General
A narrative or description having a second or symbolic meaning beneath the surface one
What is an allegory?
The process of conveying information about characters
What is characterization?
A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words
What is a pun?
A narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised. Unreliable narrators are usually first-person narrators.
What is an unreliable narrator?
A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements
What is a paradox?
Metrical language
What is verse?
A character (sense 1) who during the course of a story undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of character (sense 2) or outlook.
What is a dynamic character?
Substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for a harsh, blunt, or offensive one
What is a euphemism?
A plot that follows a straight-moving, cause and effect, chronological order .
What is a linear plot?
An introduction or a preface, esp. a poem recited to introduce a play
What is a prologue?
The writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, the audience, or herself or himself; the emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a work.
What is tone?
Overbearing and excessive pride
What is hubris?
Informal, conversational language
What is colloquial language?
A novel written as a series of documents.
What is an epistolary novel?
An unspoken agreement between writer and reader: “I agree to believe your make-believe if it entertains me.”
What is a suspension of disbelief?
An incongruity of discrepancy between what a character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true (or between what a character perceives and what the author intends the reader to perceive).
What is dramatic irony?
A character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight various features of that other character's personality, throwing these characteristics into sharper focus.
What is a foil?
A device often used in drama whereby a character relates his or her thoughts and feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters.
What is a soliloquy?
A narrative which presents the private thoughts of a character without commentary or interpretation by the author
What is stream of consciousness?
A humorous incident introduced into a serious literary work in order to relieve dramatic tension or heighten the emotional impact
What is comic relief?
A harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds
What is cacophony?
The second most important character, after the protagonist, often a foil or eventual antagonist.
What is a deuteragonist?
Denunciatory or abusive language.
What is invective?
A narrative technique wherein the relation of a story begins either at the mid-point or at the conclusion, rather than at the beginning, establishing setting, character, and conflict via flashback and expository conversations.
What is in medias res?
The resolution of a plot by use of a highly improbable chance or coincidence.
What is deus ex machina?