Literary Terms

THEME

A central message or insight into life revealed through a literary work. A lesson about life or people

STATIC CHARACTER

A character that does not grow or change throughout the story, that ends as he/she began.

CONNOTATION

A commonly understood subjective cultural or emotional association that some word or phrase carries (in addition to the word's or phrase's explicit or literal meaning)

SIMILE

A comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words-like or as.

IRONY

A contrast between appearance and reality; usually one in which reality is the opposite from what it seems; when something is expected to happen or be, and the exact opposite occurs.

HYPERBOLE

A deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration; may be used for either serious or comic effect.

OXYMORON

A form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression. Example:

PUN

A play on words that are identical or similar in sound, but have sharply different meanings.

MOTIVATION

A reason that explains a character's thoughts, feelings, actions or behavior.

MOTIF

A recurrent element in a literary work. A pattern or strand of imagery or symbolism in a work of literature.

RISING ACTION

A related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.

ARCHETYPE

A type of character, action, or situation that occurs over and over in literature; a pattern or example that occurs in literature and life.

IDIOM

An accepted phrase or expression having a meaning different from the literal.

FALLING ACTION

Events that occur after the climax and lead up to the closure and conclusion of a story.

DETAIL

Facts revealed by the author or speaker that support the attitude or tone in the work.

METAPHOR

It is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea.

IMAGERY

Language that appeals to the senses; the use of figurative speech or vivid description to produce mental images.

EXPOSITION

The author lays the ground work for the story by revealing the setting, relationships between the characters and situation as it exists before the conflict begins.

PROTAGONIST

The central character, and focus of interest; who is trying to accomplish or overcome adversity, and has the ability to adapt to new circumstances.

ANTAGONIST

The character opposing the protagonist; can be a person, idea, or force.

MOOD

The feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage.

CHARACTERIZATION

The methods used by an author to create a character.

CLIMAX

The most critical moment in the story. The point at which the main conflict is at its highest point.

POINT OF VIEW

The perspective from which a story is told.

DENOUEMENT

The problem set up in the inciting incident is unraveled; there is a revelation of meaning.

SUSPENSE

The quality of a literary work that makes the reader uncertain or tense about the outcome of events.

PLOT

The sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem.

DENOTATION

The specific dictionary definition of a word.

SETTING

The time and place of the action of a literary work.

SYMBOL

The use of any object, person, place or action that both has a meaning in itself and that stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief, or value.

TONE

The writer's attitude towards his/her subject.

FORESHADOWING

Use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in the story, often used to build suspense or tension in a story.

PARADOX

When elements of a statement contradict each other, may appear illogical, impossible, or absurd, but turns out to reveal a hidden truth.

DICTION

Word choice, an author chooses words to create a specific EFFECT. The appropriateness of the words with regard to the emotions and/or ideas associated with them.

PERSONIFICATION

Writing that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics. Example: The apple came walking and told me: Eat me! Eat me!

ALLUSION

an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.