Literary+Terms

The Perrine anthology (your textbook) contains a Glossary of Terms on page 1659

The first test will cover terms through Chapter 3. I’ve tried to include all of the terms, but this list is not exhaustive, and it is possible I have unintentionally left some terms off this list. This list may also include terms you need to know that are not listed in the glossary.
 * Literary Terms - Chapters 1-3 **


 * 1) Allegory
 * 2) Antagonist
 * 3) Artistic unity
 * 4) Chance
 * 5) Character
 * 6) Dynamic, or developing character
 * 7) Flat character
 * 8) Foil character
 * 9) Round character
 * 10) Static character
 * 11) Stock character
 * 12) Characterization (direct and indirect below)
 * 13) Climax
 * 14) Coincidence
 * 15) Commercial fiction
 * 16) Conflict
 * 17) Internal
 * 18) External, including types
 * 19) Denouement
 * 20) // Deus ex machine //
 * 21) Dilemma
 * 22) Direct presentation of character
 * 23) Exposition
 * 24) Falling action
 * 25) Happy ending
 * 26) Indeterminate ending
 * 27) Indirect presentation of character, including S.T.E.A.L
 * 28) Literary fiction
 * 29) Motivation
 * 30) Mystery
 * 31) Plot
 * 32) Plot manipulation
 * 33) Protagonist
 * 34) Rising action
 * 35) Setting
 * 36) Structure (relating to plot)
 * 37) Surprise
 * 38) Surprise ending
 * 39) Suspense
 * 40) Unhappy ending

__ Understanding and Evaluating Fiction – Textbook pp100-102 __ Be able to identify which literary element relates to each question - Plot and Structure - Characterization

__** Literary Terms - Chapters 4-7 **__

// The following list is a guide. I've tried to include most terms, but I may have missed some. Additionally, I have included some important points, but this is by no means exhaustive of chapters 4-7. //


 * 1) Theme (Chapter 4)
 * 2) Theme exists only (pp188-9)
 * 3) when an author has seriously attempted to record life accurately or to reveal some truth about it, or
 * 4) when an author has deliberately introduced as a unifying element some concept or theory of life that the story illuminates
 * 5) In many stories the theme may be equivalent to the revelation of human character.
 * 6) The term // theme // is preferable over "moral," "lesson," and "message" because .... (p190)
 * 7) Ways in which theme may be stated
 * 8) 6 principles of theme: (pp192-194)
 * 9) Point of View (Chapter 5)
 * 10) Questions to determine point of view:
 * 11) Who tells the story?
 * 12) How much is this person allowed to know?
 * 13) To what extent does the narrator look inside the characters and report their thoughts and feelings?
 * 14) Omniscient point of view
 * 15) Third-person limited point of view
 * 16) Stream of consciousness
 * 17) First-person point of view
 * 18) Objective point of view, sometimes called dramatic point of view
 * 19) Authors choose the point of view that enables them to present their particular materials most effectively in terms of their purposes.
 * 20) Examination of point of view by readers (p233)
 * 21) important for understanding and evaluating the story
 * 22) Are event interpreted by a narrator or one of the characters?
 * 23) If a character,
 * 24) how does the character's mind and personality affect the interpretation?
 * 25) is the character trustworthy by readers?
 * 26) explore and determine if the author has chosen the point of view for maximum revelation of the material (like in a mystery story) or for another reason
 * 27) Does the point of view conceal information till the end of the story and thus maintain suspense and create surprise?
 * 28) Does the author intentionally mislead readers by presenting the events through a character who puts a false interpretation on them?
 * 29) Is the false interpretation justified because it leads to more effective revelation of character and theme?
 * 30) Or is the false interpretation obviously less justifiable because it is there to merely trick readers?
 * 31) explore and determine whether the author has used the selected point of view fairly and consistently
 * 32) If the point of view shifts, does it do so for artistic reason? Serious literary writers choose and use point of view so as to yield ultimately the greatest possible insight, either in fullness or intensity.
 * 33) Symbol (Chapter 6)
 * 34) Name symbolism - Most names are simply labels.
 * 35) Symbolic use of objects and actions
 * 36) Can be used to reinforce and add to meaning
 * 37) Can be used to carry the meaning
 * 38) Readers should always be alert for symbolic meanings but should observe 4 precautions (pp279-281)
 * 39) Allegory
 * 40) An author employing allegory usually does not intend simply to create two levels of reality, one literarl and one abstract, which readers merely identify as though connecting a series of dots.
 * 41) Ambiguity introduced into allegorical meanings (p282)
 * 42) Fantasy
 * 43) popular forms include
 * 44) fable
 * 45) ghost stories
 * 46) science fiction
 * 47) Like stories employing realistic characters and events, fantasies may be purely commercial fiction or they may be serious literary works.
 * 48) Cannot judge a story as good or bad only according to whether or not its events are possible. Sometimes works require a suspension of disbelief - granting every story its initial premise or assumption. The fantastical world of Harry Potter, for example.
 * 49) Must ask for what reason the story employs fantasy.
 * 50) Is it simply for its own strangeness, or for thrills or surprises or laughs?
 * 51) Is it used to illuminate truths of the reader's own experience?
 * 52) What is the purpose of the author's fantastical invention? To provide a temporary thrill like a roller coaster, or like an observation ballooon, to provide a unique vantage point that may change our view of the world?
 * 53) Irony (Chapter 7)
 * 54) Verbal irony
 * 55) Dramatic irony
 * 56) Situational irony
 * 57) Understand that a serious story is not necessarily a solemn one. (p334)
 * 58) Irony, like symbol and allegory, is often a means for the author to achieve compression. The author can suggest complex meanings without stating them. (p336)
 * 59) Irony should not be equated with mere sarcasm, which is simply language one person uses to belittle or ridicule another.
 * 60) One reason that irony is such an important technique is that a story achieves its effects through indirection. We must //feel// the truth a story conveys with our whole being, not simply understand it with our intellect. The book states that if a story has no emotional impact, it has failed as a work of art. (p336)
 * 61) Humor and irony are important because they help an author to achieve an emotional impact. (pp336-7)
 * 62) Sentimentality
 * 63) Editorialize
 * 64) Poeticize
 * 65) The writers we value most are able to look at human experience in a clear-eyed, honest way and to employ literary techniques such as humor and irony as a way to enhance, not reduce, the emotional impact of their stories.
 * 1) Situational irony
 * 2) Understand that a serious story is not necessarily a solemn one. (p334)
 * 3) Irony, like symbol and allegory, is often a means for the author to achieve compression. The author can suggest complex meanings without stating them. (p336)
 * 4) Irony should not be equated with mere sarcasm, which is simply language one person uses to belittle or ridicule another.
 * 5) One reason that irony is such an important technique is that a story achieves its effects through indirection. We must //feel// the truth a story conveys with our whole being, not simply understand it with our intellect. The book states that if a story has no emotional impact, it has failed as a work of art. (p336)
 * 6) Humor and irony are important because they help an author to achieve an emotional impact. (pp336-7)
 * 7) Sentimentality
 * 8) Editorialize
 * 9) Poeticize
 * 10) The writers we value most are able to look at human experience in a clear-eyed, honest way and to employ literary techniques such as humor and irony as a way to enhance, not reduce, the emotional impact of their stories.