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English 1 Lit Terms
These are all the terms needed to build the foundation for 8th grade English 1.
Question | Answer |
---|---|
exposition | the part of the story that introduces the setting, the characters, and the basic situation. |
rising action | The part of the story where the conflict, or problem, is introduced. |
climax | The turning point or the high point in the action of the plot. It is the moment of greatest tension, when the outcome of the plot hangs in the balance. |
falling action | The part of the story where the conflict lessens. |
resolution | The story’s conclusion or outcome of the story. |
internal conflict | A struggle that takes place in the mind of a character. |
external conflict | A character struggles with an outside force, such as another person or some force of nature. |
dynamic character | A character who changes or grows during the course of the work. |
static character | A character who does not change. |
flat character | A character who is one-sided, showing just a single trait. |
round character | A character who is fully developed and exhibits many traits. |
direct characterization | The author directly states a character’s traits. |
indirect characterization | An author provides clues about a character by describing what a character looks like, does, and says, as well as how other characters react to him or her. |
explicit theme | A theme expressed directly by the author. |
implicit theme | A theme suggested, or stated indirectly through what happens to the characters. |
universal theme | A message about life that is expressed regularly in many different cultures and time periods, otherwise called a recurring theme. |
first person point of view | The story is told from the perspective of a character in the story, and the character uses the first-person pronoun “I”. |
third person point of view | The story is told from the perspective of a narrator outside the story, and the narrator uses third-person pronouns such as he or she to refer to the characters. |
third person omniscient point of view | A type of third person-point of view where the narrator knows and tells about what each character feels and thinks. |
third person limited point of view | A type of third person-point of view where the narrator relates to the inner thoughts and feelings of only one character. |
dramatic irony | Irony that occurs when the audience is aware of something that the character or speaker is not. |
situational irony | Irony that occurs when something happens that directly contradicts the expectations of the character or the audience. |
verbal irony | Irony that occurs when a person says the opposite of what is meant. (sarcasm) |
allusion | A reference to a well-known person, event, place, literary work, or work of art. It connects literary works to a larger cultural heritage. |
dialect | The form of language spoken by people in a particular region or group. |
flashback | The technique of disrupting the chronological flow of a narrative by interjecting events that have occurred at an earlier time. |
foreshadowing | The use of hints or clues in a story to suggest future action, used to build the reader’s expectations and to create suspense. |
symbol | A person, place, or thing that represents something beyond its literal meaning. |
motive | A reason that explains or partially explains a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions or speech. |
setting | The time and place where the action in a literary work occurs. |
mood | The feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage, also known as atmosphere. |
tone | The writer’s attitude toward his or her audience and subject. |
bias | A personal and largely unreasoned judgment either for or against a particular person, position, or thing; a prejudice. |
epiphany | A character’s sudden flash of insight into a conflict or situation. |
archetype | A type of character, detail, image, or situation that appears in literature from around the world and throughout history. |
motif | Recurring subjects or ideas that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. Think of them as the “building blocks” or “pieces” of themes. |
connotation | The implicit, rather than explicit, meaning of a word, consisting of the suggestions, associations, and emotional overtones attached to a word. |
denotation | The most specific or literal meaning of a word; its dictionary meaning. |
writer's craft | The specific techniques that an author chooses to relay an intended message. (Ex: the use of figurative language, tone, flashback, imagery, irony, word choice, syntax (sentence structure), dialogue, etc.) |
imagery | Language that creates a sensory impression within the reader’s mind. Includes appeals to the visual (eyes), auditory (ears), tactile (touch), thermal (heat or cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic (sensations of movement) senses. |
euphemism | The substitution of a mild and pleasant expression for a harsh and blunt one; a polite way to say something. |
hyperbole | A dramatic exaggeration or overstatement, either for comic effect or to express heightened emotion. |
idiom | Expressions that develop in a language, region, community, or class of people that cannot be understood literally. (Ex. Hold your horses.) |
metaphor | A figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else without using “like” or “as.” |
extended metaphor | A figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else without using “like” or “as,” and this device is carried out throughout the entire text. |
simile | A figure of speech that uses “like” or “as” to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas. |
oxymoron | A figure of speech that places two contradictory words together for a special effect. |
paradox | A statement that is true even though it seems to be saying two opposite things. |
personification | A figure of speech giving human qualities to something nonhuman. |