Exposition
the narrative presentaion of necessary information about the character, setting, or characters history provided to make the reader care what happens to the characters in the story.
Conflict or Rising Action
the central problem in a story.
Climax
the nrratives turning point in a struggle between opposing forces.
Falling action
the events falling th eclimax and leading up to the resolution.
Denouement/Resolution
the period after the stories climax when conflicts are addressed and/or resolved.
Character
the depiction of human beings (and nonhumans) within a story.
Point of view
the perspective from which the story is told to the reader.
Setting
the time and place where the story occurs.
Theme
the central or underlying meanings of a literary work.
Motivation
a charaters reason for doing something.
Points of view
position fron which story is being told, such as 1st person, 3rd person limited, 3rd person omniscient, or 3rd person objective
First person (participant)
a character in the story tells the story as he/she experiences it
Objective
The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of more than one of the characters., the narrator reveals only the actions and words without the benefit of the inner thoughts and feelings
Allegory
a story in which major elements such as chracters and settings represent universal truths or moral lessons in a one-to-one correspondence.
Symbol
an object, image, character, or action that suggests meaning beyond the everyday lteral level.
Style
the characteristicway in which any writer uses language.
Tone
the authors attitude toward his or her characters or subject matter.
Parable
a short narrative that illustratesa leson using comparison to familiar characters and events.
Allusion
A reference to another work of art or literature, or to a person, place, or event outside the text.
Irony
a tone characterized by a distance between what occurs and what is expected to occur, or between what is said and what is meant.
Narrative
a poem that tells a story.
Novel
a long fictional work.
Short story
A brief fictional narrative.
Epiphany
a sudden realization or new understanding achieved by a character or speaker.
Flashback
the device of moving back in time to a point before the primary action of the story.
ballad
a song or poem that tells a lively or tragic story in simple language using rhyming four-line stanzas and a set meter.
elegy
a poem of lamentation memorializing the dead or contemplating some nuance of lifes melacholy.
diction
an authors or characters choice of words and style of expression.
satire
an artistic critique, sometimes heated, on some aspect of human immortalityor absurdity.
similie
a direct comparison of two dissimilar things using the words like or as.
synecdoche
a figure of speech that uses a piece or part of a thin gto represent th ething in its entirety.
connotation
the associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning.
imagery
The use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, thing, place, or experience
situational irony
a situation portrayed in a poem when what occurs is the opposite or very different from whats expected to occur.
hyperbole
a type of figurative speech that uses verbal exaggeration to make a point.
prosody
the analysis of a poems rhythm and metrical structures.
foot
the smallest unit of measure in a poetic meter.
anapest
a meter using feet with two untressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.
pyrrhic foot
a poetic foot characterized by two unstressed syllables.
monometer
a poetic meter compromised of one poetic foot.
tetrameter
a poetic meter that contains four feet in each line.
hepameter
a poetic meter that consists of seven feet in each line.
couplet
two lines of poetry forming one unit of meaning.
run-on line
a line of poetry that, when read, does not come to a natural conclusion where the line breaks.
assonance
a repetition of vowel sounds or patterns in neighboring words.
triplet
a tercet of three rhymed lines.
haiku
a poetic form containing seventeen syllables in three lines of 5-7-5 syllables each.
blank verse
unrhymed iambic pentameter.
ode
an elevated, formal lyric poem often written in ceremonyto someone or to an abstract subject.
pastoral
a literary work idealizing the rural life
metaphor
a close comparison of two dissimilar things that creates a fusion of identity between the things that are compared.
personification
giving human qualities to non-human things
denotation
the literal meaning of a word.
understatement
a purposeful underestimation of something, ussed to emphasize its actual magnitude.
paradox
seemingly contradictorystatements that, when closely examined, have a deeper, sometimes complicated, meaning.
scansion
The process of determing the metrical pattern of a line of poetry by marking its stresses and feet.
lamb
a poetic foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
dactylic meter
a meter in which the foot contains a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.
free verse
poetry in which the poet does not adhere to a present metrical or ryhme scheme.
dimeter
a poetic meter compromised of two poetic feet.
octameter
a poetic meter that consists of eight feet in each line.
caesura
a pause, usually in the middle of a line, that marks a kind of rhythmic division.
rhyme
the choing repetition of sounds in the end syllables of words, often (though not always) at the end of a line of poetry.
onomatopoeia
the use of words that imitate the sounds they refer to, such as buzz or pop.
lyric
a short poem with a central pictorial image written in an uniflicted (direct and personal) voice.
dramatic monologue
A poem in which a character addresses another character or the reader.
quatrain
a four line stanza.
figure of speech
a technique of using language to describe one thing in terms of another, often comparing to two unlike objects, to condense and heighten the effect of the language.
metonymy
a figure of speech that uses an identifying emblem or closely associated object to represent another object.
apostrophe
address to an absent or imaginary person
image
A word or words, either figurative or literal, used to describe a sensory experience or an object perceived by the sense. An image is always a concrete representation.
verbal irony
occurs when what is said contradicts what is meant or thought
terza rima
a verse form with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc.
rhythm
the arrangement of spoken words alternating stressed and unstressed elements
meter
a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry
trochee
a metrical unit with stressed-stressed-unstressed syllables
spondee
a metrical unit with stressed-stressed syllables
Sonnet
a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
Trimeter
a line of verse with three metrical feet
Hexameter
a verse line having six metrical feet
Refrain
A regularly repeated line or group of lines in a poem or song
End-stopped line
A line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation
Alliteration
use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse
Stanza
a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem
Omniscent
The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of more than one of the characters.
Limited Omniscent
narrator focuses on the view of only one character, usually the protagonist, can reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of this one character but presents the other characters from the outside only.
Pentameter
a verse line having five metrical feet
dialogue
spoken interaction between two or more characters.
plot
The artful arrangement of incidents in a story, with each incident building on the next in a series of causes and effects.
protagonist
the main figure (or principal actor) in a work of literature.
antagonist
a character in conflict with the protagonist.
conflict
the central problem in a story.
deus ex machina
a literary device, often seen in drama, where a conflict is resovled by unforseen and often far-ftched means.
soliloquy
a monologue delivered by a character in a play who is alone onstage.
aside
in drama, a remark made by an actor to the audience, which the other characters do not hear.
hamartia
a tragic flow or weakness in a tragic character that leads to his or her downfall.
hybris (hubris)
excessive arrogance or pride.
foil
a character who contrasts with the central character, often with the purpose of emphasizing some trait in the central character.
dramatic irony
a situation in which the author or narrator lets the reader know more about a situation than a character does.
peripeteia (reversal)
an element of greek tragedy, occurs when an action has the opposite result.
anagnorisis (recognition)
in tragedy, a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the poet for good or bad fortune.
catharsis (purgation)
the purging of emotions which the audience experiences as a result of the powerful climax of a classical tragedy.
realism
a mode of literature in which the author depicts characters and scenarios that could occur in real life.
tragedy
a dramtic form in which characters face serious and important challenges that end in disatrous failure or defeat for the protagonist.
comedy
a type of drama that deals with light or humorous subject matter and usully includes a happy ending.
melodrama
a literary work, mainly a stage play, movie, or television play or show in which characters display exaggerated emotions and the plot takes sensational turns, sometimes accompanied by music intended to lead the audiences feelings.
farce
a wok of drama or literaturethat uses broad, often physical comedy, exaggerated characters, absurd situations, and improbable plot twists to evoke laughter without intending social criticism.
chorus
a group of amateurs and trained actors who participated in traditional greek plays.
naturalistic theater
drama that shines a light on the painful realitiesand problems of everday life.