English Terms (1St Set)

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Act

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One of the main structural divisions of a drama.

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Action

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The physical or mental events that occur in a narrative.

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Allegory

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A literary mode or work in which characters, settings, actions, and objects represent abstractions or in which the characters and actions correspond closely to actual people and happenings.

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Alliteration

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The repetition of initial CONSONANT sounds in neighbouring words.

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Allusion

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A reference to any element of history, literature, or other media that the writer assumes any reader will recognize.

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Ambiguity

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Intentional vagueness that makes more than one interpretation possible.

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Anachronism

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In a period-based work, a detail that is out of its historical time.

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Antagonist

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The force that opposes a protagonist of a narrative while trying to reach his or her goal.

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Antecedent Action

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In a narrative, action that is understood to have occurred before the present action has begun.

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Anti-climax (Bathos)

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The failure of a narrative or passage to fulfill its reader's expectations following a buildup of suspense toward an anticipated outcome.

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Anti-hero

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A particular kind of protagonist commonly seen in modern works; a character who, instead of showing largeness, dignity, and courage in the face of a cruel fate, shows various decidedly ignoble qualities but still manages to excited our sympathy all the same.

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Archaism

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A word or expression that has become obsolete in current common speech; one that is considered old fashioned.

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Aside

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In a play, a short passage spoken by a character either to him/herself or discreetly to another character or group of characters while, by theatrical convention, it is understood that certain others on stage are unable to hear what the character is saying or thinking aloud.

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Caricature

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A character that is presented as a deliberate and comic distortion of a real person or stock character.

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Carpe diem

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A Latin phrase meaning "seize the day."

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Catharsis

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refers to the experience of feeling emotional release and cleansing.

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Direct characterization

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When the writer tells us explicitly about a character's nature and motivation.

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Indirect characterization

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When the writer show a character acting and being acted upon and we must thereby infer the character's nature and motivation.

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Dynamic character

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A character who undergoes a significant psychological change.

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Realistic/Round character

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A believably human character - one who is seen to be as complex and consistently real as any person in actual life.

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Static character

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A character who does not undergo a significant psychological change.

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Stock character

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A stereotypical character.

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Sanguine personality (blood dominant - air: with properties of heat and moisture.)

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sociable, outgoing, talkative, responsive, easy-going, lively, carefree.

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Phlegmatic personality (phlegm dominant - water: with properties of coldness and moisture.)

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passive, careful, thoughtful, peaceful, controlled, reliable, even-tempered

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Choleric personality (choler dominant - fire: with properties of heat and dryness)

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touchy, restless, aggressive, excitable, changeable, impulsive

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Melancholic personality (melancholy dominant - earth: with properties of coldness and dryness.)

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moody, anxious, rigid, sober, pessimistic, quiet, reserved, unsociable.)

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Chorus

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In ancient Greek drama, a group of characters, often old men/women, who could both address the audience and interact with character in the play.

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Classic

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A work of literature that is recognized by the majority of mature readers to have superior qualities of form and/or content.

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Clacissicism

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The classical style in literature and art - that is, the style associated with the artistic ideals of ancient Greece and/or Rome.

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Climax

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The final and culminating event in the series of complications that make up a narrative's rising action.

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Comedy

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The content is meant mainly to amuse us, as the characters crises engage our delighted interest, not our profound concern.

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Comic relief

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The use of humorous characters, speeches, or scenes in an otherwise serious work.

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Complication

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An obstacle to the protagonist in his attempt to achieve his goal.

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Conflict

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The struggle that grows out of the interplay of opposing forces.

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Context

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The part or parts of a passage preceding and/or following a particular segment of text and that significantly affect the meaning of the segment.

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Crisis

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In the action of a narrative, a significant turning point that occurs when opposing forces in a conflict interlock in a decisive ordeal on which the plot will turn.

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Deus ex machina

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Any character, device, or turn of events suddenly introduced to resolve a conflict.

