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Literary Terms
English 10 BC Provincial Exam List
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds. |
| allusion | a direct or indirect reference to a familiar figure, place, or event from history, literature, mythology, or from the Bible. |
| antagonist | the major character or force that opposes the protagonist. |
| aside | A stage convention used to indicate words spoken by a character but heard only by the audience and not by other characters on stage. |
| atmosphere/mood | the prevailing feeling that is created in a story through dialogue and imagery; usually sets up the reader's expectations about the ending or outcome of the plot. |
| audience | The people for whom a written work or presentation is intended. |
| ballad | A narrative song handed down in oral tradition, or a written poem, essentially narrating a story in poetic form. |
| bias | A subjective point of view in which the writer’s opinion affects the integrity of the work. |
| blank verse | Poetry which lacks rhyme but has a very specific meter or rhythm called iambic pentameter. Unrhymed lines of ten syllables with the even numbered syllables stressed or accented. The natural movement of the English language tends to be iambic pentameter. |
| character | This is a term used to describe the fictional persons who carry out the action of a story. It also refers to the personality and moral attitudes of a fictional person. |
| dynamic character | often the protagonist, undergoes a significant, lasting change, usually in his or her outlook on life. |
| static character | who does not change in the course of a story. Often protagonists who are static characters fail to achieve their goals or are defeated by their unwillingness to change or adapt. |
| round character | a realistic character having several sides to his/her nature. |
| flat character | This is a limited character, usually a minor character who has only one apparent quality. |
| stereotyped character | familiar figures in fiction such as the "hard-boiled" private investigator, the absent-minded professor, the "stiff upper lip" officer, and the imperiled heroine from Victorian melodrama. |
| characterization | This is a method of presenting the special qualities or features of a character in a literary work. |
| direct characterization | (Tell) This is character revelation through the author's or narrator's comments. |
| indirect characterization | (Show) This is character revelation through what the character says, does, thinks, and how he reacts. The reader is left to infer from these details what the character is like. |
| character foil | a character whose behavior, attitudes, and opinions are in contrast to those of the protagonist. He/She helps the reader to understand better the character of the protagonist. |
| chronological order | A sequence according to time of occurrence. |
| cliché | A timeworn expression or idea |
| colloquial | Language used in everyday informal talk or conversation, but not in formal speech or writing. |
| comedy | typically light, humorous or satirical in tone with a happy resolution; originally meant a play or narrative with a happy ending. It could be serious in tone. |
| comparison | Examining the similarities between two items. |
| conflict | A conflict is a struggle between opposing characters or forces, usually between the protagonist and someone or something else; either external (physical) or internal (emotional, moral, psychological). |
| person versus environment | This is a conflict between a character and his or her environment, whether this is nature, the supernatural, society, or circumstances. |
| person versus person | This is a conflict between two characters. The struggle may be physical, emotional, moral, or psychological. |
| person versus self | The character experiences a conflict in emotion or thought. May be emotional, intellectual, moral, or spiritual |
| connotation | The emotional suggestions attached to words beyond their strict definition. |
| contrast | refers to the overlap or mixing of opposite or different situations, characters settings, moods, or points of view in order to clarify meaning, purpose, or character, or to heighten certain moods, especially humor, horror, and suspense. |
| denotation | The dictionary meaning of words. |
| descriptive | writing where the purpose is to paint a picture through strong imagery. |
| dialogue | A conversation including two or more characters in a story is a dialogue; often used to reveal character and conflict. |
| drama | A composition in prose or verse for presenting through dialogue and acting. |
| expository | Writing intended to explain or persuade |
| figurative language | Language used in such a way as to force words out the literal meanings and, by emphasizing their connotations, to bring new insight and feeling to the subject desired. |
| flashback | a plot device which shifts the story from the present to the past, usually done in order to illustrate an important point or to reveal a change in character. |
| foreshadowing | This device gives a hint of what is to happen later in the story. It prepares the reader for the climax, the resolution, and for changes, or lack of changes, in character's attitudes. |
| free verse | A poem written without rhythm and rhyme. |
| genre | A literary type or class. (romance, mystery, science fiction ...) |
| hyperbole | This is exaggeration in the service of truth. This is also called an overstatement. If you say, "I'm starved!" you do not literally expect to be believed; you are merely adding emphasis to what you really mean. |
| images | concrete details and figures of speech that help the reader to form vivid sense impressions of what is being described. |
| imagery | The representation through language of sense experience. The image most often suggests a mental picture, but an image may also represent a sound, smell, taste, or tactical experience. |
| irony | a literary device which reveals concealed or contradictory meanings. |
| dramatic irony | This occurs when the author shares with the reader information not known by a character. |
| situational irony | This occurs when a set of circumstances turn out differently from what was expected or considered appropriate. |
| verbal irony | This occurs when a contrast is evident between what a character says and what that character actually means. Usually the opposite is stated for emphasis. |
