Literary Terms

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Antagonist

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Opponent or adversary

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Antecedent action

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Thing coming before something else

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Atmosphere (mood)

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prevailing tone or mood of a place

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Character

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Person represented in a play, film or story.

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Round Character

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a character in fiction whose personality, background, motives, and other features are fully delineated by the author.

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Flat Character

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an easily recognized character type in fiction who may not be fully delineated but is useful in carrying out some narrative purpose of the author.

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Stereotyped ( stock ) character

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a character in literature, theater, or film of a type quickly recognized and accepted by the reader or viewer and requiring no development by the writer.

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Static Character

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a literary character who remains basically unchanged throughout a work

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Dynamic character

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in literature or drama, a character who undergoes a permanent change in outlook or character during the story

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Characterization

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portrayal; description: the actor's characterization of a politician.

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Direct Characterization

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in literature and drama, the method of character development in which the author simply tells what the character is like

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Indirect Characterization

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the author develops the character through his actions, dialogue, thoughts, apprearance, or other characters reactions.

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Climax

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the most intense or highest point of an experience or of a series of events: the party was the climax of the week

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Conflict (internal)

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in literature and drama, a struggle which takes place in the protagonist's mind and through which the character reaches a new understanding or dynamic change.

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Conflict (external)

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in literature, a struggle between the protagonist and another character against nature or some outside force.

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Contrast

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to compare in order to show unlikeness or differences.

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Connotation

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the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning: A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.”

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Denotation

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a word that names or signifies something specific: “Wind” is the denotation for air in natural motion. “Poodle” is the denotation for a certain breed of dog.

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Denouement

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the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel.

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Dialect

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Linguistics . a variety of a language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially.

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Dialogue

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conversation between two or more persons.

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Diction

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style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words

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Dilemma

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a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.

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Epiphany

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A sudden realization of great truth.

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Episode

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an incident in the course of a series of events, in a person's life or experience, etc.

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Escapist Fiction

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fiction which provides a psychological escape from thoughts of everyday life by immersing the reader in exotic situations or activities.

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Exposition

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the act of expounding, setting forth, or explaining: the exposition of a point of view.

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Falling Action

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the part of a literary plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the conflict has been resolved.

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Fantasy

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imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.

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Fiction

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the class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, especially in prose form.

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Flashback

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a device in the narrative of a motion picture, novel, etc., by which an event or scene taking place before the present time in the narrative is inserted into the chronological structure of the work.

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Foil Character

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a character whose personality or attitudes are in sharp contrast to those of another character in the same work

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Foreshadowing

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to show or indicate beforehand.

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Goal

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the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; aim; end.

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Hero

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a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.

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Humor

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a comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement.

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Imagery

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the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things.

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Indeterminate ending

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An ending in which the central problem or conflict is left unresolved.

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Irony

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the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.

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Dramatic Irony

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irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.

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Situational Irony

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an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected.

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Local Color

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distinctive, sometimes picturesque characteristics or peculiarities of a place or period as represented in literature or drama, or as observed in reality.

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Motivation

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desire to do; interest or drive

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Point of View

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an opinion, attitude, or judgment.

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First-Person Narrative

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Writer uses I or We.

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Third-Person Limited Omniscient.

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A narrator tells a story referring to characters as he/she tells the characters actions but not their thoughts.

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Third-Person Omniscient narrative

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Narrator tells a story referring to characters as he/ she - Unlimited, knowing everything including thoughts.

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Predicament

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an unpleasantly difficult, perplexing, or dangerous situation.

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Prose

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the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.

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Protagonist

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

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Realism

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the tendency to view or represent things as they really are.

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Romance

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a novel or other prose narrative depicting heroic or marvelous deeds, pageantry, romantic exploits, etc., usually in a historical or imaginary setting.

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Satire

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the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

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Science fiction

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a form of fiction that draws imaginatively on scientific knowledge and speculation in its plot, setting, theme, etc.

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Stream of consciousness

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Stream of consciousness is characterized by a flow of thoughts and images, which may not always appear to have a coherent structure or cohesion.

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Symbolism

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the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character.

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Theme

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a unifying or dominant idea.

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Universality

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relation, extension, or applicability to all.