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Dialogue

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Any spolen exchange between characters.

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Discovery

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A point at which a character comes to a particular revelation or disclosure, especially a revelation about his true nature and the nature of the world.
A special form of epiphany in which an unexpected reversal of fortunes occurs.

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Equivocation

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A form of verbal irony (and therefore ambiguity), it is a statement in which a speaker, in strictly logical terms, is telling the truth, but is nevertheless knowingly deceiving his hearer.

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Exposition

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A form of non-fiction prose in which the writer's purpose is to explain through the presentation of ideas focusing on a certain topic.
A term applied to passages in fiction that are intended to supply the background information necessary to advance a narrative.

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Fable

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A short allegorical narrative intended to illustrate a fundamental moral lesson, usually developed with animal characters who may be either slightly or thoroughly personified.

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Farce

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A type of comedy designed simply to provoke simple, hearty laughter.

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Flashback

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An interruption in the present-tense action of a narrative, its function is to narrate or to present an episode that has occurred prior to the time when the narrative begins.

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Foil

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A character who emphasizes the nature of the protagonist by being presented as a contrasting, and sometimes rather complementary, character.

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Foreshadowing

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Any detail in a narrative that suggests an eventual outcome in the plot.

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Genre

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A category or type of artistic form, as determined by its own structure, technique, content, and so on.

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Hamartia

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The essential flaw in a tragic hero's nature.

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Hubris

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A common form of hamartia, it refers to pride in the form of arrogant self-confidence.

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Humanism

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A philosophical orientation that focuses on the distinctively "human" world, as opposed to the divine, the material, or the pragmatic world.

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Interdeterminate resolution

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A narrative with a deliberately ambiguous conclusion - that is, one in which the reader is left to question whether the resolution of the conflict should be happy or sad.

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Initial incident

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The first significant event in the plot of a narrative, it is the occurrence that establishes the protagonist's goal.

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In medias res

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A Latin phrase meaning "in the midst of things," it refers to the technique of beginning a narration in the middle of a significant event for the protagonist.

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Interior monologue

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The technique of reporting a character's thoughts as the substance of a narrative or a part of it, stressing not what a character does but overtly but what he is thinking and feeling.

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Invective

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Direct denunciation or generally abusive address.

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Invocation

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A poet's calling upon the appropriate muse to supply him with inspiration and eloquence in the development of his verse.

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Irony

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A general term describing the contrast or discrepancy between what is and what appears to be or between what happens and what was expected.

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Dramatic irony

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A form of irony in which the speaker is unaware of the discrepancy between what he/she says and what is meant. Dramatic irony is also defined as a case of the reader's knowing more about circumstances than is known by the character(s).

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Verbal Irony

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A form of irony in which the speaker is aware of the discrepancy between what he'she say and what is meant.

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Situational irony

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A form of irony in which there is a discrepancy between an outcome or condition and that which would be expected; in such cases theactual outcome or condition is in some poetic sense appropriate.

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Juxtaposition

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A synonym for the word "contrast."

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Litotes

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A form of understatement in which something is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite.

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Malapropism

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A blunder in speech or writing caused by the substitution of a word for another that is similar in sound but different in meaning.

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Melodrama

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A dramatic typified by stock characters, exaggerated emotions, and a conflict that pits an all-good hero or heroine against an all-evil villain.

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Mood

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The dominant feeling of a work within a work.

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Motif

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A recurring and symbolically significant element - for example, a word, phrase, pattern, name, image, or idea - in literary work.

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Motivation

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The reasons, either stated directly or implied, for a character's behavior.

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Narrative text

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Writing that focuses principally on the recounting of events.

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Narrator

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The teller of story.

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Neoclassicism

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A revival in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of the classical standards of order, balance, and harmony in literature.

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Parable

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A short allergorical narrative intended to illustrate a fundamental moral lesson, though, in contrast to the fable, it is developed with human rather than animal characters.

