literary terms
Terms
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- legend
- a widely told story of the past- one that may or may not have a foundation in fact.
- narrative
- a story. Can be either fiction or non fiction. Novels and and short stories are types of fictional narratives. Biographies and autobiographies are nonfiction narratives. Poems that tell stories are also narratives.
- myth
- a fictional tale that explains the actions of gods or heroes ot the origion of elements of nature.
- nonfiction
- prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that ells about real people, places. objects, or events
- 3rd person
- one who stands outside the action and speaks about it.
- flashback
- is a scene within a story that interrupts the sequence of events to relate events that occurred in the past.
- fiction
- a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact
- repetition
- is the use, more than once, of any element of language- a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence.
- inference
- the act of reaching a conclusion by reasoning from evidence
- Climax-
- the climax, also called the turning point, is the high point of the action of the plot. The moment of greatest tension, when the outcome of the plot hangs in the balance.
- narrator
- a speaker or the character who tells the story.
- imagery
- words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses. Writers use images to describe how their subject look, sound, feel, taste, and smell.
- onomatopoeia
- the use of words that imitate sounds. Crash, buzz, screech
- short story
- a brief work of fiction.
- Moral-
- a lesson taught by the literary work. a fable usually ends with a moral that is directly stated. A poem, novel short story or essay often suggests a moral that is not directly stated. The moral must be drawn by the reader, based on other elements of the work.
- symbol
- is anything that stands for or represents something else.
- foil
- to prevent the success of
- theme
- a central message, concern or purpose in a literary work.
- folk tale
- a story composed orally and then passed from person to person by word of mouth. They reflect the cultural beliefs and environments from which they come.
- tone
- the writer's attitude toward his or her audience and subject. Word choice, sentence structure, line length, rhyme, rhythm, and repetition.
- connotation-
- the set of ideas associated with it in addition to its explicit meaning. It can be personal, based on individual experiences
- figurative language
- writing a speech that is not meant to be taken literally. (short stories and novels) Common figures of speech are metaphors, personification, and simile.
- resolution
- the outcome of the conflict in a plot.
- free verse
- is poetry not written in a regular rhythmical pattern, or meter. The poet is free to write lines of any length or with any number of stresses or beats.
- simile
- a figure of speech that uses like or as to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas. Example- pale as a ghost good as gold, spread like wildfire
- essay-
- a short nonfiction work about a particular subject. Single major focus and a clear introduction, body, and conclusion
- fantasy
- a highly imaginative writing that contains elements not found in real life
- Static character-
- a character that does not change
- stanza
- a formal division of lines in a poem and is considered as a unit. They often function as paragraphs do in prose
- folklore
- the traditional beliefs, myths, tales and practices of people (orally)
- Character and characterization-
- Character is a person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work. Characterization is the at of creating and developing a character.
- personification
- a type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics.
- irony
- general name given to literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting, or amusing contractions
- rhyme
- the repetition of sounds at the end of words.
- Autobiography
- is a story of the writer's own life, told by the writer. Autobiographical writing may tell about the person's whole life or only a part of it.
- drama-
- a story written to be preformed by actors.
- Chronological order-
- a sequence according to time of occurance
- metaphor
- a figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else. It points out a similarity between two unlike things
- stereotype
- a generalized belief about a group of people
- Genre
- type of literature- 3 types, poetry, prose, and drama
- exposition-
- In the plot of a story or a drama, the exposition, or the introduction, is the part of the work that introduces the characters, setting and basic situation.
- conflict
- struggle between two opposing forces
- jargon
- confused unintelligible language. Strange, outlandish
- External conflict-
- a conflict is a struggle between opposing forces. External- one in which a character struggles against some outside force, such as another person.
- Internal conflict
- - takes place within the mind of the character. The character struggles to make a decision, take on action, or overcome a feeling.
- Biography-
- is a story of the writer's own life, told by the writer. Autobiographical writing may tell about the person's whole life or only a part of it.
- Alliteration
- - is the repletion of initial constant sounds. Writers use alliteration to draw attention to certain words or ideas, to imitate sounds, and to create musical effects.
- narrative poetry
- a story told in verse. Narrative poems often have all the elements of a short stories , including characters, conflict, and plot.
- exaggeration
- the act of overstating
- science fiction
- combines elements of fiction and fantasy with scientific fact. Many set in the future.
- prose
- the ordinary form of written language. Most writing that is not poetry, drama, or song is considered prose.
- act-
- dramas that are divided into parts.
- fable
- a brief story or poem, usually with animal characters, that teaches a lesson, or moral. The moral is usually stated at the end of a fable.
- 1st person
- a narrator that is one who tells a story and participates in its action.
- denotation-
- its dictionary meaning., independent of the other associations that the word may have. Example- denotation of the word lake is a inland body of water. "Vacation spot" and place where the fishing is good are connotations of the word.
- Dynamic character-
- one who changes or grows during the course of the work.
- plot
- the sequence of events in which each event results from a previous one and causes the next.
- dialogue-
- a conversation between characters. In poems, novels and short stories dialog is usually set off by quotation marks to indicate a speakers exact words.
- novel
- a long work of fiction
- scene
- is a section of uninterrupted action in the act of a drama
- suspense
- a feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of events in a literary work.
- dialect-
- a form of a language spoken by people in a particular region or group.
- mood
- the feeling created by a literary work or passage. Writers use many devices to create a mood, including images, dialog, setting, and plot.
- main idea
- the most important thing the paragraph says about the topic.
- foreshadowing
- the author's use of clues to hint at what might happen later in the story.
- setting
- the time and place of the action. Includes all the details of the place and time- the year, time of day, even the weather