| A | B |
|---|
| Allusion | – a brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art |
| Analogy | a literal comparison made between two items, situations, or ideas that are somewhat alike but in most respects |
| Anastrophe | inversion of the usual order of the parts of a sentence, primarily for emphasis or to achieve a certain rhythm or rhyme |
| Antagonist | a character in a story or play who opposes the chief character or protagonist |
| Atmosphere | the mood of a literary work |
| Autobiography | the story of all or part of a person’s life written by the person who lived it |
| Biography | any account of a person’s life |
| Characterization | the method an author uses to acquaint a reader with his or her characters |
| Cliché | an expression or phrase that is so overused as to become trite and meaningless |
| Climax | the decisive point in a story or play when the problem must be resolved in one way or another |
| Connotation | the emotional associations surrounding a word or phrase |
| Denotation | the strict, literal meaning of a word |
| Denouement | the resolution of the plot |
| Dialogue | the conversation between two or more people in a literary work |
| Dramatic convention | any of several devices which the audience accepts as a substitution for reality in a dramatic work |
| Essay | a prose composition that presents a personal point of view. |
| Exposition | the beginning of a work of fiction, particularly a play, in which the author sets the atmosphere and tone, explains the setting; introduces the characters and provides the reader with any other information needed in order to understand the plot. |
| Extended metaphor | a figure of speech that is used throughout an entire work or a great part of it. It is common in poetry but often used in prose as well. |
| Falling action | events that lead to the resolution of the story |
| Flashback | interruption of the narrative to show an episode that happened before that particular point in the story |
| Foil | a character whose traits are the opposite of those of another character and who thus points up the strengths or weaknesses of another character. |
| Genre | a form of type of literary work |
| Imagery | the sensory details that provide vividness in a literary work and tend to arouse emotions or feelings in a reader which abstract language does not. |
| Irony | – the term used to describe a contrast between what appears to be and what really is |
| Legend | a traditional anonymous story, which may have some basis in fact. |
| Moral | the lesson taught in a work such as a fable |
| Motif | a character, incident, or idea that recurs in various works or in various parts of the same works. |
| Narrative | a story or account of an event or a series of events. |
| Narrator | the teller of a story |
| Parable | a brief fictional work, which concretely illustrates an abstract idea or teaches some lesson or truth |
| Paradox | a statement, often metaphorical, that seems to be self-contradictory but which has valid meaning. |
| Persona | the mask or voice which a writer assumes in a particular work |
| Plot | in the simplest sense, a series of happenings in a literary work; but the word is often used to refer to the action as it is organized around a conflict and builds through complication to a climax followed by a denouement or resolution. |
| Point of view | – the relationship assumed between the teller of a story and the character in it. |
| Propaganda | writing that directly advocates a certain doctrine as the solution to some social or political problem |
| Protagonist | the leading character in a literary work. |
| Realism | a way of representing life as it seems to the common reader |
| Rising action | the building of tension between opposing characters or forces toward a climax. |
| Satire | – the technique that employs wit to ridicule a subject usually some social institution or human foible, with the intention to inspire reform |
| Setting | the time ( both time of the day or season and period in history) and place in which the action of a narrative occurs. |
| Simile | a figure of speech involving a comparison using like and as |
| Stereotype | a conventional character, plot or setting , which thus possesses little or no individuality. |
| Subject | the topic about which an author is writing |
| Symbolism | the use in literature of objects or events to represent something other than themselves |
| Tall tale | a humorous, simple narrative that recounts extraordinary, impossible happenings |
| Theme | the main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work. |
| Tone | – the author’s attitude toward his or her subject matter |
| Tragedy | dramatic or narrative writing in which the main character suffers disaster after a serous and significant struggle but faces his or her downfall I such a way as to attain heroic stature |
| Voice | the mask or voice which a writer assumes in a particular work. |
