| A | B |
|---|
| action | what happens in a story: the events or conflicts |
| allegory | a story in which people, things, and actions represent an idea or a generalization about life |
| allusion | reference in literature to a familiar person, place, or thing |
| analogy | a comparison of two or more similar objects, suggesting that they are alike in certain respects |
| anecdote | a short summary of an interesting or humorous incident |
| antagonist | the person or thing working against the protagonist or hero |
| autobiography | an author's account or story of his or her own life |
| biography | a story of a person's life written by someone else |
| caricature | a picture or an imitation of a person's feaures or mannerisms exaggerated to appear comic or absurd |
| character sketch | a short piece of writing that reveals or shows something important about a person or fictional character |
| characterization | the method an author uses to reveal or describe characters and their various personalities |
| climax | the turning point, and usually the most intense, in a story |
| comedy | literature with a love story at its core; the old society tries to prevent the union of the young couple but the young couple succeeds in the end |
| conflict | a problem or struggle that triggers the action |
| person vs. person | characters oppose each other |
| person vs. society | character opposes authority--law, school, etc. |
| person vs. self | character has to decide what to do in a situation |
| person vs. nature | character has a problem with a natural event--snowstorm, tornado, etc. |
| person vs. fate | character must battle what seems to be an uncontrollable problem |
| context | the set of facts or circumstances surrounding an event or a situation in a piece of literature |
| convention | an established technique or device in literature or drama |
| denouement | final solution or outcome of a play or story |
| Deus ex machina | a person or thing that suddenly appears, providing a solution to a difficult problem |
| dialogue | conversation between the characters |
| diction | an author's choice of words based on their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness |
| archaic | words that are old-fashioned |
| colloquialism | an expression that is usually accepted in informal situations and certain locations |
| jargon | (technical diction) the specialized language used by a specific group |
| profanity | language that shows disrespect for someone or something regarded as holy or sacred |
| slang | the language used by a particular group of people among themselves |
| trite | expressions that lack depth or originality; overused |
| vulgarity | language that is generally considered common, crude, gross, and, at times, offensive. |
| didactic | literature that instructs or presents a moral or religious statement |
| drama | the form of literature known as plays, but also, a type of serious play that is often concerned with the leading character's relationship to society |
| dramatic monologue | a literary work (or part of a work) in which a character is speaking about himself as if another person were present |
| Elizabethan | literature that generally refers to prose and poetry created during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) |
| empathy | putting yourself in someone else's place and imagining how that person must feel |
