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157 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Fable
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A brief humorous narrative told to illustrate a explicate moral. Characters are most often animals with traits that symbolize human traits.
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Parable
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A brief allegorical narrative told to illustrate a moral, however the moral theme in implicit and come be interpreted several different ways. (unlike a fable)
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Tale
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Short narrative w/o complex plot.
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Tall tale
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Humorous short narrative that provides a wildly exaggerate version of events. Often told orally.
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Fairy Tale/Folk tale
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Traditional form of short narrative feature supernatural characters/elements and animals that have human qualities.
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Short story
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Prose narrative too short to be published separately, like a novel/novella would. Is a narrative that focuses on 1 or 2 characters in a single compelling action.
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Initiation story
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A coming-of-age story. Main character, a child or adolescent, undergoes an important experience that prepares them for adulthood.
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Protagonist
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Main or central character - initiates the main action, often in conflict with antagonist.
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Antagonist
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The character/force against the protagonist.
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Exposition
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The opening portion of a narrative - the scene is set, the protagonist is introduced, and background information is given.
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Conflict
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The central struggle between two or more forces in a story.
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Complication
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The introduction of a significant development in the central conflict between characters. Can be external - unavoidable problem- or internal - a problem that comes from the characters values/personality.
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Crisis
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Point in a narrative when the crucial action, decision, or realization must take place.
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Climax
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The moment of greatest intensity in a story, almost always at the end, almost always between protagonist and antagonist
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Conclusion (Dénouement)
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The logical end or outcome of a plot.
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Foreshadowing
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An indication of events to come in a narrative
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Flashback
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Scene relived in a character's memory.
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Epiphany
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A moment of profound insight or revelation by which a character's life is greatly altered.
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In medias res
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Latin phrase meaning "in the midst of things" refers to narrative device of beginning story midway into events.
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Total omniscience
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POV in which the narrator knows everything abt all the characters and events. Typically 3rd person
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Limited/selective omniscience
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POV in which the narrator sees into the minds of some but not all of the characters. Usually seen through the eyes of of one major/minor character.
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Impartial omniscience
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POV employed when an omniscient narrator, who presents thoughts and actions of the characters, does not judge or comment on them.
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Editorial omniscience
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POV employed when an omniscient narrator not only reports the thoughts of characters but also makes critical judgments and comments, making narrators opinion known.
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Objective POV
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POV in which 3rd person narrator reports dialogue and action with no interpretation or access to the characters' minds.
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Omniscient narrator
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Has ability to move freely through consciousness of any character, has complete knowledge of all external events in story.
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Participant/1st person narrator
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A narrator who is a participant in the action. Narrator refers to themselves as "I".
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Observer
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A 1st person narrator who is relatively detached from or plays on a minor role in the events.
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Nonparticipant/3rd person narrator
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Does not appear in the story as a character but is able to reveal the thoughts and motives of one of more characters.
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Innocent/naive narrator
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Character who fails to understand all the implications of the story he/she tells.
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Unreliable narrator
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Intentionally or unintentionally relates events in a subjective or distorted manner.
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Interior monologue
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A long presentation of character's thoughts, reads as if character is reading aloud to himself or the reader.
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Stream of consciousness
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Attempts to duplicate the subjective and associative nature of human consciousness through the use of many literary devices esp. interior monologue.
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Characterization
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Techniques a writer uses to create, reveal, or develop the characters.
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Character description
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Aspect of characterization where author relates physical/mental traits.
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Character development
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Process by which character is introduced, advances, and possibly transformed.
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Character motivation
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What a character wants, the reasons an author provides for a character's actions. Can be explicit or implicit
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Flat character
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Describes a character with only one outstanding trait; are rarely the central character and stay the same throughout the story.
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Round character
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Describes a complex characters who is presented in depth; change significantly during the course of the story; full personalities revealed gradually.
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Stock character
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Common, stereotypical character.
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Setting
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The time and place of a story, climate and state of characters.
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Locale
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The location where the story takes place.
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Atmosphere
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Dominant mood or feeling in a piece of literature; total effect conveyed by author's language, images, and physical setting.
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Regionalism
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The use of a specific locale, including particulars of geography, custom, history, etc... in regional narratives locale is critical.
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Tone
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Attitude conveyed toward subject in literary work.
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Style
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Distinctive ways authors use language to create literary works. Authors' styles depend on use of diction, imagery, tone, syntax etc.
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Diction
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Word choice or vocabulary.
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Irony
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A discrepancy between what is said and what is meant.
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Dramatic irony
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Where the reader understands the implication and meaning of the situation while the characters do not.
