Literary Terms

What is the graphic display of the action or events in a story?

An often-repeated idea or theme in literature

What is the term for the statement about life that a writer is trying to get across in a story?

What is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image/idea of a particular type of person?

Language that shows disrespect for someone or something regarded as holy or sacred.

A group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from individual words

When a story is told by one of the characters it is in what point of view?

A well developed character

The use of words to create a certain picture in the reader's mind

What is the term for giving hints or clues of what is to come later in the story?

A character that exhibits opposite of conflicting traits to another character

What is the term for a person or thing working against the protagonist of the story?

What term is used for a category or type of literature based on its style, form and content?

A person, place, thing, or event used to represent something else

A section at the end of the book that serves as a comment or as a conclusion to what happened

The person telling the story is the?

What is the term for the series of struggles that builds a story or play toward a climax?

Type of conflict when a person has a problem deciding what to do in a situation

Giving human characteristics to something nonhuman

The type of conflict when one character in a story has a problem with other characters

What is the part of the play or story that works out the decision arrived at during the climax?

A character that does not change throughout the story

A combination of contradictory terms

A character that is not complex and not developed

What is the vantage point from which a story is told?

Type of conflict where a character must battle what seems like an uncontrollable problem

The specialized language used by a specific group

What is the term for the most intense point or turning point of the story?

What is a literary reference to a familiar person, place, thing or event?

What is a comparison of two or more similar objects?

A separate introductory section of a literary work

When the character says one thing and means another

When the reader or audience sees a character's mistakes but the character does not

A character that changes throughout the story

Using a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal meaning

What is writing that is intended to explain something that would otherwise be difficult?

Type of conflict when a character has a problem with some element of society

What is the action or sequence of events in a story?

An exaggerated statement

What is a work of literature longer than a short story but shorter than a full-length novel?

Language that is generally considered crude, gross, and at, times, offensive

A word of phrase used in place of a person's name

Words that are old-fashioned and no longer sound natural when used

What is the term used for the main character of the story?

Type of conflict where a character has a problem with nature

Literature in which the hero is destroyed by some flaw or force beyond control

The main character of the story that lacks heroic qualities

What is the term used when the character "gets what he deserves" in the end?

When there is a great difference between the purpose of a particular action and the result

What is another term for narrative?

When a story is told by someone outside of the story it is what point of view?

An author's choice of words based on their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness

What is the term used to describe a narrative that tells an imaginary story?

When you can put yourself in someone else's place and imagine how that person feels you are...

What is the term used for a narrative that presents a historical or biographical fact?

What is a lengthy fictional story with a plot?

What is the term used for the part of the story in which the problem is solved?

What term is used for the time and place in which the action of the story occurs?

What is the set of circumstances surrounding an event or a situation in a story?

What is the feeling a text arouses in the reader called?

The informal language used by a particular group of people among themselves