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Literary Terms

Literary Terms. Short Stories- English I Honors 2010-2011. Characters. Every person or animal in a story. Round Characters: a character in fiction whose personality, background, motives, and other features are clearly defined by the writer.

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Literary Terms

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  1. Literary Terms Short Stories- English I Honors 2010-2011

  2. Characters • Every person or animal in a story. • Round Characters: a character in fiction whose personality, background, motives, and other features are clearly defined by the writer. • Flat Characters: a literary character whose personality can be defined by one or two traits.

  3. Protagonist • The central character in a story or drama. The audience should sympathize with the protagonist.

  4. Antagonist • A person or force that opposes the central character in a story or drama.

  5. Characterization • The act of developing a character; the method by which character traits are revealed.

  6. Setting • The time and place a story takes place. It can include time of day, week, year, or time in history. It can be a very specific, or a very general place as well.

  7. External Conflict • A struggle between a character and a force outside of that character. • Man vs. Man- two people struggling. • Man vs. Nature- a person struggling with some aspect of the natural world. • Man vs. Technology- a person struggling with some aspect of technology. • Man vs. Society- a person struggling with his or her society.

  8. Internal Conflict • A struggle within a character. • Man vs. Self

  9. Point of View • The vantage point or perspective from which the story is told. • First person: narrator is a character IN the story. He or she can reveal only personal thoughts and feelings. • Third person objective: narrator is an outsider who can report only what he or she hears or feels. • Third person limited: narrator is an outsider who sees into the minds of one of the characters. • Third person omniscient: narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can tell what multiple characters are thinking or feeling.

  10. Flashback • Takes place when a scene is interrupted to show an event that happened in the past.

  11. Theme • The central idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to share with the reader.

  12. Satire • A style of writing that uses humor to criticize people, ideas, or institutions in hopes of improving them.

  13. Symbolism • When a person, place, event or object has a meaning itself but suggests other meanings as well. • Red rose= love • Darkness= evil

  14. Foreshadowing • The use of clues by the author to prepare readers for what will happen in a story.

  15. Mood • The atmosphere or feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage. • Example: If you are watching a horror movie, you would have a different feeling than you would if you were watching a love story.

  16. Plot • The plan of action in a story. Includes: • Exposition • Rising Action • Climax • Falling Action • Resolution

  17. Exposition • The way in which an author begins a piece of fiction. In the exposition, typically the characters and setting are described.

  18. Rising Action • All the events in a piece of fiction which take place after the exposition and before the climax. • The complications and twists in a story meant to build suspense or interest for the reader.

  19. Climax • The point of highest interest or intensity in a piece of fiction. This is where the plot begins to change. • A character makes a decision, or an event takes place to change/further the course of action in the story.

  20. Falling Action • The logical result of the climax. • The effect of the events taking place during the climax. (If the climax is a cause, the falling action is an effect of that cause.)

  21. Resolution • The outcome of a piece of literature. • Also known as the Denoument. 

  22. Static Character • A character that does not undergo any type of change throughout the course of a literary work.

  23. Dynamic Character • A character that does undergo a change during the course of a literary work.

  24. Dialogue • A conversation between characters in a literary work.

  25. Diction • A writer or speaker’s choice of words and the way in which they arrange words in sentences. • For example, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Poe there will be more formal diction. In “The Euphio Question,” there was more informal diction.

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