Literary Terms And Definitions Flashcards
Allegory
A story in which the characters, setting, and events represent certain other people or events or concepts. Nearly everything is symbolic.
Allusion
A reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, myth, science, etc.
Antagonist
A character or entity that goes against the protagonist and what the protagonist wants to achieve.
Characterization
Method for how a character is revealed to or understood by the audience
Direct Characterization
When a 3rd-person narrator tells us directly what a character’s personality is like
Indirect Characterization
Judgment to decide what a character is like based on how he looks, what he does, what others think of him, etc.
Character Types
The complexity and changeability of characters
Static Characters
One who does not change much—or in any significant way over the course of a story
Dynamic Character
One who changes in a significant way as a result of the story’s events
Flat Character
One-dimensional character who has only one or two character traits, can be described with few words
Round Characters
A multi-dimensional character who has many different traits, sometimes contradicting ones
Didactic/Didacticism
When a story or narrator becomes obvious in his/her message
Epiphany
When a character has gained a new understanding that causes a dynamic, life-altering change—often, the character endures a near-death experience, but change in a way that they will be stronger off and better off from the experience
Expository
A kind of non-fiction writing that explains, gives information, defines, or clarifies an idea
Fiction
A make-believe story
Foreshadowing
Hint/clue to events that will occur later in the plot
Genre
A category for a specific type of novel, music, movie, etc.
Hubris
Overbearing pride
Hyperbole
Extreme exaggeration
Irony
A contrast between expectation and reality—between what is said and what is really meant, expected to happen, what does happen, appears to be true and what is true
Situational Irony
A situation is ironic
Dramatic Irony
The audience knows something that is unknown to the characters
Verbal Irony
A person says one thing, but means the opposite
Non-fiction
A literary work that is true
Paradox
A statement or situation that appears to be contradictory but upon closer examination proves to make sense
Plot
Series of related events that tells a story, often following a pattern
Exposition
Beginning of story, can include setting, tone, references, introduction to characters, etc.
Conflict
The problem that drives the story (knot)
Rising Action
The problem becomes more intense or further problems are introduced (knot tightens)
Climax
The most intense moment, emotionally or on an action level, main conflict is addressed for the final time (will the knot be untied)
Denouement/resolution
Ending of the story (untying of the knot)
Poetry
Language that is more ornate and more condensed than prose by creating images
Point of view
Vantage point from which the writer has chosen to tell the story
1st Person
One of the characters is telling the story (I, we, our) only know what our character/narrator knows
3rd Limited
The narrator (not a character in the story) focuses on thoughts and feelings of just 1 character
3rd Omniscient
Narrator of the story seems to know everything about all characters and their problems. Can follow multiple characters and know the past, present and future
Prose
Ordinary writing (not poetic)
Protagonist
A main character (good or bad)
Pun
A clever play on multiple meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike but have different meanings
Sarcasm
An insincere tone of voice (often used for verbal irony)
Setting
Time and place (sometimes this is vital to the story)
Subject
What a story is about
Symbol
Person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself as well
Theme
The central idea of a work of literature / insights gained about subject of story / meaning that the author reveals
Tone
(As in a poem or story) An author’s attitude toward a subject, character, etc. in a work of literature
Tragic flaw
A character trait that is taken to an extreme that dooms a character (usually not a necessarily bad trait)
