Literary Terms Unit
Terms
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- One event causes another
- CAUSE & EFFECT
- The method of developing a character as information is stated directly by the narrator
- DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
- Statement that can be proven
- FACT
- Hints about what is coming up in a story
- FORESHADOWING
- Logical guess or conclusion based on evidence
- INFERENCE
- Comparison between two unlike things without the use of “like†or “asâ€
- METAPHOR
- Repeated use of any element in a story to help develop the theme
- REPETITION
- Sequence of related events that make up a story; the action or what happens in a story
- PLOT
- A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem
- RHYME SCHEME
- When what is expected to happen and what happens are different
- SITUATIONAL IRONY
- Growing tension and excitement felt by a reader
- SUSPENSE
- Author’s attitude toward his/her subject
- TONE
- Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words.
- ALLITERATION
- The order in which events happen in time
- CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
- When the reader is aware of something that the characters don’t know
- DRAMATIC IRONY
- Part of the plot in which actions are taken to resolve the conflict; leads to a solution
- FALLING ACTION
- Extreme exaggeration made for emphasis or humor
- HYPERBOLE
- A struggle within a character
- INTERNAL CONFLICT
- The pattern of stresses, or beats, in spoken or written language
- METER
- Teller of a story
- NARRATOR
- Perspective or vantage point from which a story is told
- POINT OF VIEW
- Part of the plot in which complications arise
- RISING ACTION
- Informal language
- SLANG
- Person, place, object, or action that stands for something outside itself
- SYMBOL
- When a character says one thing and means something else or when what is said and what is understood are not the same
- VERBAL IRONY
- Why the author wrote a piece of literature for an audience
- AUTHOR'S PURPOSE
- Conversation between characters
- DIALOGUE
- When a character struggles against some outside person or force
- EXTERNAL CONFLICT
- Interruption of the present action in a story to go back to an earlier time/event
- FLASHBACK
- Method of developing a character through indirect means; reader must infer characters’ traits
- INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
- Person, animal, or imaginary creature that a literary work focuses on
- MAIN CHARACTER
- Lesson taught by a story; directly stated
- MORAL
- Giving of human qualities to an animal, object, or idea
- PERSONIFICATION
- Final stage of the plot where loose ends are tied up & the story is brought to a close
- RESOLUTION
- Comparison of two unlike things using the words “like†or “asâ€
- SIMILE
- Character who does not go through a major personality change during the story
- STATIC CHARACTER
- Point of view in which narrator is not in the story, but knows everything about all of the characters and can see into their minds
- THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT
- Reference to a famous person, place, event, or other work of literature
- ALLUSION
- Turning point or high point of interest in the plot of a story
- CLIMAX
- Character that changes significantly from the beginning to the end of a piece of literature
- DYNAMIC CHARACTER
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Goes beyond dictionary meanings of words to create original descriptions; an overall umbrella
for many literary elements such as idiom, simile, metaphor, etc. - FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
- Expression that has a meaning different from the sum of the meanings of the individual words
- IDIOM
- Divisions within a poem, similar to sentences within a prose selection
- LINES
- Less important person, animal, or imaginary creature that takes part in a story
- MINOR CHARACTERS
- Use of words that imitate their meaning with their sound
- ONOMATOPOEIA
- Main character in a literary work; always involved in the conflict
- PROTAGONIST
- Point of view in which narrator speaks directly to the audience using the pronoun “youâ€
- SECOND PERSON
- The “narrator†in a poem
- SPEAKER
- The meaning behind the story; lesson you can learn; not directly stated
- THEME
- Force or character working against the main character
- ANTAGONIST
- Form of language spoken in a certain place or among a certain group of people
- DIALECT
- Beginning of a story or play; introduces characters, setting, and establishes the conflict
- EXPOSITION
- Point of view in which the narrator is in the story and uses pronouns such as I, we, me, etc.
- FIRST PERSON
- Words and phrases that appeal to the reader’s senses
- IMAGERY
- The story is tied to or identified by its geographical location
- LOCAL COLOR
- Feeling created in the reader by a literary work
- MOOD
- Statement that cannot be proved
- OPINION
- Repeated use of any element of language - a sound, word, phrase, or grammatical structure
- REPETITION
- Time and place of a story
- SETTING
- Divisions of lines within a poem; similar to paragraphs in a prose selection
- STANZA
- Point of view in which narrator is not in the story; brings us into the mind of only one character
- THIRD PERSON LIMITED