Literary Terms

Round Character (Dynamic Character)

A character whose personality changes or evolves over the course of the narrative or appears to have the capacity for such change.

Simile

A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, using the words like or as.

Allusion

A reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other branch of culture.

Objective

A third person narrator who reports the speech and actions of characters, but who never comments on their thoughts.

Irony

In general, a discrepancy between appearances and reality. There are three types.

Falling Action

The action in a play or story that occurs after the climax and that leads to the conclusion and often to the resolution of the conflict.

Tone

The author's attitude toward the subject being written about. The tone is the characteristic emotion that pervades a work or part of a work.

Exposition

The background and events that lead to the presentation of the main idea or purpose behind a work of literature.

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word.

Mood

The emotional tone in a work of literature.

Climax

The point in a plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest. It often occurs just before the ending and is the moment when a plot begins to move toward its resolution.

Characterization

The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. The writer can reveal this through the narrator's describing the character's appearance or by telling a reader directly what a character is like. The writer can also reveal character through a character's dialogue, thoughts, or actions.

Conflict

The struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story. There are two kinds:

Connotation

The suggested or implied meaning of a word or phrase.

Point of View

The vantage point from which the writer tells the story.

Turning Point (Crisis)

This is the point at which the hero experiences a reversal of fortune. In a tragedy, the turn is usually for the worse; in a comedy, for the better.

Hyperbole

a bold overstatement, or an exaggeration of fact or of possibility

Internal conflict

involves opposing forces within a person's mind.

Dramatic Irony

is so called because it is often used on stage. It is a circumstance in which the audience or reader knows more about a situation than a character.

Antagonist

A character or force in a work of literature that, by opposing the protagonist produces tension or conflict.

Metaphor

A figurative device that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of specific words of comparison. For example, take Emily Dickinson's poem "Fame is a bee."

Personification

A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human characteristics, feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.

First Person

A first person narrator is a character in the story, using pronouns such as I and we. With this point of view, the reader only knows what that character knows. One benefit of this type of narration, is that this point of view allows the reader to hear that character's distinct voice and dialect, such as in Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Unreliable

A narrator who describes events in a story, but seems to make obvious mistakes or misinterpretations that may be apparent to a careful reader.

Limited

A narrator who is confined to what is experienced, thought, or felt by a single character or at most a limited number of characters.

Symbol

A person, place, or thing that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself.

Flat Character (Static Character)

A simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of the narrative, or one without extensive personality and characterization.

Diction

A speaker or writer's choice of words. Diction depends on the writer's subject, purpose, and audience, and can have a powerful effect on the tone of a piece of writing.

Omniscient

A third person narrator who knows everything that needs to be known about characters and events, and who is free to move at will in time and space, and who has privileged access to every character's thoughts, feelings, and motives.

Figurative Language

A word or phrase that describes one thing in terms of another and that is not meant to be taken literally.

Onomatopoeia

A word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. For example, the word buzz is onomatopoeic because it imitates the sound it names.

In general, a discrepancy between appearances and reality. There are three types

Dramatic Irony is so called because it is often used on stage. It is a circumstance in which the audience or reader knows more about a situation than a character. For example, in Sophocles' Greek tragedy, "Oedipus the King," Oedipus unwittingly kills his own father, yet later declares that he shall find and punish his father's killer. Situational Irony takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen. A famous example is in Stephen Crane's "A Mystery of Heroism," in which a soldier risks his life to get water which is spilled. Verbal Irony occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else. Alliteration

The struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story. There are two kinds

External conflicts can exist between two people, or between a person and an opposing external force, such as nature, a machine, or even a whole society. Internal conflict involves opposing forces within a person's mind. Exposition

in a comedy, for the better. Point of View: The vantage point from which the writer tells the story. The narrator or speaker (in poetry) has an internal point of view if he or she speaks in the first person, while an observer uses an external perspective.

Narrator: The "voice" that speaks or tells a story. Limited: A narrator who is confined to what is experienced, thought, or felt by a single character or at most a limited number of characters. Omniscient: A third person narrator who knows everything that needs to be known about characters and events, and who is free to move at will in time and space, and who has privileged access to every character's thoughts, feelings, and motives. Objective: A third person narrator who reports the speech and actions of characters, but who never comments on their thoughts. Unreliable: A narrator who describes events in a story, but seems to make obvious mistakes or misinterpretations that may be apparent to a careful reader. First Person: A first person narrator is a character in the story, using pronouns such as I and we. With this point of view, the reader only knows what that character knows. One benefit of this type of narration, is that this point of view allows the reader to hear that character's distinct voice and dialect, such as in Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Third Person: The narrator seems to be someone standing outside the story, and who refers to all the characters by name. Tone: The author's attitude toward the subject being written about. The tone is the characteristic emotion that pervades a work or part of a work - in other words, the spirit or quality that is the work's emotional essence. Irony

Narrator

The "voice" that speaks or tells a story.

Rising Action

The action in a play or story that occurs before the climax or turning point.

Protagonist

The central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the action.

Context

The elements of a text that put into perspective the aim and direction of the text.

Plot

The interrelationship among the events in a story; the plot line is the pattern of events, including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Theme

The main idea or meaning of a text, often an abstract idea upon which a work of literature is built. Often, this is an insight about human life revealed in a literary work.

Third Person

The narrator seems to be someone standing outside the story, and who refers to all the characters by name.

Alliteration

The repetition of one or more initial consonants in a group of words or lines of poetry or prose.

Setting

The total environment for the action in a novel or play. It includes time, place, historical milieu, and social, political, and even spiritual circumstances.

Foreshadowing

The use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot.

Imagery

The use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, thing, place, or experience. Although most images appeal to the sense of sight, they also appeal to the senses of taste, smell, hearing, and touch.

Verbal Irony

occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else.

Situational Irony

takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.