Literary Terms

time and place of the action

a short nonfiction work about a particular subject

a central message or insight into life revealed through a literary work

ordinary form of written language

prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events: novels, short stories, dramas

a category or type of literature

a speaker or character who tells a story

a person or an animal (or other noun) that takes part in the action of a literary work

a character or force in conflict with a main character or protagonist.

a long work of fiction; it has a plot that explores characters in conflict

a story written to be performed by actors; made up of dialogue and stage directions

prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about real people, places, ideas, or events

a brief work of fiction; one main character faces a conflict that is resolved in the plot of the story

the main character in a literary work

the sequence of events in a literary work

one of the three major types of literature; makes use of highly concise, musical, and emotionally charged language