Literary Terms

Question 1

Allusion

Answer 1

A reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, myth, politics, sports, science, or pop culture

Question 2

Protagonist

Answer 2

The principal or main character in a literary work

Question 3

Antagonist

Answer 3

The character who opposes the protagonist

Question 4

Direct characterization

Answer 4

We are told directly what kind of person the character is

Question 5

Indirect characterization

Answer 5

We have to use our own judgment to decide what a character is like

Question 6

External conflict

Answer 6

A struggle against some outside force, weather, animals, monsters

Question 7

Internal conflict

Answer 7

A struggle between opposing needs or desires or emotions within a single person

Question 8

Dialect

Answer 8

A regional variety of languages

Question 9

Irony

Answer 9

A contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality

Question 10

Dramatic irony

Answer 10

Occurs when the audience or reader knows something important that a character in a play or story does not know

Question 11

Verbal irony

Answer 11

A writer speaker says one thing but really means something completely different

Question 12

Situational irony

Answer 12

Occurs when there is a contrast between what would seem appropriate and what really happens, or when what we expect to happen is in fact the opposite of what really does take place

Question 13

Dynamic characterization

Answer 13

A character who changes as a result of the story’s events

Question 14

Flat characterization

Answer 14

A character having only one or two traits, one dimensional

Question 15

Round

Answer 15

A three dimensional character with many different, sometimes contradictory traits

Question 16

Static characterization

Answer 16

A character who does not change much in the course of a story

Question 17

Foreshadowing

Answer 17

The use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot

Question 18

Fiction

Answer 18

Any literature about imaginary events or people

Question 19

Non-fiction

Answer 19

A work whose accounts or assertions the author believes are factual

Question 20

Imagery

Answer 20

Language that appeals to the senses helping the reader to see, feel etc.

Question 21

Plot

Answer 21

A kind of rhythmic, compressed language that users figures of speech and imagery designed to appeal to out emotions and imaginations. The course or path of the story or narrative

Question 22

Exposition

Answer 22

Basic situation

Tells who the characters are, and usually what their conflict is

Question 23

Denouement

Answer 23

Resolution

When all of the story’s problems are solved and the story is closed

Question 24

Climax

Answer 24

The most exiting moment in the story, when the outcome is decided one way or another

Question 25

Point of view

Answer 25

The vantage point from which the writer has chosen to tell the story

Question 26

1st person

Answer 26

One of the characters is actually telling the story, using pronoun I

Question 27

3rd person limited

Answer 27

The narrator focuses on the thoughts and feelings of just one character

Question 28

3rd person omniscient

Answer 28

The person telling the story knows everything there is to know about the characters and their problems

Question 29

Setting

Answer 29

Time and place of a story or play

Question 30

Subject

Answer 30

The main topic of the story

Question 31

Suspense

Answer 31

Excitement as to an outcome

Question 32

Symbol

Answer 32

A person place thing or event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself as well

Question 33

Theme

Answer 33

The central idea of a work of literature

Question 34

Tone

Answer 34

The the attitude a writer takes toward the audience a subject or a character

Question 35

Character

Answer 35

A person thing animal eat in a story can undergo a change, like in personality

Question 36

Pun

Answer 36

Play on words, switch words that sound alike, humorous

Question 37

Rising action

Answer 37

Series of relevant events that create suspense interest and tension in a narrative all decisions character flaws and background circumstances that together create turns and twists leading to the conflict