Literary Terms

PLOT The sequence of events in a story. Plot is also a pattern of actions, events and situations Plot includes exposition exciting force/inciting incident rising action climax falling action denouement

Think of the Parts of a Story like a Peak… Climax Rising Action Falling Action Inciting Incident or Exciting Force Exposition Denouement

Definitions Exposition: opening portion of a narrative or drama, it sets the scene, introduces the main characters, and discloses necessary background Exciting force/inciting incident: sets the action in motion Rising action: part of the narrative, including the exposition, in which events start moving toward a climax. Climax: the turning point, moment of greatest intensity Falling action: the events that follow the climax and bring the story to its conclusion Denouement: resolution or conclusion of narrative

CONFLICT Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces Conflict can be Internal– person vs. self External person vs. person person vs. nature person vs. society man/woman vs. machine man/woman vs. supernatural

Setting The four elements of setting are: Time (When does it take place? Think era and time of day/week) Place (Where does it take place?) Mood (What is the overall feeling of the story?) Circumstance (What is going on around the characters in the story? Ex: War, depression, technological era, etc.)

Characters static (stay the same) vs. dynamic (change) flat (one-sided) vs. round (many-sided) major/minor/functional

Protagonist – main character Antagonist – in conflict with/opposes protagonist

Characterization The techniques a writer uses to create, reveal, or develop the characters in a narrative. Direct: author states directly what a character is like Indirect: reader must infer what a character is like through description, dialogue, action, and how other characters treat him/her Most often, writers reveal/develop characters through what they say (dialogue) and what they do (action). Characters are motivated by desires, temperament and moral character.

Theme A generally recurring subject or idea conspicuously evident in a literary work Longer works may have multiple themes The theme is not necessarily a moral or a lesson The theme is the center, the moving force, the unifying vision

Theme is developed through motifs. A motif is an element that recurs significantly throughout a narrative. It can be a/an image idea situation action Example: motifs in the Harry Potter books include loyalty lying blood abandonment

Point of view The perspective from which a story is told First person The narrator is “I” and he/she is a participant in the action Third person Narrator is a nonparticipant in the action Omniscient: narrator can move freely through the mind of any character, and has complete knowledge of all the events in the story Limited: the narrator sees into the minds of some, but not all, of the characters; typically, one major or minor character

Symbol An object, character, or event that suggests meanings beyond its literal sense A symbol adds meaning In fact, a symbol can add multiple meanings

Metaphor? Symbol? So what’s the difference? How does a symbol differ from a metaphor? A metaphor is a statement that one thing is something else, which, in a literal sense, it is not creates a close association between the two things, underscoring some important similarity between them Examples: Richard is a pig. She’s a doll. “I will speak daggers to her, but use none.” (Hamlet)

How can I recognize a symbol? Symbols are Not abstract terms (love, truth) but perceptible objects Sometimes people and events are symbolic Frequently given particular emphasis (repetition) May supply the title Lead us to the author’s theme

Tone Attitude the author is trying to convey about the subject Tone is the net result of the various elements the author uses to create the work Tone plays an important role in establishing the reader’s relationship to the characters and ideas

Irony Literary device in which the actual meaning is masked by the surface language Three main types of irony: Verbal: say one thing but mean another Situational: something happens that is not what we (or the character) expects Dramatic: the audience knows or understands something that the characters on stage do not

Other Techniques Suspense: enjoyable anxiety and/or curiosity about the outcome of an event Foreshadowing: hints at what may happen in a story Flashback: a scene relived in a character’s memory; gives information about something that happened before the current narrative began