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Cosmic irony/Irony of fate
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Situational irony that emphasizes the discrepancy between what characters deserve and what they get/ what their aspirations are and how they are actually treated.
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Verbal irony
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When what is said is the opposite of what is meant.
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Sarcasm
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Form of verbal irony designed to hurt or mock.
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Summary
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Brief condensation of the main idea/plot.
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Theme
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The main idea or larger meaning. Theme may be message or moral, central unifying insight or POV.
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Symbol
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A person, place or thing with meanings beyond the literal one.
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Conventional symbol
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Literary symbol that is had a conventional or customary meaning - black cat crossing a path etc.
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Symbolic act
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An action whose significance goes well beyond its literal meaning.
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Allegory
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Narrative where literal events consistently point to a parallel sequence of symbolic equivalents.
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Verse
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Any single line of poetry, or any composition written in separate lines w/ reg. rhythm (as opposed to prose).
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Paraphrase
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Restating what one understands a poem to be saying or suggesting in your own words.
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Subject
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The main topic of a work.
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Lyric poem
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Short poem expressing feelings and thoughts of single person. Often written in 1st person.
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Narrative poem
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Poem that tells a story, such as ballads and epics.
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Dramatic monologue
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Poem written as a speech made by a character as some decisive moment.
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Didactic poem
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Poem intended to teach a moral lesson or impart a body of knowledge.
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Satiric poetry
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Poetry that blends criticism with humor to convey a message through use of irony, a tone of detached amusement, contempt, and superiority.
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Persona
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Fictitious character created by an author to be speaker of a literary work.
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Concrete diction
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Words that specifically name or describe things/people. Refer to things we can immediately perceive with our senses.
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Abstract diction
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Words that express general idea or concepts.
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Poetic diction
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Any language deems suitable for verse, usually refers to the elevated language intended for poetry.
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Allusion
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Brief reference in text to a person, place or thing.
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Vulgate
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Lowest level of diction, language of the common people. Not dirty just uneducated.
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Colloquial English
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Casual or informal but correct language of ordinary native speakers. Conversational in tone.
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General English
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Ordinary speech of educated native speakers. It's diction is more educated than colloquial English but not as elevated as Formal English.
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Formal English
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The heightened, impersonal language of educated persons, usually only written.
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Dialect
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A particular variety of language spoken by an identifiable regional group or social class.
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Denotation
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The literal dictionary meaning of a word.
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Connotation
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The association or additional meaning that word, image, or phrase may carry.
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Image
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Word or series of words that refers to any sensory experience.
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Imagery
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The collective set of images in a poem or other literary work.
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Haiku
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Japanese verse form; had 3 unrhymed lines of five seven five syllables.
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Simile
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A comparison of two things indicated by a connective: like, as or than.
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Metaphor
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A statement that one that is something else, which in a literal sense it is not.
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Implied metaphor
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Metaphor that doesn't use connectives or to be verbs
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Mixed metaphor
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The combining of two or more incompatible metaphors. Ex: She was such a tower of strength she breezed through all her work.
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Personification
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The endowing of a thing, an animal, or an abstract term with human characteristics.
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Apostrophe
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An direct address to someone or something. Speaker may address and inanimate object, a dead/absent person, abstract thing or spirit.
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Overstatement/Hyperbole
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Exaggeration used to emphasize a point.
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Understatement
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Ironic figure of speech deliberately describes something in a way that is less than the case.
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Alliteration
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A repetition of consonant sounds in a line of verse or prose.
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Assonance
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The repetition of two or more vowel sounds in successive words.
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Cacophony
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A harsh, discordant sound.
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Euphony
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Harmonious effect when the sounds of the words connect with the meaning in a way pleasing to the ear.
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Onomatopoeia
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Represents a thing or action by the sound associated with it.
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Rime
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Two or more words that contain an identical or similar vowel sound.
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Consonance/Slant rime
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Rime in which linked words share similar consonant sounds.
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Internal rime
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Rime that occurs with in a line of poetry as opposed to an end rime.
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Masculine rime
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A rime of one syllable words or a polysyllabic words with a rime on the stressed final syllables.
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Feminine rime
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Rime of two or more syllables with stress on a syllable other than the last.
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Stress
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Emphasis or accent placed on a syllable in speech.
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Rhythm
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The recurring patterns of stresses and pauses in a poem.
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Prosody
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The study of metrical structures.
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Scansion
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Practice used to describe rhythmic patterns in a poem.
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Cesura
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A light but definite pause within a line of verse. Often appear in the middle of the line.
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Run-on line
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Line of verse that does not end in punctuation, but carries on grammatically in the next line.
