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English Literature
vocabulary literary terms test
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Character | a person in a narrative. While this term generally refers to human beings, it can also include animals or inanimate objects that are given human characteristics. |
| Characterization | the method by which the author builds, or reveals, a character; it can be direct or indirect |
| Indirect characterization | an author shows rather than tells us what a character is like through what the character says, does, or thinks or through what others say about the character |
| Direct characterization | occurs when a narrator tells the reader who a character is by describing the background, motivation, temperament, or appearance of the character |
| Protagonist | the main character who drives the action of the story; often a hero or heroine, but not always |
| Antagonist | the character who opposes the protagonist; while not necessarily an enemy, the antagonist creates or intensifies a conflict for the protagonist. An evil antagonist is a villain. |
| Supporting characters | Characters that may add more depth to the story, or further complicate the conflict for the protagonist |
| Foil | one common type of supporting character,, hose purpose is to contrast with a main character in order to highlight an aspect or trait |
| Conflict | the tension, opposition, or struggle that drives a plot. External conflict is the opposition or tension between two characters or forces. Internal conflict occurs within a character. Conflict usually arises between the protagonist and the antagonist |
| Plot | the arrangement of events in a narrative. Almost always a conflict is central to a plot and traditionally a plot develops in accordance with the following model: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. |
| Exposition | a mode of nonfiction uses to explain; in literature the part of the story where explaining takes place (the beginning) refers to the part of the story where the author provides background information about the characters, setting,or major ideas |
| Rising Action | The events, marked by increasing tension and conflict, that build up to a story’s climax |
| Climax | the place where the tension of the rising action has reached its most significant place. |
| Falling Action | a section of plot that includes those events immediately the climax, during which the characters normally deal only with the results of the choices made during the climax |
| Resolution | the working out of a plots confilicts following the climax |
| Point of view | the perspective from which a work is told. The most common narrative vantage points are |
| First person point of view | told by a narrator who is a character in the story and who refers to himself or herself as “I”. First person narrators sometimes unreliable narrators because they don’t always see the big picture because they might be biased |
| Second person point of view | though rare, sometimes stories are told using second person pronouns (you). This casts the reader as a character in the story |
| Third person limited omniscient point of view | told by a narrator who relates the action using third person pronouns (he, she, it). This narrator is usually privy to the thoughts and actions of only one character |
| Third person omniscient narrator | Told by a narrator using third person pronouns. This narrator is privy to the thoughts and actions of all the characters in the story |
| Third person objective narrator | told by one who reports actions and dialogue of the characters, and describes the setting but does not move into the thoughts of any of the characters |
| Setting | Where and when the story takes place |
| Mood | The feeling or atmosphere created by a text, related to the setting |
| Tone | a speakers attitude toward the subject as conveyed by the speaker’s stylistic and rhetorical choices |
| Theme | the underlying issues or ideas of a work |
| Foreshadowing | the introduction early in a story of verbal and dramatic hints that suggest what is to come later |
| Symbol | a setting, an object or even and event in a story that carries more that literal meaning and therefore represents something significant to understanding the meaning of a work of literature |
| Connotation | refers to the meaning or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition or denotation. Connotations are often positive or negative and they often greatly affect the author’s tone. |
| Archetype | patterns of plot setting and character that reoccur regularly with the creators oftentimes not fully aware that they are repeating long established patterns |
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