Elments of literature
Terms
undefined, object
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- verisimilitude
- realism, characters or situations similar to those many humans experience know or think
- imitation
- when a story purposely is realistic or based on something real
- postulate or premise
- the assumptions the authors makes about the nature of their story
- character
- a reasonable facsimile of a human being
- actions or incidents
- life like experiences which occur to the main character throughout the story
- organic unity
- the compostion of the actions or incidents
- conflict
- the protangonist is engaged in a situation that must be resolved for the story to end
- protagonist
- the central chracter
- plot
- interactions and effects as they develop sequentially or chronologically
- antagonists
- the protagonists oppoing character who is the cause of the problem
- structure
- the way the story is assembled in accord with the general ideas and purposes of their work
- idea
- the resukt or results of general and abstract thinking about the stroy including finding meaning interpretation explanaton and significance
- theme
- the underlying message of the story
- exposition
- the laying out the putting forth of the materials in the story (backgrounds chraacters goals limitationsbasic assumptions)
- complication
- the onset or development of the major conflict-the plot
- crisis
- where the conflict reaches its greatest tension a decision or action to resolve the conflict is taken
- climax
- the storys highest point takes the shape of the decision or action it is the logical conclusion of the preceding actions
- resolution
- after the works tension and uncertainty are finished
- flashback
- when present circumstances are explained by selective introduction of past events
- trait
- a quality of mind or hbaitual mode of behavior
- round characters
- the author presents enough information about then to render them full, life like and memorable they are dynamic
- dynamic
- characters which recognize change with or adjust to circumstacnes throughout the story in htis way the character grows or changes
- flat characters
- they do not grow because they are not developed enough to know whether they are growing they are static
- static
- the opposite of dynamic unable to go through change
- stock character
- chqaracters in repreating situations they have many common traits they are representative of their group or class
- sterotype charcters
- those stock characters which never break from the class or group mold
- point of view
- the speaker marrator or voice created by the author to tell the story
- major mover
- a narrator deeply involved in the conflict who trys to sound blameless or uninvolved
- first person
- "I" the most independent point of view the sspeaker tells about things that he has seen done spoken heard thought or learned
- second person
- a narration in which a second person listener "you" is the protagonist and the speaker is someone with knowledge the protagonist does not possess or understand about his or her own actions
- unrealiable narrators
- narrators who have interests or limitations that lead them to mislead distort or even lie
- third person
- she, he, it they them the speaker is not apart of the story
- third person objective
- a fly on the wall narrates from the outside
- omniscient third person
- the speaker not only presents the actions and dialogue but is also able to report what goes on in the minds of the characters
- limited third person
- the narrator is limited to only describing the thoughts and actions of one or two characters and not the others
- setting
- the places and time of the story can also create an atmosphere or a mood for the actions of the story
- framing or enclosing setting
- the author opens with a particular description and then returns to the same setting at the end
- style
- the way writers assemble words to tell the story
- diction
- the qualities of the author's words
- formal diction
- more elegant words more mature
- neutral diction
- normal word choice which a normal person would feel natural speaking
- informal diction
- slang ungrammatical
- specific diction
- very detailed
- general diction
- vague
- concrete words
- qualitites of immediate perception the ice cream is cold
- abstract words
- broader less aplpable qualities the ice cream is good
- parallelism
- the repetition of the same grammatical forms to balance expressions conserve words and build climaxes
- tone
- method of which the author reveals his attitudes or feelings
- verbal irony
- language expressing the importance by stating the oposite of what is meant
- situational irony
- emphasizing that human beings are enmeshed in forces beyond their comprehension and control the oppostie of what we expect occurs
- cosmic irony
- iorny of fate situational irony connected to a pessimistic or fatalistic view of life just plain being born poor
- dramatic irony
- a character peceives his or herplight in a limited way while the audience and one or more of the other chracters understand it entirely
- symbolism
- a specific word ideae or object that may stand for ideas values persons or ways of life
- allegory
- a complete narrative that can also be applied to a parallel set of situations that may be political moral religious or philosophical
- parable
- a short allegory designed to illistrate a religious truth most often associated with jesus as recorded in gospels