| A | B |
|---|
| allegory | a story that has more than one level of meaning, where characters and events symbolize other levels of meaning |
| antagonist | the character or thing that puts obstacles in the way of the protagonist |
| ballad | a narrative poem that tells a story |
| indirect characterization | what a character says, does, or thinks; what other characters say about the character |
| direct characterization | the writer or narrator tells you directly what a character is like |
| climax | the point where the audience knows if the protagonist succeeds or fails; the point of highest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense |
| conflict | a struggle between opposing forces |
| external conflict | conflict between two characters or forces 9character vs. character; character vs. nature; character vs. society) |
| internal conflict | struggle within a character (character vs. self) |
| couplet | two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme |
| denotation | the "dictionary" meaning of a word |
| connotation | the emotional meaning associated with a word |
| dialogue | the actual words the characters speak |
| dramatic irony | when the audience knows more than the characters |
| dynamic character | a character that changes in an important way in personality or outlook |
| flashback | a section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to describe events from an earlier time |
| foil | a character who, by contrast, shows what another character is like |
| foreshadowing | the use of hints or cllues to suggest what action will come later in the story |
| genre | type of literature (three main genres are poetry, prose, drama; they are divided into smaller genres such as novel or biography) |
| inference | an educated guess; a conclusion based on information given |
| irony | the opposite of what is expected |
| verbal irony | words that suggest the opposite of their usual meaning |
| situational irony | when an event occurs that directly contradicts what the reader expects |
| mood | the feeling a piece of literature invokes in the reader (happy, sad, angry) |
| motif | recurring images, words, actions, etc. that unify a literary work; a sub theme |
| myth | fictional tale that explains the actions of gods or heroes or the causes of natural phenomena |
| narrative | the kind of writing or speaking that tells a story |
| narrator | the speaker or character who tells a story |
| point of view | the perspective from which a story is told (first person, second person, third person) |
| protagonist | the main character of a story |
| rhythm | the pattern of beats, or stresses, in spoken or written language, used to emphasize ideas |
| setting | the time and place of a story |
| speaker | the "narrator" in a poem |
| static character | a character who basically stays the same throughout a story |
| symbol | an object, person, place, or action that has a meaning in itself and also stands for something larger than itself (such as a belief, value, attitude, or quality) |
| suspense | the anticipation an audience feels about the outcome of a story or play |
| theme | an idea, moral, or message of a story; an insight about life or human nature |
| tone | the writer's attitude toward the material he/she wrote (ex: serious, humorous, sarcastic) |
