Required Literary Terms and Types

Terms in this set (47)

Author's word choice, sentence structure, figurative language to establish meaning in the text.

This term can be referred as perspective or tone of the writer like serious or humorous.

Evokes feelings in readers through words and descriptions; it creates an emotional situation.

The logical sequence of events that develop a story.

Introduce information about events, settings, characters etc. to the audience or readers.

Incidents of suspense and interest: decisions, characters' flaws, background that create twists

Most intense point in the development of a decisive moment, a major turning point.

Wraps up the narrative, and leads toward the closure.

The problem of the story is resolved or worked out to tie up the loose ends.

Time and place in which a story takes place.

Characterization

Creation of a fictional character using physical appearance, dialogue, behaviors, and choices.

The leading character, hero or heroine

A person who actively opposes or is hostile to the main character; an adversary.

An issue in a narrative around which the whole story revolves.

The perspective from which a work is written

"I"-The narrator is a character in the story, and they refer to him or herself.

"You"-The narrator directly addresses the reader in the written work.

"(S)he"-The narrator is looking in on the person or people being talked about.

The insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work; expressed in a complete sentence

Where characters of a narrative talk to one another.

Hints of what's to come.

An object that represents an abstract idea.

An incongruity between expectations for a situation and what actually happens.

The type of story or writing

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

19th c. literary movement that claimed to portray life exactly as it is with, detachment and objectivity.

Ends in catastrophe, usually death, for the main characters (and others).

A weakness or error in judgment in the main character.

An educated guess based on facts presented in the text and life experience.

Internal Conflict

A character struggles with conscience

External Conflict

A character struggles with a force of nature, another character, or a whole society

An old imaginative pattern that appears across cultures and is repeated through ages

Stream of Consciousness

Conveys the inner--and sometimes chaotic--workings of a character's mind.

First Person Plural

"We"-The narrator is a group of people like a small town.

The intense feeling that an audience goes through while waiting for the outcome of certain events.

Brief, wise sayings

Literary style that combines incredible events with realistic details and relates them all in a matter-of-fact tone.

Occurs when someone says one thing but means something else.

Situational Irony

Takes place when what is expected is different from what happens.

Occurs when the readers know more than a character does.

Limited-Third-Person Point of View

The narrator is outside of the story from the vantage point of only one character.

Unresolved Ending

The overarching plot is left unfinished and the ultimate outcome of the characters' story arcs is unknown in order to allow readers to infer.

A scene in a narrative that interrupts the present action to tell what happened at an earlier time.

An apparent contradiction that is actually true.

A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance.

Southern Gothic Literature

Set in the south, reveals the darkness of society through irony, characters seen as outsiders, and fear of institutions.

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