eng_gp1_literaryterm_3
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Created by:
CervanQuiz on September 8, 2011
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41 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Plot | the sequence of events in a story that usually revolve around a central conflict.When you are asked what happens in a story, you are asked to give plot details. |
| Exposition | Usually the beginning of a story where we learn about the main conflict, the setting, and the main characters. Short stories, by nature, give us this information much more quickly than novels. |
| Conflict | a struggle between opposing forces. No story exists without a conflict of some kind. It is the essence of any plot. Two main kinds of Conflicts in stories. |
| Internal Conflict | A struggle that occurs within the mind of a character. |
| External Conflict | A struggle that occurs between a character and something outside the character. |
| Three basic types of external conflict | Human vs. Nature Human vs. Human Human vs. Society |
| Complications | Additional problems that occur in a story to help create suspense for the reader, causing the protagonist to have to overcome yet another obstacle before the climax of the story. Complications are NOT the MAIN CONFLICT of the story. |
| Climax | The point in a story that will determine the outcome of the main conflict. Until we know the CLIMAX, we say the story is still rising in action or building suspense towards the CLIMAX. |
| Resolution: | The point of the story following the climax when we learn how everything will turn out or be "resolved." |
| Characterization | The act of creating characters in a story by giving them personality traits. |
| Antagonist | The character in a story who is the main obstacle to the protagonist. Does not have to be a person. It might be Nature. |
| Protagonist | The character in a story who must often solve the main conflict of a story. The reader's attention is focused on this character most of all. |
| Dialogue | Conversation between two or more characters in a story. Often reveals what a character's personality is like. |
| Direct Characterization | The writer or narrator of a story tells us directly what a character's personality is like. |
| Indirect Characterization | Five Methods used for this type of characterization are: describing how a character looks and dresses, letting the reader hear the character speak, letting the reader listen to the character's inner thoughts and feelings, revealing what other people think or say about the character, and showing the character's actions. |
| Motivation | The reason a character says or does something. |
| Suspense | The uncertainty or anxiety we feel about what is going to happen next in a story. This element in Literature is what makes the reader want to "turn the page." |
| Point of view | How the writer chooses to narrate the story. |
| First Person Narrative | - narrator is a character in the story. - narrator speaks about his or her feelings and thoughts. - narrator uses first person pronouns such as " I, me, my and we" |
| Second Person | The narrator is speaking to the reader, as in giving instructions, or talking directly to the audience using "you." |
| Third Person Limited | - The narrator is not a character- - can only reveal one character's thoughts - does not participate significantly in action of story. |
| Third Person Objective Camera Eye | -objective point of view means that the reader doesn'tsee any characters. -inner thought and feelings, not even those of point view char - reader is only witness to outer action and dialogue |
| Third Person Omniscient | The narrator is not a character in the story, but knows what two or more characters are thinking and feeling as well as telling the reader what is going on in other places and times referenced in the story. |
| Setting | The time and place of a story's action. Contributes strongly to the atmosphere of the story. |
| Atmosphere | The overall mood or feeling created in a work of literature. The writer uses precise word choices and descriptive details. |
| Tone | The attitude the writer takes toward the reader, subject, or a character. |
| Theme | The central idea or insight that a story, drama, or poem reveals. It's the message about a subject that an author is trying to convey. |
| Description | A type of writing that uses strong images to create a mood or emotion. |
| Onomatopoeia | Use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. Examples: "buzz, bark, splash..." |
| Metaphor | A figure of speech that makes a connection between two unlike things without using words like "as, like, than, or resembles." Example: His eyes were dancing pools of excitement." |
| Simile | A figure of speech that makes a connection between two unlike things USING words like "as, like, than, or resembles." Example: "His eyes were like dancing pools of excitement." |
| Personification | Something nonhuman is given human qualities. Example: "The bowling ball flew down the alley screaming in anger." |
| Hyperbole | A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion or create a comic effect. Also called "overstatement." Example: "His smile was a mile wide." |
| Idiom | A saying that cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words, but must be learned as a whole. Example: "It is raining cats and dogs outside!" Meaning: It is raining very hard. |
| Allusion | A reference to a specific statement, person, place or event from literature, history, myth, policies, sports, science, the arts or religion to understand an idea. Example: "Jack was like a phoenix when he changed his life. |
| Drama | A story that is written to be acted for an audience. |
| Scene | In a drama, this usually consists of a particular point in time or episode of the play's plot. |
| Short Story | A piece of narrative fiction that can usually be read at one sitting and creates a single effect. |
| Novel | Long fictional prose narrative, usually of more than fifty thousand words. |
| Tragedy | A story that deals with serious and important events (sometimes historical) and usually ends with the hero making a bad decision leading to his/her ruin/death. |
| Comedy | A drama that is light and humorous, usually ending happily, with a peaceful resolution to the conflict. |
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