LITERARY TERMS

We will be using these literary

terms throughout the school year.

LITERARY TERMS:Character Antagonist Protagonist

Denotation Connotation Alliteration

Imagery Mood Plot Tone Theme

Rising Action Climax Setting

Falling Action Resolution Conflict

Flashback Foreshadowing Point of View

Metaphor Simile Oxymoron Personification

CHARACTERA

character is a person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work.

ANTAGONISTT

he Antagonist is a character or force in conflict with a main character, or protagonist.

PROTAGONISTT

he Protagonist is the main character in a literary work

Can you name some famous Protagonists that are found in literature?

DENOTATIONT

he denotation of a word is its dictionary meaning, independent of other associations that the word may have.

CONNOTATIONT

he connotation of a word is the set of ideas associated with it in addition to its explicit meaning. The connotation of a word can be personal, based on individual experiences. More often, cultural connotations – those recognizable by most people in a group – determine a writer’s word choices.

DENOTATION VERSUS CONNOTATION

Some examples –

Cheap is “low in cost” (denotation) but “stingy” or “poorly made” are the connotations of cheap

IMAGERYI

magery is words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five

senses. Writers use imagery to describe how their subjects look,

sound, feel, taste, and smell.

MOODM

ood, or atmosphere, is the feeling created in the reader by a literary

work or passage. Writer’s use many devices to create mood, including

images, dialogue, setting, and plot. Often, a writer creates a mood at the beginning of a work and then sustains the mood throughout.

Sometimes, however, the mood of the work changes dramatically.

PLOTP

lot is the sequence of events. I

n most novels, dramas, short stories, and narrative poems, the plot involves both characters and a central conflict.

The plot usually begins with an exposition that introduces the setting, the characters, and the basic situation. This is introduced and developed. The conflict then increases until it reaches a high point of interest or suspense, the climax. The climax is followed by the falling action, or end, of the central conflict. Any events that occur during the falling action make up the resolution.

PLOTLINE

Exposition ResolutionRisin

g Ac

tion

Climax

Falling Action

Conflict Introduced

RISING ACTION

Rising Action is the part of the plot that begins to occur as soon as the conflict is introduced. The rising action adds complications to the conflict and increases reader interest.

CLIMAXT

he Climax is the point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of a narrative. The climax typically comes at the turning point in a story or drama.

FALLING ACTION

Falling Action is the action that typically follows the climax and reveals its results.

RESOLUTIONT

he Resolution is the part of the plot that concludes the falling action by revealing or suggesting the outcome of the conflict.

CONFLICT

Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces in a story or play. There are two types of conflict that exist in literature.

EXTERNAL CONFLICT

External conflict exists when a character struggles against some outside force, such as another character, nature, society, or fate.

Man vs. Man

Man vs. Nature

INTERNAL CONFLICT

Internal conflict exists within the mind of a character who is torn between different courses of action.

Man vs. Himself

FLASHBACKA

flashback is a literary device in which an earlier episode, conversation, or event is inserted into the sequence of events. Often flashbacks are presented as a memory of the narrator or of another character.

FORESHADOWINGF

oreshadowing is the author’s use of clues to hint at what might happen later in the story. Writers use foreshadowing to build their readers’ expectations and to create suspense. This is used to help readers prepare for what is to come.

POINT OF VIEWP

oint of View is the perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told. It is the relationship of the narrator to the story.

First-person is told by a character who uses the first-person pronoun “I”.

Third-person limited point of view is the point of view where the narrator uses third-person pronouns such as “he” and “she” to refer to the characters.

SETTINGT

he setting of a literary work is the time and place of the action.

The setting includes all the details of a place and time – the year, the time of day, even the weather. The place may be a specific country, state, region, community, neighborhood, building, institution, or home.

Details such as dialect, clothing, customs, and modes of transportation are often used to establish setting.

In most stories, the setting serves as a backdrop – a context in which the characters interact. The setting of a story often helps to create a particular mood, or feeling.

THEMET

he theme of a literary work is its central message, concern, or purpose. A theme can usually be expressed as a generalization, or general statement, about people or life. The theme may be stated directly by the writer although it is more often presented indirectly. When the theme is stated indirectly, the reader must figure out the theme by looking carefully at what the work reveals about the people or about life.

TONET

one is a reflection of a writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward a subject of a poem, story, or other literary work. Tone may be communicated through words and details that express particular emotions and that evoke and emotional response from the reader.

For example, word choice or phrasing may seem to convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or sarcasm.

METAPHORA

Metaphor is a type of speech that compares or equates two or more things that have something in common. A metaphor does NOT use like or as.

Example: Life is a bowl of cherries.

SIMILEA

Simile is another figure of speech that compares seemingly unlike things. Simile’s DO use the words like or as.

Example: Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard.

OXYMORONA

n Oxymoron is a figure of speech that is a combination of seemingly contradictory words.

Examples: Same difference

Pretty ugly

Roaring silence

PERSONIFICATIONP

ersonification is a figure of speech in which an animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given human qualities or characteristics.

Example: Tears began to fall from the dark clouds.

ALLITERATIONA

lliteration is the repetition of sounds, most often consonant sounds, at the beginning of words. Alliteration gives emphasis to words.

Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers