Fiction Terms

Front 1

Action

Back 1

An imagined event or series of events; an event may be verbal as well as physical.

Front 2

Allegory

Back 2

A tale in verse or prose in which the characters represent abstract or moral qualities.

Hint 2

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis is a religious allegory with Aslan as Christ and Edmund as Judas. Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser is a religious or moral allegory where characters represent virtues and vices. Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan is a spiritual allegory about a spiritual journey. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding has many allegories about society, morality and religion, to name a few. The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe shows no one escapes death. Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne is showing the Devil's staff being used to defy God and eat the forbidden fruit. Animal Farm by George Orwell is a political allegory of events in Russia and communism.

Front 3

Allusion

Back 3

A reference - - whether explicit or implicit, to history, the Bible, myth, literature, a painting, music, etc. - - that suggest the meaning or generalized implication of details in a story, poem, or play.

Hint 3

"Chocolate was her Achilles' heel." This means that her weakness was her love of chocolate. Achilles is a character in Greek mythology who was invincible. His mother dipped him in magical water when he was a baby, and she held him by the heel. The magic protected him all over except for his heel.

Front 4

Analogy

Back 4

A comparison between two or more things for the purpose of showing the similarities between them.

Front 5

Anti hero

Back 5

A leading character who is not, like a hero, perfect or even outstanding, but is rather ordinary and representative of the more - or less - average person.

Hint 5

Example: Peter Parker

Front 6

Autobiography

Back 6

An author's account of his or her own life.

Front 7

Biography

Back 7

A detailed story of a person's life.

Front 8

Character

Back 8

A fictional person who acts, appears, or is referred to in a work.

Front 9

Characterization

Back 9

The fictional/artistic creation/presentation of a fictional personage.

Front 10

Climax

Back 10

The decisive moment in a novel or play; "the deathbed scene is the climax of the play."

Front 11

Conflict

Back 11

Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot.

Front 12

Connotation

Back 12

The meaning that the word suggests or implies.

Front 13

Criticism

Back 13

The informed analysis and evaluation of literature.

Front 14

Denotation

Back 14

The explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it; the association or set of associations that word usually elicits for most speakers of a language, as distinguished from those elicited for any individual speaker because of personal experience.

Front 15

Diction

Back 15

Choice and use of words in speech or writing.

Hint 15

There are various types. Some types are: formal, informal, colloquial, slang.

Front 16

Dramatic irony

Back 16

The dramatic effect achieved by leading an audience to understand and incongruity between a situation and the accompanying speeches, while the characters in the play remain unaware of the incongruity.

Front 17

Essay

Back 17

A short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretive.

Front 18

Euphemism

Back 18

The substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt.

Front 19

Exposition

Back 19

Writing or speech primarily intended to convey information or to explain; a detailed statement or explanation; explanatory treatise.

Front 20

Falling action

Back 20

The action of a story, novel, or play following the climax but before the conclusion.

Front 21

Figurative language

Back 21

Language that departs from the strictly literal to achieve special effects.

Front 22

Flashback

Back 22

A device whereby a scene from the fictional past is inserted into the fictional present or dramatized out of order.

Front 23

Foreshadowing

Back 23

Early clues about what will happen later in a story or play.

Front 24

Genre

Back 24

The largest category for classifying literature: fiction, drama, or poetry.

Front 25

Hyperbole

Back 25

Overstatement characterized by exaggerated language.

Hint 25

Used for euphemisms.

Front 26

Hero

Back 26

The leading female/male character, usually larger than life, sometimes almost God - like.

Front 27

Imagery

Back 27

The use of figurative language to evoke a feeling, call to mind and idea, or to describe an object.

Front 28

Irony

Back 28

A situation or statement that depends on a discrepancy between what is apparent and what is real.

Front 29

Limited point of view

Back 29

A perspective pinned to a single character, so we as an audience do not know what is going on in the minds of other characters.

Front 30

Metaphor

Back 30

A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.

Front 31

Myth

Back 31

A traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, esp. One that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.

Front 32

Narrator

Back 32

A person who tells the story; in literature, the voice that an author takes on to tell a story.

Hint 32

This voice can have a personality quite different from the author's.

Front 33

Omniscient point of view

Back 33

The narrator is all knowing.

Front 34

Oxymoron

Back 34

A figure of speech by which a locution produces and incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in "cruel kindness" or "to make haste slowly."

Front 35

Parable

Back 35

A short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.

Front 36

Paradox

Back 36

Any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.

Front 37

Parody

Back 37

A humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing: "his hilarious parody of Hamlet's soliloquy."

Front 38

Personification

Back 38

The attribution of a personal nature or character to imitate objects or abstract notions, esp. as a rhetorical figure.

Front 39

Plot

Back 39

The plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story.

Hint 39

Also called storyline.

Front 40

Protagonist

Back 40

The leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work.

Front 41

Rising action

Back 41

The climax of a play which builds toward the climax or turning point.

Front 42

Satire

Back 42

A piece of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and wrongdoings of individuals, groups, or humanity in general.

Hint 42

Example: a modest proposal

Front 43

Setting

Back 43

The time and place of the action of a story, poem, or play.

Front 44

Simile

Back 44

A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in "she is like a rose."

Front 45

Stereotype

Back 45

A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.

Front 46

Stock character

Back 46

A type of character who reappears in a number of stories or plays, such as the cruel stepmother, the braggart soldier, the drunk, etc.

Front 47

Structure

Back 47

The organization or arrangement of the various elements of a literary work.

Front 48

Style

Back 48

An author's characteristic way of writing, determined by his choice of words, his arrangement of words in sentences, and the relationship of the sentences to each other.

Front 49

Symbol

Back 49

A word or phrase that is used to stand for an idea.

Front 50

Theme

Back 50

A generalized, abstract paraphrase of the inferred central point or dominant idea or concern on a work; (2) the statement a poem makes about its subject.

Front 51

Tone

Back 51

A term designating the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work.

Hint 51

A work may contain one which is formal, informal, intimate, solemn, somber, playful, serious, ironic, condensing, etc.