Literary Terms

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Allegory

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A story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or abstract ideas or qualities.

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Allusion

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A reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other branch of culture.

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Analogy

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A comparison made between two things to show how they are alike

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Antagonist

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The opponent who struggles against or blocks the protagonist in a story.

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Apostrophe

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A technique by which a writer addresses an inanimate object, an idea, or a person who is either dead or absent.

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Character

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An individual in a story or play.

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Characterization

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The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character.

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Direct Characterization

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The writer tells us, directly, what the character is like, ie snobby, smart, etc. The reader does not have to infer.

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Indirect Characterization

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The reader has to use their own judgment, putting clues together, to infer what a character is like. The author may put the character in a situation and the reader will have to decide on the personality of the character based on the way they react to the situation or their role in the situation.

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Static Character

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A character who doesn't change throughout the course of the story.

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Dynamic Character

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A character who, as a result of the stories actions, changes, ie grows more mature, changes opinion, etc.

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Flat Character

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Characters that have few personality traits and can be summed up in a single phrase, ie, the loyal sidekick or the baffoon.

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Round Characters

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Characters that have more than one dimension to their personalities, well rounded characters. They are complex, like real people.

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Climax

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hat point in a plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest. The turning point of the action.

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Comedy

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A story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main characters.

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Denotation

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The dictionary definition of a word.

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Connotation

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the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.

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Double Entendre

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A pun with two meanings, one clean and one bawdy.

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Diction

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A speaker or writer's choice of words.

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Doppelganger

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A ghostly counterpart of a living person or someone who acts like the characters double in the story.

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Denouement

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The conclusion or resolution of a story.

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Exposition

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One of the four major forms of discourse, in which something is explained or "set forth."

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Flashback

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A scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time.

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Foil

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A minor character who acts as a contract to another character.

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Foreshadowing

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The use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot.

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"In Medias Res"

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A literary technique in which the narrative strarts in the middle of the story instead of the beginning.

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Irony

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The reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase.

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Verbal Irony

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Verbal irony occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else.

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Situational Irony

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Situational irony takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.

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Dramatic Irony

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Dramatic irony usually takes place on stage, and the audience knows something the character doesn't know or knows the opposite of.

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Parable

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A relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson, about how to lead a good life. There are many in the Bible.

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Paradox

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A statement that appears self-contradictory but reveals a kind of truth.

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Parody

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A work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writers style.

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Plot

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The series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the story line.

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Exposition

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Tells us who the characters are and introduces their conflicts.

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Complications

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Arise as the story