1.
Act: a major division of a drama
2.
Antagonist: a character or force in conflict with a main character; a villain
3.
Anticlimax: an arrangement of details such that the lesser appears at the point where something greater is expected
4.
Archetype: a detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious in order to evoke strong responses
5.
Aside: a short speech delivered by an actor in a play, expressing character's thoughts to the audience; not intended to be heard by other actors on stage
6.
Authorial aside: a written digression, a time in a novel or drama when the author steps outside of the story to provide commentary or insight
7.
Catastrophe: the conclusion of a play, particularly of a tragedy
8.
Catharsis: the process by which an unhealthy emotional state produced by an imbalance of feelings is corrected and emotional health is restored
9.
Character: a person or animal who takes part in the action of a literary work
10.
Climax: the high point of interest or suspense in a literary work
11.
Comic relief: a humorous scene, incident, or speech in the course of a serious fiction or drama, introduced, it is sometimes thought, to provide relief from emotional intensity and, by contrast, to heighten the seriousness of the story
12.
Conflict: struggle between opposing forces
13.
Crisis: the point at which the opposing forces that create the conflict interlock in the decisive action on which the plot will turn
14.
Denouement: the final unraveling of the plot; the solution of a mystery; an explanation or outcome
15.
Deus ex machina: the employment of some unexpected and improbable incident to make things turn out right.
16.
Dilemma: a situation that requires a person to decide between two equally attractive or equally unattractive alternatives
17.
Direct characterization: the writer tells us directly what a character's personality is like
18.
Dynamic: changes
19.
Epigraph: a saying or statement on the title page of a work or used as a heading for a chapter or other section of a work that hints at its theme
20.
Epilogue: concluding statements or section at the end of a narrative
21.
Epiphany: a moment of sudden revelation or insight experienced by a character
22.
Exposition: writing/speech that explains, informs, or presents information; the element of plot that provides essential background information early in a narrative
23.
External: a character struggles against an outside force
24.
Falling action: follows the climax
25.
First person (participant): a character in the story tells the story as he/she experiences it
26.
Flashback: a section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an event from an earlier time
27.
Flat: embodies a single quality and does not develop in the course of a story
28.
Foil: a character who is contrasted with another character
29.
Foreshadowing: the presentation of material in such a way that the reader is prepared for what is to come later in the work
30.
Frame device or frame story: a story within a story, such as Arabian Nights or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
31.
Hamartia: the error, frailty, mistaken judgment, or misstep through which the fortunes of the hero of a tragedy are reversed
32.
Hero: a character whose actions are inspiring or noble
33.
Hubris: overweening pride or insolence that results in the misfortune of the protagonist of a tragedy
34.
Incident: an event
35.
Indirect Characterization: a writer allows us to exercise our own judgment by putting clues together to infer what a character is like, through how he appears, speaks, thinks, feels, relates to other characters, or acts
36.
innocent eye narrator: the character telling the story may be a child or a developmentally
disabled individual; the contrast between what this narrator perceives and what the reader
understands may create dramatic irony.
37.
Intercalary chapters: inserted chapters that perform a different function from the main chapters of a novel
38.
Interior monologue: a narrative technique that records a character's internal flow of thoughts, memories, and ideas; a longish passage of uninterrupted thought
39.
Internal: a character struggles against himself/herself
40.
Monologue: a speech by one character in a play, story, or poem
41.
Motif: the repetition or variations of an image or idea in a work used to develop theme or characters
42.
Motivation: a reason that explains or partly explains a character's thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior
43.
Narrative: a story or narrated account
44.
Narrator: the one who tells the story
45.
Objective or Dramatic: a narrator who is totally impersonal tells the story, with no comment on
any characters or events. It is like the point of view of a movie camera; what we know is only
what the character might see and record.
46.
Pacing: the movement of a literary piece from one point or section to another.
47.
Persona: literally a mask adopted by a character
48.
Plot: the action of a narrative or drama
49.
Point of view: the vantage point from which an author presents a story
50.
Prologue: an introduction most frequently associated with drama
51.
Protagonist: the main character in a literary work
52.
Resolution: the events following the climax and concurrent with the falling action when all or most of the conflicts have been settled
53.
Rising action: the part of a dramatic plot that has to do with the complication and the action that leads to crisis and climax
54.
Round: demonstrates some complexity and develops or changes in the course of a work
55.
Scene: the division of the act within the play; a real or fictional episode
56.
Setting: the time, place, and environment in which action takes place
57.
Soliloquy: a long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on a stage
58.
Stage directions: the specific instructions a playwright includes concerning sets, characterization, delivery, etc.
59.
Static: does not change
60.
Stereotype (stock character): a fixed idea or conception of a character or an idea that does not allow for any individuality and is often based on religious, social, or racial prejudices
61.
Stream-of-consciousness: the total range of awareness and emotive-mental response of an individual, from the lowest pre-speech to the highest fully articulated level of rational thought.
62.
Structure: the organization and form of a work
63.
Subplot: a subordinate or minor story in a longer piece of fiction
64.
Suspense: a feeling of uncertainty and curiosity about what will happen next in a story
65.
Theme: a central message or insight into life revealed through a literary work that can be stated directly or implied
66.
Third Person Limited: the author tells the story in the third person and yet presents it as it as seen and understood by a single character, restricting information to what that character sees, hears, feels, and thinks
67.
Third Person Omniscient: an all-knowing narrator who is able to know, see, and tell all,
including the inner thoughts and feelings of any or all characters
68.
Tragedy: a work of literature, especially a play, that results in a catastrophe for the main character; the cause of a tragedy is usually a tragic flaw, or weakness, in the hero's character
69.
Tragic flaw: the theory that there is a flaw in the tragic hero that causes his or her downfall
70.
Turning Point: a point in a work in which a very significant change occurs; sometimes concurrent with crisis
71.
Villain: an evil character, potentially or actually guilty of serious crimes
