Basics
The ways individual characters are represented by the narrator or author of a text. This includes descriptions of the characters’ physical appearances, personalities, actions, interactions, and dialogue.
What is characterization?
The primary character in a text, often positioned as “good” or the character with whom readers are expected to identify
Whom is the protagonist?
The perspective (visual, interpretive, bias, etc.) a text takes when presenting its plot and narrative.
What is point of view?
The sequence of events that occur through a work to produce a coherent narrative or story.
What is the plot?
A figure of speech that refers to one thing by another in order to identify similarities between the two
What is a metaphor?
Spoken exchanges between characters in a dramatic or literary work, usually between two or more speakers.
What is dialogue?
A character or characters in a text with whom the protagonist opposes.
Whom is the antagonist?
Word choice, or the specific language an author, narrator, or speaker uses to describe events and interact with other characters.
What is diction?
The height of conflict and intrigue in a narrative.
What is the climax?
A figure of speech that compares two people, objects, elements, or concepts using “like” or “as.”
What is a simile?
A kind of literature.
What is genre?
The use of a person to represent a concept, quality, or object.
What is personification?
Describes a narrative told from the perspective of an outside figure who does not participate directly in the events of a story. This mode uses “he,” “she,” and “it” to describe events and characters
What is third-person?
When the climax and central conflicts are resolved and a resolution is found.
What is the falling action?
Exaggerated language, description, or speech that is not meant to be taken literally, but is used for emphasis.
What is hyperbole?
A term used to describe an author’s use of vivid descriptions.
What is imagery?
Typically refers to saying one thing and meaning the opposite, often to shock audiences and emphasize the importance of the truth.
What is irony?
An object or element incorporated into a narrative to represent another concept or concern
What is a symbol(ism)?
The series of relevant incidents that create suspense, interest, and tension in a narrative
What is the rising action?
A main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work, which may be stated directly or indirectly.
What is the theme?
A way of communicating information (in writing, images, or sound) that conveys an attitude.
What is tone?
A protagonist of a story who embodies none of the qualities typically assigned to traditional heroes and heroines.
Who is the anti-hero?
According to Chris Baldick of Oxford University, this is the repetition of the same sounds—usually initial consonants of words or of stressed syllabus—in any sequence of neighboring words
What is alliteration?
May be a direct part of an experience, and often may only observe the events in third-person, and gives his or her own reactions and accounts.
Who is the narrator?
When a text references, incorporates, or responds to an earlier piece (including literature, art, music, film, event, etc).
What is allusion?