Selected Literary Terms: Review

Plot Structure: Review

plot:: The events or actions in a story. Works of poetry, fiction, and drama can all have a plot, and the plot structure can take many forms.

1. exposition:: Term used in Freytag's Pyramid to describe events at the beginning of a story. The exposition is the starting point of a narrative and can be thought of as the status quo, before the complications of the plot begin.
2. inciting incident: Term used in Fretag's Pyramid for the event--sometimes described as a destabilizing event--that alters the status quo presented in the exposition and initiates the rising action of the plot.
3. rising action: Term used in Freytag's Pyramid to describe the plot complications that drive the narrative toward the climax. Often, much of the narrative energy is involved in developing the rising action.
4. climax: Term for the turning point in a narrative. After the climax has occurred, the characters in the story can never return to the status quo, or the state of affairs before the narrative complications took place. Narratives can have more than one climax, depending upon the complexity of the structure.
5. falling action: Term used in Freytag's Pyramid to describe events after the climax has taken place that drive the narrative toward the resolution.
6. resolution or conclusion: Term that describes the final state of affairs in a narrative--a new stable state; the resolution is the end to the story. Some narratives resist a resolution and remain open ended.
subplot:: a plot that is intertwined with the main plot but receives less time and attention. Usually a subplot is related in some way to the main plot--for example, it might provide a parallel, contrast, or commentary. A subplot may have some or all of the plot elements described above.
flashback:: a scene that interrupts the present action of a narrative to depict some earlier event that occurred before the story's opening.
foreshadowing:: use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in the narrative.
digression:: introduction of a different topic that interrupts the flow of a narrative; typically the narrative is rejoined after a digression.
frame narrative:: A literary technique where one narrative is nested within another. The frame narrative is often provides the occasion for telling the nested narrative and is frequently connected thematically to the inner story.
turn:: moment in a narrative where the meaning changes significantly. The term "turn" can be used in texts that do not have a fully-formed plot but do have a narrative element.

Setting

setting:: The time and place where the plot of the story takes place. Setting includes all important elements of context, including social environment.
physical location:: can refer to the overall location of a narrative (such as "Italy"), but also specific details of locations where plot actions take place (such as "dark, ancient, catacombs"). There may be many physical locations in a single narrative.
temporal setting:: the time when a narrative is set. The temporal setting may be in the past, present, or future. Past and present settings may be historical or fictional/imaginary. Consider also time representations within the text when analyzing temporal settings--time of day, duration of the story or events within the story, etc.

Character

character: Person represented in a narrative who is interpreted by the reader (or meant to be interpreted by the reader) as having moral, physical, emotional, and other human qualities. The character takes part in the plot action.

flat character:: This term was first introduced by writer E.M. Forster in his book Aspects of the Novel, and it refers to a character who can be simply described and who does not undergo change throughout the narrative. Contrary to popular belief, the term "flat" is not a negative or derogatory description.
round character:: This term was first introduced by writer E.M. Forster in his book Aspects of the Novel, and it refers to a character who is complex. As Forster described it: "The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way."
protagonist:: a main character in a narrative; the story may center around this character or be told from the point of view of this character. There may be more than one protagonist in a work. Usually, the protagonist is a dynamic character, a character who changes throughout the story, but this is not always true.
antagonist:: a character in a narrative who opposes the aims or goals of the protagonist or creates obstacles to the accomplishment of the plot. An antagonist is sometimes a foil of the protagonist.

minor character:: a character in a text who has a support role. Often minor characters can be described through their relationships to protagonist characters.
epiphany:: a sudden moment of self-realization. Characters who experience an epiphany are round characters.

Formal Features of Drama

drama or dramatic work: Genre of literature characterized by the interchange of direct speech by one, and more commonly, two or more characters. A drama is meant to be acted rather than merely read.
act:: largest unit of meaning in a drama or dramatic work, usually made up of one or more scenes . There are several typical types of organizations involving acts: the one act play is akin to a short story; all the development and action takes place in the short space of a single act. Three act plays and five act plays are typical for longer works. Though it is conventional to divide plays this way, it is not mandatory to have an act structure.
scene:: the smallest unit of meaning in a dramatic work, typically bounded by the entrance of characters at the beginning and their exit at the end. Usually, one or more scenes make up an act.
cast of characters:: List at the beginning of a drama that names the characters and gives a brief description of their relationships to each other or their function in the work.
dialogue:: the direct speech of different characters in a dramatic work.
stage directions:: text in the written form of a drama that indicates to the director, actors, and reader additional information about various aspects of the scene. Stage directions may provide instructions about setting (physical location, time of day, etc) as well as provide instructions for actors about how specific lines should be said. Stage directions are usually indicated with square brackets and italic text.

