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Lit Terms 1
Literary & Rhetorical Devices Part I
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Prose | written or spoken language in its ordinary form following regular grammatical structures (no rhyme or rhythm, so not poetry) |
| Setting | the location and/or time frame in which an action of a story takes place at. |
| Plot | A series of events where each one causes the next to have a cause and effect (beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution) |
| Exposition | the background information on the characters and setting explained at the beginning of the story. |
| Narrative Hook | a literary technique in the opening of a story that "hooks" the reader's attention so that they will keep reading. It typically occurs after the exposition. |
| Rising Action | all of the events that lead to the eventual climax, including character development and events that create suspense |
| Climax | when the conflict of the plot is resolved. It is often the most exciting part of the story |
| Falling Action | what the characters are doing after the story's most dramatic part has happened. |
| Resolution (Denouement) | how things end up or turn out for the characters. I |
| Round characters | lifelike figures with complex, multifaceted personalities. They possess depth and dimension, and often undergo personal development over the course of a story. |
| Complex characters | characters who have an important change as the plot continues. They have a variety of traits and different sides to their personality. |
| Flat characters | characters with little to no complex emotions, motivations, or personality, and they also don't undergo any kind of change |
| Protagonist | the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text |
| Antagonist | used as a plot device, to set up conflicts, obstacles, or challenges for the main character |
| Direct characterization | the author telling the audience what a character is like. |
| Indirect characterization | the author showing the audience what kind of person a character is through the character's thoughts, words, and deeds. This requires the audience to make inferences about why a character would say or do those things |
| Theme | The central idea or primary meaning a writer explores in a novel, short story, or other literary work. |
| Conflict | a struggle between two opposing forces in a work of literature. In literature the conflict of a story is related to the protagonist or main character in some way. |
| Internal Conflict | A struggle that goes on in ones mind |
| External Conflict | a problem, antagonism, or struggle that takes place between a character and an outside force. ... In an external conflict, a character may be struggling against another character, the natural world, or society. |
| Point of View | . the “eye” or narrative voice through which you tell a story. When you write a story, you must decide who is telling the story, and to whom they are telling it. |
| 1st Person Point of View | the narrator is a character in the story, dictating events from their perspective using "I" or "we." |
| 3rd Person Limited Point of View | when a narrator tells the story only disclosing the thoughts and feelings of one character |
| 3rd Person Omniscient Point of View | The narrator is all knowing; the narrator knows and discloses all of the characters thoughts and feelings. |
| narrator | a person who tells something, especially a character who recounts the events of a novel or narrative poem |
| flashback | scene in a movie, novel, etc., set in a time earlier than the main story that interrupts the current story to tell that earlier event |
| allusion | A reference to something else, when a writer mentions some other work, or refers to an earlier part of the current work. |
| foreshadowing | hints that the writer gives to us in advance so that we have an idea about what is to come later in a story. |
| suspense | literary device that authors use to keep their readers’ interest alive throughout the work. |
| diction/word choice | choosing the right word for the right situation, which can set the scene or even a particular mood in writing. |
| denotation | the literal definition of a word. |
| dialogue | Conversation between characters |
| dialect | a particular form of a language which is particular to a specific region or social group |
| symbol/symbolism | something that stands for or suggests something else |
| genre | a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content. |
| anecdote | a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. |
| motif | something in the story that is repeated and has some sort of importance to the story, usually is symbolic. |
| irony | the use of words to express something other than/ the opposite of the literal meaning Often in a humorous sense. |
Created by:
mcneillci
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