Literary terms Review
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Created by:
jollynotataco94 on September 23, 2009
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46 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 literature | written expression of permanent or universal interest |
| genre | type of literature |
| fiction | writing from imagination |
| nonfiction | writing from facts |
| short story | a short work of prose fiction with limited time span and a limited number of characters; one point is usually made or one idea presented |
| plot | plan, arrangement of ideas in a piece of fiction |
| exposition | explanation or necessary background which leads up to the opening situation |
| inciting force | whatever gets the story started |
| rising action | events leading to the climax, development of the conflict |
| climax | turning point, or point in the plot that determines the outcome of the conflict, this is usually twoard the end of a short story |
| falling action | point of the plot following the climax, and leading to the resolution |
| resolution | the outcome of the plot and at the end of the conflict |
| conflict | the struggle upon which a work of fiction is based |
| theme | author's message, moral, or main idea, either clearly stated or implied |
| foreshadowing | technique by which the author hints of which is to happen later in the work |
| flashback | an interruption of the action in a story to tell about something that happened early in time |
| irony | a contrast between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen |
| literal meaning | exactly what is said |
| figurative meaning | any language that is NOT intended to be interpreted in a strict literal sense |
| inference | a reasonable conclusion made about something based on certain clues or facts |
| alliteration | repetition of a sound in a group of words |
| character | person in a piece of fiction |
| characterization | methods of showing what a person is like |
| setting | time, era, place, or places, time span |
| mood | emotional feeling or atmosphere |
| poetry | literary work which is written in line and verse |
| prose | literary work which is written in sentences and paragraphs |
| biography | account of a person's life written by another person |
| autobiography | account of a person's life by that person |
| novel | long functional prose narrative, more in depth than a short story, connected sequence of events dealing with human experiences |
| essay | prose literature written on one subjects from the writer's point of view, could be an analysis or interpretation |
| point of view | person through whose eyes the reader sees the action of the story |
| protagonist | leading character or hero |
| antagonist | adversary or opponent of the protagonist |
| symbol | something standing for of representing something else |
| simile | comparison using like or as |
| metaphor | a direct comparison which says that one thing IS another |
| personification | giving human qualities to inanimate objects |
| anthropomorphism | giving human emotions to animals |
| onomatopoeia | the naming of a thing or action by its sound |
| antithesis | using contrasting expressions balanced against each other, thought without action is futile; action without thought is fatal |
| metonymy | substituting a term closely associated with another for the original term |
| apostrophy | speaking directly to an absent or a lifeless object as if it could reply |
| euphemism | understatement by substituting a softer or more pleasant term for a shocking or unpleasant one |
| hyperbole | extreme exaggeration to create an effect |
| synecdouche | uses a word referring to a part of something or to the material from which it is made as a substitute for the word representing the whole |
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