| jargon | Language especially the vocabulary peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group. Often jargon abounds in uncommon or unfamiliar words which may make talk or writing unintelligible or meaningless. |
| lyric | Any short poem intended mainly to express a state of mind or feeling. |
| metaphor | A comparison between two things which are essentially dissimilar. The comparison is implied rather than directly stated. |
| narration | The telling of a story. |
| narrative | This is another word for story; have plot, conflict, characters, setting, point of view, and theme. May be fictional or non-fictional, and include novels and (auto) biographies as well as short stories and anecdotes. |
| narrator | The individual telling the story. The voice of the story. The story teller. |
| onomatopoeia | The use of words which sound like what they mean. Sizzle sounds like steak in a frying pan. |
| oxymoron | Two words placed close together which are contradictory yet have truth in them. Eg., jumbo shrimp, pretty awful |
| paradox | This is a statement in which there is an apparent contradiction which is actually true. |
| personification | Giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or an idea. |
| persuasion | Strategies employed (such as emotional appeal or bias) to convince a reader of a writer’s point of view. |
| plot | The storyline or organization of incidents in a story is called the plot. It consists of episodes and conflict. |
| rising action | During this stage of the story, background information is given, conflicts are introduced, and suspense is built up. There may even be moments of crisis. |
| exposition and antecedent action | The background information provided by the author to further the plot, conflict, setting, and characterization is called exposition. |
| conflict or complication | a struggle between opposing characters or forces, usually between the protagonist and someone or something else; either external (physical) or internal (emotional, moral, psychological). |
| crisis | a moment of intense conflict leading up to the climax. |
| climax | From the reader's perspective, this is the highest point of emotional intensity in a story. It usually marks the turning point in the protagonist's fortunes and the major crisis in the story. |
| falling action | The part of a story immediately following climax and lasting until the end of the story. |
| resolution | the solving of all of the conflicts in the story. |
| denouement | the "unknotting" of plot or conflict following a climax. The final episode or incident in which the unexplained facts are finally revealed. There is also an element of foreshadowing for the future, beyond the end of the story. |
| point of view | the protagonist telling his or her own story directly to the reader using the first person ("I, me, my, we, us, our") pronouns. |
| third person objective | The narrator is similar to a television camera in that he/she only reports what is seen and heard without entering the minds of characters or presenting the author's ideas and observations. |
| third person omniscient | This reveals the minds of several or all characters, knowing and telling all from an all-seeing, God-like perspective "outside" the story. |
| third person limited omniscient | This refers to the main character as "he/she", showing only what one character thinks and feels, but from the perspective of someone "outside" the story. |
| propaganda | Systematic efforts to spread opinions or beliefs, especially by distortion and deception. |
| protagonist | The main character in a story. While some may be heroes, others may be villains, but more typically they are “normal” with weaknesses. |
| refrain | A phrase or verse repeated regularly (like the chorus of a song). |
| rhyme | words that sound alike |
| rhyme scheme | Any pattern of rhymes is poetry. Each new sound is assigned the next letter in the alphabet. |
| rhythm | A series of stressed or accented syllables in a group of words, arranged so that the reader expects a similar series to follow. |
| sarcasm | when the opposite of what is meant is stated in order to intentionally hurt someone's feelings. |
| satire | the ridicule of an idea, person, or type sometimes in order to provoke change. |
| setting | the time and place in which a story is placed; the social environment or values, the atmosphere or mood which descriptive details create. |
| simile | A comparison between two things which are essentially dissimilar. The comparison is directly stated through words such as ‘like,’ ‘as,’ ‘than,’ ‘similar to,’ or ‘resembles.’ |
| slang | Words and phrases of a forceful and novel type used especially in speech but not accepted as part of the standard language. |
| sonnet | A 14 line poem following a strict rhyme scheme and meter. The Shakespearea’s rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg and uses iambic pentameter. |
| speaker | The "voice" which seems to be telling the poem. The speaker is not the same as the poet,; the speaker is like a narrator. |
| stanza | Essentially a poem paragraph. The division of sections of poetry by spacing. |
| style | the individual manner in which an author expresses his or her thoughts and feelings. In fiction, it is basically determined by such grammatical and sensory aspects as diction, sentences, and images. |
| suspense | the feeling of anxiety and uncertainty experienced by the reader about the outcome of events or the protagonist's destiny. |
| symbol | has two levels of meaning, a literal level and a figurative level. Characters, objects, events, and settings can represent something else beyond themselves. The dove literally is a bird, but is has come to figuratively represent peace. |
| symbolism | The use of symbols to convey meaning. |
| theme | a unifying or dominant idea in a story, usually implied rather than directly stated. |
| tone | the author's attitude toward his/her subject or readers; might be sarcastic, sincere, apologetic, humorous, etc. |
| tragedy | This is a drama that gives the audience an experience of catharsis or cleansing of emotions. The protagonist must make a moral decision that in turn influences the outcome of the drama. |
| understatement | This is saying less than what you mean in the service of truth. |
Created by:
Nussbaum
Popular English Vocabulary sets