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End-stopped line
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Line of verse that ends in a full pause, indicated by punctuation.
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Foot
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Basic unit of measurement in metrical poetry.
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Iamb
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A metrical foot in a verse in which an unaccented syllable is followed by an accented one.
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Iambic pentameter
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5 iambic feet per line.
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Anapest
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Metrical foot where 2 unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable.
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Trochee
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Metrical foot where the stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed one.
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Dactyl
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Metrical foot where 1 stressed syllable is followed by 2 unstressed ones.
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Spondee
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Metrical foot of verse containing 2 stressed syllables.
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Accentual meter
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Verse meter based on the number of stresses per line, not the number of syllables.
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Form
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Means by which a literary work expresses its content.
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Fixed form
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Traditional verse from requiring predetermined elements of structure.
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Closed form
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Generic term that describes poetry written in a pattern of meter, rime, lines, or stanza. Adheres to set structure.
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Open form
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Verse that has no set scheme also call free verse.
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Blank verse
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5 iambic feet per line and is not rimed.
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Couplet
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Two lined stanza in poetry, rimed and equal in length.
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Closed couplet/Heroic couplet
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Two rimed lines of iambic pentameter that contain an independent and complete thought or statement
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Quatrain
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Stanza consisting of 4 lines.
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Epic
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Long narrative poem following the adventure of a popular hero.
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Epigram
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Very short, comic poem, often turning at the end with some sharp wit or unexpected stinger.
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Ballad
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Song that tells a story; compressed, dramatic, and objective in style.
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Folk ballad
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Anonymous narrative songs in ballad meter.
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Ballad stanza
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Most common pattern for a ballad.
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Literary ballad
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Ballad not meant for singing, written by poet for readers as opposed to the anonymous oral tradition.
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Sonnet
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Fixed form of 14 lines, written in iambic pentameter and rime throughout.
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Italian sonnet/Petrarchan sonnet
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Rimes the octave (first 8 lines) and sestet (last 6 lines) may follow any rime pattern as long as it doesn't end in a couplet.
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English sonnet/Shakespearean sonnet
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3 quatrains with concluding couplet: abab, cdcd, efef, gg,
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Open form
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Poems w/o rime scheme or basic meter.
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Prose poetry
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Poetic language printed into prose paragraphs.
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Myth
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Traditional narrative of anonymous authorship that arises out of the cultures oral traditions. Characters are often gods, or heroes.
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Archetype
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A recurring symbol, character, landscape, or event found in myth and literature across different culture and eras. Those that tend to evoke a universal response.
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Unities
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Unity of time, place and action needed for the cohesion and integrity of the plan.
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Soliloquy
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Speech made by a character alone onstage in which he or she utters his/her thoughts aloud.
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Aside
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Speech where character addresses the audience directly unheard by the other characters on stage.
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Stage business
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Non-verbal action that engages the attention of an audience.
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Tragedy
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Play that portrays a serious conflict between human beings and some force. Ends badly.
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Comedy
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Work aimed at amusing the audience, protagonist faces obstacles and complications that are overturn at the end for an happy ending.
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High comedy
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Comic genre evoking thoughtful laughter from the audience.
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Satiric comedy
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Genre using humor to ridicule human weakness, or attack political injustices.
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Romantic comedy
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Form of comic drama in which the plot focuses on one or more pairs of lovers who overcome difficulties to achieve happiness.
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Low comedy
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Comic style arousing laughter through jokes, slapstick, sigh gags, and vulgar humor.
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Burlesque
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Broadly humorous parody or travesty of another play or kind of play.
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Farce
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A humorous play who action is usually fast-moving and improbable.
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Slapstick comedy
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A kind of farce feat. pratfalls, pie throwing etc...
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Skene
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The canvas or wooden stage building in which actors change masks and costumes.
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Orchestra
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A circular, level performance space at the base of a horse shoe shaped amphitheater
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Deus ex machina
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Any force or improbably device used to resolve a plot.
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Cothurni
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High, thick soled elevator boots used to make actors appear taller than ordinary men.
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Hamartia
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Offense committed in ignorance of some material fact, a great mistake made as a result of an error by a morally good person.
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Tragic Flaw
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Fatal weakness or moral flaw in the protagonist that brings him/her to a bad end.
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Hubris
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Overweening pride, outrageous behavior, or the insolence that leads to ruin.
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Peripeteia
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A reversal of fortune, a sudden change in circumstance affecting the protagonist.
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Anagorisis (Recognition)
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In tragic plotting, the moment of recognition occurs when ignorance gives way to knowledge.
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Catharsis
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The feeling of emotional release the spectator feels at the end tragedy.
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