the three main types/genres of literature, the others being poetry and drama
Protagonist
The main character in a literary work
Refrain
A regularly repeated line or group of lines in a poem or song
Repetition
The use, more than once, of any element of language–a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence
Resolution
The outcome of the conflict in the plot
Rhyme
The repetition of sounds at the ends of words
Rhyme Scheme
A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem, an example being abab, where the first and third lines rhyme with each other and the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other
Rhythm
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in spoken or written language
Scene
A section of uninterrupted action in the act of a drama
Science Fiction
The combination of elements of fiction and fantasy with scientific fact, and many science fiction stories are set in the future
Sensory Language
Writing or speech that appeals to one or more of the five senses
Setting
The time and place of the action of a literary work
Short Story
A brief work of fiction
Simile
A figure of speech that uses like or as to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas
Speaker
The imaginary voice a poet uses when writing a poem
Stage Directions
Notes included in a drama to describe how the work is to be performed or staged
Staging
The setting, the lighting, the costumes, special effects, music, dance, and so on that go into putting on a stage performance of a drama
Stanza
A group of lines of poetry that are usually similar in length and pattern and are separated by spaces
Surprise Ending
A conclusion that is unexpected
Suspense
A feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of events in a literary work
Symbol
Anything that stands for or represents something else
Theme
A central message, concern, or purpose in a literary work
Tone
The writer’s attitude toward their audience and subject
Tragedy
A work of literature, especially a play, that ends in catastrophe for the main character
Turning Point
Climax
