Plot Devices
Narrative Perspective
Styles
Themes
Characters
100
Back Story
What is Story that precedes events in the story being told—past events or background that add meaning to current circumstances
100
Defamiliarization
What is Forcing the reader to recognize common things in an unfamiliar or strange way, to enhance perception of the familiar.
100
Tone
What is Overall attitude an author appears to hold toward key elements of the work. Strictly speaking, tone is generally an effect of literary techniques, on the level of a work's overall meaning or effect. The tone of a whole work is not itself a literary technique. However, the tone of a work, especially in a discrete section, may help create the overall tone, effect, or meaning of the work.
100
Theme
What is the central thought or point of the story
100
Direct Characterization
What is when the author speaks directly to the audience when describing a character as in an overture or italics in a play
200
Cliffhanger
What is The narrative ends unresolved, to draw the audience back to a future episode for the resolution.
200
Epiphany
What is A sudden perspective or insight which is revealed to the reader (directly or through the epiphany that a character experiences) onto a problem which had previously eluded all attempts at understanding, which in turn, changes the interpretation of the plot, character, narrative perspective, tone, and/or the style of writing. Epiphanies occur spontaneously through an additional external stimulus or through an internal reflection of a recurring thought from a new perspective.
200
Satire
What is The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices.
200
Symboolism
What is One thing stands for another
200
Indirect Characterization
What is when the author describes a character through their dialogue or actions.
300
Cut-up technique
What is an aleatory literary technique in which a text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. Most commonly, cut-ups are used to offer a non-linear alternative to traditional reading and writing.
300
Author Suurogate
What is Character who speaks for the author, usually to support the author's personal views. Sometimes an intentionally or unintentionally idealized version of the author. A variation is the Mary Sue or Gary Stu, which primarily serves as an idealized self-insertion.
300
Parody
What is Ridicule by overstated imitation, usually humorous.
300
Irony
What is This discrepancy between expectation and reality occurs in three forms: situational irony, where a situation features a discrepancy between what is expected and what is actualized; dramatic irony, where a character is unaware of pivotal information already revealed to the audience (the discrepancy here lies in the two levels of awareness between the character and the audience); and verbal irony, where one states one thing while meaning another. The difference between verbal irony and sarcasm is exquisitely subtle and often contested
300
Personification
What is Using comparative metaphors and similes to give living characteristics to non-living objects.
400
Flashback
What is General term for altering time sequences, taking characters back to the beginning of the tale, for instance
400
First Person Narration
What is A text presented from the point of view of a character, especially the protagonist, as if the character is telling the story themselves. (Breaking the fourth wall is an option, but not a necessity, of this format.)
400
Paradox
What is A phrase that describes an idea composed of concepts that conflict.
400
Conceit
What is An extended metaphor associated with metaphysical poetry that pushes the imagination's limits to portray something indescribable
400
Echoing
Defined as the mimicking of dialogue by characters after a shifted context or place in time to underscore the importance of the dialogue and its relation to the theme. Also known as "shadowing". This technique, like foreshadowing, clues the reader to a portent of things to come only after the repetition is made later in the narrative.
500
Chekov's Gun
What is Insertion of an apparently irrelevant object early in a narrative for a purpose only revealed later. See foreshadowing and repetitive designation.
500
Breaking the fourth wall
What is An author or character addresses the audience directly (also known as direct address). This may acknowledge to the reader or audience that what is being presented is fiction, or may seek to extend the world of the story to provide the illusion that they are included in it.
500
Oxymoron
What is A term made of two words that deliberately or coincidentally imply each other's opposite.
500
Thematic Patterning
What is Distributing recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among various incidents and frames of a story. In a skillfully crafted tale, thematic patterning may emphasize the unifying argument or salient idea disparate events and disparate frames have in common.
500
Hamartia
What is The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall.
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