CNF REVIEWER

Literary Conventions

 Mean the aggregate of norms and standards

 Created in the realm of literary heritage
 The defining elements of the different genres and subgenres
 Refer to the way ideas are expressed; literal or figurative
 Are collections of conventions that aim to create novelty and creativity

Traditional Conventions
Fiction
 A literary genre that tells something based on imagination rather than on facts.
 It features creativity in inventing a place, characters, settings and themes within and
beyond factual realms
 It usually emphasizes character development
 Subgenres are defined by content, technique and tone

Realistic Fiction

 A story that can happen in real life w/ true-to-life characters, reasonable and believable
outcomes, and contemporary and historical setting

Poetry

 Composed of verses or pairs of lines, and is metered

 Three primary poetic conventions: meter, rhythm and rhyme
 Meter: highlights the stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem
 Rhythm the relationship of varied syllables create a certain pattern in a line or stanza
 Rhyme the repetition of similar sounds in the lines of verses, usually in the final syllables
of a poem or song
 Free verse: the use of unrhymed words. It is less restrictive and it doesn’t adhere to the
rules of rhyming and metrical patterning

Drama

 Reveals situations through its characters, settings and plot

 Filled with climaxes and turning points
 Brings out social issues aimed to evoke emotions in the audience as they relate to the
complications of the story and actions
 The ending may be happy, tragic or a combination of both
 Have the power to engage the reader and audience to relate themselves with the
characters
 Literary Elements
 Help in the discussion, understanding and appreciation of a work of literature
 Embedded in the author’s craft and understood and appreciated by the readers through
critical analysis
Plot
 Tells what happens in the story. Chain of events through different stages revealed in the
story arc

Character

 Person in a work of fiction and his characteristics

 Protagonist: central character
 Antagonist: opposing character
 Characterization: gives the reader details about the characters involved
 Foil: character written in contrast to the main character
Theme
 A central idea of a literary work that can be termed as implied morals, insights or values
 Something extracted from other literary elements and techniques
 Underlying truths and realities of life consciously and unconsciously created by the
author and realized by the readers
Setting
 Pertains to the place, time, mood, atmosphere, weather and social conditions of as story
 Sounds and visual images to describe setting
 Brings out mood and backdrop
 Dynamic setting: varied story “world” or mileu
 Static setting: stationary, still or solitary backdrop of the story

Conflict

 Complication in a story
 Man vs Man: character is pitted against another character
 Man vs Nature: character involves a man against the forces of nature
 Man vs Society: conventions or culture challenges
 Man vs Himself: internal struggle
Point of View
 Takes the angle from where the story is narrated
 Objective POV: an angle where the writer narrates what happens w/o detailing too much
about the character’s feelings and thinking
 First Person POV: is part of the story and uses the pronouns I, me mine, we, us, ours.
 Second Person POV: reader as the protagonist/main character of the story and uses the
pronoun you
 Third Person POV: not a participant of the story but reveals the feelings and line of
thinking of the characters. It uses the pronouns he, she, it they, the, his, her, etc
 Omniscient POV: narrates everything but a limited point of view
 Tone
 Evokes varied feelings, derived from the voice of inflections of a character
 Word choice, grammatical structure, diction or imagery
 Determined through the author’s attitude towards subject, literary devices used, and
musicality of language.