Formal Features--All Genres

theme: a main idea in a literary work. Works may have more than one theme, and the theme can range from general (e.g. "love") to more specific (e.g. "unrequited love that causes pain").
tone: the emotional register of a work or that a work takes towards its theme.
diction: choice of words. Diction can be described as informal or colloquial or formal, as well has having a large range of other features. Tone is determined largely through diction.
denotation: a word's direct, literal meaning--often thought of as the dictionary definition of a word.
connotation: what is suggested by a word when it is used in a specific context, such as within a literary text. The connotative meaning of a word is apart from its denotation.
imagery:: Imagery may be defined as the representation through language of sense experience (seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and tasting). The word image perhaps most often suggests a mental picture, something seen in the mind's eye - and visual imagery is the most frequently occurring kind of imagery in text. But an image may also represent a sound; a smell; a taste; a tactile experience; and an internal sensation (adapted from Paul P. Ruben, Elements of Poetry). Note that imagery can be present in all genres.
ambiguity:: a word or phrase that can be interpreted in more than one way (that makes sense) in the given context. Ambiguity may be intentional or unintentional.
irony:: a contradiction or difference between appearance or expectation and reality. This could apply to the difference between what a character/narrator says and what is meant, between an expectation of what will happen and what actually happens, or between what appears to be true and what actually is true.
allusion:: a brief reference within a literary text to another literary text. The reference might be a name of a character, short reference to an event from the plot of another text, etc. An allusive reference creates some kind of connection between the two literary works; the work referred to provides some kind of insight about the referring text.
hyperbole:: extreme exaggeration used to draw attention and sometimes to comment (negatively) on an idea.
litotes:: extreme understatement used to draw attention; often coupled with irony.
repetition:: The use of repeated words, phrases, or sounds to draw attention to certain elements of a text. There are many types of repetition, and it is one of the most powerful ways to direct emphasis.
alliteration:: repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words in a sequence of nearby words.
assonance:: repetition of vowel sounds in a seqeunce of words with different endings.
antithesis:: two opposing ideas or figures. Antithesis can be used as a descriptive technique or as a means of organizing and emphasizing ideas by using contrast.
foil:: type of antithesis that describes the use of a minor character to mirror specific traits of a major character for emphasis.
paradox:: A seemingly self-contradictory statement, which is nonetheless shown to be (sometimes in a surprising way) true.

Formal Features (poetry)

enjambment:: in poetry, the abrupt break of a grammatical structure by a line break.
rhyme:: matching speech sounds at the end of words (in English). For example, follow and hollow. Rhyme is a very noticeable type of repetition that is commonly used in poetry.
rhyme scheme:: the pattern of end rhymes over the course of an entire poem; often denoted by lower-case letters, where a letter is assigned to each distinct rhyme.
couplet:: two consecutive lines of verse linked by rhyme and meter.
rhythm:: The beat or stresses in written or spoken language. In poetry, the rhythm is often intentionally structured in a certain meter.
meter:: Organized pattern of rhythmic stresses in approximately equivalent units. A specific meter is one of the characteristics of poetry. A common meter in English poetry is iambic pentameter.
foot:: "the metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured; it usually consists of one stressed or accented ( ' ) and one or two unstressed or unaccented syllables ( - )" (from Paul P. Ruben, Elements of Poetry).
iamb:: a foot of poetry that is composed of one unstressed and one stressed syllable ( - ' ). It is one of the most common poetic feet used in English.
pentameter:: a line of poetry with five feet. Iambic pentameter--a line of poetry with 5 iambs, is a common type of line in Renaissance sonnets.
blank verse: metered lines of verse that use a specific meter, in English, blank verse is often in iambic pentameter. Sometimes also called "heroic verse" or "heroic meter" because it is often used for translations of epics and Renaissance era dramas.
sonnet:: A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines. In English, the lines are usually in iambic pentameter, meaning that each line is 5 metrical feet long (or about 10 syllables), and each foot is an iamb, or a pattern of one unstressed and one stressed syllable. The Sonnet also has several conventional rhyme schemes, including two described as the "Italian" (or "Petrarchan") and "English" sonnet.; The Italian sonnet usually has an abab, abab octave (that is, set of 8 lines) followed by a sestet (set of 6 lines) with a rhyme scheme cde, cde (or cdc, cdc). In this type of sonnet introduces a proposition or problem in the first 8 lines and then describes a resolution in the last 6.; The English sonnet was an innovation by English poets on this Italian poetic form. Thomas Wyatt introduced the sonnet to England in the early 16th century, and his sonnets were often translations or adaptations of the work of Petrarch. Soon, though, other English poets like Philip Sidney and William Shakespeare developed a distinctly English version of this form. In the English sonnet, the usual rhyme scheme is typically three quatrains (4 line units) abab, cdcd, efef followed by a couplet gg. The final couplet (2 lines) represents a turn (often unexpected) in theme or imagery.

Figurative Language

figurative language:: representational language that creates a comparison or relationship between two things (for example, between an abstract concept and a concrete image that represents it) in order to make a concept more familiar or accessible to the reader. Specific types of figurative language are not limited to but include symbol, metaphor, and simile.
symbol:: an object, image, or character that stands for something more than itself.
metaphor:: a figure of speech that draws a comparison between two things. The vehicle of comparison is substituted for the tenor (the original object)--that is, two things are put in to relation to one another through an assertion that one is the other.
simile:: A comparison that uses "like" or "as" to establish the relationship between two things.
metonymy:: using the name of one thing to refer to another associated thing. For example, red tape is used to stand for frustrating procedures of government bureaucracy.
synecdoche:: type of metonymy in which the part represents the whole. For example, "a great set of wheels" is a colloquial phrase where "wheels" stands in for a car.
personification:: Representing an animal, inanimate object, or abstraction (e.g. death) with human characteristics.