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Elements of Fiction
Glossary of terms for short stories
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Theme | the central idea or unifying generalization implied or stated by a literarywork; usually reveals something about the experience of being human; not a moral or a lesson; it’s all about the theme |
| Character | individuals involved in a story |
| Protagonist | central character in a story |
| Antagonist | any force in a story that is in conflict with the protagonist |
| Flat | character that is summed up in one or two traits |
| Round | complex and many-sided character |
| Stock | stereotyped character; nature is familiar to us from prototypes in previous literature |
| Static | same sort of person at the end of a story as he/she was at the beginning |
| Dynamic | individual who during the story undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of his character or outlook |
| Setting | the context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs |
| Plot | the sequence of incidents or events of which a story is composed |
| Exposition | background information that is needed to understand the story properly is provided; includes the protagonist, the antagonist, the basic conflict, the setting, and so forth. |
| Conflict | clash of actions, desires, ideas or goals in the plot of a story Man vs. man Man vs. environment Man vs. circumstances Man vs. society Man vs. himself |
| Rising Action | the development in a story that precedes and leads up to a climax |
| Climax | the turning point or high point in a plot |
| Falling action | segment of the plot that comes between the climax and the conclusion |
| Denouement (conclusion, resolution) | portion of a plot that reveals the final outcome of its conflicts or the solution of its mysteries |
| Point of View | the angle of vision from which a story is told |
| First person | story is told by one of its characters, using the first person (I, me) |
| Third person limited omniscient | narrator tells the story, using the third person, butlimits himself to a complete knowledge of one character in the story and tells us only what that one character thinks, feels, sees, or hears |
| Third person omniscient | author tells the story, using the third person; he knows alland is free to tell us anything, including what the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act as they do |
| Diction | An author's choice of words. |
| Connotation | a word’s emotional content |
| Denotation | a word’s dictionary definition |
| Imagery | A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell |
| Metaphor | figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things that are essentially unalike |
| Simile | figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two unlike things using words such as like, as, or seems |
| Personification | figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, object, or concept |
| Hyperbole | figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth |
| Allusion | a reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history |
| Irony | situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy |
| Verbal irony | figure of speech in which that which is meant is the opposite of what is said |
| Situational irony | situation in which there is an incongruity between actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate or between what is anticipated and what actually comes to pass |
| Dramatic irony | situation in which the words and actions of the characters of a work of literature have a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters because the reader has a greater knowledge than the characters themselves |
| Tone | The author’s attitude, stated or implied, toward a subject. Some possible attitudes are pessimism, optimism, earnestness, seriousness, bitterness, humorous, and joyful. An author’s tone can be revealed through choice of words and details. |
Created by:
desantise
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