DEFINITIONS AND EXAMPLES

Literary Elements

Key difference between short stories and novels:

Novels usually contain more characters (longer time and space to develop)

Novels contain several sub-plots, while short stories usually focus on one plot line.

Characterization

Process by which writer reveals the personality of a character

Telling the reader directly Describing looks and dress Hear character speak Revealing character’s thoughts

Types of Characterization

DIRECT: The author tells the reader exactly what a character is like or what they want you to think about a character.

INDIRECT: The author gives hints or clues (through actions or thoughts) that lead you to form opinions about the character.

Dynamic Characters

Changes in some way as a result of the story’s action

Static Characters

Does not change in course of story

Flat Characters

A character with only 1 or 2 personality traits

Round Characters

Have more dimensions to their personalities-complex, solid, and multifaceted

Protagonist

The main character, sets plot in motion

Example:

Antagonist

Character or force that opposes/blocks the protagonist (main character)

Does not always have to be a character!

Example: war, racism, society…

Point of View

The vantage point from which a writer tells a story.

Three types: Omniscient First person Third person

Omniscient Point of View

The person telling the story knows everything that’s going to happen.

Outside of storyCan tell us what is happening and what

characters are feeling

1st person narrator

The narrator is a character in the story.Uses “I” to tell of his experiencesCan only hear and see what narrator sees

3rd person narrator

The person telling the story is not a character in the story, but can only tell the story from one character’s point of view.

Uses “he, she, they” etc, throughout the story.

Plot: Rising Action

All action leading up to the climax of the story.

Climax

Point of greatest emotional intensity, or suspense in a plot when the outcome of the conflict becomes known

Falling Action

Action following the climax

Resolution

When all the problems, mysteries and conflicts unravel and are explained

Themes

Central idea or insight of a work of literature Not the subject of the work Sometimes a lesson Can be reoccurring

Mood

A story’s atmosphere or the feeling it evokes

Usually created through diction, dialogue and setting

*wild forest, at night, with wolves howling (terror)*cozy cottage in a garden full of sunlight (peace)

Setting

Time and place of a story Often linked to mood Often changes throughout story

Time refers to period, year, time of day, etc.

Usually established in beginning of story

Irony

A contrast between:

what is said and what is meant

what is expected and what really happens

what appears to be true and what really is true

Verbal Irony

Says one thing, means another

Often in the form of wit or sarcasm

Example: calling a clumsy basketball player the new Lebron James

Situational Irony

Contrast between what would seem appropriate and what really happens.

Contradiction between what we expect to happen and what really takes place.

Dramatic Irony

Occurs when the audience or reader knows something important that a character in the play/story does not know.

Diction

Writer’s/Speaker’s choice of words Influenced by audience Determines effect writer is trying to produce

Example: home vs crib,

Example: How are you? Vs. Howdy y’all.

Imagery

Language that appeals to the senses: Sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing

Example:Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;Three fields to cross till a farm appears; A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratchAnd blue spurt of a lighted match Robert Browning, “Meeting at Night”

Allegory

A story in which characters, settings and events stand for abstract or moral concepts

Example: Let’s talk about the man. The man tries to keep you down. The man is out to get you. The man will steal all you have, then crush you when you are down…

(The man is society)

Symbolism

The use of symbols to suggest ideas, emotions, moods and meaning

Common Symbols: heart (love), dove (peace), skull and cross bones (danger)

Can be story specific

Allusion

A reference to a statement person, place or event known from literature, history, religion, myth, politics or another field of knowledge

Example: Hamlet describing his father (A3):the curls of the sun god Hyperion; the forehead of kingly Jove, an eye like that of Mars, a bearing like the herald Mercury.

Motif

A word, character, object, image, metaphor, or idea that recurs in a work, or several works.

Hyperbole

Uses extreme exaggeration to express a strong sentiment or create comic effect.

Example: sweating to death! I’ve told you a million times! If I had a dollar every time you said that, I would be a

billionaire.

Conflict: Internal

Struggle or clash between opposing ideas.

Takes place entirely within a character’s own mind.

Struggle between opposing needs or desires.

Conflict: External

Struggle or clash between opposing characters or forces.

Can be against another character or society as a whole, or force of nature

Genre

The category that a work of literature is classified under.

5 Major Categories:1. fiction2. nonfiction3. poetry4. drama5. myth

Archetype

An original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life. Often, archetypes include a symbol, a theme, a setting, or a character that some critics think have a common meaning in an entire culture, or even the entire human race.

Style

The particular way in which a writer uses language

Created through diction, sentence patterns, and use of figurative language

Figurative Language

Words or phrases that describes one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be understood on a literal level.

Most common: simile, metaphor, personification

Example: My mind is racing, everything has become blurred, I feel like I am drowning in my own thoughts.

Ambiguity

An element of uncertainty in a text, in which something can be interpreted in a number of different ways.

Can you trust the narrator’s opinion as valid?

Tone

Attitude a writer takes toward a subject, character or the audience.

Conveyed through the writer’s choice of words and details.

Affection, nostalgic, humorous, mocking…