Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer
Home / allusion / characters / conflict / definitions / explanations / flashback / irony / list / Literature / moral / motif / narrator / plot / point of view / setting / stories / symbolism / terminology / terms / theme

Literary Terminology Listing 2

When analyzing stories, sure enough key price must hold upwards taken into account. In the previous listing of literary terms, the variety of concepts presented are used non only to explicate stories but too poems. In add-on to this, a number of other words were included inwards the listing that could hold upwards seen every bit pertinent to a class discussion on a text. 

This fourth dimension round, however, the listing volition bargain amongst key notions only associated amongst stories. By looking at each principal category, readers tin give the sack evaluate industrial plant past times authors together with hold upwards able to elaborate on the stories themselves, either inwards writing or orally. It is hence vital for anyone involved inwards the procedure of critically assessing literary works, to keep these terms inwards heed so every bit to hold upwards able to write or verbalise about them inwards an academic environment; heck, even over a loving cup of java amongst friends at a social gathering. 


Note to teachers: 
Naturally, teachers should hand this listing to students together with encompass each concept at a fourth dimension amongst concrete examples taken from stories. Start off amongst brusk stories (find a number of these here, whose length won't send your students into a tizzy), so repose into to a greater extent than challenging longer novels.
 



 LITERARY TERMINOLOGY

1) PLOT: a string of selected events pose together inwards an artificial order.
    • Aristotelian plotline: (Gustav Freytag's model)
      • exposition: introduction of characters, setting, situation
      • rising action: all the events which Pb to the climax
      • climax / turning point: indicate of greatest intensity. The protagonist's fate is determined at this moment.
      • falling action: all the events subsequently the climax which Pb to the resolution 
      • denouement: all the events subsequently the resolution   
    • complication: obstacles to the protagonist which exercise conflict together with suspense (contribute to the ascent action)
    • crisis:point where all the complications hit a peak
    • resolution: terminate of the key conflict together with its outcome
    • conflict: fighting betwixt ii or to a greater extent than opposing forces. Inner together with outer conflicts be inwards stories.
      • person vs. person (man vs. man):  external fighting betwixt ii or to a greater extent than individuals
      • person vs. self (man vs. self): internal fighting concerning emotion, alternative together with decision
      • person vs. nature (man vs. nature): external fighting betwixt an individual together with an brute or forcefulness of nature (for example, a storm)
      • person vs. society (man vs. society): external fighting against a man-made institution, social mores, conventions. This blends inwards amongst the conflict of person vs. individual every bit characters who oft represent institutions or follow conventions are the ones to lock horns amongst a protagonist 
  2) CHARACTERS:  people who inhabit the storey (person or animal)
    • they are seen through:
      • physical traits (physical description)
      • dialogue (speech of the character or of other characters)
      • actions (of the character or of other characters)
      • attire
      • opinions (the character's thoughts, speech; other characters' thoughts together with speech; tha narrator's thoughts together with speech)
      • point of view (choice of narrator determines much of the storey together with character)
    • protagonist: principal graphic symbol of the story. Usually experiences conflict (see above).
    • antagonist:opposes the principal character
    • flat character: one-dimensional; non well-developed
    • round character: seen from all sides, shows many characteristics, many details are provided almost this character
    • static character: does non alter throughout the story
    • dynamic character: changes past times the terminate of the story
    • stock / stereotyped character: tin give the sack hold upwards characterized inwards 1-2 sentences, fits a stereotype
When analyzing characters, too think almost the following: 
  • motivation (cause of actions)
  • behavior (result of motivation)
  • consequences (result of actions)
  • responsibility (moral, legal, mental accountability)
  • expectations (character's assumptions of prospects)

3) SETTING: fourth dimension together with house inwards which the characters appear & the plot unravels itself; the environs in which the activity of a fictional piece of occupation takes place. 
 (time period, place, social / political / spiritual reality) 

Look for the sensory details given past times the narrator that exercise the setting of the story:
  • sight
  • sound
  • taste
  • smell
  • touch

4) POINT OF VIEW / NARRATOR: angle the storey is told from; speaker who tells the story
  • omniscient: all-knowing, all-seeing, tin give the sack move into whatever character's mind
    • limited omniscient: a narrator whose noesis is limited to 1 character
  • first individual indicate of view: the narrator participates inwards the story together with we come across everything through their eyes (such stories receive got "I" or "we" references throughout)
  • third individual indicate of view: narrator does non participate inwards the storey every bit 1 of the characters, but is an outside voice (such stories receive got "he", "she", "it" or "they" references throughout). Third individual tin give the sack hold upwards divided into objective, subjective, limited together with omniscient.
    • third individual objective indicate of view: the narrator simply describes what is seen amongst an emphasis on facts
    • third individual subjective indicate of view: the narrator states the thoughts together with feelings of 1 or to a greater extent than characters inwards the story
    • third individual omniscient point of view: the narrator has access to whatever thoughts, feelings or facts almost whatever number of characters inwards the story
    • third individual limited point of view: the narrator describes the thoughts together with feelings of 1 graphic symbol inwards the story, but cannot say anything that goes beyond the orbit of that 1 character 
  • second person narrator: not oft present in stories. Use of "you" references
  • reliable / unreliable narrator: readers tin give the sack trust the facts they give or feelings they express if they are reliable, but cannot if they are unreliable. An unreliable narrator can hold upwards deliberately hiding information or lying to readers, or may hold upwards unaware of facts 
  • naive narrator: ignorant or childish narrator (Voltaire's Candide is a prime number example)
  • dramatic monologue: extended spoken communication of 1 graphic symbol speaking to or so other individual (mainly inwards poetry, but since its apogee in Romantic poems, is evident inwards other genres) 
  • stream of consciousness: mimics the idea processes of characters, non their actions or dialogue
  • multiple narrators may hold upwards used every bit well, thus complicating the story
  • alternating narrators also is a ploy authors piece of occupation to switch a tale's point of view
 
5) THEME: dependent area amongst which a piece of writing is mainly concerned; number that emerges from a work, for instance death, vanity, corruption, madness.
 
6) MORAL: lesson, conclusion drawn upon the themes
 
7) SYMBOLISM: something that is itself but too represents something else
  • universal symbol:embodies recognizable, widely known concepts (e.g. skull = death)
  • invested symbol: used past times an author to hateful something specific, non universally known
 
8) MISCELLANEOUS TECHNIQUES:  these techniques enrich the story together with the reader's experience
  • allusion: something which refers to a famous historical figure, event, piece of occupation of art, book, etc. often taken from the Bible, Greek mythology, literature, together with the like.
    • for example: Like Hercules, he lifted the tree off the road. [allusion to the mythological figure of Hercules from ancient Greece.]
    • another example: At that moment the pupil pondered the "to hold upwards or non to be" of the situation. [allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet]
  • foreshadowing / to foreshadow: give a glimpse of what is to come, either straight or indirectly through atmosphere, syntax (author's alternative of words), character flaw (a character's imperfection, phobia, problem)
  • flashback: device used to acquaint a glimpse of what came earlier a especial 2d in time. This may hold upwards achieved through 
    • narration (a graphic symbol tells the storey of what happened)
    • dream
    • memory
    • authorial sovereignty (the author only tells us straight what happened before) 
  • irony: a contrast between 
    • what is stated together with what is meant
    • what is expected to hand together with what genuinely happens
      • verbal irony: the author says 1 matter together with agency another
      • dramatic irony: readers or the audience of a play know something the character or musician does not
      • irony of province of affairs (situational irony) : divergence betwixt the expected upshot together with the actual result