Literary Terms

Elements of Narrative (Fiction and Memoir)

Setting: The physical and social context in which the action of a story occurs.
The major elements of setting are the time, place, and social environment that
frames the characters.
Protagonist: The main character of a story; the protagonist is usually the
person (or people) in a story who are trying to achieve a goal and must
overcome obstacles in order to do so.
Antagonist: The character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that
opposes the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of the story.
Characterization: A person presented in a dramatic or narrative work, and
characterization is the process by which a writer makes that character seem real
to the reader.
Static character: Does not change throughout the work, and the reader's
knowledge of that character does not grow.
Dynamic character: Undergoes some kind of change because of the
action in the plot.
Flat character: Embodies one or two qualities, ideas, or traits that can be
readily described in a brief summary. They are not psychologically complex
characters and therefore are readily accessible to readers.
Round character: More complex than flat or stock characters; often
display the inconsistencies and internal conflicts found in most real people.
Methods of Characterization:
1. Show what a character is like through their ACTIONS
2. Show what a character is like through their WORDS
3. Tell what a character is like through NARRATOR DESCRIPTION
4. Tell what a character is like through ANOTHER CHARACTERS WORDS
Point of View: Refers to who tells the story and how it is told. What we know
and how we feel about the events in a work are shaped by the author's choice of
point of view. The teller of the story, the narrator, inevitably affects our
understanding of the characters' actions by filtering what is told through his or
her own perspective.
First Person: The narrator uses I and is a major participant in the
action.

Third Person Limited: Third person pronouns (he, she, they) are used to
tell the story, but the character participates in the action. Sometimes the
POV shifts among characters throughout the narrative.
Third Person Omniscient: An all-knowing narrator who does not
participate in the story: uses third person pronouns (he, she, they).
Conflict: The struggle within the plot between opposing forces; the conflict is
what drives the action of the story forward. Many texts have more than one
conflict.
Internal: person vs. self
External: person vs person, person vs society, person vs nature
Plot: The arrangement of events in a story that shape the action and give the
story a particular focus. Discussions of plot include not just what happens, but
also how and why things happen the way they do.
Exposition: A narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work, that
provides necessary background information about the characters and their
circumstances. Exposition explains what has gone on before, the relationships
between characters, the development of a theme, and the introduction of a
conflict.
Complication: The smaller obstacles that the protagonist experiences as s/he
tries to achieve a goal.
Rising Action: The series of complications that move the plot toward the
climax.
Climax: The moment of greatest emotional intensity in a narrative.
Crisis or Turning Point: The moment when rising action reverses to become
falling action; often when the fortune of the protagonist changes decisively from
good to bad or bad to good. The turning point sometimes coincides with the
climax, but these terms are not synonymous.
Falling Action: The action of the plot that comes after the crisis and leads to
the resolution.
Resolution: The conclusion of a plots conflict and complications.
Foreshadowing: Hints that suggest what is to come later in the text.
Flashback: A narrated scene that marks a break in the narrative in order to
inform the reader or audience member about events that took place before the
opening scene of a work.

Figurative Language
Figurative Language: A word or phrase used in a nonliteral sense to add
rhetorical force to a spoken or written passage.
Simile: A comparison between two dissimilar things using like or as.
Metaphor: Makes a comparison between two dissimilar things without using the
words like or as.
Direct Metaphor: Directly states the two items being compared; often
uses a linking verb.
Example: Juliet is the sun. (Romeo and Juliet)
Indirect or Implied Metaphor: A more subtle comparison in which the
two things being compared are not directly stated.
Example: He brayed his refusal to leave. (This metaphor implies a
comparison between a man and a donkey [the sounds donkeys make
is called braying] without coming right out and saying, He is a
donkey (which would be a direct metaphor).
Extended Metaphor: A metaphor that is developed through several
sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.
Personification: Human characteristics are bestowed upon anything
nonhuman.
Symbolism: When something concrete (i.e. a person, object, image, word, or
event) represents something or suggests meaning (usually abstract) beyond its
literal significance.
Conventional Symbols: Conventional symbols have meanings that are
widely recognized by a society or culture. Some conventional symbols are
the Christian cross, the Star of David, a swastika, or a nation's flag.
Literary Symbols: A literary symbol can be a setting, character, action,
object, name, or anything else in a work that maintains its literal
significance while suggesting other meanings. Such symbols go beyond
conventional symbols; they gain their symbolic meaning within the context
of a specific story. In other words, a literary symbol is only a symbol in that
text.
Natural Symbols: The use of objects and occurrences from nature to
represent ideas commonly associated with them (such as dawn
symbolizing hope or a new beginning)

Paradox: A statement that initially appears to be contradictory but then, on

closer inspection, turns out to make sense. (e.g. I must be cruel to be kind.
Hamlet)
Oxymoron: When two contradictory words are used together (e.g. jumbo
shrimp). Oxymorons are a condensed form of paradox.
Hyperbole: A boldly exaggerated statement that adds emphasis without
intending to be literally true, as in the statement "He ate everything in the
house." Hyperbole (also called overstatement) may be used for serious, comic,
or ironic effect.
Pun: A play on words that relies on a word's having more than one meaning or
sounding like another word.

Other Literary Terms

Diction: A writer's choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative
language, which combine to help create meaning. (simplified: diction=word
choice)
Denotation: the meaning of a word that you would find in a dictionary
Connotation: Associations and implications that go beyond the literal meaning
of a word, which derive from how the word has been commonly used and the
associations people make with it. (simplified: connotation= the vibe of a word)
Theme: A universal insight about life or human nature that can be discovered in
a literary work. (Themes are expressed as complete sentences!)
Irony: A contradiction or discrepancy between appearance or expectation and
reality.
Verbal: When what someone says is the opposite of what s/he means
(sarcasm is a type of verbal irony, but not all verbal irony is sarcasm).
Situational: When something happens that contrasts what the audience
expects
Dramatic: When facts or events are unknown to a character but are
known to the reader, audience, or other characters
Tone: The author's attitude (usually implicit) toward the reader or the people,
places, and events in a work.
Mood: Usually refers to the atmosphere of a work, which is the general feeling
created for the reader or audience by the work at a given point.
Genre: The type of literary work (novel, memoir, essay, poem, etc.)

Allusion: A referencewhether explicit or implicit, to history, the Bible, myth,

literature, painting, music, and so onthat deepens a readers comprehension of
a literary text.
Imagery: Descriptive or figurative language that appeals to one or more of the
reader's five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.