Narrative Techniques Flashcards
backstory
Story that precedes events in the story being told—past events or background that add meaning to current circumstances
cliffhander
The narrative ends unresolved, to draw the audience back to a future episode for the resolution.
deus ex machina
Resolving the primary conflict by a means unrelated to the story
eucatastrophe
Coined by J. R. R. Tolkien, a climactic event through which the protagonist appears to be facing a catastrophic change. However, this change does not materialize and the protagonist finds himself as the benefactor of such a climactic event
flashback
General term for altering time sequences, taking characters back to the beginning of the tale
flashforward
Also called prolepsis, a scene that temporarily jumps the narrative forward in time
foreshaddowing
Implicit yet intentional efforts of an author to suggest events which have yet to take place in the process of narration.
frame story or a story within a story
A main story that hatches a linking series of shorter stories.
framing device
A single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at the beginning and end of a work.
MacGuffin
A plot device coined by Alfred Hitchcock referring to some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation as to why it is considered so important.
is medias res
Beginning the story in the middle of a sequence of events. A specific form of narrative hook.
narrative hook
Story opening that “hooks” readers’ attention so they will keep reading
ochi
A sudden interruption of the wordplay flow indicating the end of a rakugo or a kobanashi.
plot twist
Unexpected change in the direction or expected outcome of the plot.
poetic justice
Virtue ultimately rewarded, or vice punished, by an ironic twist of fate related to the character’s own conduct
predestination paradox
Time travel paradox where a time traveler is caught in a loop of events that “predestines” them to travel back in time
quibble
Plot device based on an argument that an agreement’s intended meaning holds no legal value, and that only the exact, literal words agreed on apply.
red herring
Diverting attention away from an item of significance.
self-fulfilling propecy
Prediction that, by being made, makes itself come true.
hypodiegesis
A story told within another story.
Chekhov’s gun
A dramatic principle that requires every element in a narrative to be irreplaceable, with anything else removed.
unreliable narrator
The narrator of the story is not sincere, or introduces a bias in their narration and possibly misleads the reader, hiding or minimizing events, characters, or motivations.
audience surrogate
A character who expresses the questions and confusion of the audience, with whom the audience can identify.
author surrogate
Characters which are based on authors, usually to support their personal views.
breaking the fourth wall
An author or character addresses the audience directly
defamiliarization
Taking an everyday object and presenting it in a way that is weirdly unfamiliar so that we see the object in a new way.
first-person narration
A text presented from the point of view of a character, especially the protagonist, as if the character is telling the story themselves.
magical realism
Describing events in a real-world setting but with magical trappings, often incorporating local customs and invented beliefs.
multiperspectivity
A narrative that is told from the viewpoints of multiple characters that incorporate various perspectives, emotions, and views from witnesses or actors to varying particular events or circumstances that might not be felt by other characters in the story.
second-person narration
A text written in the style of a direct address, in the second-person.
stream of consciousness
The author uses narrative and stylistic devices to create the sense of an unedited interior monologue, characterized by leaps in syntax and punctuation that trace a character’s fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings.
third-person narration
A text written as if by an impersonal narrator who is not affected by the events in the story.
allegory
A symbolic fiction story.
alliteration
Repeating the same letter or consonant sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
amplification
Amplification refers to a literary practice wherein the writer embellishes the sentence by adding more information to it in order to increase its worth and understanding.
anagram
Rearranging the letters of a word or a phrase to form a new phrase or word.
asyndeton
When sentences do not use conjunctions to separate clauses, but run clauses into one another, usually marking the separation of clauses with punctuation.
bathos
An abrupt transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect.
caesura
A break, especially a sense pause, usually near the middle of a verse, and marked in scansion by a double vertical line.
distancing effect
Deliberately preventing the audience from identifying with characters in order to let them be coolly scrutinized.
dramatic visualization
Representing an object or character with abundant descriptive detail, or mimetically rendering gestures and dialogue to make a scene more visual or imaginatively present to an audience.
euphuism
An artificial, highly elaborate way of writing or speaking.
hyperbole
Exaggeration used to evoke strong feelings or create an impression which is not meant to be taken literally.
imagery
Forming mental images of a scene using descriptive words, especially making use of the human senses.
leitwortstill
Purposefully repeating words that usually express a motif or theme important to the story.
metonymy
Word or phrase in a figure of speech in which a noun is referenced by something closely associated with it, rather than explicitly by the noun itself.
overstatement
Exaggerating something, often for emphasis
onomatopoeia
Word that sounds the same as, or similar to what the word means.
oxymoron
A term made of two words that deliberately or coincidentally imply each other’s opposite.
paradox
A phrase that describes an idea composed of concepts that conflict.
parody
Ridicule by overstated imitation, usually humorous.
pastiche
Using forms and styles from another author, generally as an affectionate tribute.
pathos
Emotional appeal, one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric that the author uses to inspire pity or sorrow towards a character—typically does not counterbalance the target character’s suffering with a positive outcome, as in Tragedy.
polyptoton
Words derived from the same root in a sentence.
satire
The use of humor, irony or exaggeration to criticize.
sensory detail
sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. The same as imagery
understatement
A diminishing or softening of a theme or effect.
sensory irony
where a situation features a discrepancy between what is expected and what is actualized
metaphor
Evoking imagination by means of using figurative language.
thematic patterning
Distributing recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among various incidents and frames of a story.
dramatic irony
where a character is unaware of pivotal information already revealed to the audience
anthropomorphism
Form of personification that applies human-like characteristics to animals and objects
hamartia
The character flaw of an initially rich and powerful hero that leads to his tragic downfall.
pathetic fallacy
Reflecting a character’s mood in the atmosphere or inanimate objects.
personification
Using comparative metaphors and similes to give living characteristics to abstract concepts and non-human entities
