The Novel And Short Story Literary Terms

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Novel

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An extended narrative in prose. Typically the novel relates to a series of events or follows the history of a character or group of characters through a period of time.

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Short Story

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A fictional narrative generally centering on one climactic event and usually developing only a single character in depth; its scope is narrower than that of a novel.

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Plot

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The way in which the narrative events are arranged.

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Exposition

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The explanation of the story's premise and background material necessary for the reader to understand the story.

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Crisis

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The peak in the story's action--the moment of highest dramatic tension.

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Climax

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The scene which present's the story's decisive action.

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Resolution or Denouement

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The outcome of the story--the information that ties up all (or many) of the story's loose ends.

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Point-of-View

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The angle from which the story is told; i.e., the type of narrator the author chooses to use.

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Character

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A fictional representation of a person (or animal). Characters may be either flat or round.

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Round Character

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Usually main characters, fully developed so that the reader can understand their personality and motivations.

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Flat Character

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Usually minor characters who are barely developed or may be stereotypes.

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A Foil

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A character who serves to contrast with another character.

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Theme

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The central or dominant idea of a work or fiction.

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Setting

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The historical, physical, geographical, and psychological location where a fictional work takes place.

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Style

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The way a writer selects and arranges words to express ideas.

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Tone

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The attitude of the speaker or author of a work toward the subject matter.

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Symbol

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A person, object, action, place, or event that in addition to its literal or denotative meanings suggests a more complex meaning or range of meanings.

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Allegory

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A story with two parallel and consistent levels of meaning, one literal and one figurative.

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Alliteration

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Repetition of initial sounds in a series of words.

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Allusion

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Reference, often to literature, history, mythology, or the bible, that is unacknowledged in the text but that the author expects the reader to recognize.

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Archetype

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Image or symbol that is so common or significant to a culture that it seems to have a universal importance. Example: A tree may represent growth or life.

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Assonance

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Repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words.

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Blank Verse

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Lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter in no particular stanzaic form.

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Conceit

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Extended or complicated metaphor that is impressive largely because it shows off an author's power to manipulate and sustain a striking comparison between two dissimilar items.

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Dramatic Monologue

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Type of poem that consists of single speaker talking to one or more unseen listeners and often revealing more about the speaker than he or she seems to intend.

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End-stopped line

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Line of poetry that has a full pause at the end.

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Enjambment

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Occurs when the sense of a poetic line runs over to the succeeding line. (The bottom line is longer).

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Haiku

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A Japanese poem in three lines, of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, which represents a clear picture so as to at once to arouse emotion and suggest spiritual insight.

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Hyperbole

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Figurative speech that depends on intentional overstatement or exaggeration.

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Imagery

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Words and phrases that describe the concrete experience of the five senses.

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Metaphor

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Concise form of comparison equating two things that may seem at first dissimilar.

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Meter

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Regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, each repeated unit of which is called a foot (iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee, pyrrhic).

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Onomatopoeia

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Word whose sound resembles what is describes (snap, crackle, pop).

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Oxymoron

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Phrase combining two seemingly incompatible elements ("darkness visible").

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Personification

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Attributing human qualities to things that are not human.

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Simile

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Comparison of two seemingly unlike things using the words like or as.

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Sonnet

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A fourteen line poem following a strict rhyming scheme.

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Stanza

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Group of lines in a poem that forms a metrical or thematic unit.

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Drama

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Identified by the distinct appearance of a script, with its stage directions, character parts, and division into acts. Drama is meant to be performed in front of an audience by actors who take on the roles of the characters and who present the story through dialogue and action.

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Exposition

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A play usually begins with the exposition, which presents characters and setting and introduces basic situation in which the characters are involved.

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Dialogue

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The lines spoken by the characters.

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Monologues

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Extended speeches by characters.

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Soliloquy

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A monologue in which a character expresses private thoughts which alone on the stage.

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Asides

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Brief comments by an actor who addresses the audience but is assumed not to be heard by other characters on stage. Asides reveal thoughts and motivations of the speaker.

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Comedy

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A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the better.

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Tragedy

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A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune usually for the worst.

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Tragic Flaw

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A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.

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Tragic Hero

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A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering.

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Anti-heroes

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Those characters who possess the opposite attributes of a hero and whose plight frequently elicits laughter from the audience.