Lit+Terms


 * 1) is the act of creating and developing a character
 * 2) when the author states a character’s traits explicitly
 * 3) when the writer reveals a character’s traits by some other means; a character’s traits can be revealed indirectly by what he or she says, thinks or does, by description or appearance or by means of the statements, thoughts, or actions of other characters.
 * 4) the restatement of information into your own words
 * 5) in terms of his/her significance, a character who plays an important, crucial role
 * 6) in terms of his/her significance, a character who does not play an important, crucial role
 * 7) in terms of his/her role, a character who plays a central role in the story
 * 8) in terms of his/her role, a character who opposes the protagonist
 * 9) in terms of his/her complexity, a simple character who has one only one or two character traits or dimensions
 * 10) in terms of his/her complexity, a complex character who has many character traits or dimensions
 * 11) a character who does not change throughout the course of a story
 * 12) a character changes throughout the course of a story
 * 13) exists when a story is told within a narrative setting or frame, creating a story within a story
 * 14) a literary technique in which ideas, customs behaviors or situations are ridiculed for the purpose of improving society
 * 15) hints about future plot events
 * 16) the central or dominant idea behind a story; the most important aspect that emerges from how the book treats its subject
 * 17) a type of writing that relates to a series of events
 * 18) include melodramas, ballads, romances, allegories, and moral tales.
 * 19) a long narrative about chivalric heroes
 * 20) a work, usually a play, based on a romantic plot and developed sensationally, with little regard for motivation and with an excessive appeal to the emotions of the audience
 * 21) a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique, or the like
 * 22) the struggle between opposing forces
 * 23) the struggle of a character against self, happening within a character ex: a person overcoming his fear of public speaking
 * 24) exists when a character struggles against some outside force, such as another person, nature, society, or fate
 * 25) the general name given to the literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting or amusing contradictions.
 * 26) words are used to suggest the opposite of their meaning
 * 27) there is a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience knows to be true
 * 28) an event occurs that directly contradicts the expectations of the characters, the reader, or the audience.
 * 29) the use of words to evoke impressions and meanings more than just the basic, accepted definitions of the words themselves
 * 30) a reference to a person, place, poem, book, event, etc… which is not part of the story
 * 31) the most common foot of poetry in English made up of two syllables, the first unstressed and the second stressed [u /]
 * 32) the emphasized pattern of repeated sounds in poetry; meter is represented by stressed and unstressed syllables
 * 33) a short anecdote or story that illustrates a particular moral point; includes virtuous or evil characters, tightly structured plot events, allegorical or symbolic figures, and a distinct moral or lesson
 * 34) a medieval verse tale characterized by comic, ribald treatment of themes drawn from life; the verse is metered
 * 35) a short tale that illustrates a message or moral. They usually incorporate elements of non-reality, such as talking animals
 * 36) A religious discourse, speech, or talk delivered as part of a religious service
 * 37) a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.
 * 38) repetition of a word or group of words within a short section of writing
 * 39) the repetition of initial consonant sounds in a lone of verse
 * 40) a break or pause in a line of poetry, dictated, usually, by the natural rhythm of the language
 * 41) a solemn and formal lyric poem about death. It may mourn a particular person or reflect on a serious or tragic theme, such as the passing of youth, beauty or a way of life.
 * 42) a word or phrase that states a characteristic quality of a person or thing
 * 43) a metaphorical phrase, used in Anglo-Saxon poetry to replace a concrete noun.
 * 44) a widely told story about the past that may or may not be based on fact
 * 45) the graphical representation of a story’s plot
 * 46) the sequence of events in a story, novel, or event, each event causing or leading to the next
 * 47) begins the plot, introduces the characters, setting and situations
 * 48) the part of the story that catches the reader’s attention
 * 49) adds complications to the conflict (either internal or external)
 * 50) the point of highest emotional involvement in the story (main conflict is realized)
 * 51) presents the results of the climax (minor ones are realized, begin to resolve)
 * 52) gives the final outcome
 * 53) reveals the change that has occurred as a result of the plot
 * 54) or atmosphere is the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage.
 * 55) the writer’s attitude toward the readers and toward the subject; it may be formal or informal, friendly or distant, personal or pompous
 * 56) the perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told; explains/tells the relationship between the storyteller to the story.
 * 57) when a character within the story tells the story
 * 58) when a voice outside tells the story and that voice’s knowledge is limited to the internal states of one character
 * 59) when a voice outside tells the story and that voice’s knowledge extends to the internal states of all the characters
 * 60) the struggle between opposing forces
 * 61) the struggle of a character against self, happening within a character
 * 62) exists when a character struggles against some outside force, such as another person, nature, society, or fate (character vs. character, character vs. nature, character vs. society
 * 63) expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker
 * 64) is the passing of songs, stories, and poems from generation to generation by word of mouth. Beowulf is a folk epic
 * 65) a line of metrical writing, a stanza, or poetry in general
 * 66) a long narrative poem about the adventures of or of a hero
 * 67) a larger-than-life figure from a history or legend, usually favored by or even partially descended from deities, but aligned more closely with mortal figures in popular portrayals.
 * 68) a figure of speech that compares two dissimilar things by using a key word such as like or as
 * 69) a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else, as in “death, that long sleep.” Through this identification of things, a comparison is suggested or implied.
 * 70) words spoken by a character in a play, usually in an undertone, not intended to be heard by other characters on stage.
 * 71) verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, where each line usually contains ten syllables and every other syllable is stressed.
 * 72) humorous scenes or episodes presented between tragic or serious scenes in order to relieve the audience's tensions.
 * 73) a story acted out, usually on a stage, by actors and actresses who take the parts of specific characters. They are usually divided into two types, those being tragedies (serious play in which the central characters meet an unhappy or disastrous end) and comedies (humorous plays that end happily). The stories are told through dialogue and stage directions
 * 74) a character who is meant to represent characteristics, values, ideas, etc… which are directly and diametrically opposed to those of another character, usually the protagonist.
 * 75) a narrative that contains another narrative. Both the outer story and the inner story add meaning to one another, and one is usually important to the outcome of the other.
 * 76) the most common verse line in English poetry. It consists of five verse feet, with each foot an iamb-that is, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
 * 77) a long, uninterrupted speech (in a narrative or drama) that is spoken in the presence of other characters.
 * 78) a speech, usually lengthy, in which a character, alone on stage, expresses his or her thoughts aloud. It is a very useful dramatic device, as it allows the dramatist to convey a character’s most intimate thoughts and feelings directly to the audience.
 * 79) a drama in which the protagonist falls from happiness to misfortune as a result of a tragic flaw: the protagonist is usually of high station, as Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark.
 * 80) a protagonist who comes to a bad end as a result of his own behavior, usually cased by a specific personality disorder or character flaw. (Although it is technically a literary element, the term is only useful for identification, as part of a discussion or analysis of character; it cannot generally be analyzed by itself.)
 * 81) a tragic protagonist's key trait, such as jealousy, greed, overweening ambition, credulousness, etc., because of which the protagonist is brought down.
 * 82) a figure of speech in which an object, an abstract quality, or an absent or imaginary person is addressed directly, as if present and able to understand.
 * 83) a play in which the dialogue consists almost entirely of poetry with a fixed pattern of rhythm or meter
 * 84) the disastrous end (usually of a tragedy) involving death
 * 85) the cleansing of the emotions in the audience
 * 86) excessive pride that leads a tragic hero to challenge the gods
 * 87) a group of performers who stand outside the action and comment on the events and characters in the play