Literary Terms

ProtagonistThe chief actor in any literary work. The focus of interest

»The term is usually preferable to hero or heroine because it can include characters such as villains or weak characters who are not aptly called protagonists.

Antagonist

a character or force that opposes (literally, “wrestles”)

the protagonist

Conflict

• A struggle between a character and some obstacle (for example another character or fate) or between internal forces, such as divided loyalties

Conflict

• Internal

• A struggle between opposing needs, desires, or emotions within a single person

• External

• A struggle against some outside force such as another character, society as a whole, or some natural force

Foreshadowing

• The use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot

Epiphany

• A moment or event in which a character achieves a spiritual insight into life or into her or his own circumstances

Characterization

• The presentation of a character, whether by direct description by showing the character in action, or by the presentation of other characters who help to define each other

Characterization

• Indirect

• By what the character says• By how the character looks

and dresses• By what the character thinks• By what others say or think

about the character• By what the character does

• Direct• By telling exactly what

the character is like –

• cruel,• kind, • sneaky, • brave

Mood

• The atmosphere, usually created by descriptions of the settings and characters

Theme

• The central idea of a work of literature.

• The theme is the idea the writer wishes to convey about the subject. The theme must be expressed in a statement.

• What piece of literature expresses this theme?

• Love is more powerful than family loyalty

Point of View

• The perspective from which a story is told

• Omniscient- all knowing

• Third person limited

• First person

Irony

• A contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality

VERBAL what is said and what is meant are contradictory

SITUATIONAL when what we expect to happen is opposite of what does happen

DRAMATIC

What the audience knows is different from what the character knows. The character is in a state of ignorance.

Setting

• The time and place of a story, play, or poem

• The setting often contributes to the emotional effect

• “It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season”

Tone

• The attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character

• Tone is conveyed through the writer’s choice of words, detail, syntax or imagery

Style

• The manner of expression, evident not only in the choice of words but in the use of sentence structure, characters, settings, and themes

Symbolism

• A person, a place, a thing or an event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself as well

• Ex. A scale is an instrument for measuring weights, but it is also a symbol for _______________

Parable

• A short narrative that is al least in part allegorical and illustrates a moral or spiritual lesson

Prose

• Literature written in paragraph form

Regionalism

• fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region. Influenced by Southwestern and Down East humor, between the Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century, this mode of writing became dominant in American literature.

Satire

• Literature that entertainingly attacks folly or vice; amusingly abusive writing.

• Satire intends to change behavior

• What television programs are satirical?

Stream of Consciousness

• The presentation of a a character’s unrestricted flow of thought, often with free associations and often without punctuation

• Try it: Write a stream of consciousness about the most stressful (exciting) part of being a senior

Allusion

• A reference to a statement, person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, myth politics, sports, science or pop culture

• She has a Mona Lisa smile.

Anecdote

• A short narrative, usually reporting an amusing event in the life of an important person

Genre

• Kind or type of literature

• Fiction

• Poetry

• Drama

• Nonfiction prose

Parody

• A humorous imitation of a literary work

Persona

• The speaker of a work

• The voice or mouthpiece created by the author

Pathos

• Pity or sadness

Personification

• A kind of figurative language in which an inanimate object, animal, or other nonhuman is given human traits

• Example: The cruel sea

Rhetoric

The art of effective speaking or writing

Narrative

• Writing or speaking that tells a story

Annotation

• A brief description of a work that is non judgemental

Motif

• A recurrent theme within a work, or a theme common to many works