Literary Terms

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Literary Terms
Elements of a story!
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Antagonist

• A major character who opposes the protagonist in
  a story or play.

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Protagonist

• The main character of a novel, play, or story.

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Characterization

• The means by which an author establishes
  character.
• Direct Characterization - an author directly
  describes the appearance and personality of the
  character.
• Indirect Characterization - an author shows the
  personality of the character through dialogue and
  actions.

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Plot

• The series of events that form the story.

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Plot Components
Climax the turning point at which the action in
a story reaches its emotional peak the most
intense moment
Rising Action the series of conflicts and crisis
in the story that lead to the climax
Falling Action all of the action which follows
the climax
Resolution the conclusion, the tying together of
all of the threads
Exposition the start of the story, the
situation before the action starts
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Conflict

• The dramatic struggle between two or more forces
  in the story.

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Types of Conflict

• Traditionally, there are four types of conflict
• man vs. man (external)
• man vs. society (external)
• man vs. nature (external)
• man vs. self (internal)

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Symbolism

• The use of one thing to represent another.
  (Something that stands for something else.)
• e.g. A dove is a symbol of peace.

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Foreshadowing

• A technique in which an author gives clues about
  something that will happen later in the story.

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Irony

• Language that conveys a certain idea by saying
  just the opposite.
• e.g. Saying that you love someones shirt when
  you really think its ugly is being ironic.

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Three Kinds of Irony

• Verbal Irony is a discrepancy between what is
  said or written and what is meant..
• Dramatic Irony occurs when an audience knows
  something that a character in the story does not
  know.
• Situational Irony is a discrepancy between the
  expected result and actual results.

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Mood  

• The feeling created in the reader by a literary
  work or passage. 
• The mood may be suggested by the writer's choice
  of words, by events in the work, or by the
  physical setting.

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Theme

• The central idea of a work.
• The moral of the story.
• The lesson the author is trying to convey.

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Tone

• The authors attitude toward the subject of the
  work. Usually positive or negative.
• e.g. The tone of a piece of literature could be
  pessimistic, optimistic, angry, or sarcastic.