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Parody

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A composition in which one imitates and exaggerates the characteristic style and/or content of a particular work, writer, or genre of writing.

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Pathos

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The quality in a work of literature that evokes the readers' feeling of sorrow and pity at the suffering of characters.

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Persona

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The personality or voice assumed by a writer in the composition of an imaginative / fictive work.

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Plot

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The arrangement of a story's events.

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Point of view

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Applied to non-fiction, it refers to the area and level of authority of the writer in relation to his subject.
Applied to fiction, it refers to the vantage-point from which one tells a story

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First-person narration

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A point of view from which a narrator reports while participating in the action of the story.

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Objective narration

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A third-person point of view from which a narrator reports only the outward, or observable, actions of all characters equally.

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Omniscient narration

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A third-person point of view from which a narrator reports the outward actions and inward processes of all characters equally.

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Limited-omniscient narration

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A third-person point of view from which a narrator reports the outward actions and inward processes of a protagonist, but reports only the outward actions of other characters.

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Reliable narrator

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A narrator whose perception and interpretation of events largely coincide (we presume) with the writer's own.

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Unreliable narrator

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An ironic narrative approach, for it involves a discrepancy between what is said and what is meant; this is a narrator whose perception and interpretation of events do not, for the most part, coincide with the writer's own.

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Naive narrator

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A narrator - often a child; sometimes a mentally or experientially impaired adult - whose perception and interpretation of events is limited by lack of experience.

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Prologue

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A short preface to a relatively long work, usually a drama.

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Prose

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A general term to describe writing (fiction or non-fiction) that is not poetic.

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Protagonist

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The central character of a narrative.

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Realism

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A literary mode in which the writer seeks to present life as it really is.

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Resolution

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In a narrative, the action following the climax.

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Rising Action

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following the initial incident, it is the series of complications that lead up to the climax and resolution of a narrative.

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Romanticism

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A literary mode in which subjectivity and imaginative, sensual responses to life are prized over objectivity, rules, logic, and fact.

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Satire

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A form of writing in which the writer holds up to ridicule and contempt the weaknesses and wrongdoings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general.

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Scene

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One of the units of action within an act of a drama.

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Setting

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The time and place in which the events in a narrative occur.

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Soliloquy

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In drama, an extended speech delivered by a character alone onstage.

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Stream of Consciousness

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A mode of narration in which the writer tries to capture the scope and flow of a character's mental process, in which sense perceptions mingle with conscious and half-conscious thoughts, memories, expectations, feelings, and random associations

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Style

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The general texture of a work or a writer's distinctive voice - the way that he expresses ideas by the use of diction, tone, figurative language, etc.

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Subplot

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In the context of a larger story, it is a smaller complex of action that makes up a secondary story.

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Surrealism

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A movement among modern artists influenced by Freudian theories and concerned with the subconscious mind as it reveals itself in dreams.

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Symbol

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An element in a work that represents something other than what it literally is..

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Syntax

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The ordering of sequences of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences.

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Loose sentence

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The main idea comes first; then details are added.

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Periodic sentence

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The main idea is delayed until the end of a sentence, following the minor details.

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Parallel sentence

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The items in a series are put in the same grammatical form.

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Balanced sentence

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Two complementary or congruent ideas are expressed in perfect parallelism (often separated by ;.)

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Antithetical sentence

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Two opposite ideas are set in strong contrast to each other.

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Inverted sentence

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The usual subject-verb order of the sentence is reversed to the less common verb-subject order.

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Theme

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A statement that concisely summarizes the principal idea(s) that a writer is trying to express through his work, it is a sentence that expresses a broad truth about human nature or behaviour - truth, that is, from the writer's point of view.

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Tragedy

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A narrative work in which the content is meant to provoke thoughtful reflection on the most profound experiences of the human condition, and involving actions that turn out disastrously for the protagonist.

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Versimilitude

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That quality in a literary work that makes it seem believable.