English 1302 Literary Terms

Front 1

A short entertaining account of some happening, frequently personal, or biographical.

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Aneedote

Front 2

Person who opposes or competes with the main character, hero, or heroine.

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Antagonist

Front 3

character, usually the protagonist, who faces a series of problems and events in a story, but often is going against tradition societal standards.

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Antihero

Front 4

Person in a story, novel, or play.

Back 4

Character

Front 5

Literature (and other arts) movements of ancient Greece and Rome, using strict forms, accenting reason, and characterized by restraint.

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Classicism

Front 6

Trite, overused idea or statement.

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Cliche

Front 7

High point in the plot where the reader is most intrigued and does not yet know the outcome.

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Climax

Front 8

Clearness in connecting ideas.

Back 8

Coherence

Front 9

Opposite of abstract, refers to specific people and things that can be perceived with the five senses.

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Concrete

Front 10

Opposing elements or character in a plot.

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Conflict

Front 11

Outcome, resolution, solution of a plot.

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Denouement

Front 12

The moral element in dramatic literature that determines a character's actions rather than his own thought or emotion (outside factors); the fundamental spirit of a culture.

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Ethos

Front 13

The introduction of a story or novel.

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Exposition

Front 14

Writing that explains or analyzes.

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Expository Writing

Front 15

Story with a moral or lesson about life, often with animal characters with human characteristics.

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Fable

Front 16

Story told from first-person point of view, usually using "I".

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First person narrative

Front 17

Jumping backward in the chronology of a narrative, often through a dream or musing sequence.

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Flashback

Front 18

Hints during the narrative about what will happen later, can be literal hints or symbolic hints.

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Foreshadow

Front 19

Kind or type of literature; literary classification.

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Genre, literary

Front 20

Creation of mental pictures by pertinent word choice and heightened description.

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Imagery

Front 21

Phrases or words with meanings quite different from what is actually stated;a method of humorous or sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning of the words is the opposite of their usual meaning.

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Irony

Front 22

What are the 3 types of Irony?

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1. Verbal
2. Dramatic
3. Situation

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Words peculiar to any particular occupation.

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Jargon

Front 24

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

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Mood

Front 25

Telling a story.

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Narration

Front 26

Pen name or pseudonym used by the author.

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Nom de Plume

Front 27

Long, fictional prose story, often with more than one plot and theme.

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Novel

Front 28

Short novel with fewer characters than a novel.

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Novella

Front 29

Novel with medieval setting suggesting mystery and or horror.

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Gothic novel

Front 30

Full-length fiction book, using historical facts as its basis for plot or setting, but including imaginary characters and dialogue.

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Historical novel

Front 31

Novel characterized by young hero of lower class, unrespectable background, who leaves home and is faced with a harsh, cruel world, and eventually conforms to its realities.

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Picaresque novel

Front 32

A short story from which a lesson may be drawn.

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Parable

Front 33

The quality in something which arouses pity, sympathy, sorrow.

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Pathos

Front 34

Literary device where writer attributes human qualities to objects of ideas.

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Personification

Front 35

Structure of the literature; the way it is put together, the unfolding sequence of the events.

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Plot

Front 36

Perspective from which the story is written.

Back 36

Point of view

Front 37

Literature written in sentences and paragraphs, as opposed to poetry or verse.

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Prose

Front 38

Main character, hero, or heroine in a written work.

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Protagonist

Front 39

Saying, adage or maxim, usually short and generally believed to be true.

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Proverb

Front 40

Clarification, solution, or outcome of the conflict in a story.

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Resolution

Front 41

Story about heroic deeds, mysterious settings, or love.

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Romance

Front 42

Literary movement characterized by emotion, imagination, and goodness of people; little emphasis on reason.

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Romanticism

Front 43

Form of irony which seems to praise, but really critizes.

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Sarcasm

Front 44

Time and place of a story.

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Setting

Front 45

Fiction story shorter than a novel with fewer characters and usually one theme and plot.

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Short Story

Front 46

Mysterious feeling created by the writing; a feeling of uncertainty.

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Suspense

Front 47

Main idea in a piece of literature; topic or subject.

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Theme

Front 48

Mood brought forth by story of poem.

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Tone